Bad Sulza, Germany (site of the World Class Liquid Sound® Spa)
+49(0)36461 92881, www.hotel-an-der-therme.de/englisch/framee.htm
This watery workshop takes place in specially designed indoor Liquid Sound® pools, which are filled with Epsom salts to allow effortless floating. The pools are also wired with custom-designed speakers emitting site-specific music and nature sounds. The music, buoyant water, and magical lighting create an enchanting ambience that makes you feel as if you are floating in a mermaid’s grotto.Avant-Garde Spa Culture introduces 21st century innovations to the ancient, contemplative art of self-reflection in healing waters. Group floatation sessions, lectures, and discussions deepen self-knowledge and connection to the elements by showing how spa bathing can be a medium for dream interpretation, while enhancing intuition and promoting bliss. Accordingly, topics include “Dream Time & Spa Culture as Sacred Agencies of Transformational Consciousness.” As underwater music soothes your body’s bones and tissues with vibrations, you are led through waterborne waking and dream states modeled after ancient Egyptian and Greek healing water practices. John Paul de Vierville, Ph.D., a scholar of global spa culture who also owns and operates the Alamo Plaza Spa in the Menger Hotel in San Antonio, Texas leads the proceedings.
The Joy Diet at The Crossings
Austin, Texas
(877) 944-3003,www.thecrossingsaustin.com
While joy is an infinitely renewable resource, too few of us experience it on a regular basis. Life coach Martha Beck shows you how to harness the joy in your life in three days worth of user-friendly strategies. In this “diet plan for the soul,” Beck, the author of Finding Your Own North Star (Three Rivers Press, 2002), imparts empowering lessons for taking positive risks and tapping into joy and fulfillment in personal and professional life. The Joy Diet is definitely not about doing what one more expert is telling you to do. In fun and accessible terms, Beck teaches how it’s really about developing a frame of mind, a way of thinking, that helps you move forward. With witty examples, exercises, and discussions, you learn how the Joy Diet is about breaking down barriers and beliefs and developing mind/body habits that make your life richer and easier despite its challenges. Equally important, Beck shows you how to unearth the reasons why you may not be experiencing joy and how to plug into simple, healthy pleasures that motivate and sustain the evolution of your personal purpose and authority.
Yoga Retreat for Women of Color at Kripalu Institute
Lenox, Massachusetts
(866) 200-5203, www.kripalu.org
While many spas are informed by multicultural influences, they all too rarely address one of life’s most intensely defining and complex conditions, namely, our concept and experience of racial identity. The only yoga workshop in the world created for women of color is offered at Kripalu. Led by world-renowned yoga teacher Maya Breuer (whose ancestors hail from a tribe of West African Jews), this retreat allows women to discuss their racial and cultural identity, their oneness with self and others, and their place in the universe despite racial labeling. Topics include how one’s race (and others’perception) affects their emotional and mental balance and ability to commune with their innermost selves.Pranayama breathing instruction is given on a daily basis so that participants develop a solid connection with their primary source of life. Women learn how to use their breath to stay calm, centered, and masterful on and off the yoga mat. Twice daily yoga practice encourages women to look within for guidance and enrichment. The inward focus is balanced with time for dance, creativity, outdoor hikes, bodywork, and fun.
The Soul of Healing at The Chopra Center for Wellbeing at La Costa Resort & Spa
Carlsbad, California
(888) 424-6772, www.chopra.com
The five-day Soul of Healing is an intensive course in reorganizing your mind, reducing stress, body detoxification, dietary improvement, fitness upgrades, and life healing. Deepak Chopra, M.D., and David Simon, M.D., share time-honored tools and techniques such as meditation to help still the mind and relax body and soul. At the Chopra Center, the Soul of Healing workshop involves compassionate contemplation of self and others along with personalized self-care and peaceful behaviors. Accordingly, staff members also lead group meditations and discussions that detail techniques, personalized solutions, and daily life plans to help meet relationship and career challenges that may fuel undesirable behaviors.
In addition to morning and evening yoga classes, every day of the session features study and practice of the ancient art of Primordial Sound Meditation (a highly effective contemplative technique) plus the Seven Spiritual Laws of Yoga. You will also have time to receive healing Ayurvedic spa therapies and medical consultations.
Weight Loss Mini Week at New Age Health Spa
Neversink, New York
(800) 682-4348, www.newagehealthspa.com
This five-day, multi-modal program at New York State’s only destination spa teaches you various ways to refine your lifestyle to help maintain a healthy weight forever.
To begin, daily group exercise classes get you moving at peak efficiency. Lectures by nutrition counselors on such topics as low-fat eating for high energy and how to maintain portion control for short and long-term weight management provide medically proven, user-friendly strategies that help you lose weight and keep it off. The accompanying cooking classes teach you how to prepare flavorful, low-cal meals, while New Age’s daily seminars cover aspects of fitness, food shopping, spa cuisine, and fresh juice preparation, so that you come away from the spa with multiple tools for healthy weight reduction. Those desiring more customized instruction may book a private consultation in advance with cooking teachers, nutrition professionals, or visiting lecturers. Guests take home handouts that help them maintain their weight loss momentum once they are home. Four-mile eco-adventure hikes and advice from fitness trainers on fine-tuning your exercise regimen complete the program.
Find a Workshop Near You
Other highly recommended workshops abound. Here are a few more worth looking into.
Hormone Health Workshop at Healing Arts Spa on Green Street
Gainesville, Georgia
Balanced hormones are critical to one’s well-being, sexual vitality, energy, and weight control, yet most of us are out of whack due to a combination of too much stress, too much caffeine, too little sleep, and sub-optimal diet and exercise. This four-day workshop evaluates hormone health through saliva tests, detailed health histories, neurotransmitter tests, and other tools. Homeopaths and naturopaths provide individual health consultations and recommendations, as well as stress management and exercise plans. You leave with a working knowledge of hormones and how to balance them for optimal vitality and beauty.
Thai Massage and Partner Yoga Week at Rancho la Puerta
Tecate, Mexico
The art of Thai massage, from Thailand, involves rhythmic breath flow and gentle movement between giver and receiver. The practice is tender and fulfilling for both parties. “Givers” gently press and caress energy meridians or sen lines, and stretch with the receiver. Partner Yoga involves moving with another in asana (poses) to cultivate harmonious breathing, balance, and mind/body flow. A memorable workshop for you and a friend – or you can also be paired with a partner on arrival.
Como Shambhala Estate at Begawan Giri
Bali, Indonesia
www.comoshambhala.bz
Recently opened, Como Shambhala at Begawan Giri’s philosophy is “A Retreat for Change.” Scheduled throughout 2006 are life-changing retreats that focus on such topics as yoga (with specialized Jivamukti instructors) and Buddhist insight. The cuisine is organic and is personalized upon arrival by the resident executive chef and nutritionist. Set on a jungle-covered riverbank in Bali, Como Shambhala Estate at Begawan Giri is the ultimate getaway for those seeking relaxation and restoration amidst a tropical oasis.
January/February 2006
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