Solaya Spa & Salon’s wellness team has provided a guide for creating spa and wellness rituals at home to help stay calm, grounded and feel empowered. The Houston-based spa temporarily closed due to COVID-19, but extends decades of combined experience and tips.
Related: Four Seasons Offer Simple Tips for Home Wellness
1. Ease Into Your Day
Spas slow its visitors down, giving them an excuse to unplug and practice self-care. Starting every day with that same intentionality for premeditated peacefulness can help set the stage to Keep Calm and Carry On all day.
Create 20 minutes of morning peace. First and foremost, resist the urge to reach for technology and electronics. Instead, start with a warm glass of fresh squeezed lemon water, which assists the immune system, body’s pH balance and metabolism. Set a daily intention, create a mantra or find a helpful quote.
2. Environmental Expressions
Atmosphere is known to set the mood. What is the first thing people fall in love with when entering a luxe spa, like Solaya Spa & Salon? The soothing environment.
Construct a nurturing spa-like ambience at home with sight, sound and scent. Use a diffuser with calming oils like lavender, eucalyptus, chamomile, ylang ylang or a specialty blend for relaxation. String fairy lights, use a scented candle or battery operated tea lights. What do you hear in your home? Download a “spa sounds” playlists or run an indoor water fountain for relaxing accents.
3. Mind Over Matter
Feed the mind with positivity. Create a daily routine (mornings are best) of a positive read, an empowering biography, an optimistic podcast, even one’s music selection can have a great effect on the mind. As part of a daily routine, the effects can make a statement that will last all day long.
4. Change Your Clothes to Change Your Mood
Putting on a favorite outfit, fixing your hair and applying one’s best makeup is a mood changer. Even science has confirmed that wearing “happy clothes” will conjure a more joyful demeanor.
Don’t sit around day after day in the previous night’s pjs or college sweatpants. Find an outfit that has garnered compliments or something from an occasion that brings back fond memories. Look good, feel good with wardrobe, hair and makeup. This is also a great lure for an at home “date” time with a significant other or a “dress up” luncheon with children!
5. “The Lipstick Effect”
A fun cosmetic term that alludes to the psychological phenomenon that wearing makeup not only gives a confidence boost but increases self-esteem, attitude, and personality–so bring on the lipstick!
Adding a touch of daily color to the skin can brighten one’s complexion, but also their day. Bronzers can quickly add depth and nice “at home” color; brush the brows up, groom and lightly shade to give instant shape and the face a natural lift; brighten the eyes with a splash of blue liner in the lash line; and experiment with blush and lip tones in roses and berries.
6. Face Mask Monday
When we feel stressed, our skin is the palette for what is going on inside our hearts and minds. Anxiety increases cortisol which can lead to breakouts, acne or other skin problems. During these times, our skin can begin to dull and not appear as radiant and refreshed.
Set aside a weekly ritual of either a purchased or at home exfoliant, peel or mask. Avocadoes (or oil), coconut oil, honey, brown sugar, and egg are just a few of mother nature’s ingredients for restoration. Follow with a light massage of nourishing serum and hydrating cream.
7. Permission to Pamper
Need a personal recharge? Inform your family you need some time to refresh. Hang out the “do not disturb” sign. Get your softest, fluffiest towels; fill the tub; light the candles; play some soothing tunes; add your favorite bath fizz, epsom salt or an enzyme; condition your hair and wrap it up for warmth.
And don’t forget to massage in your favorite body cream when you’re done and your skin is at it’s prime for acceptance. “Pampering” is not a material need; studies show it increases dopamine and oxytocin to restore the soul. No prescription needed.
8. Hair Repair
With salons closed, tending to our tresses is in our own hands for a while. Extend color as long as possible. Gray roots showing? Use a little matte brown eyeshadow (that matches your hair color) in your part and around your visible hairline. Then use hairspray to set it. For dark roots, try a little baby powder and finger rake through.
