A Perfect Day

Happy new year everyone! Welcoming in 2016 has been a rather funny feeling, but I’m ready for a fresh year and it didn’t start half bad either. My birthday was on new year’s eve (and I reassure you, it is never the drunken, forgotten affair that a lot of people may expect from a new year’s birthday) and it was actually something which I would deem as a rare occurrence; it was a perfect day.

A lot of people get excited about their birthdays and can’t wait and count down the days, but for me, especially more recently, it becomes a day of dread. I mean, it’s on the last day of the year when you’re reviewing what you’ve done with your life in the last 12 months anyways and on top of that, you’re a whole year older. This is my second birthday post diagnosis and it was an emotional day, but for really positive reasons. My sisters went all out to make the day happy, cheerful and they made me feel like it was a day to be celebrated. I love them so much and they really do keep me going.

So on we got on our train to London, very early in the morning and only the night before had they told me that we were headed for King’s road to the Lush Spa! I’ve been to the Lush Spa before and it was a magical experience to say the least. Sat in the rustic and cosy English kitchen, you start to forget that you are in the bustling capital. Every detail is accounted for, from the fruit being infused in the jugs of water, to the annotated bird pictures mounted on the wall. There is nothing quite like it. You start with a consultation, a declaration of your health and the level of professionalism I received from my therapist (you were so amazing, I can’t remember your name) made me feel so at ease, with her taking into account a lower back ache I have been dealing with and checking in on ear sensitivity after an infection I had back in October. It was a thorough conversation approached with sensitivity and compassion, respecting my dignity and in full confidence.

The treatment I was having was called The Sound Bath. Having no idea what this entailed, I had raided YouTube the night before to check it out and the one thing that was salient in my mind were two words – ear candle. The idea of a flame that close to my head seemed particularly terrifying, let alone molten wax potentially filling my ear drum...yikes! But after voicing my concerns to the therapist, she reassured me that nothing of the sort would happen and that the whole point of the hollow ear candle was to help create a warming sensation to help you focus on the light crackling sound that it would produce. And that was what it was all about. Immersing yourself purely in the sounds around you to transport you to new places and those within yourself. The ear candle took me to crackling fires of the beach and my teenage escapes around bonfires during my college days. Tuning forks were used throughout at particular pitches to create new notes within the music playing around you. The vibrating forks themselves were placed at certain pressure points on your face (temples and forehead), as well as on your chest and ends of your shoulders. These vibrations at these particular pitches used are equivalent to being in a meditative state for a prolonged period of time and that sounds crazy, but by the time you come out you feel so calm and collected, it's totally amazing.

The massage element of this treatment is absolutely reviving and seamless in terms of the therapist's movements and pressure used and is purely on the face and scalp, often the areas we are least likely to show that sort of kindness to. When we think of massage, we tend to go straight to shoulders and neck, but the amount of tension we carry in our faces and scalp is immense; I didn't realise this until we started. As the therapist worked her magic on my temples, around my eyes, even behind my ears, I felt waves of emotion coming over me. The word that kept popping into my head was "kindness" and with her fingers melting away all the stress I seem to carry on the most visible part of my body, the face that shows the world who I am, I realised how hard it is to be kind and love who we are on a daily basis. This was a poignant reminder that actually, I need love, I need to let myself be loved and I need kindness towards myself. This treatment was actually an exercise in self-compassion and I found myself awash with changing states of emotion. There were points where I was close to tears thinking about where I was last year and telling myself yes, it was hard and painful, to moments of commending myself on how well I had coped and how far I had come and achieved despite my diagnosis and actually how I haven't let it get the best of me. After the massage, my therapist brewed me a special tea with agave nectar, mint and honey and said to me that I may actually feel emotional throughout the day as that was the nature of the treatment with the effects of the strokes used and the oils and sound pitches combined. It was a welcome and reflective state to be taken to in a calm and safe environment. I felt at ease and at real peace with who I had become after this year. This was not a bad place to have spent the last day of 2016.

Leaving the Lush Spa, my skin looked brighter and I felt refreshed, almost new on my birthday, with my heart brimming with happiness and gratitude for all I have. I was overwhelmed with love for my sisters who had clearly thought carefully about this treatment and in what way in would be good for me. It was a perfect day, like I said before, a rare occurrence. But that doesn't mean perfection doesn't happen or won't happen and what it does go to show is that we should savour the good as it comes and know that everything passes, as does suffering and pain too. I'm far from where I was this time last year, and in a years time, I pray I'm even further.