Kiwi Curated
Wellness Tips from Luxury Hotels to Try at Home
While a trip to the spa to relieve a bit of tension isn’t possible right now, you can still treat yourself to a bit of R&R right in the comforts of your home. Herein, top wellness and spa experts from some of the most luxurious hotels around the world share their tips on how to bring some self-care into your life.
Wellness Tips from Luxury Hotels to Try at Home
Equinox Hotel, Hudson Yards, New York City
This high-performance hotel is known for creating unparalleled experiences, which is why they’ve created their very own AM + PM Rituals to optimize body and mind each day.
Throughout history rituals have been used to bring order and clarity to daily activity, bringing balance and an opportunity to set intentions for all that we do. There are several benefits to starting and ending your days with these flows: Doing so will add a comforting consistency to your schedule, give you mental clarity, prime you for movement or rest, and make you more flexible overall.
AM ritual
Your AM ritual is designed to bring ease to your morning. Stretches will help to gradually transition from sleeping postures, creating openness in your body. Breathwork will deliver oxygen to your bloodstream as you calm and focus your mind.
PM ritual
Your PM ritual is designed to relieve stress and prepare you for a restful night’s sleep. Targeted stretches will help to increase circulation in areas where tension tends to accumulate. Calming breathwork will restore balance to the mind and body.
Wellness Tips from Luxury Hotels to Try at Home
In-house Shaman, Balder, shares with us why internal and external cleanliness is of vital importance if we want to live a life of joy.
In times of uncertainty, it is always good to stay attached to customs that can help us give a sense of order and harmony to our lives, thus allowing us a feeling of well-being while the circumstances abroad take shape until we find their outcome. One of these powerful customs is to keep the house clean, as simple as it may seem, this action involves a very powerful and ancient magic, capable of creating positive effects both on our emotions and thoughts and on the environment.
The act of sweeping
The act of sweeping is recognized in most ancient cultures as a powerful way of attracting order and prosperity to us. I invite you to carry out this task, but now in the form of a positive ritual to create harmony in your environment. With this in mind, take the broom and start sweeping from the area of your house furthest from the entrance door and from there go cleaning each corner remembering that, just as you physically clean, you are also cleaning the road to attract positive situations. Clean each corner until you finally reach the main entrance, once you have finished go out and also sweep the exterior of your house. In this way, you are cleaning from the inside out, hinting that when you clean your interior (when you remove unnecessary thoughts and emotions from you) the exterior harmonizes.
Spend time organizing
Another powerful ritual that you can perform taking advantage of this unforeseen situation is to remove from your home everything you no longer use because doing this helps new and better things flow into your life. When matter stagnates for a long time it creates physical, psychological and energetic blockages, therefore, if you spend time organizing what you no longer use and give it a new use if possible with someone who needs it, such as clothing or tools, you will feel how you release a large amount of stagnant energy that will return to you in the form of fluidity and well-being. In times like these where we are forced to get out of our routine and what we took for granted becomes uncertain, it is very important that, just as we take time to organize ourselves and take out what is no longer useful to free up space and energy, we do the same with our ideas and emotions, which are the key to our happiness.
Clean your mind
Another very important aspect is that of interior cleaning. Just as we are going to keep our bodies neat with the daily bath and our house clean and in order, we also need to check that the things that are destined to stay in our unconscious and become our ideas and concepts are of quality. Most of our ideas are acquired from our environment, friends, social networks, news, series, novels, movies, friends and family.
Just as it is important to be able to distinguish if the food you are about to eat is classified as healthy food or junk food due to the effects it will have on the body, in the same way it is convenient for us to practice a healthy filter in terms of ideas and not accept them immediately just because this or that person says so, but rather take the time to discern if what we are receiving is useful and good for our life, or only leads us to perpetuate situations with which we are not satisfied. It is very healthy to review the situation we are in and make a list of the ideas and concepts that have brought us to it. That is to say, if thinking in the way that I have been doing has led me to this point. Do I want to continue thinking the same way? Or is it time to reevaluate the ideas and opinions that I have been nourishing from and seek to nurture myself with better ideas and companies that take me to the place where I want to be?
In this way we can see that internal and external cleanliness are of vital importance if we want to live the experience of joy and be satisfied with what we do with our time on this earth. It is entirely up to us to live worthy and sweet life experiences.
Wellness Tips from Luxury Hotels to Try at Home
Divani Apollon Palace & Thalasso
Looking to purify your skin? Spa supervisor, Mina, from this wellness haven gives us the lowdown on how to create a soothing face mask from ingredients found in your kitchen.
We need to make the most of the time we have at home now and what is better than to pamper our skin a bit more than usual. We have all the much-needed ingredients at home to prepare our perfect mask to smooth and hydrate our skin.
Step 1
Clean your face and neck with a cleansing milk or soap.
Step 2
Rinse with cold water. You can use also ice that boosts the skin’s healthy glow.
Step 3
Move on to exfoliating. For this, you’ll need a tablespoon of sugar and 2 tablespoons of coconut oil. Mix the grains with the oil then apply on face and neck. Massage softly and avoid the eye area. Rinse with lukewarm water.
Step 4
Create your own mask for smooth and hydrated skin.
- 1/2 ripe avocado
- 1 tablespoon cucumber
- 1 tablespoon yogurt
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
Mix all the ingredients in the blender and apply a thick layer on the face and neck. Leave the mask on for 15 mins and then we rinse.
Step 5
Finish the beauty procedure applying your night cream.
Wellness Tips from Luxury Hotels to Try at Home
This alpine dreamscape dedicated to the Fine Art of Living shares a sacred breath meditation with us from their Sacred Arts Muse, Bellé Flora.
Our breath is our innate healer, our nurturing mother and wise alchemist. Through the breath we are able to cleanse our organism from toxins, burdening feelings and emotions, even from physical discomfort and pain. The breath helps us to transform our state of mind and body.
We have three rhythms in our organism, the rhythm of our brain waves, the rhythm of our heart and the rhythm of our breath. We only can influence the rhythm of our breath and through the breath, we have the power to change the rhythm of our heart and the frequency of our brain waves.
With this simple yet powerful Sacred Breath Meditation, you will ground yourself and purify your whole organism to find calmness, strength, joy and a deep sense of coming home to your Self.
I invite you to sit on a chair or on the floor with a straight spine. Your hands in Chin Mudra, thumb and index finger touch, the rest of the fingers point away from your body. You close your eyes and you bring your awareness to your breath. You let your breath flow naturally in and out.
You relax every muscle in your face, you soften your shoulders and you let your breath guide you to this place right now, right here, out of time and space.
With every inhalation, you imagine that golden sunlight floods into every single cell of your body, bathing your inner organs. With every exhalation, you imagine that whatever is not serving you anymore: physical pain, emotional trauma, anger, fear, worry, sadness, anxiety, whatever burdens you, is floating out of your organism as a grey cloud of smoke into the ether, where it is transformed into new energy.
You inhale through the nose and you exhale through the open mouth sounding a “haaaa” through a slightly restricted throat. You do this 5 to 10 times. Then you come back to your natural breath and very slowly you open your eyes. You rub your palms together until you feel the heat of your energy inside your hands. You put both palms on your chest on top of your heart and your breath deeply in and out feeling rooted into the earth, cleansed and inspired, ready for the day.
You can use this Sacred Breath Meditation whenever you feel the need to find stillness and purification, relaxation and new courage and strength throughout the day.
Wellness Tips from Luxury Hotels to Try at Home
Anantara Mai Khao Phuket Villas
For those scrolling on their phones a little too much lately, Lucia McCallion, Director of Spa, Wellness and Recreation at this beachfront retreat gives some notes on how to easily stretch your neck, shoulders and back.
I’m finding working from home that I am sitting a lot more and definitely on my laptop and mobile phone a lot more than what I normally would be. A lot of us will be in the same position and may find our necks, shoulders and backs have a few more aches and pains than normal. Stretching the neck once or twice a day really helps to relieve this tension and starting now will create a great habit to continue when we get back to our workplaces.
- Start sitting or standing but with your feet hip-width apart and feet facing forward.
- Slowly rotate the head in a clockwise movement leading from the right shoulder, towards the back, the left shoulder and reaching the chin to the chest. Repeat 2 to 3 times.
- Repeat step 2 in an anticlockwise movement.
- Take your right hand, reach over your head and hold your left temple. Gently pull your head towards your right shoulder and hold for 5 seconds. Then repeat on the other side.
- Roll your shoulders forward and then backward a few times in each direction.
- Tilt your head forward (chin to chest) and gently roll your head to the right as if you want your right ear to touch your right shoulder. Come back to chin to chest position and repeat to the left side. Repeat this step 2-3 times in each direction.
- Reach your hands straight forward and stretch as far as you can keeping the back straight. Pull your arms horizontally to the sides into a T position, and squeeze the shoulder blades together. Make sure the thumbs are pointing up (in a thumbs-up position, with hands level with shoulders) and this will engage the trapezius drawing your shoulders back. Hold for as long as feels good to you.
- Take your right hand, reach over your head and hold your left temple. Gently pull your head towards your left shoulder and hold for 5 seconds. Then repeat on the other side.
- Finish with some head rotations or shoulder rotations, whichever feels best for you.
Wellness Tips from Luxury Hotels to Try at Home
A detoxifying soak can ease the tension of daily stress. Spa director Kimberly Acker at this island getaway crafted a DIY spa bath soak recipe, which is easy to try out in the comfort of your own home.
The blissful island of Anguilla, dotted with coral reefs and cays, is a place where the soul feels instantly soothed. The Arawaks who inhabited this land celebrated the renewal and rejuvenation of each new day by honoring Atabey, the mother goddess of fertility and freshwater. They would burn incense and offerings of sage, lemongrass and sacred herbs to awaken the mind and spirit. At Belmond Cap Juluca’s Arawak Spa, our rituals are designed to bring you into harmony with nature and refocus your energy. We celebrate traditional Taino culture with ancient therapies, rare indigenous botanicals and a holistic approach to healing.
Anguilla is also known for its abundance of precious salts. In these trying times, a detoxifying soak can ease the tension of daily stress.
Customize the essential oil you use to truly give your body what it needs.
- Invigorate: peppermint or citrus oil
- Calm: chamomile or green tea
- Detoxify: rosemary, anise or ginger oil
DIY bath soak
INGREDIENTS
- ½ cup/64g salts (Epsom, pink Himalayan or sea salt)
- 1 cup/128g baking soda
- 5-10 drops of essential oil
- Loose tea leaves
METHOD
In a mixing bowl, combine all the ingredients. If using tea leaves, crush, or grind to release the natural oils. Run a nice hot bath and add 3 tbsp of the mixture to the water. Bathe in the soak for 15 minutes and enjoy this moment of total tranquility.
Wellness Tips from Luxury Hotels to Try at Home
Follow the sun
Dark and cool sleeping conditions
Look after your heart
Watch what you eat before dinner
Consider your liver
Wellness Tips from Luxury Hotels to Try at Home
David Melladew, resident master in Traditional Oriental Medicine at this gorgeous tropical beach resort in the Caribbean shares the power of a sunrise practice.
Waking up early to appreciate the sunrise and taking the time to reflect on what we can be grateful for is often the simplest, most effective tonic. The ambrosial time before dawn–the hours before sunrise–is considered the prime time for practising meditation in the Sikh tradition.
This precious period when the new day is still in darkness, ‘Amrit Velā,’ is naturally conducive to mindfulness and can be the clearest window to discovering peace. Many Eastern philosophies recognize 3am to 5am as the time of day that the lungs are strongest and most effective at their job of circulating energy through the body. Meditation at this time maximizes the power and efficacy of the breath to balance Qi.
Wellness Tips from Luxury Hotels to Try at Home
During times like these, staying active is key to maintaining both physical and mental health. Fitness coaches at this coastal escape share easy exercises to do at home.
There are many ways to keep active at home. Some run up the stairs, others tidy up cupboards. Our fitness coaches have put together a few videos for simple home workouts that anyone can do to keep fit and only take up a few minutes of your day.
Wellness Tips from Luxury Hotels to Try at Home
Plants can bring any space to life. That’s why this charming Roman hotel’s talented gardening team has shared simple steps and ideas on how to create a beautiful vertical garden.
Vertical gardens are a beautiful, space-saving and sustainable addition to our lives. If you’ve ever been tempted to create one yourself, it’s now time to show off your green fingers capabilities!
Decide on the setting for your garden
There are many different varieties of vertical gardens to choose from. An easy option is a pocket garden, featuring plants tucked into pockets crafted from felt or canvas. Alternatively, set up your vertical garden in an upcycled wooden shipping pallet by stapling landscape fabric to the back, bottom and sides. The inside can then be completely filled with soil, and plants can grow through the slat openings.
Check the sun exposure
Let the type of sun exposure the plants will need to determine where you place your garden. For example, if you’re planning on including succulent plants like cacti, our expert team suggests choosing a space that is half exposed, as opposed to fully in the shade or exposed to full sunlight.
Choose your plants
In addition to succulents, you can choose to grow herbs, vegetables, herbaceous plants such as flowers and ferns, or even trailing plants like philodendron, whose soft green stems drop down for a waterfall effect. It is important to be aware of the ‘flexibility’ of your chosen plants as you’ll be growing them vertically.
Mix plants with the same needs
Generally, it’s best to select all-sun or all-shade plants and where possible, to use plants that have roughly the same rate of growth.
Start with planting basics
The key is to use potting soil. Vertical gardens dry out quickly, just like pots do. Potting soil helps retain the water and hold in the moisture.
Another important factor to take into account is gravity, which pulls the water down. Plants that don’t need as much water are recommended for the upper section of the garden since that area dries the quickest. Place the plants more suited for wetter conditions at the bottom of the system.
Important to know beforehand
If you’re using a wooden pallet or container with panels, let your plants grow horizontally for a few weeks to allow their roots to establish themselves and help hold the soil in place. If you try to plant vertically first when the roots are new, gravity will take its course on your soil.
You can also slowly elevate the container or the wooden pallet to a vertical position over the course of a few weeks as the garden adapts.
Consider a drip irrigation system
The vertical garden may require more frequent watering than a normal garden. We would recommend incorporating drip irrigation. Drip systems range from the sophisticated, with hoses and timers, to more basic options, in which holes in the bottom of planters or pockets allow for water to drip down. You may also use a watering can as you would with standard container gardens, but be sure that water is being well distributed.
Keep some extras on hand
It’s possible that you may lose a couple of plants in the process of setting up and establishing your vertical garden. Keep a few extra seedlings on the side in case this happens, so that you’re not left with unsightly holes. This is easiest if you have a container-style garden where the plants are spaced out.
Wellness Tips from Luxury Hotels to Try at Home
Has your kitchen table become your new workspace? Marco Viale, Instructor of Pilates, t’ai chi and functional training at Almablu Wellness & Spa from this beachside resort gives us a simple balance exercise to practice during work hours.
Most of us are working from home, which means we’re spending several hours sitting in front of a laptop. Train your proprioception by sitting on a gym ball instead of a chair. Proprioception refers to the body’s ability to perceive its own position, meaning this is our sense of equilibrium and balance, something we often overlook. So by sitting on a gym ball while we do work, we’re forcing our muscles to activate and keep balance. This, in turn, will help strengthen our core and improve alignment.
Equinox Hotel, Hudson Yards, New York City
This high-performance hotel is known for creating unparalleled experiences, which is why they’ve created their very own AM + PM Rituals to optimize body and mind each day.
Throughout history rituals have been used to bring order and clarity to daily activity, bringing balance and an opportunity to set intentions for all that we do. There are several benefits to starting and ending your days with these flows: Doing so will add a comforting consistency to your schedule, give you mental clarity, prime you for movement or rest, and make you more flexible overall.
AM ritual
Your AM ritual is designed to bring ease to your morning. Stretches will help to gradually transition from sleeping postures, creating openness in your body. Breathwork will deliver oxygen to your bloodstream as you calm and focus your mind.
PM ritual
Your PM ritual is designed to relieve stress and prepare you for a restful night’s sleep. Targeted stretches will help to increase circulation in areas where tension tends to accumulate. Calming breathwork will restore balance to the mind and body.
In-house Shaman, Balder, shares with us why internal and external cleanliness is of vital importance if we want to live a life of joy.
In times of uncertainty, it is always good to stay attached to customs that can help us give a sense of order and harmony to our lives, thus allowing us a feeling of well-being while the circumstances abroad take shape until we find their outcome. One of these powerful customs is to keep the house clean, as simple as it may seem, this action involves a very powerful and ancient magic, capable of creating positive effects both on our emotions and thoughts and on the environment.
The act of sweeping
The act of sweeping is recognized in most ancient cultures as a powerful way of attracting order and prosperity to us. I invite you to carry out this task, but now in the form of a positive ritual to create harmony in your environment. With this in mind, take the broom and start sweeping from the area of your house furthest from the entrance door and from there go cleaning each corner remembering that, just as you physically clean, you are also cleaning the road to attract positive situations. Clean each corner until you finally reach the main entrance, once you have finished go out and also sweep the exterior of your house. In this way, you are cleaning from the inside out, hinting that when you clean your interior (when you remove unnecessary thoughts and emotions from you) the exterior harmonizes.
Spend time organizing
Another powerful ritual that you can perform taking advantage of this unforeseen situation is to remove from your home everything you no longer use because doing this helps new and better things flow into your life. When matter stagnates for a long time it creates physical, psychological and energetic blockages, therefore, if you spend time organizing what you no longer use and give it a new use if possible with someone who needs it, such as clothing or tools, you will feel how you release a large amount of stagnant energy that will return to you in the form of fluidity and well-being. In times like these where we are forced to get out of our routine and what we took for granted becomes uncertain, it is very important that, just as we take time to organize ourselves and take out what is no longer useful to free up space and energy, we do the same with our ideas and emotions, which are the key to our happiness.
Clean your mind
Another very important aspect is that of interior cleaning. Just as we are going to keep our bodies neat with the daily bath and our house clean and in order, we also need to check that the things that are destined to stay in our unconscious and become our ideas and concepts are of quality. Most of our ideas are acquired from our environment, friends, social networks, news, series, novels, movies, friends and family.
Just as it is important to be able to distinguish if the food you are about to eat is classified as healthy food or junk food due to the effects it will have on the body, in the same way it is convenient for us to practice a healthy filter in terms of ideas and not accept them immediately just because this or that person says so, but rather take the time to discern if what we are receiving is useful and good for our life, or only leads us to perpetuate situations with which we are not satisfied. It is very healthy to review the situation we are in and make a list of the ideas and concepts that have brought us to it. That is to say, if thinking in the way that I have been doing has led me to this point. Do I want to continue thinking the same way? Or is it time to reevaluate the ideas and opinions that I have been nourishing from and seek to nurture myself with better ideas and companies that take me to the place where I want to be?
In this way we can see that internal and external cleanliness are of vital importance if we want to live the experience of joy and be satisfied with what we do with our time on this earth. It is entirely up to us to live worthy and sweet life experiences.
Divani Apollon Palace & Thalasso
Looking to purify your skin? Spa supervisor, Mina, from this wellness haven gives us the lowdown on how to create a soothing face mask from ingredients found in your kitchen.
We need to make the most of the time we have at home now and what is better than to pamper our skin a bit more than usual. We have all the much-needed ingredients at home to prepare our perfect mask to smooth and hydrate our skin.
Step 1
Clean your face and neck with a cleansing milk or soap.
Step 2
Rinse with cold water. You can use also ice that boosts the skin’s healthy glow.
Step 3
Move on to exfoliating. For this, you’ll need a tablespoon of sugar and 2 tablespoons of coconut oil. Mix the grains with the oil then apply on face and neck. Massage softly and avoid the eye area. Rinse with lukewarm water.
Step 4
Create your own mask for smooth and hydrated skin.
- 1/2 ripe avocado
- 1 tablespoon cucumber
- 1 tablespoon yogurt
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
Mix all the ingredients in the blender and apply a thick layer on the face and neck. Leave the mask on for 15 mins and then we rinse.
Step 5
Finish the beauty procedure applying your night cream.
This alpine dreamscape dedicated to the Fine Art of Living shares a sacred breath meditation with us from their Sacred Arts Muse, Bellé Flora.
Our breath is our innate healer, our nurturing mother and wise alchemist. Through the breath we are able to cleanse our organism from toxins, burdening feelings and emotions, even from physical discomfort and pain. The breath helps us to transform our state of mind and body.
We have three rhythms in our organism, the rhythm of our brain waves, the rhythm of our heart and the rhythm of our breath. We only can influence the rhythm of our breath and through the breath, we have the power to change the rhythm of our heart and the frequency of our brain waves.
With this simple yet powerful Sacred Breath Meditation, you will ground yourself and purify your whole organism to find calmness, strength, joy and a deep sense of coming home to your Self.
I invite you to sit on a chair or on the floor with a straight spine. Your hands in Chin Mudra, thumb and index finger touch, the rest of the fingers point away from your body. You close your eyes and you bring your awareness to your breath. You let your breath flow naturally in and out.
You relax every muscle in your face, you soften your shoulders and you let your breath guide you to this place right now, right here, out of time and space.
With every inhalation, you imagine that golden sunlight floods into every single cell of your body, bathing your inner organs. With every exhalation, you imagine that whatever is not serving you anymore: physical pain, emotional trauma, anger, fear, worry, sadness, anxiety, whatever burdens you, is floating out of your organism as a grey cloud of smoke into the ether, where it is transformed into new energy.
You inhale through the nose and you exhale through the open mouth sounding a “haaaa” through a slightly restricted throat. You do this 5 to 10 times. Then you come back to your natural breath and very slowly you open your eyes. You rub your palms together until you feel the heat of your energy inside your hands. You put both palms on your chest on top of your heart and your breath deeply in and out feeling rooted into the earth, cleansed and inspired, ready for the day.
You can use this Sacred Breath Meditation whenever you feel the need to find stillness and purification, relaxation and new courage and strength throughout the day.
Anantara Mai Khao Phuket Villas
For those scrolling on their phones a little too much lately, Lucia McCallion, Director of Spa, Wellness and Recreation at this beachfront retreat gives some notes on how to easily stretch your neck, shoulders and back.
I’m finding working from home that I am sitting a lot more and definitely on my laptop and mobile phone a lot more than what I normally would be. A lot of us will be in the same position and may find our necks, shoulders and backs have a few more aches and pains than normal. Stretching the neck once or twice a day really helps to relieve this tension and starting now will create a great habit to continue when we get back to our workplaces.
- Start sitting or standing but with your feet hip-width apart and feet facing forward.
- Slowly rotate the head in a clockwise movement leading from the right shoulder, towards the back, the left shoulder and reaching the chin to the chest. Repeat 2 to 3 times.
- Repeat step 2 in an anticlockwise movement.
- Take your right hand, reach over your head and hold your left temple. Gently pull your head towards your right shoulder and hold for 5 seconds. Then repeat on the other side.
- Roll your shoulders forward and then backward a few times in each direction.
- Tilt your head forward (chin to chest) and gently roll your head to the right as if you want your right ear to touch your right shoulder. Come back to chin to chest position and repeat to the left side. Repeat this step 2-3 times in each direction.
- Reach your hands straight forward and stretch as far as you can keeping the back straight. Pull your arms horizontally to the sides into a T position, and squeeze the shoulder blades together. Make sure the thumbs are pointing up (in a thumbs-up position, with hands level with shoulders) and this will engage the trapezius drawing your shoulders back. Hold for as long as feels good to you.
- Take your right hand, reach over your head and hold your left temple. Gently pull your head towards your left shoulder and hold for 5 seconds. Then repeat on the other side.
- Finish with some head rotations or shoulder rotations, whichever feels best for you.
A detoxifying soak can ease the tension of daily stress. Spa director Kimberly Acker at this island getaway crafted a DIY spa bath soak recipe, which is easy to try out in the comfort of your own home.
The blissful island of Anguilla, dotted with coral reefs and cays, is a place where the soul feels instantly soothed. The Arawaks who inhabited this land celebrated the renewal and rejuvenation of each new day by honoring Atabey, the mother goddess of fertility and freshwater. They would burn incense and offerings of sage, lemongrass and sacred herbs to awaken the mind and spirit. At Belmond Cap Juluca’s Arawak Spa, our rituals are designed to bring you into harmony with nature and refocus your energy. We celebrate traditional Taino culture with ancient therapies, rare indigenous botanicals and a holistic approach to healing.
Anguilla is also known for its abundance of precious salts. In these trying times, a detoxifying soak can ease the tension of daily stress.
Customize the essential oil you use to truly give your body what it needs.
- Invigorate: peppermint or citrus oil
- Calm: chamomile or green tea
- Detoxify: rosemary, anise or ginger oil
DIY bath soak
INGREDIENTS
- ½ cup/64g salts (Epsom, pink Himalayan or sea salt)
- 1 cup/128g baking soda
- 5-10 drops of essential oil
- Loose tea leaves
METHOD
In a mixing bowl, combine all the ingredients. If using tea leaves, crush, or grind to release the natural oils. Run a nice hot bath and add 3 tbsp of the mixture to the water. Bathe in the soak for 15 minutes and enjoy this moment of total tranquility.
Follow the sun
Dark and cool sleeping conditions
Look after your heart
Watch what you eat before dinner
Consider your liver
David Melladew, resident master in Traditional Oriental Medicine at this gorgeous tropical beach resort in the Caribbean shares the power of a sunrise practice.
Waking up early to appreciate the sunrise and taking the time to reflect on what we can be grateful for is often the simplest, most effective tonic. The ambrosial time before dawn–the hours before sunrise–is considered the prime time for practising meditation in the Sikh tradition.
This precious period when the new day is still in darkness, ‘Amrit Velā,’ is naturally conducive to mindfulness and can be the clearest window to discovering peace. Many Eastern philosophies recognize 3am to 5am as the time of day that the lungs are strongest and most effective at their job of circulating energy through the body. Meditation at this time maximizes the power and efficacy of the breath to balance Qi.
During times like these, staying active is key to maintaining both physical and mental health. Fitness coaches at this coastal escape share easy exercises to do at home.
There are many ways to keep active at home. Some run up the stairs, others tidy up cupboards. Our fitness coaches have put together a few videos for simple home workouts that anyone can do to keep fit and only take up a few minutes of your day.
Plants can bring any space to life. That’s why this charming Roman hotel’s talented gardening team has shared simple steps and ideas on how to create a beautiful vertical garden.
Vertical gardens are a beautiful, space-saving and sustainable addition to our lives. If you’ve ever been tempted to create one yourself, it’s now time to show off your green fingers capabilities!
Decide on the setting for your garden
There are many different varieties of vertical gardens to choose from. An easy option is a pocket garden, featuring plants tucked into pockets crafted from felt or canvas. Alternatively, set up your vertical garden in an upcycled wooden shipping pallet by stapling landscape fabric to the back, bottom and sides. The inside can then be completely filled with soil, and plants can grow through the slat openings.
Check the sun exposure
Let the type of sun exposure the plants will need to determine where you place your garden. For example, if you’re planning on including succulent plants like cacti, our expert team suggests choosing a space that is half exposed, as opposed to fully in the shade or exposed to full sunlight.
Choose your plants
In addition to succulents, you can choose to grow herbs, vegetables, herbaceous plants such as flowers and ferns, or even trailing plants like philodendron, whose soft green stems drop down for a waterfall effect. It is important to be aware of the ‘flexibility’ of your chosen plants as you’ll be growing them vertically.
Mix plants with the same needs
Generally, it’s best to select all-sun or all-shade plants and where possible, to use plants that have roughly the same rate of growth.
Start with planting basics
The key is to use potting soil. Vertical gardens dry out quickly, just like pots do. Potting soil helps retain the water and hold in the moisture.
Another important factor to take into account is gravity, which pulls the water down. Plants that don’t need as much water are recommended for the upper section of the garden since that area dries the quickest. Place the plants more suited for wetter conditions at the bottom of the system.
Important to know beforehand
If you’re using a wooden pallet or container with panels, let your plants grow horizontally for a few weeks to allow their roots to establish themselves and help hold the soil in place. If you try to plant vertically first when the roots are new, gravity will take its course on your soil.
You can also slowly elevate the container or the wooden pallet to a vertical position over the course of a few weeks as the garden adapts.
Consider a drip irrigation system
The vertical garden may require more frequent watering than a normal garden. We would recommend incorporating drip irrigation. Drip systems range from the sophisticated, with hoses and timers, to more basic options, in which holes in the bottom of planters or pockets allow for water to drip down. You may also use a watering can as you would with standard container gardens, but be sure that water is being well distributed.
Keep some extras on hand
It’s possible that you may lose a couple of plants in the process of setting up and establishing your vertical garden. Keep a few extra seedlings on the side in case this happens, so that you’re not left with unsightly holes. This is easiest if you have a container-style garden where the plants are spaced out.
Has your kitchen table become your new workspace? Marco Viale, Instructor of Pilates, t’ai chi and functional training at Almablu Wellness & Spa from this beachside resort gives us a simple balance exercise to practice during work hours.
Most of us are working from home, which means we’re spending several hours sitting in front of a laptop. Train your proprioception by sitting on a gym ball instead of a chair. Proprioception refers to the body’s ability to perceive its own position, meaning this is our sense of equilibrium and balance, something we often overlook. So by sitting on a gym ball while we do work, we’re forcing our muscles to activate and keep balance. This, in turn, will help strengthen our core and improve alignment.