Spa-Experience

How do you relax?
What time off means to those who pamper and provide leisure

Some places feel like an oasis from the workaday world of closing sales, meeting deadlines, changing oil.
It could be the massage table, the golf course or the warm foot bath at the spa.
But how do the people providing pampering or recreational support find rest and relaxation from their labors?

As it turns out, two of the four people profiled here step way back from their work, while the other two step into it to recharge and relate better to their clientele.
Here is a look at why.

Name: Robin Friesen-Holwell
Age: 35
Work: Manager, Inspire Salon & Spa, Longmont
The pampering starts just over the threshold of Inspire Salon & Spa with a cup hot tea, then a sudsy foot bath, then the service that softens and energizes tired feet.
Spa manager Robin Friesen-Holwell says her work often becomes her reward.

“The biggest compliment they can give me is to put their head back and close their eyes,” she said. “If I can get them to fall asleep, I know I’ve done a great job.”

Sure, she enjoys time off to read, practice yoga and stretch on her stability ball. But something about the relationships she builds with clients makes her feel like she’s off duty when she’s on, she said.
She recalled one woman who came in for a pedicure after finishing her last round of chemotherapy.

Another showed up to relax with the foot treatment before her baby’s birth.
“When they share their lives with me, I learn from them,” Friesen-Holwell said. “I’m not just giving them a pedicure. We’ve become close. I give almost all of them a hug before they leave.”

Name: CeLena Morris
Age: 52
Work: Owner, Erie Massage Therapy, Erie
Massage therapist CeLena Morris practices what she preaches: that resting is just as important as working for optimal performance.
But for her, resting looks a little different.

“I read a book, walk the dog, lie in the sun,” she said. “But do you know what is the most rejuvenating for me? Body Pump.”
She joins this group exercise class at the Erie Community Center two or three mornings a week.
Something about the contrast between her workplace and the gym refreshes her — blasting music versus a quiet studio, group dynamics versus one on one, big movements versus small ones.
Morris feels fit and rejuvenated doing this workout — although it comes with some backlash.
“I feel euphoric right after I do it,” she said. “But about eight hours later, I say, ‘Whoa. You did something.’”

Name: Lara Henderson
Age: 33
Work: Owner, Willow Creek Wellness, Longmont
Lara Henderson uses aromatherapy as a tool to help her massage clients find their innermost selves.
“The innermost self is that place where all their answers live,” she explained. “It’s a place of stillness, a place of being. It’s a place of connection, a place without ego.”
The essential oils in plants such as roses, basil and lavender, when properly diluted and applied to the skin, encourage that retreat, she said.

But Henderson also seeks that quieting quality outside of work when she hikes with her husband in Rocky Mountain National Park.

There, she tries to forget all that polarizes society, such as this year’s presidential election, in favor of finding a “zero point of balance,” she said.
Henderson gets there by tuning into the nature of water while hiking past mountain streams.
“The river wants for nothing,” she said. “It doesn’t have any agenda or goals. It just flows.”

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