Natural Radiance—Desert Revival

By Holly Richmond

You’re exhausted but frenzied. Hungry yet bloated. Your skin is dry and sallow one day, oily and blemished the next. You’re not sick, and nothing is wrong exactly, though nothing is quite right either. Time to recharge and find balance, but where and how? Just follow the sun and head toward the place where spiritual healers have flocked for millennia—to the sacred, stark, and mysterious desert.

“This is the most beautiful place on earth,” wrote Edward Abbey in Desert Solitaire. While this quote reflects the desert surrounding Moab, Utah, the book celebrates the powerful, revivifying physical and spiritual qualities all desert environments possess. Luckily, those seeking rejuvenation will not have to look far—deserts comprise approximately one-third of the earth’s land surface. Although these arid settings offer little rainfall and support limited vegetation and wildlife, buried within this heat-baked milieu lies a vast history of renewal. What looks harsh and unwelcoming one day becomes vital and vibrant the next with a few drops of rain, cool wind, or change of season. We over-worked, under-nurtured souls have the same capacity for regeneration. A holistic cleanse using native plants, integrative therapies, and ancient rituals presents a healthful opportunity to renew the body, mind, and spirit. Tap into the desert’s secrets to slough off the old and extraneous and emerge renewed and ready to rise to the stars.

Sand and simplicity
Why is the desert the ultimate environment for rejuvenation? First and foremost, the desert’s uncompromising quiet fulfills a basic human longing for connectedness within ourselves and with the world around us. “The desert is a teacher of stillness, where absence and clarity are deep-rooted. There is nothing to clutter the landscape, only what is essential,” says Deborah Coryell, Health and Wellness Director of Two Bunch Palms Resort & Spa in Desert Hot Springs, California.

In the desert, cleansing happens almost of its own accord. Victoria Maizes, MD, a medical doctor and executive director of the University of Arizona Program in Integrative Medicine in Tucson, works closely with the program’s director, Dr. Andrew Weil. She says, “The body is constantly detoxing on its own, but some people benefit from additional cleansing practices. By going to a place that encourages elimination, like the desert, you feel healthier.”

Body by desert
Native Americans used desert sand, herbs, plants, and mineral water to cleanse their bodies and renew their spirits at each solstice and equinox. Xihuanel Huerta, a Native American integrative healer from Joshua Tree, California, learned ancient traditions from medicine men from several local tribes. “Immersing the body in desert mud and mineral water has been practiced for centuries,” she explains. “There is a sense of being held and protected when immersed, which gives the body the ability to neutralize frenetic energy and draw out physical impurities.”

Huerta practices privately and at Two Bunch Palms Resort & Spa where she suggests clients try one of the various mud and sun therapies. These cleansing treatments bring together the desert’s indigenous elements including sand and water, as well as plants and herbs like yucca and prickly pear cactus, aloe, tamarisk, sage, and chaparral. Huerta and Coryell both believe heat from the desert sun—an inherent gift of the environment—plays a key role in rejuvenation. Elevated temperatures naturally raise the body’s core temperature, which causes perspiration. Sweat, no matter how unglamorous, serves as the body’s ultimate built-in cleansing system and its first line of defense against toxins. Fortunately, even if you can’t make it to the desert, you can simulate the environment. Generate your own heat with a blanket sweat (see “Desert Spa at Home,” page 36) and then follow up with a gentle scrub such as Two Bunch Palms’ sand and aloe vera scrub. Lisa Ross, spa director, explains that body scrubs, in general, encourage cellular renewal through the exfoliation process. “The sand and aloe vera scrub is particularly renewing because of the highly mineralized desert sand, which is chock full of calcium and lithium, and the native aloe vera gel, which is renowned for its healing properties.” Since desert sand may be hard to come by (note to self: Bring some home on next visit!), Ross says that sand can be replaced with Epsom salt or other highly mineralized salts.

While desert heat and indigenous elements have the potential to be exceptionally therapeutic, they can also be harsh. Once you’ve cleansed, exfoliated, and moisturized your body, you may notice that your hair could use a bit of renewal too. Take your locks from straw-like to diva-worthy with a scalp oil and hair mask that combines moisturizing ingredients with the healing properties of desert plants and herbs. Chaparral, one of the oil’s key ingredients, is an evergreen desert shrub famed for its antibacterial properties. (Although much controversy surrounds the use of chaparral taken internally, topical applications of the herb are generally regarded as safe.)

The final aspect of a holistic cleanse calls on the spirit, which, like our skin, becomes more beautiful with heightened luminosity. Maizes believes a renewed spirit welcomes revelations and says the most important thing living in the desert taught her is to pay attention. “Yes, I’m looking out for cactus and snakes, but I’m also open to seeing truthfulness in the absence of distraction. The desert brings an intense level of clarity to life for which I am ever grateful.”

Desert Spa at Home
Bring a bit of the desert into your home this winter with three spa-tested
treatments that will cleanse and rejuvenate your body and soul.

Blanket Sweat
Part of Native American cleansing rituals for centuries, blanket sweats raise the body’s core temperature, which causes perspiration that speeds up the elimination of toxins. To try a blanket sweat at home, Deborah Coryell, health and wellness director at Two Bunch Palms Resort & Spa, in California, suggests these simple steps:

Cover your bed with three to four wool blankets laid on top of each other. Take a shower or bath that is very warm but not uncomfortable, and dry off quickly. Use towels to wrap your body and head. Lie down and cover yourself in the blankets for 15 to 30 minutes.

Sand and Aloe Vera Scrub
Pour 1/2 cup finely sifted desert sand (or mineral salt) into a medium-size bowl. Stir in 1/2 cup pure aloe vera gel. Mix until the sand is fully coated in gel and moist to the touch. Step

into the shower without turning water on and apply small handfuls of the scrub to the body starting at the feet. Work up the legs to the torso and chest using small circular motions. Let dry for 10 minutes. Remove scrub with a warm shower. Follow with a soothing, highly moisturizing body oil.

Scalp Oil With Aloe Vera Hair Mask
In an 8-ounce bottle, mix 1 ounce of jojoba oil with 7 ounces of olive oil. Add 1 teaspoon chaparral extract. Let sit overnight.

Pour 1/4 cup of hot water in a bowl, and place bottle in water to warm the oil. Let sit for three minutes. Remove bottle from bowl of water and generously apply oil to the hair and scalp. When hair is coated in oil, apply 1/4 cup of pure aloe vera gel to hair and scalp. Wrap in a towel and leave on for one to two hours. Rinse, shampoo, and condition hair as usual.

Desert-inspired treatments
If a desert trip figures in your future, you may want to plan a stop for one (or all!) of these desert spa treatments.

Turquoise wrap
Golden Door Spa, The Boulders Resort, Carefree, Arizona (www.theboulders.com) Based on the Native American belief that the color turquoise denotes self-confidence, protection, and positive energy, the treatment begins with a gentle exfoliation using Hopi blue cornmeal, followed by a warm, ionized turquoise clay wrap. During the wrap, the therapist performs a rainstick ritual and uses traditional essential oils to help cleanse the spirit. After a warm shower, the treatment concludes with a full-body honey masque and a steam.

Resurrection Facial
Red Mountain Spa, Ivins, Utah (www.redmountainspa.com)
A hydrating face treatment with 24-hour hydration from trehalose, an anti-aging botanical. Trehalose is a hydro-active sugar derived from the resurrection plant (found in desert regions) combined with phospholipids, honey, hibiscus, and evening primrose oil. Designed to restore balance and smooth texture to dry or dehydrated skin. Recommended for skin that’s depleted and dry.

Native American Renewal
Two Bunch Palms, Desert Hot Springs, California (www.twobunchpalms.com)
The package includes a sauna, blessings from the Four Directions, a sand and aloe scrub, and an herbal oil massage.