I am ready to declare Chakras one of the sacred places on the planet. The equivalent of warm, soft chocolate for your whole body. Herb and the girls gave me a gift certificate for Mother’s Day, which I used today for a massage and pedicure.
To be honest, I was a little intimidated by the place, even just looking through the window. It looked like one of those places for people who are used to being pampered. For whom massages and facials and seaweed wraps are everyday kinds of things. Not someone like me, who would worry about what to wear, what to expect, and when, where and how much to tip — and feel awkward no matter what I did.
I started feeling better about the whole thing the day I went in to make the appointment. The woman at the desk was friendly, not snotty, and the place smelled great. If relaxation has a scent, it’s pretty much that wonderful eucalyptus and other elusive herbals that floats through the air at Chakras.
And so it was. Everyone speaks in soft tones, they tell you everything you need to know before you ask, and they have quite literally THOUGHT OF EVERYTHING that might trip up a goober like myself and cause tension or anxiety. The robes are huge and soft, the music is soothing, and the lighting is subdued.
Within the first five minutes of my massage, I was thinking this was worth every penny, no matter what it cost, and wondering why exactly I had waited 40-some years to give this a try. Lizzie, who I had already started to think of as my new best friend, slowly and with gentle deliberation, coaxed all residual tension from each and every muscle in my body.
When I had been transformed to a sentient noodle, she waited for me to get dressed, brought me a cup of water, wrapped a hot scented neckrest around me, and tucked me under an afghan to await my pedicure.
Let me tell you folks, it doesn’t get much better than this.
Valerie, the pedicurist, was equally solicitious, and took such painstaking care in painting my toenails that she made even an anal retentive maniac like me look like a slacker. My toes could hang in the freakin’ Louvre.
These people really get it. There are lots of places out there that sell the idea of pampering, but most of them make the people who most need pampering just feel goofy. Chakras understands that you can’t feel pampered until you feel relaxed, and you can’t relax until you feel comfortable.
As I told a friend who I ran into later, “I just came from Chakras…and all is right with the world.”
Thanks, honey.