The Miracle Spa Ingredient

Great food is not necessarily found in expensively appointed restaurants. The most beautiful spa décor, exquisite menu and genteel service are no warranty of receiving a deeply effective and satisfying treatment. Once the door of the treatment room is closed, the moment of truth has arrived. All of a sudden, as the hands of the professional touch you, everything that took place before is like the preface to a novel; and everything after the treatment will be like the epilogue. As interesting as they might be, preface and epilogue cannot make up for a bad novel!

Your experience is inclusive of all that is perceived and received by all your senses, before and after the treatment, but it remains that it is the quality of the treatment itself that is absolutely critical. Nothing else can substitute for it. That is self-evident, particularly for frequent and regular spa aficionados. You know about those rotating restaurants, perched at the top of some tower, where people go to enjoy the view. What they eat there is not the major reason for their visit, and for the local resident in want of good food, the rotating restaurant would not be their choice.

Then, why is it that so much creative time and money is given to the “sizzle” during the creation phase of a spa, at the obvious expense of the “steak” (or tofu for vegetarian readers)? In many instances, the same bias continues with spa management attention on everything outside the treatment room, and so little on what ensures superior treatments.

To achieve excellence, professional managers understand very well that quality is obtained only if it is defined and managed. Quality in spa treatments is no exception.
Great spas have an atmosphere that makes you feel as if you were standing on the next-best thing to sacred ground. Indeed, such spas have a sanctuary-like quality within which you unwind, relax, and renew. It is conducive to a letting go of all that you put on, to face the demands of your everyday world. It offers an opportunity to come face-to-face with yourself and be gently helped with the essential task of liking what you see, particularly when that ability does not come naturally to you. This is where the concept of connecting with your Body, Mind, and Spirit, takes on an entirely new meaning.

The moment the hands of the therapist approach you, even before the full touch, something very important takes place—a transfer of energy. The quality of the energy that you receive from the therapist is directly related to his or her intent consciously introduced. The therapist needs to feel fully present in the moment for energy to be at the service of his or her intent. Your own surrender to the moment is affected by how you receive the intent of that energy. It determines the degree of your release, relaxation and rebalancing, ultimately yielding a sense of wellness and even rejuvenation. “Rubbish!” will exclaim those who say they only care for a good deep sports massage—until the day when they learn to let go, in the presence of that special pair of hands. And this “Miracle Ingredient” is not limited to massage therapists; it very much applies to estheticians as well.

Professionals familiar with the concept of vital energy better understand the essence of my comments. The “Miracle Ingredient” we are talking about has to do with “Intent”. Even someone with less than extensive experience, but with the right intent, will give a better treatment than a technically more proficient professional, too jaded to insert any intent into his/her work. If this were not the case, therapists could be, and eventually would be, replaced by robots—even talking ones. But that will never be, because treatment quality is closely associated with intent and the energy it produces. Robot-like therapists or estheticians give a bad name to spas.

Clearly some people are more gifted at giving great treatments than others, but it does not mean that the role and importance of intent and of its energetic extension cannot be taught and developed. Great spa directors know that. They know how to recognize the staff members with potential. They know also that their primary role as leader of the spa is to create an atmosphere, where people with the potential to develop the “Miracle Ingredient” will be attracted to come and to develop. Theirs will soon be a great spa, because customers will quickly experience the difference and spread the word. Customers might not fully know why it is better, but they surely know what a great treatment is when they experience it; and, they will talk about it.

The ability to spot intent, and to nourish it when it is found, is a superior attribute of great spa directors. That too can be learned. The intent that constitutes the “Miracle Ingredient” so often missing from treatments is a very simple and genuine quality that cannot be faked. It is reminiscent of old fashioned country doctors willing to inconvenience their schedule, and go out of their way, to see someone in need of their care and attention. It is also like those health professionals who know they cannot explain everything but have the conviction that successful treatments require the patient’s participation. That is because they know, in their heart, that there is more to a human being than their body, and that there is more to the body than just matter, whether it is flesh, blood, bones or organs.

The special individuals who provide this “Miracle Ingredient”—intent—know they are in a “giving” mode when they give a treatment. They know they must prepare for it and that they will need to replenish their energy, as well as their capacity to be conscious of their intent. They are just like blood donors who can give only so much and so often.

Spas with a healing and retreat-like mission need the “Miracle Ingredient” to become and remain what they want to be. They need the right people to make it happen, from management to technicians. Their conscious intent is an integral part of their work, and they must know how to cultivate it. Many will not agree or understand this premise. Few might truly relate to it and fewer, yet, will know how to act accordingly. That is why, at the top of the pyramid, there are only a few great spas, and it is not simply, or mostly, a function of their architecture and interior decor.