Peace of My Mind

I rarely have a hard time letting my body relax, it’s getting my brain to follow suit that is nearly impossible. But I recently met my mental match in the form of The Calm Mind Retreat, a new 80-minute massage treatment at The Spa at the Mandarin Oriental, New York. After helping me to select a body oil, Jim, my masseur, got to work on my spine, shoulders, neck, and head. Chalk it up to the clary sage in the body oil (Jim told me that chemically it is very similar to laughing gas), but somewhere between the cranial work and having my hands and feet enveloped in plastic bags full of warm oil and then placed in what felt like electric oven mitts, I completely forgot about my to-do list and just…checked out. Honestly, I was lucky to be able to remember my locker combination afterward.