Article Archive

Valentine Dream

Chocolate Can Sweeten Your Gift-Certificate Sales

For decades, Valentine’s Day has been an excuse to eat as much chocolate as possible. Americans buy an average of thirty-six million heart-shaped boxes of chocolate per year to celebrate the holiday—then probably spend thirty-six million hours in the gym working it off. This year, however, you can offer your clients a guilt-free way to indulge with chocolate-based skin treatments that will leave them feeling lovable inside and out.

Crisis Choices

Taking Care Of Business

The single most courageous act anyone can perform is to take care of the day-to-day, moment-to-moment, sometimes monotonous tasks of living. Taking care of business requires discipline, consistency, delaying of pleasure, and having faith that it is all worthwhile. The small, faith-filled steps of daily maintenance of self, relationship, community, loving, and teaching take, at times, enormous discipline and generosity.

Skin Care Inspiration

Dramatic Events In Iran Lead To New Life In Skin Care

When 23-year-old Pouri Azghandi arrived in the United States in the summer of 1978, she intended to stay only a few months, visiting her brother and some cousins, seeing the sights. She spoke very little English, but she liked America and found the culture not all that different than her own.

Back in Iran, she’d been raised in a middle-class family, had gotten a good education, and had become a social worker. Life in her native Tehran held much promise.

And then the unthinkable happened—events that would keep herfrom her native land and her familyfor 27 years.

Grape Escapes

Wine And Grape Treatments Have A Long Tradition

Americans have known for nearly two decades wine isn’t just good for the soul: it’s also good for the heart. The French paradox—the seeming disconnect between French slenderness and their rich-food habits—spurred extensive studies starting in the early 1990s, concluding wine, especially red wine consumed in moderate amounts, can reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease. But only recently have we begun to rediscover wine is also good for the skin.

Bust Your Rut

Six Steps To Getting Unstuck

If you’re doing the same things over and over, and you’re not happy, you might be in a rut. Maybe you feel bored with life or burned out. Perhaps making your goals a reality seems insurmountable and not even worth trying.

Being stuck in a rut is never fun. It makes you more prone to depression and negative thinking—two things that dig you in even deeper. If you want your situation to change, you must change. The key to making this big change is to make little changes first. These guidelines can help.

Recession-Proofing Your Business

Securing Your Interests During Economic Downturns

We often think about weatherproofing or fireproofing assets like our homes and businesses in case of some unforeseen catastrophe, but most of us generally don’t think about recession-proofing. While recessions are difficult to pinpoint or predict, it’s important to prepare our business now for the economic uncertainties ahead.

According to spa consultant Douglas Preston, president of Preston, Inc., the spa industry has experienced three recessions in the last 24 years, and it now looks as though the industry may be impacted by a fourth.

Free the Body of Sadness

Putting the Pieces Back Together After a Life-Changing Event

Job loss, death, divorce, break-ups, financial strain, and the many challenges life presents are painful and tramautic. Sadness is stored within our bodies, sometime long after we think we've moved on. Addressing the issues in the tissues can in fact help individuals move more quickly through the grieving process to help reclaim stability and, ultimately, happiness. And massage can play a key role.

I define grief as a mental and emotional experience, usually triggered by a traumatic loss, that has physiological correlates associated with deep pain.

White Out

A Flour That’s Not So Pretty

Have you ever wondered if that piece of fluffy white bread, slice of moist cake, or sample of flaky piecrust affects your skin? Why would you? After all, these are just baked goods. The concern with many of these foods is they are prepared with white flour. White flour can cause many skin conditions, including premature aging and acne.

Do Your Homework On Home Work

Ask The Expert

Q: I’m considering providing some of my services in my home and in my clients’ homes, but I’m a little nervous about practicing away from my spa setup. Any tips?

A: Working in a home—yours or that of your clients—can be a safer and more comfortable situation if you know the
common hazards that come with the territory.

Elimination Effect

Beauty From The Inside Out

Do you often wonder why a skin blemish has not resolved or why acne outbreaks continue in spite of countless therapies? If so, you may need to dig a bit deeper and look inside—inside your body, that is. Good digestive health and the health of your colon can mean healthy skin.

The question is, how?

Both the colon and skin are responsible for absorbing and releasing chemicals, water, and other metabolic products. The colon is the largest internal organ in the body. Its function is specifically to absorb food, nutrients, and water.

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