Beyond Beauty


There’s nothing I love more than a good spa. Not any old spa, I hasten to add. Uber-luxury spas with a clinical vibe leave me cold. To be truly fabulous, spas need to be both beautiful and peaceful, offering treatments with a holistic basis and creating a genuine sense of a healing space. That doesn’t mean they can’t be luxury – they just shouldn’t feel cold or medical. Spa-time is an opportunity for deep renewal, so if the environment doesn’t spell ‘relaxation’ to you, you’ve already lost half the benefit before you even start.

I’m reminded of the healing power of spas because I’m engrossed in a beautiful new book by my friend, Tara Herron, who has just written The Definitive Spa & Body Therapist’s Handbook. Although it’s oriented towards spa therapists, there’s plenty of juice in it for the rest of us. She reminds us that beauty is a bigger conversation than how you look, noting “Being seen as beautiful now stems from a deeper understanding of how being healthy and happy are visible factors in the overall vision of how we appear to ourselves. As our inner perceptions change, so does our outer vision … holistic beauty treatments are now actual rituals that embrace the principles of our psycho-physiology, the relationship between our mind and body, to reveal a deeper sense of beauty that comes from within, shining out from an inner peace of mind and a deeply relaxed, comfortable body”.

It’s a shame that the word ‘holistic’ seems to have been degraded by its association with wacky, new-agey practices. In essence it’s actually a much more powerful – and far more mainstream – concept of balance, where each aspect of life is given its appropriate due and none is sacrificed at the expense of the other.

In teaching therapists to create a healing environment – for themselves as well as the client – Tara focuses on five main principles, which we can equally integrate into our daily lives to help keep our own energy in balance. Those keys are your body, your breathing, your mind, your spirit and your space. Let’s take a walk through those, one by one, and see how you might use them to keep your personal energy vibrant, no matter what life throws at you.

Your Body – Whether your work is physical or more sedentary, keeping your body in balance helps you to stay focused, relieve stress and feel energetic. Tara’s book has some great yoga/stretching exercises that can easily be integrated into your working day, as well as stressing the importance of staying hydrated, deep relaxation techniques and bathing before bedtime to help your body purify itself from the energy of the day. Those of us who spend a lot of time working indoors have a particular need to integrate movement and body care into our day-to-day lives, to release tension and stay flexible. Making sure you have a daily stretching practice helps to keep you in tune and is more effective than a sudden burst of activity at the health club every new and then.

Your Breath – This is an interesting one, considering that we generally pay very little attention to how we breathe, yet working with the breath can be a powerful tool in managing our emotions and keeping us calm. As Tara says, “Notice how nervous, angry or anxious thoughts will speed up your breathing, whereas relaxed, pleasant or peaceful thoughts will slow your breathing down. This potent relationship between your thoughts, emotions and breath patterns is also true in reverse. When you purposefully deepen and slow your breathing down, your thoughts and feelings will begin to calm and relax. Your breath is at the pivot of your body-mind relationship”. Try Tara’s Essential Stress Release Breath by placing one hand on your abdomen and the other on your heart. As you breathe in deeply to your stomach, notice how your hand there rises. Hold that breath for the count of four. Then purse your lips and release the breath in very short puffs. Pause on empty for three counts. Repeat the cycle three to six times.

Your Mind – We all know how powerful the mind is, to both heal and to harm. Maintaining a positive focus isn’t just essential for creating the right attitude to attract opportunities in life, but also for maintaining optimum physical immunity. According to Tara, psycho-neuro-immunological research has shown that “on a psycho-physiological level, positive thoughts can and do alter our chemistry. This happens through the calming quality of positive thinking that sends relaxed signals to the hypothalamus at the brain’s stem. These signals then relay down through the central nervous system, which in turn triggers the endocrine system to release hormones and neuro-chemicals directly into the bloodstream. This process boosts the immune system and creates the physiological feelings of well-being … evidence shows that negative, anxious or unhappy thoughts aggravate the nervous system, causing the endocrine system to manufacture acidic neuro-chemicals that have a stress-inducing effect.” So, it’s not a just bunch of hippie tree-hugging stuff after all – thinking positively can help to keep you well.

Your Spirit – Ah, my favourite subject. Without addressing the needs of the spirit, we’re always going to feel that something is missing. True fulfilment comes from being true to your whole self, including the spiritual dimension. A soulful life is a life of deep connection and meaning. Tara says “Soul can be understood as the deepest inner form of your being that journeys through this world at the heart of who you are. Your soul is pure consciousness, always whole, profoundly sensitive and constantly evolving … your soul retains the essence of who you really are, your true nature, no matter what, even though you may forget yourself and go astray.” Practices she recommends that return you to soul-awareness are acceptance, gratitude, forgiveness and loving kindness. You can develop a daily practice of sitting quietly, breathing deeply and focusing on each of these qualities. Acceptance can be self-acceptance, acceptance of circumstances or acceptance of another person. Gratitude can be practiced for what you already have, as well as what you are welcoming into your life. Forgiveness can be offered to yourself as well as others, as can the blessing of loving kindness or compassion.

Your Space – Managing your space helps to manage your attitude, your creativity and your health. When you pay attention to creating an uplifting environment or even simply have something in your office that reminds you to breathe deeply or slow down, you open up to new possibilities, as well as reminding yourself that you’re in charge of your environment and your thoughts. I kept a fat, happy Buddha statue on my desk when I was at my workaholic worst to train myself to slow down and not take it all too seriously. Just having a visual reminder like that can be a really powerful tool to remind you to stay aware. Pay attention to what’s in your environment and how you feel about it. If it’s not something you love or doesn’t uplift you, get rid of it. The objects we encounter every day set up repetitive thought patterns. If you think “I hate that thing” every time you walk into a room or feel mildly depressed when you see something that needs fixing, that’s altering the quality of your thoughts and having a negative impact on your health. Spaces that are welcoming and in alignment with our personal nature make us feel more in tune with ourselves. Give yourself the gift of beautiful personal space and feel the benefits.

This week, you know what to do – take a look at the five keys and see where you can make some personal adjustments. If you’d like more info on Tara’s work and her range of skincare and body products, check out http://www.yogicsolutions.com/.

For the Coach Fabulous archives, go to http://www.coachfabulous.blogspot.com/ and for the I Am Fabulous archives, go to http://www.fabcentral.blogspot.com/. You can email me at coachfabulous@iamfabulous.co.uk. All material ©2008 Alison Porter. No article may be reproduced in full or in part without the express permission of the author. (Originally posted 7 Jul 08)