Love: Spa Ayurda’s Vishuddi body treatment

When I rolled up to Ponsonby Road’s peaceful beauty oasis known as Spa Ayurda, I was desperately in need of a bit of a “tune up”, as my mother would say. I’d been working insane hours on top of being a mum, and I’d just done time in the trenches at New Zealand Fashion Week, which is not as glamorous as it looks when you’ve got your working hat on!
What I needed most was to commit to a good old-fashioned detox programme, but I just hadn’t had the time to prepare fully, or to withdraw from society in order to do one well. I’d been told that Spa Ayurda’s Vishuddi body treatment would definitely be a step in the right direction though, so one sunny Wednesday afternoon I dropped in to make it happen.
Spa Ayurda co-owner and director Rippan Sandhu told me that the treatment was “a wonderfully detoxifying and rejuvenating experience”, which sounded like exactly what my poor old body and mind needed. Named after the throat chakra, it’s also especially good for runners and gym goers as well as it really lubricates the joints and makes the body feel ready for anything. And - like all of the treatments at Spa Ayurda - it has a strong emphasis on wellness, but luckily when the body and mind are soothed, looking great is a wonderful by-product.
To begin with, selected powdered Ayurvedic herbs and fresh ingredients like coconut and lemon are cooked together and tied to form a bolus – or poultice –which is prepared earlier by your therapist (in my case the gorgeous Jane). These are then dipped in warm medicated herbal oil and applied to the body with rhythmic strokes that run up and down the legs, arms, back, chest and stomach. Packed with the goodness of the aforementioned herbs, this warm poultice massage has the ability to penetrate to the nerves and bone tissues, helping to release toxins from deep within the body. As a by product, it also leaves you feeling blissfully relaxed as well as slightly invigorated, and ready to once again face the world. This wonderful treatment is then followed by a seven minute long herbal steam session that happens while you are enclosed from the neck down in a purpose built wooden box, and is designed to help open the channels and flush the toxins that have been dredged up from the body. Every little detail is attended to in true Spa Ayurda fashion, including a cool towel placed on my head during the steaming process to stop headaches or my body overheating. Sandalwood paste is also applied to my head and body at key spots to aid the detoxification process and ensure that a pleasant equilibrium is maintained all round.
The Vishuddi treatment leaves your body absolutely slick with oil, so you are given the choice of either going straight home (bring a pair of old clothes to wear if you take this option) or having a shower in the bathroom next to your treatment room if you have somewhere to be. I recommend scheduling a session late in the day and heading home to dinner and bed – you will sleep like a baby. Last up you are given a cup of herbal tea whilst you contemplate leaving the spa, and I spent a full five minutes or so trying to get the motivation to actually go. Given half the chance I would have jumped onto the nearest treatment bed and settled in for the night!
* This article appears in the latest issue of Ponsonby News. Check it out here!*