Ancient spas more relevant today for mind and body

Ancient spas more relevant today for mind and body

Mineral-spring spas were once regarded as shrines by ancient
societies everywhere. The waters of the springs were said to have
magical powers to heal all kinds of ills.

Everyone was able to avail themselves of the bounties of
nature until spa treatments were administered through exclusive
and expensive spa resorts located at the source of mineral-rich
freshwater and seawater, and mud that became the exclusive right
of royalty.

Later, spa treatments were considered rather extravagant and
even decadent. The last 20 years have seen a phenomenal increase
in fast-paced living. High-maintenance lifestyles that involve
juggling home, careers, child care and hectic social agendas have
caused much physical stress and mental strain.

This has increased interest in holistic remedies, Eastern
philosophies and complementary therapies that benefit the mind,
body and soul. With the level of disposable income also on the
increase, and a desire to spend money on personal wellbeing, the
demand for spa-type treatments has led to more variety and
greater accessibility. Apart from services offered at high street
and beauty establishments, Body Shop recently invented the take-
home spa treatment.

Its spa range retains the philosophy of using only natural
ingredients and offers six luxurious, high-performance body
treatments designed to deliver benefits in the seclusion of the
home environment.

The rationale is why go out when you can stay in?

It was Hippocrates, the father of medicine who said that the
way to health was a scented bath and massage every day. Like the
sage of ancient times, Body Shop too believes that a bath ritual
is a sensual way to achieve a state of deep mental and physical
relaxation and taken in solitude is the perfect place to reclaim
one's sense of wellbeing.

However, privacy was not always the order of the day.

Previously, bathing took place in natural springs and streams
in the open air, although the custom of creating special rooms
for bathing still dates from prehistoric times. Bathing was
important not only for cleanliness but also as a social activity
and a religious ritual. While bathrooms were incorporated in the
palaces and urban houses of many ancient civilizations, public
baths achieved their most elaborate form in Imperial Rome and
soon became the center of Roman social life.

The public bath or hammam was of special importance to the
Islamic empire. The Muslim bathhouse included a dressing room,
cold bath and warm bath clustered around a domed, central steam
chamber. The hammam survives today in Muslim countries and in
Europe it developed into the Turkish bath.

Spas with hot springs, like in Ciater, West Java, have been
widely used for medicinal baths since ancient times. Natural hot
springs are exploited the world over, even today. In Japan, the
tradition is to channel the hot water into a large central pool
surrounded by steps on which the bathers sit. The type of
bathhouse known as a Finnish sauna, in which steam is produced by
throwing water onto heated stones, has been adopted in many an
affluent home and most health clubs around the world, including
Jakarta. Today, the sauna is often used with swimming pools; a
plunge in the pool substituting for the Finnish custom of dashing
from a steamy sauna into a cold stream or snowbank.

Vogue magazine hit the nail on the head when it claimed that
spa culture seems to be the way forward. This is a fact as health
spas offer more than just body care -- they are a sanctum from
everyday life, offering a wide range of treatments, such as
hydrotherapy, massage and body scrubs and the larger ones
combining all this with sports and fitness facilities, even
offering healthy meals and drinks.

Javana Spa, high in the mountains of West Java, is one such
place that combines hikes in the rain forest, massage, yoga, dips
in an onsen (the Japanese sulfur bath of healing waters), in this
case taken directly from Mount Salak's hot springs, with three
meals a day of gourmet cuisine complementing the fitness and
treatment program customized for each guest.

To make life even more free of care, visitors are picked up
from their doorstep and driven to the Javana Spa, so that they
can witness for themselves how wondrously healing nature's
bounties really are. (Mehru Jaffer)