BETTER
BY SPA Luxury or a modern-day necessity? Spa breaks are becoming the norm to treat mind, body… and your mum!
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f your vision of a spa session acceptable – and we can carry that involves a face pack and a slice of feeling of being taken cared for with cucumber over each eye, then we’re us for a period of time. And very often raising a carefully-trimmed eyebrow that can help us cope better in despair. with stress.” Similarly, if it involves waddling Obviously, breaks can No 1 on most spa around in a fluffy come with a bit of a price visitor’s wish-list is a white towelling tag when set against day massage and most robe clutching a sessions, but they are experts agree glass of prosecco, totally different beasts. massages reduce then you’ve been A one-day experience will stress and alleviates watching too normally offer only a muscle tension many reality single treatment whereas docu-soaps on TV. breaks provide the chance to step off life’s Although these are the images that treadmill with a number of carefullyhelp scientists pour scorn on exoticselected elements, giving breathing sounding treatments they offer, there space to totally unwind, relieve aches is one inescapable fact: there’s and pain, improve general physical nothing like a day of pampering to condition through diet and exercise… put you in the right frame of mind to and probably help you get a decent face the world. night’s sleep. The health benefits of visiting a spa cannot be overstated, particularly for mental well-being. Shackled by responsibilities and day-to-day pressures, the first thing that’s sacrificed is ‘me time’, partly because you think it’s self-indulgent but largely because of the cost. But is good physical and mental health really a luxury? Can you put a price on feeling good? As Virginia Sadock, a professor of psychiatry at New York University says: “Going to a spa is a way of being taken care of that is psychologically and culturally
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