By Mandy Trollip – The Soul Khaya / TAWA Labs
Never before as an industry have we been more perfectly poised to deliver the wellness promise we have extended to our guests over recent years.
We have so easily penned a phrase and a promise on our menus, a promise of an experience to touch the body, mind and spirit.
In the South African Spa context I believe that our focus has been heavily weighted towards body, and by default, we have only lightly touched upon the mind and spirit aspect of wellness. However, as synchronicity would have it, we now have the opportunity to deliver deeper, more balanced conscious wellness & beauty experiences, with open hearted awareness.
The time we currently find ourselves in has encouraged us to be introspective, to honestly evaluate our lives, on every level, and to implement changes for our growth, our happiness, our wholeness and indeed our survival. This trend is not a fad, it is not going anywhere. It is a conscious and a collective human movement towards a deeper level of being. Something good follows something challenging, it is a universal law.
Imagine if we took this trend and this level of introspection into our businesses! What a transformation we would see!
Our guests are on a mindful journey, let’s walk alongside them and support them. To do this we need to be on the same path, expanding our awareness and our offerings to meet their demands. One mindful massage on a treatment menu will not align with this wave of new energy.
What is required is to entrench authentic conscious and mindfulness based techniques and practices into all levels of our treatment offerings. When our guests experience this gift from us, it literally carves a new neural pathway for self-care into their mind, body and soul. It is a demonstration of simple, yet profoundly powerful tools which they can carry through into their daily lives. Self-care should not be reserved for special occasions only, it should be how we live our lives. Your wellness space makes you a custodian and a teacher.
Conscious and mindful wellness practices & techniques within our treatments bring our guests directly into the present moment, into a peaceful space of calm and quiet. Where the central nervous system is soothed, where the parasympathetic nervous system signals the rest and digest mode. This is living in the transformational quantum model of reality which is causing an effect, where the brain and body believe that changes have already occurred, rather than the old Newtonian way of living by cause and effect, where change lies in the distant future.
Our bodies are wired to heal themselves, it is in the framework of our DNA, practices and techniques like mediation, visualisation, prana breathing, emotional stress release, meridian therapy, healing music, chakra balancing, crystal therapy, sound therapy, healing poetry, emotional freedom technique, tapping, affirmations, journaling, Aromatherapy, Reiki, Kinesiology, Quantum healing, Biofeedback, Hypnotherapy, Access Bars, Bowen therapy, Alexander technique, the list is endless, are here to help us heal.
I sense the resistance to my suggestions but I honestly believe that this comes from a place of not knowing how, rather than not intuitively feeling and knowing that we have a response-ability to ourselves, and to our guests, to be adaptable and flexible within this privileged wellness space we find ourselves in.
Some of these therapies most definitely need to be delivered by a professional practioner, but many 
can be done by a spa therapist. Although most therapists have not received formal holistic therapy training, the majority have an innate ability to access this dimension of themselves and extend it to our guests, they merely need to guided and be taught new techniques. It doesn’t need to be complicated or costly. It doesn’t even mean designing a new menu offering. All it means is being open to change and being courageous enough to be the point of difference.
It is time to embrace the “S” word, the “H” word and the “L” word within the South African Spa market.
SPIRIT, HEAL, AND LOVE!
Your guests are ready are you?
For More information contact: Mandy Trollip
Owner @thesoulkhaya
Director @tawalabs
