relax

The Day Spa at Temple Skincare is your space — a respite from stress, for solitude, meditation and to nurture your mindfulness journey.

Contrary to what many people think, a day spa is not just a place to get a “fancy” facial. The Temple Skincare spa is both an ideal and idyllic choice to care for your skin and your soul. 

The moment you walk down the jasmine-lined path to the spa, it is already a calming and restful experience. Automatically, this sets the mood for your senses to be actively present and attuned to your body and your surroundings. Our trained and professional therapists are also a select group of caring and giving individuals. They are ready to pamper and spoil you with the careful and caring attention you need.

We have also partnered up with Aromatherapy Associates to bring you day spa facials and massages best for meditative activity. The treatments are designed to treat the skin and mind simultaneously — because beauty is often beyond skin deep.

The many women (and men) that we see at Temple often come to relieve stress and for good reason. In our very busy, noisy lives, it is a must to find a space to quiet the mind, meditate and to enjoy (even if for a few hours) a mindful life. 

Read: Finding Balance: Self-Care Rituals for Busy Women in Sydney’s Castle Hill Area

Benefits of Meditation

It is undeniable though how regular meditation is quickly becoming a prescription for a healthier life and overall wellness. The research on meditation and mindfulness point to positive effects including reduced anxiety, increased well-being, increased connectedness and empathy, improved focus, improved relationships with others, heightened creativity, better memory and improved decision-making skills. And those are just the cognitive benefits. Meditation is also associated with other, more tangible health benefits, such as addiction treatment, improved cardiovascular health, a stronger immune system and better sleep quality.

Being mindful of one’s actions and self helps bring you to a meditative state.

Sitting still and emptying the mind at the day spa

The trouble is that in today’s fast-paced and social-media driven life, it’s simply harder to sit still and actively do nothing. When I first attended a meditation class, I could barely keep a focussed, quiet mind for 10 seconds. Before I knew it, I was thinking of the report I had to do for work and the dinner I had to cook for the kids after the class.

It’s deceptively harder than many would think!

Plus, many would assume that being “good “at meditation meant that you’d have to be totally zen and calm for hours on end. One writer described the experience as though it were like running a full marathon the first time you lace up your running shoes. A miracle feat!

How to meditate?

It helps if you are in a quiet place. The day spa environment at Temple is a good choice. Sit by the pool or make use of it. Then proceed with our hour-long Mindfulness Facial Treatment to build a sensory experience of scents, textures and temperatures, relaxing music and solitude.

With your skin and body cared for, your mind can be left to wander to a meditative state.

Try the meditation techniques below during the treatment or while at the day spa:

• Body scanning during a day spa treatment

This is a good stepping stone to deeper meditation practice and a fantastic crash course on the concept of mindfulness. 

In meditation, mindfulness is an intentional awareness of the present moment. It’s the kind of thing that seems obvious, right? Like something you must already be doing just to function, but it’s not. Ever gotten into your car and made it home without exactly remembering the drive? Or, eaten a meal without really tasting it? That’s how easy it is for us to get stuck on autopilot and mentally disconnect from what’s going on in the moment. 

1. Take a couple of deep breaths, and get ready to focus on your body for a few minutes. 
2. Start at the top of your head and focus on actively feeling what’s going on in your body, moving slowly from your the top of your head to the soles of your feet. 
3. Notice the weight of your own hair hanging down from your scalp. Notice where you situate your tongue in your mouth when you aren’t talking. Notice where your weight rests in your spine and what your feet feel like pressed against the ground. 
4. This seems very basic, but most of us never do it in day-to-day life. We’re too busy thinking about the emails we haven’t answered and the errands we haven’t run. But, when you’re actively focusing your attention on how your body feels, you can’t think about the emails and errands, and mindfulness starts to take shape. 
5. If you do catch your mind drifting to those emails and errands, don’t beat yourself up or write the session off as a failure. Just acknowledge that your mind drifted, let the thought go, and refocus on the body scan, right where you left off. 

• Swimming meditation

If keeping still is truly a big challenge for you, then swim. The pool by Temple Skincare & Spa is for you to use before or after your day spa treatment. Bring your swimsuit and let the water lull you and shut out the world around you.

1. Take a few breaths and get into a calm mindset. 
2. Start moving through the water, focusing on the act of swimming. Actively be mindful of the aspects of swimming like lifting your arm, moving your body forward, paddling your feet and legs, the sensation of water drifting over your body, etc.
3. Count your strokes (10-15 is a good number), pause and take a few deep breaths, focusing on the sensation of breathing in and out. 
4. Then repeat.

• Sound mindfulness meditation 

1. Close your eyes, and listen to the world around you, making a note of every sound that you hear, say, 10 or 15 sounds. 
2. List them out, one by one, starting with the obvious: maybe music playing over the speakers, for starters.
3. Then, go deeper. Notice the quiet shuffling of your therapist’s feet as she moves around you; pay attention to the sound of the brush or hands as salves or masks are applied on your skin; or, the rhythmic sound of your own breathing. 
4. Sound mindfulness is not only versatile, but also a quick and effective way to break an anxiety pattern, particularly if you’re prone to ruminating and catastrophising.

Want to find out more ways to relax at temple? Check out our Day Spa Facials and Massages here.