Vision Spa Retreat

New Year: Riding the waves of change

January is a good time for looking backwards and forwards, like the two-faced God Janus who gives his name to the month.  With Mercury being retrograde as I write this in late December, it's also an opportunity to review and perhaps restate my vision.

The process of putting together this New Year post for Vision Spa Retreat has helped me to clarify the three missions that have evolved out of creating this website as a platform for my thoughts about spa culture.

For two years, I have lived deep in an Missouri Ozark forest, immersing myself both in nature and in cyberspace. My introspection has benefited from a symbolic language for understanding complex phenomena and soul purpose - Astropoetics.

This time of year corresponds to the sign Capricorn whose form - half goat, half fish - derives from ancient Babylonian mythology. Ea, the Sea-Goat and Lord of Wisdom, emerges from his home in the sea to bring civilization and knowledge to mankind.

Capricorn seems a very suitable archetype to contemplate as I try to  envisage an effective balance between the hardiness (of a mountain goat) and the soulfulness (of an underwater creature) in any bid for survival of wintery times, and renewal of hope.

I'm feeling unsettled that, despite economic and environmental crises, the spa industry and associated industries appear to be focused on the unconsciously reactive responses of control (standards and regulations) and expansion (more and bigger venues).

Both trends continue a drive toward globalization that may be justified by a thinly veiled paternalistic stance.  Focusing locally is not easy for a restless society that has become  increasingly separated from the spirit of place and the unpredictability of soul.

Three Wishes and Four Guiding Stars for Spa: A Dialog with Marion Schneider

Meet a Fairy Godmother of Spa ...

Sara Firman of Vision Spa Retreat talks to her friend and colleague Marion Schneider.

Audio link below

Sara says: 

I've known Marion since 2001 when I visited her spa-resort Toskana Therme [1.] in Bad Sulza, Germany, to take part in the 'Dreams and Rituals in Healing Waters' workshop with Dr Jonathan Paul DeVierville that is held there there every summer [2.]. 

Marion is someone who is not only very much aware of the problems that face us all now - whether in business, politics, or regarding the state of our planet - but is also actively working to help on all these fronts. She finds an effective and healing arena for this in the world of spa. 

Marion Schneider has:

• co-created some extraordinary spas (and has plans for more, as you'll hear)
• been instrumental in setting up many spa organizations and events (see later)
• helped countless people with their own spa-related ventures (Sara is one)
• included humanitarian and environmental considerations in all that she does.

This is the fourth in a series of interviews - below you'll find links to the previous three, which were presented as articles rather than audios.

This interview was recorded on Sunday 27 September 2009 via phone between the US and Germany. For your convenience in listening, the time markers for the different sections outlined below are given.  The full length is 48.44 minutes.

For those who cannot listen or who would like to see a summary of the content, the 'three wishes' and 'four guiding stars' that the discussion was based around are provided next. 

At the end you will also find Links for further information about the events, people and subjects mentioned in the course of the discussion.

You can read more about Marion here on Vision Spa Retreat.

(This audio venture* is a first for Vision Spa Retreat - feedback welcome!  Note: Marion is speaking through speaker phone so there is a difference in quality that will be remedied in future recordings.)

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Audio link:

Listen VisionSpaRetreat - Marion Schneider

(Right click to open a new window and continue to review the text below)
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Introducing Marion Schneider: Sara Firman of Vision Spa Retreat provides some background (000-2.55)

Three Wishes (2.56-29.09)

1. If you could effect one single change in the world of spa what would that be? (2.56-11.56)

Marion's foremost wish delighted Sara.  It is that 'water as THE source/ energy giver/ healer of spa be accepted by all spas – not that they need have huge water facilities but that they respect the role and importance of water'. 

In her recognition of the value of water, Marion talks about its inclusion in the Global Spa Summit earlier this year in Switzerland (17-19 May 2009) [3.] and in her plans for the British International Spa Association (BISA, 3-6 June 2010) gathering in Budapest next year [4.].

2. Which of your many spa-related projects would you most love to see happen? (11.56-18.25)

Marion talks about an exciting dream project that she refers to as 'The Spa Planetarium'.  This wonderful sensory environment has many similarities to her existing spa, Toskana Therme, in Bad Sulza, Germany.  At the center of this concept is the unique  Liquid Sound® system for underwater music by Micky Remann [5.].

Again, water is the element that makes this incredible healing-techno-art possible.  Such a project does require enormous resources in terms of financing, technical know-how and creative direction but as you'll hear (and read in the links below) there is an underlying mission to celebrate the natural world.

3. Who would you appoint to your ideal team of spa-shape-shifters? (18.35-29.08)

Here, by way of a dream team of 14, Marion elaborates on some of the features she believes are important for creating extraordinary spa.  Sara takes note that Marion lists her funding people first and herself (as CEO) last. Here are just four of the team, listen in for more:

• an architect who would build sustainably and responsibly and have a genius for suiting buildings to site
• a media and communication technology expert, ideally knowledgeable about film and sound technology
• a cultural director - Marion references Mickey Remann and Liquid Sound [5.] as being indispensable to her spa
• a marketing specialist,  a specialist for press/ PR, a networking specialist - for Marion these three are distinct

Four Guiding Stars (29.09-48.44)

Sara talks with Marion about the following propositions and ask whether they might guide the future of spa:

1. Spas restore a sense of meaning, mystery and beauty to our world
2. Spas lead the way to a new attitude to health and wellness
3. Spas provide a good model for harmonious relationships with each other
4. Spas model a more sustainable way of life and contribute to positive environmental change

More information on topics in this discussion

1. Toskana World, Germany

Read more in this post by Sara Firman: 'Between Two Waves of the Sea'.

Extract: On the rural landscape of Bad Sulza a spaceship has landed in the form of Toskana Therme, and it is not out of place.  The ultramodern architecture of the spa could just as well be compared to the microscopic details of a form sculpted by nature.  It all depends on how you choose to see things.  Goethe believed that a human being, making full use of all the senses, is the most exact physical measuring apparatus possible.  I'm sure he would thoroughly approve of the way in which the sanatorium he once suggested be built at Bad Sulza has evolved into a multisensory experiment in both the social and medical arenas.  I also expect that the skilled people who created and now manage this innovative spa would agree that all this amazing technology is nothing without the human instrument of reception, our bodies.  The place exemplifies Goethe's view that humans need an  approach to rediscovering nature that is stimulating intellectually and satisfying emotionally and spiritually. 

2. Spa culture, dreams and healing waters: A workshop with Jonathan P. DeVierville

This unique experience has been described as an eco-social-psi-dreaming field event and an in-depth spa experience. You'll experience an aquatic journey into your dreams, healing imagination, and cultural creativities through an exploration and revelation of ancient and avant-garde ways. The next workshop is scheduled for June 29  to July 4,  2010, in Bad Sulza, Germany

Read more in this post by Sara Firman: 'The age of dreaming has come'.

Inspired by a workshop in 2001 with Jungian trained Dr J.P. DeVierville, I began to see how dreams and water might be combined in a powerful exploration of both personal healing and human collective consciousness.

3. Global Spa Summit 2009

At the Third Global Spa Summit (17-19 May 2009 in Switzerland) a group of panelists, including Marion Schneider, spent one precious hour looking at 'How Shining a Spotlight on Water Can Energize our Industry'.

Read more in this post by Sara Firman: 'Is there a basic philosophy all spas could accept regards water?'

4. BISA 2010 International Conference, Budapest

Marion Schneider is the current Chair of the British International Spa Association. The Fifth BISA Conference will take place 3 -6 June 2010 in Budapest, Hungary.  The event will feature a special Water Ceremony.

5. Liquid Sound® system for underwater music

Micky Remann has found his creative home in Marion's spas with his unique Liquid Sound®.  Read a fascinating article 'A director in flip-flops!'  by Peter Krutsch here.  Also see the Liquid Sound website and more on Wikipedia.

If you have any thoughts on the ideas about spa discussed here that you would like to share, we welcome your Comment below.

Three more people who inspire (interviews by Sara Firman)

The Evolution of Spa: Jonathan Paul De Vierville

Extract: Jonathan is more hopeful about the leadership of BISA (the British International Spa Association) which, he says, has not lost its appreciation of the centrality of water.  He's delighted to note that the current chairman of BISA is German (Marion Schneider), and that as we speak she is launching a chapter of BISA in Japan.  'They [BISA] still have a commercial side,' says Jonathan, 'but Marion will steer it to deeper meaning.'  I agree with him, though I would like to see BISA make issues of sustainability an overriding concern.

Beauty and Harmony: an interview with water advocate Barbara Harmony

Extract: Barbara has not only been locally focused in her mission, but also participated in water events worldwide.   I asked her if she'd ever seen spas represented at these and she said - she had never realized this but - they hadn't been!  The Bioregional events have 'holistic health' tents but nothing specifically on spa.  'It would be fantastic to have a whole spa section at the World Water Forum!' said Barbara.  This event is about water sanitation and big business, but it's a huge gathering that might benefit from the softening intimacy of spa.

Imaging Spa: an interview with photo-artist Linda Troeller

Extract: Linda says, 'Another spa I worked with is Toskana Therme, Bad Sulza to help them find a 'brand' image for their new  underwater and light pool.  The director, Micky Remann, gathered a group of people who enjoyed the salt waters while I experimented with strobes and various amounts of lighting for a few weeks, which was a leap of faith to work so long. From those sessions evolved their brand image that is on all their products, ads and hundreds of stories written about them.'

*Gratitude to Neil  Rosenberg of Somewhere In The Woods Productions for his generous audio edit. 

Managing for sustained success of spa

The new 2010 edition of The International Standards of SpaExcellence(SM)2010  released this month addresses sustainability and the environment in a number of places.

Julie Register, Managing Director at SpaQuality outlined them for Vision Spa Retreat:   

Spa Finder Awards: Environmental Practices and Mineral Springs

SpaFinder has just announced the winners of its Readers' Choice Awards in three areas - favorite spa by continent, favorite by region or country, and best in any of 27 categories - based on approximately 300,000 votes.  The categories range from Best for Accommodations to Best for Yoga, and include two of particular interest to Vision Spa Retreat.  See below:

Best for Environmental Practices

Daintree Eco Lodge and Spa (Queensland, Australia)
El Monte Sagrado Living Spa (New Mexico, USA)
Post Ranch Inn (California, USA)
Rancho La Puerta (Baja California, Mexico)
Six Senses Destination Spa Phuket (Thailand)
The Spa at Mohonk Mountain House ( New York, USA)
The Spa at Sundance Resort (Utah, USA)
Spa Eastman (Quebec, Canada)
Sundara Inn & Spa (Wisconsin, USA)
Yaxkin Spa at Hacienda Chichen Resort (Yucatan, Mexico)*

Best for Mineral Springs

Calistoga Spa Hot Springs (California, USA)
The Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn & Spa (California, USA)
The Greenbrier (West Virginia, USA)
Ojo Caliente Mineral Springs Resort and Spa (New Mexico, USA)
Rio Caliente Hot Springs Resort (Jalisco, Mexico)
The Spring Resort and Spa (California, USA)
Sycamore Mineral Springs (California, USA)
Tabacón Grand Spa Thermal Resort (Costa Rica)
Two Bunch Palms (California, USA)
The Homestead (VA)
Willow Stream Spa at the Fairmont Banff Springs (Alberta, Canada)

* This spa has caught my attention before and I hope to visit it soon and report back personally. Savvy and creative spas grown their own spa products Extract: By an IMPRESSIVE margin in this listing the best website for relating the spa and the products used to the sustainability program of the whole property was the Yaxkin Spa at the Hacienda Chichen Resort in the Yucatan, Mexico.

Of course there are many special places that don't make these lists, often because they are small and relatively unknown (part of their great charm). Give them your own mention in the Comments below.

Here is my favorite mineral spa: Harbin Hot Spring

Spa culture: a metaphysical perspective

Astrology provides a framework for imagining a profound intimacy between ourselves and our environment.  It envisions an ecological cosmos, a cosmos which 'speaks' through symbol and metaphor.  The same structuring principles and processes at work in the natural world are also at work in us, allowing us to see form and movement in our lives as metaphorically reflected in the movements of the sky. p. xvi  The Astrological Imagination: Where Psyche and Cosmos Meet, by Brad Hiljanen Kochunas.

When Astrology meets Spa, some interesting things can happen.  This post is an exploratory account of such an encounter.  There is a serious intent, however: I'm worried about what is happening to our souls and I'm worried about what that's doing to our spas.

In August, I attended the International Society for Astrological Research (ISAR) conference in Chicago with my partner astrologer Joe Landwehr who was a speaking on the topic 'Why Astrology is Not a Science'.  It's a topic that interests me since a similar dilemma (science or not) is faced by alternative health practitioners, many of whom find work and some recognition and validation in spas.

Astrology is not a common offering in spas.  Where it is, the presentation likely does not do service to the depth and scope of this imaginal art (see 'On the Internet' below).  As with so much else in our culture, this may reflect our attitudes both towards ourselves and our place on the planet. 

Recession and Spas

Two definitions ...

Recession:
1. A moderate and temporary decline in economic activity
2. The act of restoring possession to a former owner

From The American Heritage Dictionary, Second College Edition.


Earlier this month, Susie Ellis of SpaFinder Inc. reported the closure of two established day spa operations in a blog post entitled 'Spas and Recession'. She wrote that she found this:

Heartbreaking - yet not particularly surprising given the current economic climate. In fact, I am sure that we will be seeing more spas closing. Frankly, I am surprised that we haven't seen more already. I think it speaks to the fact that these businesses likely did everything they could to try and weather the recession, but at some point they had to pull the plug.

The post goes on to makes some suggestions about ways to weather the storm, but I think there is something important missing here.  It is something I've been exploring on this blog over the last year.  It is a view that asks for an enormous shift in perspective.

Below I have compiled six posts that look at what is happening in our culture in general, how this might relate to spa, and how we might respond - not in terms of surviving as businesses but rather in order to support cultural change and contribute to our survival on the planet.

First, here is a copy of the comment I made on the above post:

Chaos or crisis can be thought of as opportunity disguised as loss. I know what that feels like, both personally and professionally. We all do. I think what is needed now - more than adaptations or limitations on business as usual - is a reevaluation of what role spas have played (and could play) in our culture; and a re-examination of why people work in and go to spas.

Not for marketing or business purposes but for our souls!

This calls us to examine our underlying values, our world views, and to see if what we do (through spa in this case) is really meeting our needs and those of others in a way that respects the source of our livelihood, the planet itself (including all things sustained by it).

We'll need to hold the paradox of thinking big and thinking small. In the latter respect, spas could both support and inspire sustainable local communities. Any spa that is growing beyond and outside its local community and not engaging that community fully is not in service.

I don't think it is a question of how much you pay your staff or what you do to entice customers but how much everyone really feels valued and involved. If we were to think of spa as a form of culture not as an industry, that might help us make the shift.

Here, in chronological order, are my earlier posts on the topic of spas and recession. 

1. Green marketing: 'Aspiring to a dream' after 'Deflating a myth' (Nov. 2008)

I've been learning a lot about 'green marketing' recently and what that means from the varying points of view of consumers, companies, marketing professionals, and those in the business of providing information resources to niche groups.  My particular interest is in how this relates to the spa world but it runs deeper. Here, I want to explore what supports the need to go green, why I'd like to see it become a primary consideration rather than a 'selling point', and what it might take for green to be taken for granted as a sustaining and sustainable way of making a living and doing business.

2. Economic blues: asking deeper questions (Dec. 2008)

This week's Splash e-newsletter for the aquatics industry addressed the topic of 'Attracting Patients in a Down Economy' and suggested that it would be beneficial to look at how other aquatic disciplines are approaching this concern.  Particular reference was made to the spa industry and a recent blog post from Susie Ellis (spa guru) of Spa Finder giving her top 10 list of new spa trends for 2009.  I too had seen the list and have been thinking about what it might mean in the context of 'economy' and 'choice'.  What might spas and aquatic therapy clinics, both service-oriented, have in common when it comes to attracting custom?

3. Spa culture: timely opportunity for a paradigm shift (Dec. 2008)

This image shows two deer stranded in a river while the forest burns around them.  For me, it conveys well the current challenges we face in deciding how best to survive economic and environmental crises. These deer know that the water may save them.  Could a new vision of spa play its part in helping us to survive? For this opportunity to be grasped, we must go beyond superficial style and develop authentic integrity in providing true spa (sanus per agua - health through water) services. 

4. Spa culture meets corporate culture: a force for positive change (Jan. 2009)

Long before colonization of the New World, Native Americans gathered at thermal mineral springs for physical health, spiritual, and social purposes.  In Europe, the Romans were cultivating spas as places for both play and politics.  And in ancient Greece, people went on spa sabbaticals to receive healing dreams from the gods that offered solutions to otherwise intractable problems.

Our own society is now recognizing the value of adding spa culture to its social and business settings, to meetings and events.  It's an interweaving that, if fully realized, could provide us with solutions to our own personal, social, and environmental issues by immersing us in an inclusive and informal setting where all three aspects of human life are recognized as being inseparable.

5. Corporate social responsibility: how does spa biz show up? (Feb. 2009)

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the spa world is a topic I'll be looking at in more depth on this blog.  Though my main focus is on small businesses, the influence and potential leadership role of  the larger corporations is significant. I want to highlight those who are showing the way.  There is a majority in the spa world still who have nothing to say on the topic of sustainability (including environmental and social responsibility) and others who talk the talk but may not be walking the walk.

6. Spa industry lemons (March 2009)

Is the spa industry in general more concerned with profit than with people and personal and environmental health? Unfortunately, some of the reactions (from industry voices and in professional networks) to the current economic recession would seem to suggest  that this has been so. 

Anyone want to join me in brainstorming an alternative to business as usual or business at all?

Growing for spas: a local enterprise

This month, Vision Spa Retreat ventured into the local community with the article below which was extracted from the series of six related posts about spa products and the powerful potential they have for enabling sustainable spa culture already posted on this blog (see the end for links to those).

The article was included in the first newsletter of the Ozarks Sustainability Community Center ('A place to discuss sustainability and schedule events within our beautiful Ozarks!') that was launched earlier this year in West Plains, Missouri, near Sara Firman's (Director of Vision Spa Retreat) home-base.

We're hoping to extend this small initiative further to another Ozarks community action The Well-Fed Neighbor Alliance - 'a grassroots movement working toward a vision of a peaceful, abundant and sustainable future' - also launched recently, and very successfully, from the city of Springfield, MO.

Look out for forthcoming posts on ways in which spa community could be integrated with local community initiatives like the Transition Town Movement that started in the UK and has recently begun nationwide in the US. 

If this is a topic that interests and inspires you, please do comment on any of the blog postings or write to Vision Spa Retreat directly. 

Quoting the Well-Fed Neighbor Alliance: Together, people of the Ozarks are fostering neighbor-to-neighbor partnerships to re-establish our local food supply by planting community gardens, supporting local family farms and area farmer's markets.Let us not stop until we’ve achieved a vertical integration of our farm to market products, the relocalization of good-paying jobs, the creation of an all-Missouri buy Local Directory, and the widespread installation of alternative energy sources by and for the people. In the process, we’ll be reuniting neighbors, engaging the better angels of our public officials, and reskilling our kids to face the future.

Growing for Spas

Food cooked and presented with love has always been appreciated.  Spa treatments conducted and presented with heart are no different.  And these things tend to be home-grown and timeless.  They don't depend on ethnic or exotic imports but rather on creative and caring aspects of human community.  Spas can both support and inspire sustainable local communities.

At the spa-retreat I used to run in our area, I once served some guests a pasta sauce I'd made with tofu and lavender (from the retreat garden).  I had followed a recipe and they were polite enough to eat it .  But it would probably have made a better sunburn soothing mask in the spa - lavender is a well-known anti-inflammatory!

The point is that a spa product that is also edible is likely to be safe to use on someone's skin.  Basic products can be made from cold-pressed and unrefined oils, freshly prepared certified organic vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds etc., therapeutic grade herb and flower extracts, and pure water.  Making a product directly before use in the spa or in the treatment room can give it a further potent quality.

With freshly made products there is no need to worry about shelf-life which can involve all manner of less desirable ingredients in manufactured products.  (It's important to note though that some natural substances can also cause allergic or other unpleasant reactions in some people and knowledge of this is extremely important if for anyone who plans to make up their own products.)

The underlying elements of any spa treatment can (and I think should) be appropriately and effectively adapted to suit and enhance whatever setting a spa is in.  Including locally grown ingredients, local suppliers, and local flavor in spa offerings certainly blends these treatments more naturally with a particular setting than if they are outsourced.

The demand for body care products has proliferated dramatically, along with the growing spa industry.   'Green' products have commanded a premium (and not always justifiable) market price. With increasing evidence of green washing, body care product manufacturers face scrutiny from conscious consumers who also represent a significant percentage of spa consumers. 

This ought to encourage spas and other related venues to examine their choices and offerings more closely.  The best and most creative solution, I believe, is to source local and to involve the community - from suppliers, to staff, to customers - in the creation of a unique and varied spa menu. For a spa venue, making food-based spa treatments, including sourcing local materials for these, will require either:

• establishing their own on-site organic garden, perhaps with bee hives for honey and wax, or

• researching and networking to find good and reliable local suppliers

Also:

• training of staff and set-up of a space/ facility for the making of products

• creative design of a range of services involving these products

All or some of these tasks can be provided or coordinated by a local spa design and consultancy service creating yet another form of local employment (for example, Vision Spa Retreat!). The home-made products may also be of interest to those who do not want to partake of the spa's services but might like to order fresh supplies of body care products.

For spa venues that do choose to sell products they make onsite, it is essential to look into local and state regulations regards retail of 'home-made' beauty products.  There are many websites and blogs on the internet promoting this kind of business that will also provide lots of good ideas for recipes and equipment and supplies needed.

As part of a program I'd like to develop for promoting local spa products and services, I'm interested to hear from (or about) anyone who is already making locally grown and produced body products, would be interested in making them, or would like to offer them as part of their existing therapeutic services (massage, spa, etc.).  Please contact me (Sara Firman).

This article was extracted from the series of six related posts about spa products and the powerful potential they have for enabling sustainable spa culture already posted on this blog.

1. Spa treatment menus: authenticity and audacity
2. Eco-spa-chefs: cooking up a better future
3. Savvy and creative spas grow their own spa products
   
4. The value of growing and making your own spa products
5. Natural, organic? Spa products under scrutiny
6. How to make your own 'soulful and sustainable' spa products

Imaging Spa: an interview with photo-artist Linda Troeller

by Sara Firman of Vision Spa Retreat
[all images reproduced by kind permission of Linda Troeller]

Art washes away from the Soul the dust of Everyday Life
- Pablo Picasso

If Picasso is right, then Art and Spa surely go together.   Both might add something more soulful (moist, fluid, luscious, vibrant) when we're feel worn down by life.

One of the things I love about spa as healing space is the inherent potential for creativity.  It's a special quality of soul, that beauty is always bound up with feeling through experiencing.

Over the last two decades, photo-artist Linda Troeller's mission has been to convey through her work what it actually feels like to enter a spa and immerse yourself in the experience.

I first came across her work at Toskana Therme, Bad Sulza.  It was a booklet about their  Liquid Sound®, featuring Linda's art, that made it possible for me to convey that magical experience to my friends later.

Vision Spa Retreat is focused on all that is soulful and sustainable in spa, so I was delighted to learn more from Linda about how she came to be involved with spa art and what has inspired her in that.

Visit Linda Troeller's website here.

I began by asking Linda how her interest in applying her photographic art in the world of spa came about.

Beauty and Harmony: an interview with water advocate Barbara Harmony

by Sara Firman, May 2009 for VisionSpaRetreat.com

Venus, as Botticelli portrays her in the renowned painting of spring called Primavera, is the moist, florid, green lusciousness of life on earth.  It's an Ozark early May weekend with rain dripping from a forestful of trees all around the cabin where I live.  When yesterday's phone conversation with Barbara Harmony (also in an Ozark Cottage surrounded by green lusciousness), upon which this post is based, came to a close I asked Barbara what she had planned for the rest of the day: 'I'm going to enjoy the rain,' she said cheerfully.

Barbara has inspired Vision Spa Retreat, partly because she's been a strong and effective Advocate for Water Quality and Bioregionalism over the past 30 years.  Her home and her inspiration for all those years has been Eureka Springs, a spa-resort town, deep in the Ozark hills of Arkansas.  Barbara is a Lifelong Learning Coach, Minister, and Astrologer.  You could say that Vision Spa Retreat's tag-line 'water consciousness for personal and planetary health' is personified by Barbara.

Pivots for change in the spa world

Change can feel overwhelming, but it is also an opportunity to do something different, perhaps to do what we always knew was right but were too caught up in business as usual to follow that call.

Perhaps you'll need to re-examine the values and beliefs you have assumed, neglected, or taken for granted, and make a shift to bring yourself into line with something more appropriate to the times.

How can we find the courage to step into the river? 

There is a river flowing now very fast. It is so great and swift that there are those who will be afraid. They will try to hold on to the shore. They will feel they are being torn apart, and they will suffer greatly. Know the river has its destination. The elders say we must let go of the shore, push off into the middle of The river, keep our eyes open, and our heads above the water. See who is in there with you and celebrate. At this time in history, we are to take nothing personally. Least of all, ourselves. For the moment that we do, our spiritual growth and journey comes to a halt. The time of the lone wolf is over. Gather yourselves! Banish the word struggle from your attitude and your vocabulary. All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration. Hopi prayer.

• Don't isolate yourself: involve staff, clients, providers, and other interested people in brainstorming opportunities for change.

• Keep the fundamentals (people and things that are truly aligned with your values), but change what you do with them.

• Change to meet the needs of people and planet not just profit.

Here are some possible pivots for change:

Keep your mission, but change your scale

Example: Think local or regional instead of country-wide or international. Offer services that are personal and unique rather than ubiquitous and generic.

Keep your services, change the way you conduct them

Example: Focus on services that fit sustainability criteria (environmentally and socially responsible), and engage your clients in the process and purpose behind this.

Keep your customers, but change what you sell to them

Example: If one-on-one services and products have been your main source of income but are too costly now, offer more group services and a simplified or spa-made product line.

Keep your providers, but change the profit structure

Example: Talk to your providers about the potential for sustainability measures that could lead to cost cutting for everyone - encourage and support them in this.

Keep your staff, but change what they do

Example: Look for untapped skills possessed by your existing staff, and see if there are ways in which you could use these to develop new services or replace jobs that you are currently outsourcing.

Keep your reputation (in providing caring and therapeutic services), but apply it to a different industry.

Example: There are many settings in which spa-type services can be beneficial, including corporate wellness programs, hospice care, hospital adjuncts, non-profit organizations for crisis care.

Share your own Keep/Change ideas and examples below.

For some ideas about how to approach these issues creatively see Inspirations: Creative team work.

Join Vision Spa Retreat in envisioning real change in the spa world.

Spa industry lemons

Is the spa industry in general more concerned with profit than with people and personal and environmental health? Unfortunately, some of the reactions (from industry voices and in professional networks) to the current economic recession would seem to suggest  that this has been so. 

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) encourages organisations to consider the interests of the community by taking responsibility for the impact of their activities on society and the environment with regard to all aspects of operation. Triple bottom line is the measurement of the environmental, social and economic performance (planet-people-profit) of CSR objectives.

An analysis by A.T. Kearney (management consulting firm) conducted in 2008 for 18 industries (including healthcare, travel and leisure, and personal goods) reveals that during the current economic slow-down, companies that showed 'true' commitment to sustainability appeared to outperform their industry peers in the financial markets.

Sustainability practices were defined in the study as 'those geared towards protecting the environment and promoting social well-being while achieving shareholder value'. The report helps to distinguish between genuinely committed companies (who do show financial gains) and those whose efforts are simply to improve public relations or catch up with industry leaders (who, by contrast, do not show gains).

Quote:

Some companies react strategically, adjusting the corporate strategy to sustain the human and natural resources they will need to succeed now and for the long term. Their initiatives are usually transformational in nature, bringing a significant but potentially slow rate of return. They are less costly (mostly investment in energy efficiency) and often result in higher revenues through sale of green products and services.

Other companies take more tactical approach, viewing sustainability first as an opportunity to improve their reputations. They make small efforts such as upgrading an environmental policy or rebranding existing initiatives under the guise of sustainability.  The efforts are deemed complete when a sustainability report is published and an award won for a track record of social responsibility.

I believe it is time for the spa industry as a whole to examine more honestly its own approach to business and take seriously what it really means to espouse sustainable values and practices.

Strategist or Opportunist?

There is a subtle difference between encouraging spas to see the current economic situation as an opportunity and seeing opportunities in the current economic situation.  The first could inspire a more searching review of values and methods, asking whether these have been as sound as we thought.  The second, is more likely to result in a superficial response -  the approach of an opportunist.  The first takes a long-term view, the second a short-term one.

A recent post on Susie's Spa blog left me with some questions and concerns about these different approaches. As President of SpaFinder Inc., Susie is a well respected and experienced spa industry commentator.  She certainly knows the trade but the ideas she puts forward seem more opportunist than visionary in this case.   They may also perpetuate a business paradigm that has contributed to the current economic recession.

Susie refers to the old adage about making lemonade from lemons.  I'd like instead to speak to the wisdom in this well-know quote from Anthony Robbins: If you do what you've always done, you'll get what you've always gotten. Sometimes, it's not easy to see these repeating patterns because there is also the constant of change.  There is a balance to be struck between knowing who you are (what you stand for, what you do in alignment with that) and responding creatively and flexibly to change.

Below is an extract from Susie's post listing her '5 solutions' with my comments interspersed.  I encourage you to answer for yourself the questions posed.  Like Susie, I invite and welcome feedback and further discussion.  You can comment below or email me directly.

The evolution of spa

Very few think of SPA in it's broadest terms, as a cultural form encompassing all the things we consider important for our wellbeing.  It's a rich cultural legacy that has in many ways been increasingly obscured by the tempting commercialization of what was once sacred and shared.  At times of upheaval, such as that which we are experiencing now, a willingness to reflect on our cultural evolution and the symbols of that - spa being one - may offer some insights into our predicament and our recovery.

'Spa Industry, Culture and Evolution' was the title of an excellent article Jonathan Paul De Vierville wrote for Massage and Bodywork Magazine back in 2003.  Jonathan,  long with Marion Schneider and Barbara Harmony, strongly influenced my expanding view of spa a decade ago now (for more go here).  Recently, I spoke to Jonathan about his abiding interest in the concept of spa and asked whether his focus has changed over the years.
             
Jonathan's involvement in spa stretches back  40 years to when he was working in Europe as a tour director for American Express.  His tours often included spa towns and he found himself especially attracted to these, noticing how spa as therapy was always set in a social context.  Spa was part of a healing system that included elements like kur parks (celebrating nature), and theaters (expressing community).  In the article mentioned, Jonathan wrote:

'A spa is a place with the purpose of facilitating whole human health care, wellness and social well-being.'

That statement might slip by easily in spa marketing language today, but perhaps this elaboration of it in the same article would not: 'Fundamentally, a spa is an eco-socio-cultural learning community and civil institution that attempts to bring together and truthfully integrate all the dynamic dimensions of time and space, temperatures, touch and therapeutic treatments within a supporting context of goodness, beauty, harmony and wholeness of nature.' 

Jonathan has persistently invited spa colleagues to deepen their appreciation of spa.

Spa as culture

Our conversation kept returning to the way in which industrialization of aspects of human culture, and in this case spa, has so often resulted in the loss of our connection with the depth of meaning and purpose that Jonathan discusses in his article, and the sense of connection provided by elements of the 'commons' (belonging to everyone or shared resources).  Culture is a blending of four areas, and, for Jonathan, spa as culture encompasses all these:

• Art - in terms of beauty and esthetics
• Science and technology - what is repeatable and provable
• Politics (including economics and law) - relationships and values
• Spirituality - the mystical, invisible

When viewed like this, as Jonathan points out, industry (or economics) contributes less than a quarter to the overall significance of spa culture. It is the general trend towards commercialization in the 1990s that he thinks has brought great change to our culture as a whole; the effects this has had on spa in particular have saddened him.  The emphasis has shifted from spa culture to spa industry, slowly consuming and diluting the other three areas through commoditization, and the marketing of that which was previously sacred.