Respect your body. Especially when you do hard things.
Be aware of your limits. Be willing to push past them. Be willing to stop yourself from pushing too far.
Drink water. Always balance out with some electrolytes. Enjoy your diet. Only go to extremes every now and then if you have to. Otherwise, go slow instead.
Take care of yourself. Get great massages. Take hot showers. Take cold baths. Get buried in volcanic sand, everyone once in a while.
Eat french fries. Eat an orange creamsicle if that is what your body wants. Don’t eat 12 of them. Enjoy the one you have.
Listen to what your body is asking of you. When you do anything, always seek and trust a Guide.
Yesterday I had the absolute treat of getting a day at SoJo Spa Club just for me. No, the place wasn’t empty. I just mean I went alone. No talking, just relaxing everything including my mind.
The place was not silent. The people were not always still. This is not a criticism in any way. I love SoJo exactly as it is. SoJo is not a spiritual place. It is a place to rest, relax, and allow the worries and cares of the world to slide right off your back.
Many different pools filled with hot and cold water. An ice room. Hot saunas. Cool pools with massage jets and views of the city.
I arrived early because that was how I wanted to spend my day. Relaxing. Drifting from pool to pool, sauna to sauna, alternating between warm and cool.
I started off with a dip in my favorite pool. I should remember the name of it, but I know the wood used to build it gives it a signature scent. Much like lemon balm essence filling the air.
Reminded me of being in Brazil, the view from this pool. SoJo is built against a beautiful backdrop of hills that look just like I was back in Florianopolis. Absolutely gorgeous vibe.
After warming up a bit, I cooled down in the icy waterfall. Then decided it was time for breakfast.
Sorry, no photos to share with you all. I turned my phone off for the day. I did think about writing my journaling prompt midday, but my brain was too melted to read 4 pages of Terms and Conditions before exposing my computer to oublic wifi. And I never turned on my phone lol.
So we can skip the description of what I ate for breakfast. I will say every single meal I have ever eaten at SoJo is delicious. I like to eat a lot of calories but not too many while I am there. It is a lot of energy for the body that you don’t realize you’re expending. Going from hot to cool, massages, and whatever else you do while you’re there.
It’s a good thing they have a hotel, so most respectful guests do not act on their animal urges out in public in the pools.
Returning to nature will bring those up for the most civilized among us, who tuck them neatly away in order to survive.
I decided after breakfast to sign up for a spot in their volcanic sand bath. This is the ONLY place where you can experience this outside of Japan.
I highly recommend this experience. You can read more about it here: https://sojospaclub.com/…/treatment…/volcanic-sand-bath/
For the sake of time, I will move on.
My experience with this sand bath was extraordinary. I listened to the man who scheduled my time slot. I followed his instructions. I prepared myself to be buried in hot volcanic sand.
I do not know how one prepares themselves for such a process. Especially someone who acknowledges Spirit in everything he or she does.
The Volcanic Sand Bath carries the essence of the volcano with it. How could it not? Working with the magick of a volcano? Being buried alive. I asked the sand to take everything from me that is not eternal.
I was not prepared for the sensation of being buried alive. My body reacted. I had to reassure myself I was okay. It only last <15 minutes I want to say. It was hot, but the real challenge was the weight of my own fears even though I was perfectly okay.
Afterwards, I had to breathe slower. Take deeper breaths. Drink lots of water, move with awareness. I took a cool shower to rinse off the sand. Not hot, not warm. I don’t think I did anything hot until after lunch.
I stuck to the ice sauna, cool baths in the women’s locker room, and then another shower to warm me back up.
The ice room and cool baths in this place are awesome. Without them, everybody would just fall asleep from overheating. That’s why it is important to learn the steps in a place like this.
Respect the rules. Go there with the intention of finding stillness and listening to what your body needs.
If you go as a group or with friends, and you spend the whole day chatting it up, all you get is a hot tub experience. Sit in the sauna, burn your phone up (even though phones aren’t allowed in the saunas to begin with). Did you ask your phone if it wants to go on this journey with you? No. Would you want to be in your phone’s position if the roles were reversed? But I digress. Thats ky weirdness coming out again.
There were men working at the spa. Not just on their phones. In the shared workspace. It makes me anxious when I can’t get to my tools and do something. That was why I brought my phone and my computer.
Fortunately, the Volcano helped me relax. The Volcanic Sand Bath, to me, was more like a 3 hour experience with a 15 minute burial somewhere in the middle. An hour to prepare physically after my breakfast. Arriving on time in order to prepare myself emotionally. Orient myself to the ritual I was about to undergo. The burial itself. The shower afterwards where I became aware that I had just undergone something powerful that is not to be disrespected in any way.
I became more aware of my breathing. I took it slow. I was hot, as I was told I would be, even after my cleansing shower to cool down.
Side note: I took like 10 showers yesterday. Most of them with soap and shampoo and conditioner. My skin feels amazing today. And my hair. I wish I had brought Ipsissima Franca’s Alchemical Soap to cleanse my energetic body as well. Maybe next time I will bring that along with my Verb Ghost Shampoo, although I believe the shampoo and conditioner supplied at the Spa is higher quality than what I use at home today.
Back to the Volcanic burial and the after effects. I moved pretty slowly after that. I took the elevator instead of the stairs. I stuck to the Ice Room/Cold Sauna, the Cold Bath until I felt like I could trust myself in the Cold Plunge. Then after that was lunch! The most delicious burger and fries on the planet that I’ve ever had. I came back to life after eating that. I added mayo to my breakfast and lunch to keep my calorie count high. My burger didn’t need it so I mixed it with some sriracha and dipped my fries in it instead. Muy delicioso.
The crew at SoJo are some of the best in the world. I cannot say enough about the professionalism of the staff. Especially Antonio, the Manager who helped coordinate my stay and make it feel special. And my Head-to-Toe Rebalancing Massage therapist Eric, who performed a 90 minute shiatsu massage for me.
That was the first time I realized my body has come to fear massage because it always has to be painful in order for it to work. I’ve never had a gentle massage where I felt better afterwards.
Eric gave me a gentle massage with just a little bit of pain. The pain always occurs at the places where the body holds onto the most amount of tension. And of course, prior to my massage I spent an hour or so soaking my body in hot water (without overheating) so my muscles would be pliable and relaxed. The one place I didn’t get? The top of my head. Maybe next time I will book a scalp treatment with a deep muscle massage.
Eric’s Rebalancing massage was incredible. I believe everyone should give themselves a gift of the full rebalancing treatment. It includes a foot massage that I would describe as enlightening. Not painful at all (I am serious) but you learn a lot about how tension in your body is connected to your feet – if you are aware enough to receive it and not focused on your phone for the whole 90 minutes that you’re lying on the massage table.
I wish this was an experience I could have twice a month. Maybe not the Volcanic Sand Bath. That sort of detox maybe every year or so, 6 months? Let the magick do it’s work. I am excited to see how my body changes between now and the next time I feel called to do that again.
But the massages, I wish they did facials there, the Korean Body Scrubs, the Helotherapy, I wish I could do them regularly. Massage or body scrub at least once a month. I would be at the pools weekly if I could envision a life where the made sense financially 
and in accordance with my travel schedule that I am planning.
But alas, I don’t see myself moving to Brazil. I mean Edgewater New Jersey anytime soon.
For now, I will just plan my next trip to SoJo. A little slice of paradise right up the NJ turnpike. I love it there. You will too. Just don’t turn it into the kind of experience it doesn’t need to be. Put your shoes in your locker. Walk barefoot like the rest of us. It’s okay. The floors are clean. The staff never stop mopping up behind us. I am grateful for their attention to detail.
Leave your phone in your locker. Turn it off. Tell the world “I know you’ll explode if I don’t answer your text. Burn baby burn.” You’ll be fine. If you make it through the day then look, World War 3 didn’t break out because you didn’t answer your boss’s text.
Do yourself a favor: don’t lie to your boss about where you are that day. Don’t pretend you are working from home. That never works. You’re going to want to write a post, share a review, take a photo and tag SoJo in it. Don’t create unnecessary hoops for yourself to jump through. Don’t make up lies that you’ll have to keep track of. Don’t work from the saunas or hot tubs. Just. Relax.
Ladies, this is a message for you. If your boyfriend or husband doesn’t want to go, don’t force the poor man to relax. He’s not your girlfriend. The man is working. He’s busy. He doesn’t have time to follow you around in your two-piece bikini, watching you get soaking wet and covered in sweat and then freezing your butt off in the ice room. He doesn’t have time or money for that. That’s why he has to work while you relax and all the other men at SoJo can watch you do that instead.
One day I hope we all walk around the locker rooms naked together like they do in European nations. Americans, we don’t have to be so uptight. It’s weird to the rest of the world that we wear our bathing suits in the areas that are reserved for women only and men only.
Maybe part of us is still afraid a man will make it into the woman’s locker room under the guise of being a lady (or lady boy as they call them in Thailand). Hopefully that never happens at SoJo and we can all relax.
Enjoy the Spirit of SoJo Spa Club. Relax. Shed the layers of pain and suffering that have built up over the years. A Korean Body Scrub will remove all of that for you and more. Get a massage. Where else in the world can you prepare yourself for a massage better than a building full of saunas and spas? Nowhere. That’s where.
Enjoy who you are becoming. Enjoy your hard work. Let it pay off, finally. Take a week away, or at least a weekend.
Give yourself a break. You deserve it.
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