THE KOREAN SPA

The word sauna is an ancient Finnish word which means the traditional Finnish bath as well as the bathhouse itself. The oldest known saunas were pits dug into a slope or hill and used as homes during the winter. The Finns used the sauna as a place to cleanse the mind, rejuvenate and refresh the spirit, prepare the dead for burial, and - because it was usually the cleanest structure and had water available - as a place to give birth. The sauna is still an important part of daily family life in Finland and most homes have a sauna.

Saunas can be found in most cultures: Finland, the Baltic countries, Sweden, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, the UK, southern Europe, Central America, the US, Africa, Japan, Australia and Korea.

In Korea, the sauna is essentially a public bathhouse. Families come to enjoy the day together, with the men and women taking showers, whirlpools, and massages in separate parts of the facility, but coming together for the saunas.

A friend and I decided to try to local Korean sauna I had heard so much about. I have enjoyed dry saunas in the spas and hotels I have stayed in over the years. My country club offered one as an amenity in the ladies' locker room. My friend, a client of my partner and our business, is in the middle of a detox program and wanted to use the sauna to help "sweat" out some impurities. So we set out on a Sunday for an adventure!

We passed the entrance to the Spa and had to double back. Not expecting the facility to be marked by a gate with a ceramic family of giraffes on the crossbar, we missed the turn-in the first time around, sure it was the entrance to a safari-type park. When the Spa came into view at the end of the drive, the parking lot was quite full. I felt like I was looking at a small town casino: two huge sitting lions graced either side of the staircase to the entrance. Once inside, I don't know if casino is the word I would have chosen to describe the place.

We entered, taking our shoes off, getting locker keys and a set of pink gym shorts with top. Then we were ushered into the women's locker room. Various shapes, sizes, and ages of females were walking around nude (as I had been told we had to be when I called for information).

We put our shoes in one tiny locker and our clothes in a larger one across the room. Grabbing a towel the size of a small guest hand towel, we walked into the shower room. With a wall of showers on one side, four whirlpools in the middle, each with a different temperature and mineral content, a wet sauna, a cold pool in the middle of the room, and the open massage and body scrub area on the other side, the room was moist to say the least. Moms, with little ones, young girls, older women in head scarves: this was a real cross-section of the female condition.

Showered and in our pink outfit (the guys get blue), we entered the co-ed portion of the Spa. A restaurant, rows of pink fake leather couches, trimmed in Victorian curlicued white wood, and various saunas greeted us. Some people were asleep on the couches or on mats on the floor. Some ate. Some watched T. V. Children played. Gongs would chime and a soft Asian voice would say something. Often that would create a mad rush into one of the sauna rooms. We were not in Kansas anymore.

First, we entered The Pyramid Room. The walls are covered with 23 carat gold to help cleanse impurities. The pyramid shape channels metaphysical energy. This sauna felt good. At 115 degrees, I hadn't started to sweat yet when my friend started to feel a little light-headed. This is often the case when doing a detox.

We left The Pyramid Room and entered The Ice Room, the equivalent of a cold plunge pool. Chilled to just above freezing (35 degrees), it was suggested that you rub your towel over your skin to get the best out of the stimulation to blood flow. The floor was covered with grass mats and it was too cold to comfortably be barefooted on the floor without them.

After several minutes, we went into The Salt Room. Made from 350 million year old salt rocks, this rooms aids in rejuvenating the skin. The temperature gauge said 120 degrees. The floors had cloth mats over the grass mats and, if you were not resting on the cloth, you would end up with a huge red mark on your skin. The walls were too hot to touch for long. I was just beginning to glisten when my friend said she thought she should leave because she was feeling a bit nauseous. Again we went into The Ice Room to lower our body temperature.

There is a Yellow-Soil Crystal Room heated to 115 degrees and unique to Korean culture. It combines infrared rays with the absorptive nature of the yellow soil to extract toxins within the body.

The Base Rock Bath Room contains amethyst crystals, yellow soil and a bed-like slab of imported Japanese Siraka, a mineral said to have fantastic healing abilities. This room is heated to 127 degrees.

The Fire Sudatorium, or sweating bath, is made from elvan stones. The intense heat (165 to 170 degrees) is said to be exhilarating.

There is The Oxygen Room, the "Hawng-Toe-Ssut-Jjim" Room (yellow soil and wormwood steam room), and the Bulgama. This is the room everyone runs into when the gong sounds. It contains amethysts crystals and the elvan stone - a unique living stone. When the gong sounds, it means that a flatbed car loaded with the stones, which are heated to 155 degrees, is brought in on tracks and heats the room up dramatically.

Enough sauna. We decided to have the Body Scrub and Massage. So back into the shower room we go, to shower and wait for out table which is one of about eight behind a sand-blasted glass wall depicting characters from The Simpsons. I kid you not. Apparently, this T. V. show is huge in Korea.

All the tables are in a row and each has a tiny lady clad only in bra and panties...some matching and quite lovely and some not so much. Each table is covered in turquoise plastic and once on the table, your tiny lady pours a bucket of water over you and applies a salt rub that is vigorously worked into your skin with loofahs...not once, not twice, but trice. Interspersed with a bucket of water being flung on you after each phase of the scrub, by the end, I felt as though I had auditioned for the final dance scene in Flashdance. Oh, what a feeling.

Then the tiny lady washes and oils you and begins the massage. There is a language barrier so if you have issues with range of motion there is no way to communicate that to her. Front, back, back, front...at one point, I felt that I would slide off my table and bounce along all the other ones until I reached the floor! I was fine with everything until - on my stomach - she climbed on the bottoms of my feet with her knees. Holy Seoul! She could tell by the frantic waving of my arms that this was not something I was keen on. When she climbed up on my buttocks with the same knees, it actually felt good...

The massage is a bit rough. You feel a little slung around. There is slapping and cupping...must be the Korean way. No gentle Four Seasons pampering here. Because you are in a big room with everything else going on, it is not quiet and soothing. And it is wet! I think I came in with a few more freckles than I left with, but my skin did feel smooth. On the way home, my friend told me that every time my tiny lady would finish one part of the treatment, she would take her bra off and wash herself. Maybe she was afraid I had cooties.

THE PERFECT LIFE

The other day at lunch, I overheard a conversation between two young women. They were talking about a mutual friend, describing her as having the 'perfect' life. Their tone indicated that they wanted it, but didn't feel they would have that kind of life.

I started thinking.

Is life supposed to be perfect? Where is that written?

And what would the 'perfect' life look like?

That evening, I was sitting in my back yard, listening to the birds' songs as they settled into their nests for the night. A soft spring breeze blew across my face. The night was clear and full of stars. What would MY perfect life look like?

I would have a roof over my head.

I would have clean food on my table.

I would have an open and loving relationship with my daughter.

I would have friends I care for, who care for me.

I would have laughter.

I would have work to do that mattered to me and made me glad to have a place to go each day.

I would have a bottle of Don Julio 1942 on the bar.

I would have amazing sex as often as possible.

Well, seven out of eight ain't bad!

As I sat that evening, I thought, "I HAVE the perfect life!"

And I don't even believe there is such a thing...

What would your 'perfect' life look like? I'd love to hear from you.

DIGGIN' IN THE LIFE

I knew I was through the roughest time after my divorce this Spring when I looked out at the dozen or so plant containers on my patios and started planning what I would put in each one.

For the past year and a half, I didn't care that there were dead plants that I hadn't even felt like pulling out of the pots. When they say it takes eighteen months to two years to recover from divorce, even if you asked for it, "they" weren't kidding.

So, here I am, on the other side of that abyss and Spring has sprung and I am a planting savant!

Even when I was first married and all I had was an apartment balcony, I loved planting containers. When we had our first home, a sunny back yard cried out for a vegetable garden...asparagus, dill around the tomato plants so the worms go there instead of to the fruit... and lots flowers that reminded me of my grandparents, especially my grandmother - consummate gardeners. How I wish I had asked then all the questions that flood my mind now; but I was young and I didn't know I would love gardening, so I never asked.

Trial and error, I gardened my way through many years of marriage, a couple of apartments and two houses, cats doing wheelies between my feet as I dead-headed flowers, watered container pots, added bird feeders, yard sculptures, stone features...dug in the "life."

Soil is life.

And there is such joy derived from looking at a small flower bed that has been weeded, freshly turned, and planted with whatever I fancy at that moment in time. I used to get up in the middle of the night and look out at the pots and beds by the light of the moon...fresh plantings gave me that much happiness: a sense of satisfaction, the spark of creation, order out of chaos, the promise of growth and beauty.

Soil is full of life. Ants churning underground, turning the soil, doing the ant-work...earthworms aerating and tilling even the hardest clay soil (how do their soft mucosal noses not snap off from the effort of pushing up through hard packed Texas dirt?) , adding nutrients to the mix...both creating space and a habitable environment for all the organisms that are needed to enrich our earth.

Soil is not just dirt. Soil is the foundation for everything we eat and for everything that we eat to eat. But we haven't been good stewards of the land. From chemicals and fertilizers to pesticides to rain forest destruction to scraping the top soil only to come in with filler after all the trees have been cut down to build a parking lot, we are destroying this rich and vital few inches of that which sustains us.

What it requires of each of us, even if just in the few square feet over which we may have control, is an understanding of the implications of our choices. Many may argue that man was given dominion over the earth, but destruction of it's precious resources is not the act of a kind and benevolent or wise ruler.

A little TLC of the soil leads to the joy of loving something, creating beauty in one's midst, teaching by decisions congruent with core values. Then there is being outside in wonderful weather, painting a picture through the palette of well chosen plants and flowers, building a habitat for birds, butterflies, ladybugs, praying mantises, worms and ants!

Digging in the life is better than a trip to a shrink...while you plant, you can problem solve, chart the next steps for the life you are creating, spend time with kids or grandkids, and create an oasis of peace and beauty in the midst of a hectic and toxic world.

And it is a wonderful sign of hope for a better tomorrow and faith that the future holds promise!

You might want to watch this and pass it along to friends:

http://www.foodrenegade.com/the-soil-crisis-and-the-problem-solvers/#more-1774

I HAVE A CONFESSION TO MAKE

I am not perfect.

While this comes as no surprise to my family and my business partner, it may be a shock to several of you reading this right now!

I have been really dialed in regarding how I eat for about the past four years...gluten-free, fully hydrated (pure - not tap - water), no sugar, high purine proteins (I'm a fast oxidizer), lots of organic veggies. This, along with proper movement and training workouts, is how I lost weight, got off seven prescription medications, and regained a vibrant, healthy life.

My old bug-a-boo was refined carbs...give me a homemade biscuit or a scone, crackers, pasta, a dense whole-wheat bread and I thought I was one happy camper. Desserts often seemed like the perfect breakfast. Now I know what dysfunctions were operating in my body...adrenal fatigue, thyroid immune disease, leaky gut syndrome, parasitic/bacterial infestation. I was propping up a system struggling to function due to improper nutrition by eating more of the same non-foods that had created the problem in the first place: a kick of sugar for energy and then more later on when that resulted in an energy crash. And the cycle kept repeating itself.

So when I changed not only my way of living but MY WAY OF THINKING about how I wanted to live and be, I felt pretty smug, truth be known! I thought I had it knocked, TKO'ed, on the ropes..."it" being the disempowering, unhealthy lifestyle and cravings.

A couple of months ago, I started wanting sweets. So I indulged myself, but not with the old, bad-for-me sweets. I was eating gluten-free, honey-sweetened macaroons or goat milk ice cream, or granola made with gluten-free organic oats and nuts, sweetened with organic maple syrup. But I was eating this every day, sometimes twice a day. And I wasn't moving as much.

Although I was still training twice a week, I was sitting at my desk, on my computer for hours at a time...no fresh air, not as much dynamic movement due to training through some pretty severe biceps tendonitis, caused by a freakish non-accident accident.

And the result? My weight went up a couple of pounds, I was feeling discouraged and a bit blue, my colon wasn't working was well as before and the colon is a big problem area for me due to my old food habits.

Interesting difference in this set-back now from what it might have been way back when...I acknowledged what was going on and how I was feeling about it. I 'sat with it", if you will, dispassionately, almost as though it wasn't me, but someone else. I looked at the possible causes for the return of craving for sweets and what might be the solutions for what I believed to be the root issues. I ALLOWED MYSELF TO NOT BE PERFECT. No judgements as to my depth of character, strength of will, love of self. No blame on how I was reared, that I never got that pony I thought I wanted when I was eight, that I'm not 5'10". And not even a trace of fear that this was going to be the beginning of a spiraling back into the unhealthy life I had lived.

I charted a course, with the help of my coach/mentor: return to the food plan that is best for me, creates the most energy, makes me the happiest, and results in the body that works and looks the best. And move more! Get out in this beautiful Spring and soak up some Vitamin D, hear the birds chirp, feel the warm sun on my face, revel in the happiness that this kind of weather creates in me.

That was a week ago. Here are the results of just one week: two pounds less on the scale and better colon function. And you know what else? I have a quiet and renewed confidence that the old habits are gone because I have faced a familiar nemesis with a whole new set of tools in my toolbox. What joy and freedom this brings me!

Better yet? You, too, can learn how to live an empowered life! If that doesn't make you want to get up and dance, what would.

BODIES THE EXHIBITION

Many thoughts raced through my mind as I walked through this wondrous exhibit: how I would love to have a photographic memory, so as not to lose one bit of the information presented...how woefully uneducated we are about our bodies, this temple we have been given in which to grow, learn, love, live...how might we care for ourselves if we truly knew what processes were going on under our skin, day in, day out, every second of our lives.

One of the wonderful aspects of the exhibit is the opportunity to see the relationship of every organ, muscle, bone, tendon, ligament, vein...how ingeniously our organs are arranged to fill such a small, compact space - twisting, over-lapping, nestled snugly against each other so no fraction of an inch is lost...how each muscle is layered from surface to deep interior according to the action it performs and the direction the fibers of each muscle take, making how to train each muscle so much more apparent...how delicate the bones of the body actually are...how the tendons and ligaments attach and travel from bone to muscle or organ, allowing movement and function to take place...how vast the vascular system is and where it is the densest.

This is such a wonderful teaching tool! Why doesn't our educational system avail itself of this type of presentation? Children need to start learning what a resource their bodies are, the functions performed (voluntarily and involuntarily), how this thing they are transported by their entire lives actually works. If every citizen was given this knowledge - not watered down,

but clearly presented in language we could understand - it seems that it would create in us the desire to care for ourselves so differently...or restated, the desire to care for ourselves. If the result of providing this kind of educational programming was a healther population who took responsibility for their wellness, the dollars saved in healthcare would pay for the presentation tenfold.

To see this exhibit is to be struck by what a divine creation we are. Now I have no intention of getting embroiled in a debate between Darwinism and Creationism...I am fine with everyone believing whatever it is they believe. It doesn't matter what we think: we are walking around in a miraculous vehicle! Our bodies perform countless functions and processes, with or without our help. And if we are really living in a way that hinders this performance, our bodies perform anyway, to the best of their ability, until it just can't be done any longer. Think how wonderful the work could be done with just a little bit of help from us. And don't we have a responsibility to do so?

If you haven't seen The Exhibition, go. If you have seen it, go again!

Here are just a few of the amazing things going on inside us...

...our digestive tract is about 25 feet long.

...the adult circulatory system is made up of the heart and 100,000 miles of blood vessels.

...the urinary bladder can store more than 1.5 pints of urine before needing to be emptied.

...the skin is the largest and heaviest organ system of the body.

...the bones in our skeletal system are, ounce for ounce, stronger than 'mild'steel, but make up only about 14% of the body's total weight.

...the abdominal muscles form the center of the body, connecting to both the muscles of the lower and upper limbs, and the back, and are vital to motion and control.

...if all the muscles of the body worked together, they could generate enough power to life more than ten tons.

...as the main conduit between the brain and the body, the spinal cord transmits millions of nerve impulses per second at speeds exceeding 270 miles per hour.

...the brain contains one trillion nerve cells that are in constant communication with each other and with all parts of the body.

...the tiny fibers within our taste buds bind with molecules of food and send impulses to the brain, which determine which digestive enzymes need to be released to break down the food.

...the liver is the second heaviest organ of the body (after the skin) and weighs close to 3.5 pounds.

...as we inhale, oxygen feeds every cell in the body and, in turn, the cells use that oxygen to burn glucose, giving us the energy to breathe again.

...the heart valves push 4,300 gallons of blood through the heart every day.

...it takes less than sixty seconds for a drop of blood to transit the superhighway that is our circulatory system.

Our bodies are so much more intricate and complex than any machine, computer, or whiz-bang gadget we could possibly imagine. Care for yours.