The Spa Treatment That’s All About Self-Love
A treatment at the Four Seasons Punta Mita spa is all about self love — and roses. (Photo: Jon Paterson)
When you think of spas and Valentine’s Day what comes to mind is a couples’ massage, likely with some red rose petals strewn about. But you don’t need your significant other to indulge in the Four Seasons Punta Mita’s newest menu addition. Inspired by ancient Huichol Indian traditions, the Nakierie treatment is a life-balancing ritual designed to create an aura of self-love and acceptance in the recipient. Its name comes from the Huichol word “love,” and it also incorporates traditional ingredients and a special native incense to set the peaceful mood.
Located in the Nayarit Riviera (45 minutes from Puerto Vallarta, Mexico) the resort’s Spa Apuane offers the treatment in a bungalow by the sand. The whole idea, the spa director explains to me, is to stop for a moment, enjoy some time to yourself and connect with your inner being. Meanwhile, the therapist will be making me feel loved. To start, I stand atop red rose petals — a symbol of love, to myself — which are meant to connect me with mother earth, ground me, and clean and balance my energy. My therapist Ana Maria instructs me to close my eyes, and places my hands in the center of my heart chakra where I can feel it beat.
The treatment room for the Nakierie treatment. (Photo: Kathryn Romeyn)
As I stand and breathe slowly, she begins to move a plate of burning copal incense all around my body with reiki-like movements. This is to cleanse my energy, from head to toe. At different points I can feel the heat and inhale the dense fragrance as she outlines my body with the smoke. Copal is something the Huichols would use to bring balance, harmony, prosperity, love, and health to people or places. When she was done, Ana Maria asked me to open my eyes and look up at the bright blue sky. She said a few words about connecting with the nurturing Mother Nature.
Once I was in tune with the earth and her gifts, Ana Maria washed my feet gently with salt infused with spearmint from the garden, and rinsed them with warm sage water. Then on the massage bed, she slowly began dousing me with tequila, one limb or area at a time. In Mexico it turns out they don’t only drink tequila — natives look to it for relief of muscle pain, where after applying it they bathed in hot springs to release tension. In a luxurious spa setting that translated to hot towels applied after the tequila to warm up my muscles, followed by deep lomilomi massage using indigenous sage oil. The combination of the incredibly hydrating oil —which also has physical and emotional healing applications — and muscle-restoring tequila was invigorating yet soothing. And it smelled great. The best part: I was able to shut off my overactive brain completely. I definitely loved that.
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