Philosophy
Mens sana in corpore sano
(harmony of mind and body)
Restoring Balance and Harmony
The Spa Process
Plant a seed in fertile soil and a beautiful plant grows.
All the information for its own perfect expression is contained within the seed. In response to the natural energies of its surroundings - light, heat, water and nutrients – a seedling emerges, grows, flowers, sets seed and senesces.
Given a benign environment, the plant enjoys a long and fruitful life.
Similarly, for the human being, our cells have within them an intuitive response to favourable conditions. The role of the spa is to provide an environment that allows the cell to respond and express itself according to its natural potential.
By providing a favourable environment for the communities of cells that comprise the organs and tissues of our physical body, the chemistry within each individual cell achieves harmony and balance in relation to its neighbour.
At the spa, the various activities, therapies and practices, the quiet surroundings, the supportive staff, kindly therapists, nutritious food, copious water are all intended to induce what has been called the “Relaxation Response”, a natural physiological state within the body that supports the natural expression of the cells and a balanced and harmonious equilibrium between them.
The whole process is very subtle. The body cannot be coerced into relaxation, it can only be coaxed, encouraged. Very often our lives have been so subject to stressing influences that the body has become wary of relaxation, it is constantly aroused, on the alert to deal with the challenges presented daily and hourly.
The body may have lost its memory of true relaxation, or the memory may be very faint. The process at the spa works to recreate the experience of relaxation, to create a new memory that can be accessed again when we go away. All of the elements of the programme play a part.
If relaxation is what you seek, approach your visit with an enquiring attitude.
“How do I feel physically?”
“Do I feel I have energy - for the goals I wish to accomplish, daily or in the longer term?”
“Do I feel I have a goal, a perspective from which to live my life?”
“Is my body a burden, bearing me down, or a source of energy for the life I wish to have?”
“Can I harness the natural energies inherent in the cells, the energies that empowered my predecessors through the unknown number of generations that have preceded my arrival and my being here?”
Are there energies within the natural environment, in which my ancestors evolved and lived, that I can draw from?
Are there energies within the human community that support the life of the individual?
Approach with a sensitivity to how you are feeling now.
Explore a process that works from the outer surfaces of the body, through our skin, through our muscles, through our nerve endings, through the lining of our gut, the walls of our lungs. Through our hearts from the encounters we make with other people, or from a compassion we may find towards ourselves.
Explore a process that proceeds from the physical and physiological, accesses the emotions, and is observed rather than driven by the brain.
Spa therapy is physical therapy. It draws on the wisdom of the ancients, and increasingly it finds a basis in a modern scientific understanding of our physiology.
When the body relaxes there may be a deluge, of tears, of restrained emotions. There may be a physical sickness or nausea. Trust that this will pass and that the upheaval will be followed by more benign conditions. That the natural tendency towards balance and harmony that sustained the lives of our ancestors, and has brought us to where we are now, we will bequeath in our turn to our children and our successors, and our society's children and successors.
Being more conscious than plants, we learn to choose conditions that favour our innate physiology, to create them if needs be. To choose opportunities to strengthen the body physically, to nourish the body nutritionally, to find support in a smile or a ray of sunshine, or in a contribution that we make to the common endeavour.
At the spa, the staff are like kind and compassionate gardeners, working to provide an environment that releases the resources inherent within us. Each of us is encouraged to tend kindly to our own plot – the body we have been given – to allow the fruits within to emerge.
Declan Fagan, Director, Temple Country Retreat and Spa, August 2004
Conscious Relaxation
Physiologically, the body responds to relaxation. And in particular, to conscious relaxation - when we spend a period of time totally tuned in to and conscious of the comfort of the body, as we allow it rest, and allow the breath settle to a natural rhythm.
Following conscious (deep) relaxation the internal rhythms of the body are reset, and an internal physiological environment is created that is conducive to a healthy expression of the natural energies within our cells and tissues.
When the relaxation is practiced over a number of days, reserves - physical and emotional - are restored. The body is stronger, thoughts are clearer, emotions in perspective.
The effects are not dissimilar from the benefits expected from a traditional spiritual retreat.
A Useful Definition of Health
"a measure of how we are in the world we're in "
(Letter to the editor of the Irish Times Health Supplement, on the occasion of its change from broadsheet to tabloid format)
A useful definition of health might be " a measure of how we are in the world that we're in ". Defined in this way, health is of universal interest all of the time.
Our body-mind acts on intention - conscious and unconscious - to achieve objectives, eg to
- Survive
- Reproduce
- Create more comfortable surroundings
- Ease the effort of daily living
- Add quality experiences
We act individually and collectively.
Simple forms of life adapt to and exploit their environment to the best of their ability. We humans manipulate the resources available to us to mould our environment to a greater degree than simpler life forms.
In contemporary, western society we place considerable emphasis on personal quality of life, disproportionate to the emphasis placed on collective quality. Our values and aspirations focus around how we furnish our homes, clothes, holidays, entertainment.
Health has perhaps been commoditised in a similar way - left to the realm of third parties, specialists, a transaction conducted commercially on an individual basis.
If we take a wider definition of health - how we are in the world we're in - health becomes of everyday concern, colouring every moment of every personal experience and interpersonal transaction, a measure of our place in the world.
Positive descriptors of health and wellbeing, eg. "Good health", "Happy and well", "Mens sana in corpore sano", "At one with ourselves, at ease in the world" contrast with their opposites, "Disease", "Stress", "Chronic lethargy" , "Disssonance", "Out of sorts" , "Contrariness" , "Incompatibility" , "Conflict", "Tension".
If, in our being, we struggle with our place in the world, and with the expectations placed on us - real or perceived - our intentions, role and purpose become unclear. Our physiology lacks purpose and direction, there is less clarity. This lack of purpose and direction - in the traditionally understood, progressive aspirations of "growth" - becomes manifest in our physical expression.
Our body-mind acts on intention, conscious and unconscious. It/they express dis-ease, sluggishness, lethargy. The western disease. Entropy.
A river having come to its lowest point, with no further outlet to progress towards, at a loss of direction gathers sediment, accumulates residue, and changes in composition, expression and appearance from when it was trickling merrily downhill.
A society whose main interest is in consumption, consumes . and gets fat.
This is the wider subject matter of health and disease, broached and debated by your specialist contributors and columnists over the years in the Health Supplement broadsheet, and covered in the feature pages of your main newspaper. (The Health Supplement of 19 February on its cover page prominently invited reflection on "what we can learn from the Greek tragedies". Whereas with the new Health Plus, health debate, information and philosophical reflection have been reduced to the small print, narrow columns of a special interest category - purveyors and purchasers of health services - rather than the broader interest of the general reader, for whom health is the colour of everyday life - much in the manner of the "Motors" or "Property" supplements)
I write with bias, because I am a provider in the philosophical category.
Where in contemporary society is there opportunity to reflect, and act, on health in its wider philosophical meaning?
One place I propose - and this is where I make my commercial plug - is the traditional health spa. Soft health, but by no means frivolous; in fact deeply serious.
The health spa / resort / retreat advertises "relaxation", "soothing balm for body, mind and soul".
What may be less clear to the expectant consumer is that (real) relaxation cannot be bought in a bottle, or found in the comfort of five star luxury, or even by submitting to the ministrations of a nimbly fingered spa therapist.
Real relaxation and ease invite deeper exploration of our relationships with ourselves and with the world. It requires an engagement with that which troubles us, respite from everyday chores, trying out new physical shapes, an opportunity to be with the sensitivities that arise within us, and be supported. To observe whether there is conflict between our own applied efforts and the pulse that beats within us. The degree to which we're dissonant from our own true nature.
Restoring physiological, neuro-mechanical, chemical, hormonal integrity. Restoring balance and harmony. Mostly by distancing, separating ourselves for a short period from a directorial role in our own functioning. Becoming observers of our own symptomology. Listening to our breath or heartbeat. Communing with fellows. Sharing. Speaking and listening. Observing and being present. Along with quiet time in natural surroundings, and space to be by ourselves.
Our bodies have within them a largely self-regulating ability to maintain themselves in good order, given adequate support. Along with physical care, they respond to appreciation. From ourselves, from our fellows and from appreciation extended, towards our fellows. A more expansive and expanding form of appreciation is love. Relationships of mutual support and affection - both close personal relationships and relationships within our social groupings and larger society - strengthen the individual.
The ultimate source of good health is a vision of life that inspires one towards living it fully.
Declan Fagan, Director, Temple Country Retreat & Spa , March 2008
|
