FEELING GOOD FROM THE INSIDE OUT in Santa Fe

Running a Spa is one of the most fulfilling occupations I’ve ever had.
Prior to opening the business I researched new trends in the spa industry to determine which services I would be offering my clientele. I initially thought these services were the key ingredient to a successful Spa.
Soon after opening this Spa, I discovered services were only a portion of the total Spa experience.   What I found was a whole new level of renewal was happening with some of my clients.   This concept of renewal is difficult to put into words succinctly.  I will try and weave these experiences in my articles over the next few issues.
My boutique Spa is located in a pastoral area on the benches overlooking Skaha Lake in the Okanagan Valley.   When my clients walk through the door they realize that the Spa is all theirs to enjoy.  The sense of privacy subconsciously allows many of my clients to relax and share their stories which can have a profound impacted on me as well.

Of course, “Everything said in the Spa stays in the Spa” as I have a total respect for client confidentiality.  I just simply assimilate their wisdom with mine which allows me to continuously evolve.    As a result, the spa has become much more than a place of esthetics and beauty.  It is a place where you can truly relax and that is where the healing and spiritual growth unfolds.
Prior to opening the spa I owned and operated a yoga studio/salon for many years.  This was in a time when yoga was relatively new to the Okanagan and many of my students were new to the discipline of yoga.  As a teacher it was gratifying for me to witness the positive effect that yoga had on peoples lives.   Watching students discover the merging of the mental and physical aspects of the discipline was very rewarding.
At first I didn’t realize there would be many similarities with my Yoga experience and my Spa experience.  Yoga has a reputation of being deep and spiritual and a visit to the Spa was viewed to be trivial and pampering.  I found these biases not to be true however.  I’ve had as many spiritually profound experiences in the Spa as I  have had in the Yoga studio.
Santa Fe
As a part of my professional development I visit other spas either locally or while on vacation looking for new ideas and having some personal down time.   It a tough job but someone has to do it.

My most recent spa experience was in Santa Fe, New Mexico, with my husband, on our hommage to Georgia O’Keeffe.   This gave us an opportunity to visit a very well know Spa that had been around for over 25 years.

After a long day of hiking in the Pueblo Ruins at Bandlier, we were looking forward to an afternoon of pampering.   We drove to Spa just outside of Santa Fe on this hot dusty day and  we were exhausted.  When we arrived at the Spa, we parked the car and all we could see was hundreds of stairs going up the side of the hill to the Spa.

I looked at the husband and said, “they have got to be kidding”.  We groaned and began our trek and could feel every step of it.   Just when we thought we couldn’t walk up another step we came upon the  beautiful entrance and to our surprise an upper parking lot!   We had plenty of time before our appointment so we explored the environs and the first thing that caught our attention was the hot tub situation.

“Private or communal”, asked the gentlemen who greeted us. He said the communal hot tub was complimentary with our services and the private hot tub room cost are $25 but the only one we available was the deluxe Waterfall hot tub for $70.

My husband immediately voted in favor of the communal hot tub whereas I said “just a moment please, where is this tub?

I wandered up to the communal hot tub and opening the gate to find there was only one hot tub that was extremely crowed with nude men . …  and more nude men and a couple of young women.  My first thought was, “….okay there possibly is one spot available next the 20 something year old women……hhmmm  I must re-thing this.”

I quickly headed back down to reception and glanced  at my husband who had an expectant look on his face.   I said, “We’ll take the private hot tub room with the Waterfall please…”

My husband looked at me with a grin and whispered under his breath, “Prude”.  I laughed and said I’ll pay the $70 Thank You.  What a wonderful hot tub experience it was too.  We walked through into a Zen courtyard with a large kidney shaped hot tub pool surrounded by bamboo fencing.  There was also a cold pool where you could stand underneath the  waterfall that was designed to cascades over your head.   Over in the corner was a traditional sauna. …. it was heavenly.  The Spa was modeled after the healing Spas of Northern Japan.

After an hour of soaking we were paged for our appointmen. I was booked in for an afternoon of pampering (body wrap, facial and whole deal).  My husband was off to his 180 minute Thai Massage with “George” and it was my treat.

After my wonderful experience of bliss I floated down stairs to meet up with my husband in the relaxation room.  I took one look at him and knew things had not gone so well.  His eyes were blood shot, his hair was dishevelled and I could see a corner of a tissue handing out of his nose to stop the bleeding.

Almost afraid to ask I said, “How was your massage?  He grunted.  “I feel like I was run over by a bus.  He dug his fist into my muscles until I was ready to scream and contorted my limbs into positions that I have not been in since I was in the wooomb.   Then right when I’m ready to scream George said, “ hey man you’re pretty tight.” I thought it would never end. Finally he stopped when my nose started to bleed. “

When my husband asked how my experience was I felt a ting of guilt as I reviewed the wonderful Spa experience I received.   I felt completely pain-free and glowing from head to toe.  It took all of my self-control to contain my laughter.  I responded…”perhaps you’ll feel the benefits tomorrow. Let go out and enjoy an nice dinner.”   I was ravenous!
As we were walking to reception to pay I noticed he was walking with a limp.  I had to restrain myself from calling him a “wimp” to avenge the “prude” comment earlier but decided he had been through enough.

As I was paying the bill my husband noticed a well dressed, middle age man booking in for his Thai Massage.  The receptionist said, “George is available in half an hour.” The man replied, “No. Anyone but him.”  My husband muttered, “I hear you man” and we walked down the hundreds of stairs to the car laughing about our wonderful day.

Morgan Hughes