This month, challenge yourself to make time for meaningful relationships.

Whether it’s your relationship with yourself, with friends and family, or a special someone, February is the perfect time to focus on positive connections, love and quality time with the people that matter most to you.

Love is an important piece of our happiness. It can be found or created in many places… and is most wonderful when shared. The power of love, relationships and romance, the magic of finding it in the simplest places, and the positive effects it can have on our mood and health are the topics of this month’s exploration into spa lifestyle. There are so many ways to bring more love into your life. We hope to inspire you to take a closer look into how you can more deeply appreciate the  moments in your everyday, and feel the joy of making someone else feel special!

Start right here, right now with a Love Note…(to yourself!)

Keep the love going all month long by staying connected on the Glen Ivy Blog, Facebook and Twitter – we’ll have plenty of inspiration and ideas for celebrating love and relationships, and we look forward to hearing from you!

Join us in welcoming 2012!

“The chief beauty about time is that you cannot waste it in advance. The next year, the next day, the next hour are lying ready for you, as perfect, as unspoiled, as if you had never wasted or misapplied a single moment in all your life. You can turn over a new leaf every hour if you choose.“ — Arnold Bennett

While resolutions are customary for many in the New Year, at Glen Ivy we choose to work on intentions instead. What is the difference you might ask…  “An intention is a direction – a course you set for yourself.  You can’t fail at an intention; sometimes you can just get off course.  And intentions are positive. Studies show that you’re more likely to succeed at goals that you feel positively about – getting healthy – than at those that are seen as negative, like going on a diet.” (Rhonda Abrams, USA Today)

Part of this annual practice is a contest hosted on the Glen Ivy blog, inviting fans to share their intentions and how they plan to turn them into actions. Each year the response is heart warming and inspiring to read, with hundreds of Glen Ivy friends writing in to share their goals and challenges, revealing their hearts in the process. We hope you will share your intentions and enter for a chance to win a spa day for 2!

This month we will help you on the journey of turning intentions to actions with blogs offering support and advice from our spa professionals on health, wellness, fitness, and nutrition. Or consider joining us at Glen Ivy Hot Springs for a special Intentions into Actions workshop on Wednesday, January 18.

If you find your intentions to feel somewhat overwhelming, we suggest trying the “12 in 12″ approach, and sizing your intentions down into manageable packages, with one action for each month. Not a new concept, but shared with fresh enthusiasm by Jacq at fitarella.com. She suggests choosing one thing to do consistently every day for a month. It can be something new you want to try, something you want to get better at or something you want to see if you can live without. Once the month is up, you’ll start your next thing. You may or may not choose to continue the previous month’s practice longer if it’s working for you, however, you still need to introduce something new for the new month.

Not sure where to start or want company? Get inspired and feel the support of others when you participate in the Glen Ivy Challenge throughout 2012. At the beginning of each month we will share a new idea rooted within our Wheel of Wellness, such as connecting with nature, nurturing relationships, caring for ourselves with good food and fitness, and suggest activities to practice through the month. This January, our suggested practice is to make a daily note to yourself on the topic of your 2012 intentions. Whether you keep a jotted log on your fridge, or notes on your phone, add a few thoughts each day to reflect on your goals and how to achieve them, your inspirations and your progress.  Everyone is invited to share their progress, successes and challenges with us on Facebook and Twitter using the hashtags #12in12 #GlenIvy.

We hope you will let us know how your intentions are going. Follow Glen Ivy on Facebook to see how others are doing and  share your own successes and challenges.

With the turn of the calendar page, a favorite holiday season begins! Everyone has their own special way of celebrating this time of year, my thoughts immediately go to planning parties, cooking delicious food, the smiles on children’s faces, time to spend with friends and family… However you enjoy the season, the thing that too many of us do have in common is feeling some holiday stress. Since we believe in tackling stress so we can live happier, healthier lives, our December challenge is to put a little bit of Spa into your holiday, to keep it simple and make it meaningful.

I know my favorite way to add Spa to my holiday is to “go to the Spa!” Which is a great idea and we hope that you do. What could be better than a few hours to step away from it all, relax and recharge, even spend some quality time with friends or family at the Spa. But there is more to it than that. Throughout the month we will be offering advice for keeping things simple, from gift giving to planning get-togethers. We will be asking you to do a review of what the season means to you, which things are most important, and ways to keep your focus. You can also count on us for tips for stress relief, healthy and delicious holiday food, and how to get a head start on your new year’s intentions.

Get started…

To get started, we want to hear from you. What is one simple thing that makes your holiday season special and meaningful? Whether it is a tradition, a favorite food, or special memory, please tell us in a comment on Facebook. And since it is the season of giving, we will choose two random comments to receive a gift from our new skincare partner Primavera!

Happy Spa-lidays!

More this Month:

A sampling of the December Guest Programs and Events Schedule for Glen Ivy Hot Springs, complimentary with spa admission:
• Stress-free Spaliday! Saturday December 10 at Glen Ivy Hot Springs
• Scents of the Season, Handmade Aromatherapy Gifts with Paula Hamilton
• Creating Loving Holiday Celebrations with Ariel Hubbard
• Gifts from the Garden with Patrick Mitchell
• Natural and Eco Friendly Holiday Gift Wrapping Ideas
• Traditional Mexican Holiday Tamales and Chile Relleno with Chef Bill Wavrin

Join us on the Glen Ivy Blog, Facebook and Twitter for updates.

Getting Healthier and Happier with GRATITUDE

Did you know that something as simple as making time to express and receive gratitude for everyday experiences can be key to your greater health, happiness and wellbeing?

Yes, it’s a fact! Being thankful is not only good manners, but it is good for you too. The effects of gratitude on our wellbeing is a fast emerging area of scientific study, and considered by many experts in the field to be the “forgotten factor” in happiness research. Studies are now showing that being grateful can increase your happiness level by 25%, increase the amount of time you spend exercising, lower levels of stress and depression, help you sleep better, and even help you kids do better in school.
When I first began to explore the idea of gratitude I was thinking in the simplest of terms and what my mother taught me—my manners: to say please and thank you almost automatically, to always write a thank you note—but those early lessons did not always include taking the time to mindfully acknowledge the value of what “giving thanks” truly meant.  So began a deeper look into gratitude and the idea behind this month’s challenge.

I began by taking a moment to pause and be present and focused on the recipient of my thanks. But as I read more, I learned that there are actually scientific studies that report that “practicing gratitude” on a daily basis can be transformational.

Every event good or bad offers an opportunity to learn and grow, and when we choose to live thinking in terms of  gratitude it can help us overcome other emotions such as fear, grief, envy or greed. Psychologists doing their Research Project on Gratitude and Thankfulness at the University of Miami have found that practicing gratitude can actually improve our emotional and physical well-being. Their studies found that people who keep weekly gratitude journals had fewer physical symptoms, exercised more, had a better outlook on life and were more likely to reach their goals. People who practiced daily gratitude “had more high-energy positive moods,” felt more connected to others, and felt more positive about life.

Practicing gratitude can also strengthen relationships. The scientists noted that simply saying “thank you” sends a message not only to one’s partner but to oneself as well. It changes our self-perceptions and reinforces one’s desire for a mutually supportive relationship and increases dependency, which triggers trust and in turn deepens a relationship. In this way, saying “thank you” initiates a spiral of kindness and appreciation in relationships.

“This month, we broaden our focus of self-care as we embrace our October theme to Support a Cause. Through lending a hand and giving of our time or resources, we seek to share the wellspring of health, happiness and fun that is the daily practice at Glen Ivy Hot Springs.”

Throughout the year Glen Ivy offers advice, guidance and reminders on the importance of taking time to care for ourselves. In the course of our busy, sometimes overburdened lives, we often forget to turn within to listen to the subtle messages of our bodies and still, quiet whispers of our soul. At Glen Ivy, we embrace and offer experiences anchored in the Seven Timeless Truths of Spa as a means to create a space to reconnect with ourselves and nurture personal wellness. We are reminded that by honoring oneself through taking time for good food, discovering a connection with nature, by keeping our bodies healthy and fit and enjoying healing treatments and therapies, through finding a deeper sense of wellbeing, seeking knowledge to learn and grow and through nurturing relationships, we connect with a wellspring of health and wellbeing that allows us to feel happier about ourselves and our lives.

Nurturing this deeper sense of individual wellbeing is often thought to be selfish; becoming the impetus for many to abandon a regimen of personal wellbeing. However, those that stay the course and dive deeply into practices of uncompromising self-care discover that when filled with the joy of a healthy and vibrant body, mind and soul, there is a sense of connection with humanity and an unselfishness that can only be experienced when acting from a place of fullness. This month, we broaden our focus of self-care as we embrace our October theme to Support a Cause. Through lending a hand and giving of our time or resources, we seek to share the wellspring of health, happiness and fun that is the daily practice at Glen Ivy Hot Springs.

In a sense, our challenge to Support a Cause is a focused celebration of the overflow of goodness that results from our daily observance of self care, and throughout the month we will be providing opportunities to give back to the community. On October 13^th and 27^th local nursing home residents will receive an uplifting gift of container gardens created by you in flower pots bearing your artwork.  Members of Glen Ivy’s Facebook and Twitter communities will be invited to make a difference by donating just $1 to various causes supported by philanthroper.com. On October 23^rd, we will gather for Glen Ivy’s first annual Women’s Health Day, which features speakers, presenters and classes that support various aspects of Women’s Health.  Ten dollars of each regularly-priced admission collected on this day will be donated to Casa de Paz, an Inland Empire women’s shelter and transitional living facility for victims of domestic violence. To learn more about Women’s Health Day, please visit Women’s Health Day.

We look forward to seeing you,

Seraphina Ashe
Director of Guest Experience Programming
Glen Ivy Hot Springs

More this Month:

A sampling of the October Guest Programs and Events Schedule for Glen Ivy Hot Springs, complimentary with spa admission:
• Master Chef Series with Chef Bill Wavrin, 4 new classes this month!
Healthy Burgers, Knife Skills, Pizza & Calzones, Holiday Tips
• Indigenous for a Day with Patrick Mitchell
• First Annual Women’s Health Day October 23
• The Power of Mindful Meditation with Royce Morales
• The Glen Ivy Grotto Masquerade

Tips and Advice:
• Fitness for Good, with Meg Root
• Glen Ivy Wheel of Wellness (download pdf)

This September the Glen Ivy Challenge encourages you give yoga a try!

When Heather Wyborny, a yoga instructor at Glen Ivy, teaches her yoga class on the soft, grassy lawn in front of the Spa, she often begins with the question,  “Is anyone trying yoga for the first time?”  There is rarely an occasion when a number of hands don’t raise timidly into the air indicating that they are yoga newbies. This may be surprising to many of you who regularly enjoy the healthful benefits yoga.  The popularity of yoga in the United States has skyrocketed over the past two decades, creating a multi-billion dollar industry with a multi-million population of avid followers.  As the pace of our lives has gained the speed and intensity of a locomotive without brakes, people are looking for ways to slow down and live a more balanced life. Yoga’s tremendous popularity suggests that many have found the solution in a regular yoga practice.

Yet with all the interest, and sometimes hype, surrounding this ancient practice, there are still many of you who, for one reason or another, have not had the opportunity to experience the enjoyment of yoga. Perhaps you have felt intimidated by the pictures of fit, flexible people on the cover of magazines demonstrating beautiful, but challenging yoga poses. You may think to yourself, I could never do that! Trust me, you don’t have to do that to do yoga. You may feel shy about taking your first class, or fearful that you will have to stand on your head or chant “OM” at the end of class. Yes, both these things happen in yoga classes, but not all yoga classes. Look for our guide to finding the right yoga style for you. It could be as simple as a budget thing. Yoga classes can be expensive if money is tight. In truth, there are many affordable yoga opportunities out there for you. We’ll even show you how you can do yoga in your own home for free!

So, for the month of September, which by the way, has been designated National Yoga Month by the Department of Health and Human Services, we have made it our Wellness Team Mission to join this grass roots effort to raise awareness of the proven health benefits of yoga.  And judging from the responses to our August Glen Ivy Spa Challenge, “Ten Minutes to a Happier, Healthier You,” many of you are seeking just the kind of mind-body, stress reducing, confidence boosting benefits that yoga has to offer! During the month ahead, we plan to bring you a variety of educational and experiential opportunities, both on site and virtual, to introduce you to the practice of yoga and how you might benefit. Our blog, Facebook posts and programming at the Hot Springs will swell with fun, useful, and practical information about traveling the yoga path. Here are just a few of the things we have planned to support your journey onto the mat:

• Look for our beginner’s guide to yoga, complete with a glossary of yoga terminology and descriptions of the various yoga styles to help you find the best fit.
• Check out our weekly activity schedule at the Hot Springs. We offer a variety of yoga classes, and all levels are welcome. We will also be hosting special guest presenters this month, who will guide you through Partner Yoga (September 15th), Theta Yoga (September 16th), and Inner Yoga (September 23rd).
• Thursday, September 8th we celebrate health and wellness with an exciting day of “hooping” with Hoopnotica! Our Hula-Rama celebration will include a full schedule of yoga, stretch and water fitness classes throughout the day.
• On September 10th we will be doing yoga simultaneously with thousands of other beginners and yoga enthusiasts as part of Salutation Nation.
• On September 9th and 20th, yoga gets wet with Aqua Yoga. Experience how the water can enhance the benefits of yoga in a buoyant environment that’s easy on the joints.
• Follow our Blog and Facebook posts from your home or office, and we will set you up with a yoga routine you can do anywhere, anytime.

So, get ready to step on to your mat (No mat? No problem!)  This is our official invitation for you to join us for National Yoga Month. And if you are not sure what’s in it for you, here are “10 Great Reasons to Practice Yoga” to help get you started. Throughout the month we also encourage you to share your stories, ask us questions, and let us know how you are doing along the way. You never know how your experience may inspire others to step onto the wellness path.

Namaste,
Meg Root

Meg Root is an ACE Certified Advanced Health and Fitness Specialist who works as a wellness educator and personal trainer in Corona, California. She has enjoyed the benefits of a personal yoga practice for over twenty years, with her primary focus on the Iyengar style of yoga, which puts specific emphasis on proper alignment in the yoga postures.  She has completed yoga teacher training workshops through UC Riverside Extension, and has also attended Iyengar Yoga training workshops with Senior Iyengar Yoga Teachers,  Manouso Manos and Dean Lerner.

Our Monthly Challenge to you this August is “Be Healthier and Happier in 10 Minutes a Day.”

There are one thousand four hundred and forty minutes in a single day (that’s 1,440!). Subtract the 400 or so that you sleep an that leaves 1,040 for all that you do in your waking hours. What if you could take just 10 of those minutes each day to focus on something happier and healthier in your life (even if it meant getting 10 minutes less sleep?)

Would it be enough to make a difference?

We think so.

Because most of us have full and busy lives with work, family and a long list of to-dos, often our best intentions can get sabotaged, and making time for healthy living can end up at the bottom of the list. We do understand, and we have all been there. So that is why we’ve made the Glen Ivy August Challenge a little less challenging, by asking you, “How can you live a healthier, happier lifestyle using only 10 minutes of your day?”  That’s it… just 10 minutes! Whether it is something you choose to do at the same time each day, or taking 10 minutes to do something different at different times of the day, it all counts.

To help you along, we will be sharing healthy living tips from our resident spa experts, including:

• Fast Food in your own kitchen with Chef Bill
• The 10 minute Flash Fitness workout with Fitness Expert Meg
• Reduce work stress in a 10 minute meditation with Seraphina
• Connecting with nature: 10 minutes outside with Patrick

It’s easy to participate. Use a calendar, any calendar will work, (your phone, day runner, or computer) and make a note each day on how you spent those 10 precious minutes. You may also want to set an alarm on your watch or phone as a reminder.

Need some incentive? At the end of each week, send us your calendar and a few thoughts on how the challenge has made a difference (or not) in your life. And, because we are in the business of helping folks make regular time for a FULL DAY of healthier living, all responses will be entered into a drawing to WIN a complimentary admission to Glen Ivy Hot Springs.

Just send us an email to contest@glenivy.com and show us how you used daily 10 minutes during the past week, plus any notes on how it affected your schedule and overall well being:

• You can list your activities or just send a snapshot of your daytimer, whatever works for you.

• Include your name and contact information

• Please let us know whether we may share your comments and/or images, and attribute with your first name and last initial, or anonymously.

We will draw one random winner each week to receive a One Day Spa Admission to Glen Ivy Hot Springs, draws will be done the following Monday for the past week.

It is our hope that you will discover many that are so easy to implement that you will use them every day, and keep adding more. Before you know it, you will have adjusted your routine and be healthier (and happier!).

Good luck, the clock started ticking on this challenge August 1st!

More this Month:

A sampling of the August Guest Programs and Events Schedule for Glen Ivy Hot Springs, complimentary with spa admission:
• Vision Board Treasure Mapping with Seraphina Ashe
• Succulent Gardening with Shannon Ballew
• Chilled Summer Soups cooking class with Chef Bill Wavrin
• The Power of Mindful Meditation with Royce Morales
• Create Your Own Positive Affirmation Cards with Crystal Guiterrez

Tips and Advice:
• Smart phone app review, from naps to recipes
• Glo Make Up artists share Back to School Make Up Tricks
• Glen Ivy Wheel of Wellness (download pdf)

This July Glen Ivy invites you to join us for our monthly challenge as we “Explore. Dream. Discover.”

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
— Mark Twain

If you have spent time at Glen Ivy, you understand spa lifestyle is about renewal — the way we live our lives, what we do with our bodies, our relationships, the way we eat, and especially, how we see our own potential. This is the philosophy that inspires our growing program of fitness classes, creative workshops, and retreats and this July, it is our challenge to you, our spa guest and friend, is to join us and embrace this philosophy in your every day. Step out of your routine to explore something new, discover new interests and ideas. The relaxed summer season offers endless ways and opportunities to do this easily and inexpensively. You can interpret this challenge in any way that leads you to try something new to you, from being a tourist in your own town to tackling a project or spending time getting to know the people near you better… And, when planning your next spa visit, deepen your experience by trying one of our many classes included with your admission.

Check Back for More this Month…

• Explore Your Backyard, and find fun close to home
• Join the Glen Ivy Spa Book Club! A fun read, online discussions, and a spa day wrap up!
• Photo Contest: Get cameras clicking for this fun and spontaneous competition
• Celebrating Service: Glen Ivy Day Spas show their appreciation to those who commit their lives to bettering ours.

A sampling of the July Guest Programs and Events Schedule for Glen Ivy Hot Springs
• July 2: Have some muddy fun with flowerific results with “Bomb the Blight”
• July 5: Acoustic Island Music at the Lounge Pool with special guest Tini Grey
• July 11: Summer Vegetable Gardening with Patrick Mitchell
• July 15: Be a Savvy Supermarket Shopper with special guest Melissa Hopper
• July 20: Summer BBQ Cooking class with Chef Bill Wavrin

Tips and Advice:
• Glen Ivy Wheel of Wellness (download pdf)
• Summer Sun Savvy
• Glen Ivy Staff share their Top 10 Favorite Side Trips

Stay connected with Facebook and Twitter. We want to hear from you, tell us how you are taking the challenge and what you learned!

“We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.” — George Bernard Shaw

As children, June brought the excitement of finishing a school year and giddy anticipation of summer vacation, the possibilities for fun seemed endless.  For me it was long hot days for doing whatever I liked, hopscotch and sandcastles, ice cream and water guns, picking peas in grandma’s garden, playing kick the can with my cousins, reading comics when it rained, going on road trips with my dad. This June, Glen Ivy wants you to recapture your childhood whimsy from summers past, and our challenge to you is “Add More Play to Your Day.”

You can start by taking a few moments each day and do something fun, silly, imaginative, or pleasurable. We have made a “PLAY” List to inspire a great start. We also encourage you keep a journal of your play, jotting down what you did and how it made you feel. This might sound like a bit of foolish indulgence, but Play is healthy! We recognize that play is a valuable part of developmental learning for children, a way to exert energy, relieve stress and relax, and  studies show that these benefits exist regardless of age. Good health (less of the bad stress, more of the good stress), loving relationships, life-long learning, and increased creativity are some of the many benefits of play.

Check Back for More to Come this Month:

• Be Spontaneous, Surprise Yourself
• Introducing the Glen Ivy Spa Book Club!
Join us for a fun read and online discussion, of “The School of Essential Ingredients” by Erica Bauermeister, beginning Saturday, June 11.
• Fun and Silly Father’s Day Contest starting Tuesday, June 7 on our Blog
• 10 Tips for a FUN Spa party!

A sampling of the June Guest Programs and Events Schedule for Glen Ivy Hot Springs:

• Create a Soul Portrait “Playshop” with Suzan Tusson
• Acoustic Guitar at the Lounge Pool with Ernesto Ale
• Learn to Make Spatini’s at Home with Chef Bill Wavrin
• Play in the dirt: Summer Vegetable Gardening with Patrick Mitchell

Tips and Advice:

• Fun Outdoor Fitness Q & A with Meg Root
• Summer Beauty Tips
• Play with your Food! Healthy eating fun with recipes from Chef Bill Wavrin
Stay connected with Facebook and Twitter. We want to hear from you, tell us how you are taking the challenge and what you learned!

Renew! This is our Glen Ivy challenge for May… No, not that library book that’s overdue, or your driver’s license, but you. And more specifically how can we help you reNEW your NEW year’s resolutions.  January was almost 6 months ago and if your resolutions were anything like ours they might have been focused on living a happier, healthier life, exercising more, stressing less, spending more time with loved ones, and less time with bad habits… In any event, we hope that you will take this month of May to join us in a 360° renewal challenge.

Like a circle with 360˚, our lives work in a similar way. Whether for a day, week, a month or a year, we can find this cyclical pattern in our routines and activities, within the seasons of ourselves and the greater world around us.

This simple concept has inspired us to devote the entire month of May to explore the many opportunities in a single 24 hour day that are sure to bring you lasting renewal — from choosing the right wake up alarm to all that goes into insuring a good night’s sleep.

Many of our guests tell us that when they come to the spa, it is because they NEED that day away… we hope that our May Renewal Challenge will nurture a fresh sensibility and awareness of the ways you can enjoy a little bit more of what you “need” from Glen Ivy during all those days in between your spa visits.

Welcome to the May challenge!
The clock is officially ticking… Get rolling with these tips to Start Your Day with a Smile.

More this Month…

• Take a short respite anywhere, anytime with the Glen Ivy Finger Labyrinth. Read more about the restorative qualities of Labyrinth’s as they have been around for hundreds of years
• Coming soon, check out our new 360° Wheel of Wellness download (or pick one up at the spa)—an invaluable tool created by our spa experts to help you on your path to a renewed you!
• National Better Sleep Month, take this Sleep Quiz to see if you are getting enough
• Recharge and Renew, Creating Relaxing Space and other Spat at Home Projects

Check out these and many other of the great new Guest Programs and Events Schedule available this May at Glen Ivy Hot Springs, many with a Mother & Daughter themes in honor of Mother’s Day:

• Mother & Daughter Sushi Making Class
• Acoustic Guitar at the Lounge Pool
• Eat Well, Live Well: Nutrition for a Healthier You
• Gardening on the Wild Side

Tips and Advice:
• Fitness Expert Meg Root talks about when Stuff Happens
• Easy Spa at Home Recipes
• Notes and recipes from Glen Ivy’s Executive Chef Bill Wavrin

Stay connected with Facebook and Twitter. We want to hear from you, tell us how you are taking the challenge and what you learned!