Mind, Body and Spirit of Spas.
Entering a spa, you enter a world that will allow you to reassess a variety of issues that may or may not be affecting your body and its performance. Is your body living up to your expectations of its presentation or performance? If so, how can you maintain or further enhance this for as long as possible, or if not, how can you improve the situation?
Time in a spa is much, much more than just the feel good factor provided by relaxation and pampering, even though this may well be the primary reason that most people first enter a spa. Your visit to the spa is very much focused on your body, and how it is (or anticipated to be) pampered and/or pummeled in order that the anticipated objective is achieved, and whether or not you realize it, time is a spa is an investment in your overall health and wellbeing.
You may well think that a spa visit is just a chance to be pampered, and while this may well be the case in a home spa environment where the bath is surrounded by a few candles and the waters are scented with flower petals and essential oils, it is much, much more in a dedicated spa environment, where you care is handled by a trained professional. A successful spa operator will have taken into consideration a large number of factors to ensure that the therapy that your body receives is as beneficial as practical, given the amount of time that is available to them during your visit. If it is a quick lunch time break massage, then there is limited opportunity or time to enable significant health benefits, but some is always better than none, and should you be able to afford to spend a longer time or, probably more importantly, be able to more frequently visit a spa, then the better able to achieve real and tangible long term health benefits.
So what can your body really expect to gain from its time in a spa? As already noted above, this will be significantly dependant on how much time that you have available to spend in this environment, together with being dependant on how committed to the overall lifestyle that is association with it. Are you in it for the feel good factor of pampering, “its trendy and all my friends do it”, to support your allopathic medical practitioners approach to recovery from an illness, to enjoy some personal time away from the family or out of the office, as a preventative measure towards long term health and anti-aging, or just because your computer has taken over your life and you seriously miss the nurturing elements of physical touch and interaction of another human being, or for one of a multitude of other reasons?
Spas can work on different levels of the body, and all of these need to be dealt with to ensure that the body is whole, rather that another victim of the much maligned and often abused or misunderstood ‘holistic’ approach to well being. Wholistic and holistic are words that by definition encompass the whole of the body, and working on only a part of the body while ignoring the rest means that you are not acting in the best interests of the whole self, and that you definitely are not involving an approach to a genuine holistic level of health. Equally, holistic health will also require the mind and spirit to be considered to as part of the package, and while these are covered in greater detail in other chapters of this book, must at least be alluded to here, as the body has many forms, including the spiritual, etherical and physical.
To start to understand this, you only have to look at the principles of chakra and chakra balancing, where physical contact may or may not be made with the body by the therapist, but the energy fields of the body are balanced, generally in conjunction with aromatherapy to maximize the therapy’s effects on the body, and may even be extended to include an aroma massage for maximum benefit. Many would even tell you that for these to work fully the element of mind must also come into this as it is only for the true believers that this type of therapy will even work, however I would suggest that this applies only for the most skeptical, who need to review their total stress level before going further. To maximize your results from a spa visit or a spa lifestyle, you have to be open minded to change and a different way of thinking – the more open minded the greater the chances of you being able to sift through the growing variety of treatments and therapies on offer on your spa menu to benefit your body accordingly.
As we move through the body’s outer layers, we move beyond the energy fields and reach the physical body. It is from here that most people comprehend the body as real and will seek practical and tangible actions that will provide real or perceived results with the utilization of a large variety of creams, potions, elixirs, serums, cosmetics, cosmeceuticals, pharmaceuticals, diets, fitness regimes, allopathic and complementary medical sources in an effort to stay young, although all too often this is on a superficial level, that is not sustainable, rather than on a deeper and longer lasting level, with a committed approach to long term health, rather than the (all too often), quick fix approach to life.
Experiencing time in the hands of a skilled spa therapist, and the application of various products, fresh, natural or otherwise, should induce a state of calm that in itself will assist with the anti-aging process. Even if lying on a massage bed for only 30 minutes, that is 30 minutes where your body will be relaxed, softening the wrinkles caused by modern city living, and when combined with any level of detoxification, be it through bathing, steaming, infrared saunas, scrubs or exfoliants, or through any of the myriad of products available in the market today, you will have taken a step on the anti-aging path, leaving the spa with a smile on your face, a spring in your step and “looking so much younger”!
However in our attempts to expand on this and maximize benefits even further we are using more and more spa products, all with a variety of claims as to their benefits, but there are a some basic issues that now need to be considered, as it is the quality of the products and not the quantity that we should be looking at. In understanding the basics of seeking a longer life and the desire for the eternal fountain of youth, you have to consider the therapies that you are undertaking and the products that you are using to support the process. In addition to this is your present skin condition. The more damaged your skin, whether through maturity, weather conditions, disease or a number of other causes, the longer it will take to repair or counter balance these effects. Ultimately it must be remembered that the longer it takes to react to the ravages of time on our body, the longer it will take and the less options that that are available to you to repair the damage that has been caused, irrespective of how it has been caused, and that your spa therapist is interested in your well being, and is not a magician.
“All things are not for all men” as the saying goes and this applies to the products that your therapist will select for use in your spa treatments, or that you purchase for home use. Skin type, sensitivity, allergies to products, time available, anticipated results and general skin condition are all factors that will influence the type of products used irrespective on where on the body they are used.
In addition to the pampering element, the basis of spa therapies and treatments is detoxification or the process of removing toxins from the body, to promote well being and provide you with a healthier body. Toxins or poisons produced by the body as a result of normal body processes as part of our daily living, together with those that are absorbed from the environment that we live in are detrimental to your overall sense of wellbeing, causing a myriad of health problems if not being regularly moved from the body or being allowed to build to high levels.
Whether it is their intentional removal or as a side benefit to your spa experience, the removal of toxins is the base process that underlies all spa therapies. The results of a session in the sauna may be obvious, as are the results of a lymphatic drainage massage, as these are two spa therapies that will induce the loss of the bodies fluids laden with toxins from the body; but have you ever wondered why you were offered a glass of water after having enjoyed a Thai or Swedish massage? This glass of water (or unsweetened herbal tea) that you were (or should be) offered, is to flush the toxins from your mouth that have built up during you treatment time. It is not only the dryness in your mouth, but also the funny taste that highlights this fact, so the consumption of a glass of water is the quickest and easiest way to remove this taste and the toxins that cause it. Consumption of several more glasses of water over the following few hours will further flush more toxins, released as a result of your therapy, from the system. The obvious side benefit of this is to assist with the hydration of body as all too often we operate on fluid levels that are less than adequate, resulting in a unnecessary build up of toxins in the body. Time and time again, you will read in newspapers and magazines, that the consumption of 6 – 12 glasses of water a day is essential to your well being. Numbers vary, as the size of the glass is not always stipulated, and various health professionals around the world take into effect local culture and diets. What they all agree upon is that we should be consuming more fluids that contain no sugars, additives or drugs of any kind (this means that sweetened carbonated beverages and similar commonly consumed liquids, loaded with these items cannot be included in your daily tally of fluids towards better health)
But it starts long before your treatment is over! If your goal is to remove toxins, then any of the products applied to the body during your treatment should also be toxin free in as far as possible and as much as is practical, otherwise the detoxification process can become farcical with you trying to remove toxins, while at the same time, covering your body with them. However, as with all things in life, there is an element of reality and balance must come into play, and while there is an increasing growth in the awareness of ingredients used in spa related products, not all products are labeled as natural contain all natural ingredients, and even go so far as to be organic. Obviously 100% organic is the target, but we still have a long way to go, but fortunately, due to the demand fueled by an increasing knowledgeable spa consumer we are at least moving along this path. After all, if you are seeking the best approach to benefiting from the removal of toxins, the utilization of product or products that are made without the use of chemicals, growth hormones, additives and preservatives, means that is application will result in minimal application of additional toxins to the body. However economics and the scale of production, together with issues of product shelf life and volatility of the beneficial qualities in product still have to be faced and answers sought, either by the manufacturer or the way that we look at products and our expectations from them.
Equally this applies to the food that we eat before or after our spa visit, or in the larger spas, during our visit. If the side benefit (or focus) of our visit to a spa is detoxification, then it makes no sense to be drinking caffeine laden coffee before our visit to the spa. This argument can apply to many and varied foods, so if you are going to be serious about it all, then just approach life with a level of moderation. For clarification; those that think I am advocating the consumption of decaffeinated coffee over regular coffee, decaffeinated coffee is washed with chemicals to remove the caffeine, a natural chemical and so which would you rather have, a natural chemical, or an artificially created one?
Your approach to your body and the food or fuel that you place into it, can drastically effect your enjoyment of your spa therapies, and equally their long term benefits. We all know that spa treatments is a little like swimming, your mother always told you that you should not go swimming for one to two hours after eating, and the same applies to your spa visit. Allow your food to digest before you commence you therapies, will make you much more comfortable.
And then afterwards, where is the sense of filling your body with excessive toxic and toxin laden foods that are completely counter productive to your spa therapies. Are we all so rich that we do not have to think about the realities of our bodies and what we do with them, as we can always employ someone to fix the problem? There are few that have this luxury in life and ultimately, it is not a healthy way to approach life anyway, as if you take a little care of yourself as you go about your daily routine and or adjust your routine to suit a healthier lifestyle you would be much better off, save money, live longer and be able to enjoy life more fully.
The food portion of this is simple. The basic principle of the specialist cuisine that has developed from the growth of the spa industry is simplicity and while the title is Spa Cuisine, it is nothing complicated or difficult to prepare. Everyone can cook this style of food at home, provided it is approached with an open mind and with a little forethought, as it is just a simple healthy way to approach your food preparation and consumption, where we eat according to our modern lifestyle rather than the more physically intensive lifestyle of our forefathers. Low fat, low salt, low sugar; simple and uncomplicated.
Nutritionists and dieticians have been telling us for many years about the problems associated with the ever increasing girth of society, where the size of your waistline is an indication of your wealth, while we continue to ignore the impact that it has on our health. Now we are paying the price, with spiraling medical costs relating to an unhealthy society. Government initiatives can only go so far and it is we the consumers that have to make changes, and the spa lifestyle is a near perfect way in which to approach this.
Next time you sit down to a meal, take a few moments to reflect on the contents of what you are about to consume. How much visible fats and oils are there to be seen, and do they really need to be there, or is it just a comfort factor. Fats and oils are the major flavour carriers in the foods we eat and our bodies require some of these for healthy function, but do we really need to have as much as we consume today? What happened before Fast Foods became part of our daily living? These have resulted in a significant increase in the amount of fats that we consume, as it is the amount of fat that they contain that helps to give them the flavour, besides which many of us were brought up on a visit to a Fast Food outlet being a special occasion or reward so there is also the comfort food syndrome to be taken into consideration. This apparent need for lots of fat has spilled over into our regular diet, with considerable negative health benefits.
Do you have to add extra seasoning, through the addition of salt, soy sauce or fish sauce, and if so – why? Is it force of habit, or is it genuinely required? Our forefathers, used to have salted foods as this was a means of necessity derived from salt being a means of preservation for foods in the years before we had refrigeration. This is obviously not the case today, so why do we persevere with this out dated and archaic practice?
Sugar, equally has a lot to answer for. Today we take highly refined sugar and add it to nearly every thing that we eat, from desserts to savoury dishes, noodles, stir-fried dishes and most processed foods. We are often told that our diet must have a balance of salty, sweet, sour and bitter to be real Thai, but the element of sweet is being taken to the extreme. If we resorted to natural unrefined sugar in any form, we would be consuming less as this at least would be providing us with some other nutritional benefits, including essential minerals and perhaps even a little fibre, but refined sugar has virtually all of these stripped from the end product that is being consumed in apparently ever increasing quantities. So while it provides an element of energy, there is limited other nutritional value, so you would be much healthier to source your energy hits from other foods that would provide more than just energy, but real and tangible health benefits. Do you really need to have add that spoon of sugar to your noodles, or that two, three or even four teaspoons of sugar in our morning coffee?
The next logical step, in this process is to look at the amount of physical activity that we are performing each day. As already stated, the holistic approach to health means applying it to the whole of the body, and this includes the way we use it. This equally should have highlighted the fact that everything in life is interrelated, although through the principles of yin and yang and quotes such as “for every action there is a reaction”, we should have been fully aware of this already.
How often have you heard of the highly specialised diets that are required by our nation’s athletes to enable them to perform at peak efficiency? The food we eat affects the way our bodies function and the way our bodies function affects the foods that we eat. With our bodies now functioning better as a result of our increasing involvement in and commitment to the spa lifestyle, the door to other opportunities is starting to open and our horizons are expanding. We realize that life does require balance, and we need to balance our engine intake with our engines output, so physical activity of some kind must be part of our routine. If you are one of the fortunate members of society that is physically active as a result of where you live and the type of work that is entailed then you do not require making a conscious effort to add the element of physical activity to your life. Unfortunately for a growing number of people living in polluted cities, the option of physical exercise is no longer something that can be overlooked, and while we still have some city parks and gardens that allow us be at one with nature for an hour or two and conduct our exercise in an apparently healthy environment, the air in our cities is increasingly and all too often, laden with chemicals and toxins that are less than conducive with our overall health, so we are forced to take our physical activities indoors to avoid other health related issues that will arise as a result of consuming these chemicals and toxins in high doses as a result of our exertion from physical activity.
Computers, originally intended to make life easier for us all are taking their toll with a variety of side issues now to be addressed, including eye strain, wrist injuries, lack of core stability caused by long hours at the desk, and more. Use of good nutrition and involvement in regular exercise can address many of these issues, but our lack of interaction on a physical level is increasing the demand on the nurturing environment that can be provided by a spa. After all, our bodies are the product of our environment and the fuel that we energize them with, but they are much, much more than this, as this applies only to our bodies on the physical level.
Treat your body to a regular spa therapy, and enjoy the experience for what it is, while accepting there is a deeper and much more meaningful approach to it that will ensure that you achieve benefits far above and beyond your expectations. Take a more serious look through an open mind, into what your body is made of, how it functions and what influences it and with a little thought, consideration and implementation of them into your life, you should be able to make significant strides towards a genuine levels of wellbeing that your body with thank you for, for a long, long time.