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