HEAT THERAPY

In Classical Chinese Medicine, winter months are linked to the concepts of ‘closing and storing’. Metaphorically, in nature, water freezes, the earth cracks. Human beings sleep longer, and organise their activities according to the sunlight. It feels natural to avoid the cold and seek warmth in every aspect of life: from the skin, which must be protected, to what we eat or to the temperature inside our house.

We internalise energy and feel the need to spend more time indoors: we slow down our rhythms as nature’s rhythms slow down. Some actions are useful to protect ourselves from the cold and prevent energy loss, such as avoiding cold and wet foods (salad, raw vegetables, dairy products, cold drinks) and favouring spices, soups, hot drinks and prolonged cooking such as stews and braises.

Besides providing heat from within, the body wants to inhale and breathe heat from the outside. Soaking in hot water, spending time in saunas and steam baths or absorbing heat in other ways. Heat is therapeutic: it is often produced through manual massage or other techniques, including moxibustion. In this respect, wraps and envelopments with warm mud can bring great benefits.

In the Lefay SPA wellness offer, within the section of energy aesthetic rituals, the aromatic mud “Il Potere del Cielo e della Terra” is proposed. In these rituals, the magic of celestial scents is combined with the fragrance and terrestrial power of various muds, made using rich sulphate clays and montmorillonite. Stimulation of the facial energy points along the meridians of Chinese Medicine moves the energy that begins to circulate freely, detoxifying and regenerating the body through the designated organs. The osmotic action of the sludge combined with the final massage performed with the specific products of the Lefay SPA body line helps the elimination of toxins and the regeneration of tissues.

Mud therapy is also one of the main steps of the iconic “Paths of the Black Tortoise” of Lefay Resort & SPA Dolomiti. In these wellness “paths”, the protagonists are the mud created using silt from the Val di Genova, enriched with oligominerals extracted in ionic form: malachite, with a strong antioxidant action; olivine, rich in magnesium with a powerful energising and anti-age effect; rhodolite, that stimulates the natural immune defences and zincite, that protects DNA from external damages.