Alvadora Spa, steeped in Mediterranean traditions, is introducing the Himalayan Salt Stone Massage by Saltability ($170, 50 minutes) and a series of monthly Double Gong Meditation experiences ($20, one-hour group session).
Salt therapy, also known as halotherapy, dates back to when ancient healers and philosophers would recommend salt inhalation for the respiratory system and health problems. Since then, it has remained a venerable treatment in Europe and Asia, and in the past couple of years it has made its way to U.S. spas by way of salt caves, salt saunas, salt beds and salt stones.
Using organic salt stones from Saltability, Alvadora’s Himalayan Salt Stone Massage balances the central nervous system and nourishes depleted cells in the body. The treatment features a warmed salt stone massaged over the body using a specific sequence of massage to balance the body’s meridians, or energy channels. Drawing upon traditional Chinese medicine therapy, the massage grounds and balances the body’s electromagnetic field, and the pressure, motion and thermal effects used during the treatment work to replenish nutrients in the connective tissue while creating deep relaxation. This treatment is designed to be eco-friendly and uses no chemicals. With 84 naturally occurring minerals and elements, Saltability’s pure Himalayan salts benefits the body by stimulating circulation, detoxifying, improving sleep, reducing inflammation, calming the nervous system and reducing signs of aging.
Additionally, Alvadora will offer Double Gong Meditation, in partnership with Metta Yoga, that entails one-hour sessions in a group setting offered monthly. Participants lie on yoga mats while the sound instructor begins with a variety of small movements to open the body. Designed to bring about healing through brainwave stimulation, double gong meditation is a form of sound therapy where the gong plays softly, increasing in volume as the session progresses.
The techniques used in Double Gong Meditation allow participants to quickly achieve both the brainwave frequencies that occur when you daydream and during deep sleep and meditation. The gong sound changes frequently so there is no fixed rhythm, resulting in entrainment, or the changing of brainwave frequencies. Alpha brainwave state is achieved very quickly followed by Theta. Alpha waves are defined as brainwave frequencies between eight and 12 hertz and are often associated with daydreaming, imaginations, associative thinking and a state of relaxation. Theta waves occur during dreaming sleep – or REM (rapid eye movement) sleep – although they also occur during deep meditation. Participants of Double Gong Meditation most often enter Theta brainwaves as a result of a dreamlike, deep meditative state. Theta is an ideal state of consciousness for healing to occur. After 50 minutes of gong play, the sound instructor winds down and plays very gently for ten minutes fading away to silence.
Sound therapy is believed to have originated as early as 4000 B.C. by Egyptians and Greeks, according to the International Sound Therapy Association.
