365 Inspirations—66: Visiting the Korean Spa

"Take care of your body.  It's the only place you have to live."—Jim Rohn

 This quarter, I promised myself that I would visit the Korean spa between my classes. I have a split shift on Tuesdays and Thursdays and there is a Korean Spa called Bella Luna Spa just down the street from the college. I'm lucky to have all the things I loved about living in Korea right here near the Seattle area.

 For some reason, I kept postponing it. Finally, while I was getting ready for my morning class, I instinctively started gathering my shampoo, soap, scrubby and other material for the spa. Today was the day! I hadn't really planned for today to be the day, but given that there is only really one week left of school, I thought it was perfect timing.

Have you ever been to a Korean spa? They are wonderful and fairly inexpensive. $20 gets you in for an entire afternoon of pampering. If you want to pay a little more, you can get the body scrub or massage. I like to just go to the spa.

Korean spas, called mogyoktang, are an important part of Korean culture. Long ago, many Korean homes didn't have bathing facilities, so people often went to their neighborhood spa or bath house to bathe. Now they are really more like spas which still have some of the original features.

For example, the spa I go to has several hot pools and a cold pool in the women's area. There is also a dry and hot sauna. Upstairs, there is a jimjilbang. A jimjilbang has different sauna rooms that vary in temperature and have different healing elements in each one. For example, there's a charcoal room, a salt room, a clay room, and a crystal room. They are typically more like caves. Some of the rooms have medicinal herbs inside. Each room is known to heal a certain part of the body depending on what the room contains.

I love the charcoal room. Charcoal is what is in our water purifiers. Charcoal is known to extract toxins from air and water, leaving only a clean, pure air and water. I always feel like my lungs completely open up in that room. I feel so refreshed upon leaving it.

Another thing I love to do at the Korean spa is walk on the pebble circular walk. You walk in a circle on stones and it is extremely good for the body—a kind of reflexology.

There's even a restaurant inside the spa and I often get a cold drink. Today I had an iced coffee and read a magazine while sitting on the sofa between sauna rooms. While sitting and enjoying the serenity of the spa, I rolled my feet back and forth on a little foot massager.

If you've never experienced a Korean spa and there is one in your area, I highly recommend visiting. It can do wonders for your body and peace of mind.

Have you ever visited a Korean spa or another kind of spa? Have you ever given your body and mind a special treat?