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An oasis in the desert: The Wellness Oasis Center
Shelley Gillespie
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Most of us have an ache or pain at some point in our lives. So, we need strategies to help our tired bodies to rejuvenate.
The Wellness Oasis Center is a new facility that helps people “experience the natural, healing wisdom of your body.” Located southwest of Maricopa, the center is a marvel of sustainable and recyclable building and offers a calming, peaceful aesthetic from which to heal.
Owners Jim and Rita Schmidt started the Center as a lifelong dream to incorporate the healthful principles to which they adhere melded with their belief in using the earth’s resources wisely.
Recycling as a way of life
On a recent visit, it is obvious when you have reached the Center. “Wagon wheels” – recycled thinly sliced steel spools – surround the property. The Center is constructed of straw bales with shredded denim wall insulation. Stucco provides a finished desert look to a building that is spacious and open. The facility is solar powered and water is distilled using solar. The Center is an attractive, inviting, impeccably clean “eco-friendly” place. In addition to the solar power, Jim and Rita are planning to add a wind generator. Their electric bill averages only $100 per month for three buildings and they often are reimbursed for unused power.
Encouraging health
Jim, a nationally and state certified massage therapist, is a provider of La Stone Therapy that offers hot and cold stones strategically placed coupled with massage to effect results. He is also a Reiki and therapeutic massage therapist.
Another treatment is a “Far Infra-red ‘sunlight’ sauna,” a soothing sauna that “reduces pain and muscle spasms, detoxifies heavy metals, improves lymph flow …and burns 300-600 calories per session.”
An activated oxygen steam therapy offers a cleansing and “stimulating” experience that increases circulation, helping with healing.
An inversion table, also to speed up circulation, is another offering that can provide a “great spinal stretch.”
Rita is skilled in nutritional microscopy and studies patients’ blood samples to give people an idea of general blood health.
Trying it out
Gina D’Abella and I were invited to try out the facilities so we could experience firsthand what a patient of the Wellness Oasis Center might expect. Rita and Jim say, “The body is a miraculous creation. It knows how to heal itself.” We – with their help – were putting our achy, tired bodies in their care to see what might happen.
First, Gina decided to try the 90-minute hot/cold stone massage. With naturally polished black and white stones, Jim prepared the table for Gina’s experience. Based on Gina’s description of her aches and pains, Jim heated 17 black stones to a temperature of around 130 degrees and chilled two white stones for her lower back where she experiences pain. The stones were gently positioned and covered by layers of cushioning as well as egg crate foam underneath topped with sheepskin. Gina was nervous that the stones would hurt, but her reaction as she stretched out was, “Ah, wow!”
Gina remarked that the experience was “so comfortable.” It’s hard to believe that a bed of stones could be comfortable, but she was luxuriating in the warmth and not jolted by the chilled stones. (The stones come from a site in India where meteors landed.)
After the 90 minutes, Gina commented that her chronic leg pains seemed to have disappeared. She was “rejuvenated, with so much energy.”
Jim said that she could expect to have the good feeling last about three days. Over two weeks later, though, Gina said that, except for one day, her legs felt better than they had in a year!
I, on the other hand, have had numerous aches and pains caused by injuries and had trepidation about trying the stone therapy. Cold makes me jump. Instead, I decided to try out the sauna and the oxygen therapy.
Previous experience in other saunas was generally unpleasant as they made me feel uncomfortably hot and clammy. Wellness Oasis Center’s sauna is constructed of hypoallergenic wood, whose panels are held together with six magnets so there is no out-gassing from chemicals.
Trying out 15 minutes of the usual 30 in the sauna, I enjoyed the pleasant warmth and felt all “glowy” and peaceful. Alerted to drink lots of water, I drank a full pint during what became 20 minutes in the glass-fronted cabinet. (The sauna can seat two, if desired.)
The oxygen steam therapy was next, something I’d never tried before. Because I’m short, Rita helped me adjust the shelf in the cabinet so my head could comfortably extend outside. Distilled water was fed to the unit beneath my seat and circulated around as steam. The feeling was a bit weird, as I’m not used to being enclosed with only my head out, but when I emerged, I felt warm with a sense of well-being.
Both Gina and I passed on using the inverter, but Jim demonstrated how easy it is and how your spine could feel stretched and circulation increased with only a partial inversion.
Blood tells the story
Before we entered the various therapies, Rita prepared slides (a tiny pinprick that really didn’t hurt!) with our blood, which she examined. Gina’s blood was in better shape than mine as she had “good membrane cell structure.” My blood was noted to possibly need more iron, among other comments. We both had chains of blood cells, not the most optimal.
After our therapies, our blood looked much better with fewer chains of blood cells, but mine still showed some “signs of lack of sleep.” No surprise there!
Rita commented that we are “not prisoner to our DNA, but to our addictions and cravings.” We can make positive changes to our bodies.
Results
I’m eager to try the stone therapy after all. Learning Gina’s results, I’m hoping to ease some chronic aches of my own.
The surroundings were inviting with Jim and Rita as easygoing hosts who obviously believe in and live the lifestyle they propose.
Invitation
The Wellness Oasis Center is open by appointment. Call (520) 424-3133 or (651) 485-9891. E-mail healingthrulove@yahoo.com.
Jim and Rita invite the public to try the therapies at half off for the first visit. An open house to view the facility is April 5 from 10 AM - 3 PM.
If you go…Directions: Take SR 347 south from the railroad tracks 11.3 miles to Clayton Road. Right on Clayton and follow for two miles (to the T). Left on Amarillo Valley for 4/10 of a mile, then right on Huisatch. Continue until you see the “wagon wheels.”
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