Vision Spa Retreat

A Sleeping, Floating, Dreaming Spa Experience

 

Spa Cultures, Dreams & Healing Waters

Bad Sulza, Germany

Tuesday, June 29th to Sunday, July 4th, 2010

Sara Firman of Vision Spa Retreat writes:

This workshop profoundly influenced my thoughts about spa, and the power of water to evoke personal and collective dreams of transformation and healing. Participating in this experiential journey convinced me of the real possibility of dreaming up a better future; one that includes a spa culture that celebrates water and its healing and life-giving qualities. This continues to inspire me in pursuing my vision of spa retreat.

Professor Jonathan Paul DeVierville, Ph.D., a Jungian psychotherapist and well-known spa historian, leads participants on a journey into their psyches and the imaginal realms of dreams. 

Toskana Therme, Bad Sulza, is a world-class geothermal spa. While floating in the warm mineral healing waters of the Liquid Sound Temple, you'll have the opportunity to experience deep rest and relaxation as well as creativity and re-creation.

Writes Jonathan:

Ancient Cultures, as well as native peoples around the world, traditionally combined their dreaming with stays at springs, wells and spas. This naturally regenerative atmosphere of rest, relaxation and sleep integrated with "taking the waters" enhanced and nurtured their dreaming as well as their abilities to look deeply into their personal, social and cultural self.  Ancient Spa Cultures moved in Deeper Dimensions and so can we.

For More Information visit www.spacultures.com

Drawing up water for spas: is it sustainable?

 

Early last year, in an article entitled Putting the water back into spa, I expressed my sadness that the spa industry in general might be tending to focus on wellness without water.  This shift is certainly partly related to economic factors.

There are obvious challenges for spas in providing safe water in abundance without incurring heavy financial costs and without further exacerbating increasingly evident problems regards our water resources in general. 

To many, a statement like the one below from that article, might seem quaintly naive at best.

Can we imagine a spa industry that has something more than an economic motivator?  A spa culture that models personal, communal, and planetary health?  Spa with water flowing from its heart.

The latest Spa Business Digital Edition, issue 1, 2010, describes some heartening developments that indicate that economic and environmental issues can come together.  In Alternative water supplies (spas using groundwater ), Emilie Filou presents four examples of spas celebrating and valuing water.

Letting Go: Osho Zen Tarot Valentine

In this image of lotus leaves in the early morning, we can see in the rippling of the water that one drop has just fallen. Osho

This beautiful Tarot deck is part of my weekly meditation.  Its focus is on cultivating present-moment awareness and it invariably speaks to whatever is uppermost for me. This card came up for me today as I shift out of a few weeks of reflective solitude.

You can experience a reading for yourself by going here.

There are many decks available now and as many interpretations of the traditional Major and Minor Arcana cards, as there are creators.  Which is just as it should be.  How each of us responds to a situation or challenge can only reflect what we each uniquely bring to that.

In another deck I love, the Eight of Water (or Hearts) is associated with the infinity symbol for completeness - the deep transforming circle of power and change.  Profound change happens 'when you integrate a personal sense of empowerment with a serene understanding of the universal flow of life'.

In my own life and work and in that of many around me, I see us like the drop that 'trembled before it fell, just on the edge between the known and the unknowable'.  I also think that the way of water has much to teach us.  Once again, I invite all of us who love spa to follow the water!

Description of the card shown above from the guide accompanying the set ...

Osho Zen Tarot
55. Letting Go
8 of Water

In existence there is nobody who is superior and nobody who is inferior. The blade of grass and the great star are absolutely equal.... But man wants to be higher than others, he wants to conquer nature, hence he has to fight continuously. All complexity arises out of this fight. The innocent person is one who has renounced fighting; who is no longer interested in being higher, who is no longer interested in performing, in proving that he is someone special; who has become like a rose flower or like a dewdrop on the lotus leaf; who has become part of this infinity; who has melted, merged and become one with the ocean and is just a wave; who has no idea of the "I". The disappearance of the ''I" is innocence.

Osho The White Lotus Chapter 6
Commentary:

In this image of lotus leaves in the early morning, we can see in the rippling of the water that one drop has just fallen. It is a precious moment, and one that is full of poignancy. In surrendering to gravity and slipping off the leaf, the drop loses its previous identity and joins the vastness of the water below. We can imagine that it must have trembled before it fell, just on the edge between the known and the unknowable. To choose this card is a recognition that something is finished, something is completing. Whatever it is--a job, a relationship, a home you have loved, anything that might have helped you to define who you are--it is time to let go of it, allowing any sadness but not trying to hold on. Something greater is awaiting you, new dimensions are there to be discovered. You are past the point of no return now, and gravity is doing its work. Go with it--it represents liberation.

Description of the card shown above from the guide accompanying the set ...

The bathing pool: rituals

Recently, a dear friend, Diana Mihajlova (artist and chess player extraordinaire), who lives in Budapest wrote asking: 'Would you be able to advise how best to use the time when I go and spend a day in the hot baths in Budapest in order to relax, and de-stress the best? '

Her request reminded me of a short article I wrote on the topic for a community newsletter a few years back, and a ritual I developed for guests at my previous spa-retreat venue. 

Below you'll find updated versions of these (the second one is offered in audio also), which can be adapted for use at home, in nature, or in Budapest!  I'd love to hear of your experiences (comment below).

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.)

..............................................................................

Audio link:

Listen VisionSpaRetreat - Marion Schneider

(Right click to open a new window and continue to review the text below)
...............................................................................

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

Visions for Spa?

Visionaries see possibilities and promise. Excellent visionaries see real and significant possibilities, not simply the utopian variety.

Vision Spa Retreat take the first part of it's name seriously, though that's certainly an ongoing process of exploration.  In fact, a friend recently commented that Sara 'seems to be trying to work something out' though this website and sharing.  That's true!  No definite answers or opinions but a call to wonder, to envision how things could be better - specifically in the world of spa.

Please join me in sharing your vision for a new spa culture.

Meanwhile, others are visioneering in many and broader spheres.  Here is an extract from the home page of The Vision Project, where you can peruse the inspiring thoughts of 67 visionaries.  And perhaps contribute your own (especially called for are perspectives from non-English speaking parts of the world: Asia, Eastern Europe, the Middle-East, Africa, and South America).

[Visionaries] are not the mystics, prophets, or forecasters. These are not the ones who tell us what will, probably will, or should happen. Visionaries see possibilities and promise. Excellent visionaries see real and significant possibilities, not simply the utopian variety. The vision they see is not one to which others must be persuaded. When they show us how to see it, we instantly see it as our future. It makes a connection with some esoteric circuit in us that knows it is seeing the truth of our existence more fully revealed. A true vision points the way to our purpose for existence, and it gives a glimpse of how our lives could be if we lived in the context of that purpose. It imbues how we live with the power of why we live.

A vision, like all else in time and space, is limited. It will have its time, it will stir the activity of those it touches towards its fulfillment, and then it will fade in the face of the new vision. If there is an ultimate, all-encompassing vision, we must not be ready to see it, because we (apparently) can only see a small portion at a time. Vision inspires us to expand, evolve, and elevate; it causes us to change the way we think, what we expect, and who we believe ourselves to be. Vision reveals a light in which we can change our world and ourselves for the better. The change itself is the construction of a new step on the ladder, and from that higher step we can see farther still. The change is the seed for the new vision, and thus we grow. In it all, vision is integral to the process. It is in this light that the ancient proverb, “Where there is no vision, the people perish” (Proverbs 29:18) derives its meaning.

Old visions sometimes live beyond their usefulness. Looking at the world today, many are becoming convinced that humanity is at war with itself, something like an autoimmune disease a human might have. One explanation of this disorder is that we seem to be applying older, nearly used up visions in ways that are inappropriate for an increasingly interdependent, globalized humanity—a humanity waking up to itself. Segments of humanity are seeing that all others should become what their individual group is or holds dear. We have just come through a millennium where we killed great numbers of humans in the name of competing visions of religions, economic and political systems, not to mention the competing national, racial, tribal, ethnic, and gender visions.

In these confusing, often dangerous times, we need a new vision for a new humanity, and we need it yesterday. This urgency demands that we know if this vision exists, and if not how we can aid in its formulation.

The new vision is becoming visible, but certainly not in crystal clear completeness. We have a wealth of visionary thought and writing in the world today, but not one thinker or writer has resonated with of all of humanity, and for obvious reasons. Six and a half billion viewpoints create much diversity within humanity and form great barriers to anything resonating with everyone. Any visionary faces the problem of his or her own viewpoint: each is a specific gender, age, nationality, and race; each has been taught in a specific educational system, and colored by the traditions and mores of his or her own culture. All of this colors the vision regardless of how essential it is intended to be. And this coloring is a hurdle for others because each of us must work through our own unique viewpoint.

Another obstacle is that the new vision is humanity’s vision; and it may not be possible (yet) for any human to contain the vision in its completeness simply because of scale. If humanity is a great being (even if immature and only semi-conscious) living through human beings, it may be impossible for a single human to contain the vision for the greater being. How many of us truly identify with the greater being over and beyond our own individuality? This complicates the work of both the visionary and those potentially affected by the vision.

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