Feel Good Guru

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. (more…)

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Come down to the southwest, he said, where epic summer thunderstorms roll in over the mesas with no warning, darken the sky, shake the earth and drench the sun-parched land in biblical twenty-minute downpours, with great flashes of lightning and booming thunder, then dissolve away into sweet, gentle sunshine, nearly all moisture evaporating instantly.

We’ve got pretty good soy lattes down here, he said. Only pretty good because at this altitude (7000 ft) water steams at a lower temperature. Doesn’t affect the tequila, though. (more…)

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Easy to forget you’re soaking in history while soaking up the Rocky Mountain views and the curative mineral waters of the Banff Hotsprings. Canada’s native people first discovered the natural hot springs at Banff and considered them to be sacred waters - a place to cure illness and enhance health. Abundant in sulphur, the waters are said to help heal dermatological problems such as psoriasis, as well as aid in the treatment of rheumatism, arthritis and other diseases.

The healing effects were not lost on me while I lived in Banff over ten years. At the (more…)

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“Give us your body for a week, we’ll give you back your mind.” That’s the promise at The Body Holiday in St. Lucia, “the first lasting holiday - the first holiday in the world to combine the intense pleasure of personalized rejuvenation with the opportunity to acquire skills and insights that will enhance the rest of your life.”

If you’re looking for something all-inclusive and active in the Caribbean, this is your place. You’ll come home looking and feeling better than before you left and chances are good you’ll have lost some weight, look slimmer, feel stronger and more relaxed. (more…)

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“Amazing things happen when you introduce your body to your mind.”

Sister property to the Body Holiday in St. Lucia, La Source is located on the southern tip of the beautiful Caribbean island of Grenada and embodies a holistic, balanced and realistic approach to wellness. It’s a place where everything healthy under the sun is offered and nothing is imposed. It’s repeatedly voted one of the world’s best in reader polls, and is frequented by people who have returned over and over again, mainly because of the beauty of the island and the incredible hospitality of the Grenadians. (more…)

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Just going to their website is sometimes enough of a retreat for me. It takes me right back to Tofino, the earth’s edge, where eagles soar and whales play, where rain forest meets ocean, where sand, salt, spray and spruces dance as one. The Wickaninnish is one of the most spectacular small hotels on the planet and I always want to go there. Every January when my birthday approaches I want to go for storm watching, every July when the sun warms Vancouver Island and the roads are dry and motorbike-ready I want to go for solitude. (more…)

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