After experiencing Dawn Tardif’s BodiScience Holistic Day Spa I conclude that indulging in an entire day of beauty is a good and healthy thing to do. I learned so much about the importance of nurturing our inner health to generate outer beauty that when I left, I purchased vitamins, not makeup products.
The day integrated the education and relaxation of my mind, body and spirit. The first item on the day’s menu is ahbyanga, an Ayurvedic practice. (Dawn is a doctor of Ayurveda, a 5,000-year-old spiritual science founded on Indian and Chinese medical wisdom. Ayurvedic treatments, Dawn informs me, are designed to return energies to a harmonious balance.) Ahbyanga Â…I won’t remember the name but I’ll never forget the experience: Not one but two practitioners slather me in a decadent amount of warm herbalized sesame oil. Yes, two technicians are simultaneously massaging me in the same rhythm, executing the same movements, from my scalp to my toes.
An hour or so later Megan leaves, and Dawn announces the beginning of shirodhara. My body is cocooned in a papoose made of towels while a continuous fine stream of warm sesame oil drips over my forehead’s acupressure points. She says that many people experience profound levels of insight and a sense of emotional well-being after shirodhara. However my mind momentarily wanders: “How many wontons and crab Rangoons could this vast amount of oil stir fry?” Stop! Days of beauty are designed as indulgences. Enjoy!
We progress into the facial treatment phase. This is a not a poking-and-extraction-style facial. “Our facial treatments are individually customized based on your month, day, and year of birth. We utilize a Chinese biorhythm chart along with our expertise and your input to create a treatment that will address your concerns,” Dawn said. It’s determined that my energetic is “summer” because I have sensitive, red skin. The summer line of essential oils and creams used on my face, neck, and shoulders are designed to detox and awaken my body’s energies.
Dawn also uses a high-tech instrument that rolls and lifts my face, and in an odd and good way it feels like two mini-rolling pins kneading my skin upwards to defy the effects of gravitational pull. I consider asking if she can knead my thighs.
I’ve lost all sense of time, but Dawn and my stomach tell me it’s time for lunch. After a healthy and colorful plate of greens and chicken, a fresh fruit plate, water, and hot herbal tea I begin the “Above & Beyond Foot Treatment.” Megan places my feet in a beautiful big bowl of warm water, followed by, you guessed it, more massage! Then my technician goes to town on my calluses and corns with the most amazing gadget. Bigger than a dentist’s drill and smaller than a jig saw this electronic pumice stone device pulverizes offending foot conditions. I swear I witnessed the vaporizing of a circa 1983 corn. Toes painted, I move to the manicure station to receive my “Warm Stone Hand Treatment.”
Dawn takes tongs and plucks out warm stones from a Crock-Pot. As she rubs them up and down the lengths of my forearms she tells me this will increase circulation and stimulate the acupressure points responsible for younger-looking hands. Again, I’m tempted to ask about my thighs.
As Dawn paints my nails, she shares her philosophy about health and beauty. She believes that when we are healthy and in balance our inner beauty will shine forth and we become naturally attractive. The more you nurture your whole self, the more radiant you are. Reentering the outside world, my oil encrusted curls coiled like Medusa’s snakes, I breathe deeply, realizing I am radiant indeed.