Spa-Mentally Speaking.....

Throughout my quest to discover the "perfect" spa experience, one thing has been a constant.

The top spas won't be remembered because of their newest gee-jaw or European-labeled-beauty-product integrity.

It won't be the Hammam or the Vichy Shower (which I hate for purely political reasons) or the warming tables or the Kashmere robes or even the Miller Harris bath products (which I loooove). Although those may be lovely inducements.

It will be a long-remembered (and recommended) spa because of a human touch-- a simple helpfulness or understanding, a genuine concern that can't be faked.

That's the spa you'll remember and want to go back to. Here's one personal reason why.

How many times have we been so over-stressed that if someone said something nice to us, we started to cry?

And the person who was there to hug or nod or say nothing, that friend was the true face of compassion. Real compassion in your private world.

But what about times we are in the hands of strangers, and for whatever reason our emotional and physical limits have been reached, and we are simply on the brink. On the brink of the strand of sanity that calls to all of us sometime in life.

And then here comes the tears. Cleansing, wonderful, embarrassing tears. They come. And the most gratifying times were when this inexplicable (but very common) emotion took hold, I was always grateful to have a compassionate soul nearby. Sometimes to listen, sometimes to explain how common it is, and how wonderful it is for your body. And how it is a compliment to the therapist.

Boy, I've sure paid a lot of compliments.

In the future world of spa, I hope to see more and more compassion and much fewer over-sized bath tubs and Vichy Showers. Not just for political reasons.