Spirituality

Mountain Shadows Resort in Arizona pairs in-room Reiki with sound baths and cooking classes

Mountain Shadows Resort in Arizona offers bedside Reiki sessions, private sound healing and cooking demonstrations as part of a personalized wellness itinerary, according to a guest account published by Yahoo Creators. The itinerary was arranged through Citizens Curator, the resort's wellness concierge service, and included a Good Night Reiki Ritual meant to clear the mind and relax the body before sleep.

Published

A private Reiki session at bedside#

The guest wrote that a practitioner came to the room on the first night for the Good Night Reiki session, moving her hands above the guest's body while soft music played and she offered quiet verbal affirmations, according to Yahoo Creators. The guest said she had been nervous going in, unfamiliar with the practice, but the practitioner's calm manner put her at ease, Yahoo Creators reports.

Wikipedia describes Reiki as a form of energy healing in which practitioners say a universal life force, or qi, passes through the palms to a client, and it calls the practice pseudoscientific, adding that no empirical backing for such a force has been found. The practice traces to Mikao Usui, who created it in Japan in the 1920s, per Wikipedia.

Sound healing moves from the lawn to the room#

The guest also booked an in-room sound healing session, something she said she had previously only experienced in group settings on a yoga mat laid on a lawn or hard floor, according to Yahoo Creators. In the private room session, she lay in her own bed while sounds and vibrations from crystal bowls moved around her, Yahoo Creators reports.

The stay also included a Healthy Table cooking demonstration led by Chef Charles Wiley, part of the broader wellness programming the guest selected after what she described as a difficult year, according to Yahoo Creators. The resort's interior uses natural materials and desert-toned finishes meant to bring the surrounding scenery into focus, Yahoo Creators reports.

Other West Coast resorts build wellness into their stays#

Other properties outside Arizona lean on similar wellness programming. Rancho Valencia Resort & Spa runs more than 100 fitness classes a week, including sound bathing alongside TRX, boxing and Pilates, and holds yoga and meditation sessions in a 400-year-old French chapel imported from Dijon, according to Locale Magazine.

Closer to Mountain Shadows, Sanctuary Camelback Mountain Resort & Spa, built into the mountainside above Paradise Valley, centers on wellness and dining, with aerial yoga and an award-winning spa among its offerings, according to phoenix.org. The Fairmont Scottsdale Princess gives guests at its Privado Villas complimentary access to the Well & Being Spa alongside private check-in and dedicated villa hosts, phoenix.org reports.

Discover more