Health Tips from the Russian Spa Visit!

It was wonderful to see some old friends at the spa and hear from Joshua Duncan some of the rituals he learned in Peru with a shaman in the jungle, actually a plant healing woman. He stayed at her healing center where roots and foods as well as energetic principles where taught for health. Here are a few things you could adapt to your life.

First of all he said that they find most all diseases are from cold in the internal body. That is an interesting statement. The bones and marrow are given plants that vibrate warmth in them. In Tibetan, Indian and Chinese medicine digestion and body heat are integral to health. Most of the information out there today is about how the body fire of digestion is not working well enough thus effecting the heating, energy system of our body! So understanding digestion and supporting your body's internal heating system especially as it is winter here in the Northeast is important to health and vitality.

The spa treatment of heat through steam baths, and hot Turkish and Russian heat rooms with the cold water rinse in between truly relaxes and helps the internal heat. It also  allows the blood to clean from the organs in the heat and the cold lets it back into our organs detoxified. It is a wonderful process on many levels based on science. Deep breathing to get the heat in, oxygen richness and relaxation of the body is natural.

 First we tapped all of our body with our hands. We have heard of tapping for wealth, to change our body state and memories. in Tai Chi Chuan that I teach we tap to stimulate different organ points. This tapping we did for health, to vibrate the cold out, we did it for 4 minutes or so to make sure we tapped all our body adding energy and heat to it. We tapped each other especially up the spine to the top of the head. This felt so cozy in the steam room. Simple tool to warm up that I never knew before but of course adding energy by tapping yourself makes sense, just the action of doing it causes heat in your body. You are moving energy as well by the action of contact, we are also stimulating the vital body, the layers around our body of energy are getting swirled and mixed. Makes sense!

When we were in the steam room. we did many treatments and rinsing. We rubbed salt on all of our bodies, it detoxifies on a deeper level and salt draws out toxins. We allowed the chemical process of detoxifying salt to cleanse our body deeply. We rinsed. Then we put natural soap with essential oils in it all over our steamy body really cleansing the skin. Slippery in the steam. We rinsed. We used a scrubby on our entire body next. Buffering our skin. We lastly put honey on our body! So nice it was in the steam because it was not sticky as you would think and honey has so many healing properties. Our skin was open and ready to enjoy this nourishment of sweet, raw honey and drink it in our pours. It felt so soft and nourishing on your skin and we sat and reveled in it. Next we rinsed. All the rinses are in cold. You get this incredible body rush from heat to cold that is like melting once you go through the transition. The cells in your body feel  so alive. Your skin and your complexion is warm and soft looking. It seems to me to be a viable anti aging practice.

We also did different breathings in the dry heat rooms to switch up the ways we use the diaphragm. We are just unconsciously breathing always, we shifted the pattern to reset our system in that area of our body, obviously healthful since so many systems teach deeper and alternative breathing to work with our system in relaxation and oxygenation.

 Joshua also told me that rest was a big part of healing at the center. People just don't get enough sleep and rest and it creates illness. Keeping the heat warm to your internal body, relaxing and resting in the warmth, breathing deeply to invigorate the organs, cleansing in a ritual way to honor and support the body are all easy natural things to create health. They also begin with realizing our body has a sacred system of balance that we need to support through just being smart of how we ride in it and honoring this body gift. That alone is huge in health and something that is overlooked completely. Yet in being vital and healthy, you must love and support your body mechanism with simple ways to understand how to help it run efficiently. These are no brainer activities that can be added in easily! Instead of all this confusion about health and nutrition that seems like alot of work.

All the Russians  at the spa look healthy and vital. Maybe a weekend activity we should pay attention to. Honoring the body in such a relaxing way. I would recommend all to realize the importance of cleaning your system on all levels for health. From body, blood, skin, digestion, mental, and emotional levels, the art of cleaning or clearing is a way to health. There are many ways to do this so learn. I take the more playful route! The Russian Spa being an easy way to delight and relax the body while healing the spirit! Love the adventure of learning!