Chillax Your Chi
Shivering in your knickers? Cavilling the chill? Pleading for heat? When the weather outside is frightful, I can think of nothing more delightful than being wrapped like a burrito in blankets, kneaded like a soft loaf of cinnamon bread dough and warmed to the bone with hot stones strategically placed on chakras to move my chi and fill me with glee.
So when I met my mom in Ottawa to celebrate her 7 decades on planet Earth, we escaped the first flurries of winter in the womb of wellness upstairs at Holtz Spa, across the street from the Chateau Laurier.
Hot stones have been used in healing since ancient times, but it only caught on in spas when an Arizona woman brought the technique into her massage practice and named it LaStone Therapy.
The stones are the smoothest basalt, polished by river currents to perfectly rounded tools, which, when placed in hot water retain their heat and penetrate the skin to relax the muscles and aid the massage therapist in getting in deep.
Mom and I shared a room and experienced simultaneous massages. I thought we’d chatter up a storm since we had much to catch up on, but almost instantly upon laying face down, we both fell into a blissful relaxed state - the only sound being deep breathing bordering on snoring.
When the therapist finishes massaging a particular body part with the warm stone, she leaves it in your palm or on a chakra, creating a warm current of chi circulating throughout your whole body. Any stress, anxiety, tension or chills that may have been lingering melt away; little aches and pains disappear in the candlelight glow.
Like yoga, Thai massage, martial arts or most any body work, LaStone Therapy can help with poor circulation, arthritis pain, insomnia and even depression. Since we rarely indulge in such luxuries for ourselves, and moms indulge even more seldom, it makes the perfect gift for a birthday or any time you just want to honor her for being the incredible woman she is.
We stepped back out into winter in Ottawa warmed to the bone, shimmying in our skin, and chillaxed to the chi, hungry for brunch in the market and a stroll in the fresh fallen snow.
