about asante

 

JOY AND WELL-BEING

 

It is our belief that we often look for things outside of us to bring us what we want to feel inside. For instance, we sometimes think that if we look beautiful outside (to others), we will feel more beautiful inside. Further, we sometimes rush to a spa to provide us a tranquil environment outside because we yearn for tranquility inside.

 

Ironically, by looking outside of ourselves for answers, we sometimes miss the answers within. By looking for something in the future to help us feel peaceful and joyous, we miss the golden opportunity to find the stillness available in this moment. We live with a frame of reference so much outside of us and in the future that we can miss the joy and well-being we already have.

 

Our purpose is to provide you with the services you desire in a way that allows you greater access to the feelings of peace, and joy and well-being that you yearn for and yet already possess within.

 

Our core purpose is "to celebrate joy and well-being." And we say "celebrate" because we know that we only have to remind ourselves that we have access to joy in order to connect with it. It's all here and now.

 

A New Kind of Spa

 

What's special about Asante? We're a fusion of services and products aimed at meeting these growing needs and requests in our society:

• for an authentically holistic spa that provides
  substantive alternative health and healing services.
• for uncompromisingly effective, natural, and organic
  beauty services and products.
• for us as individuals to be conscious, joyous, and
  stress-free in every moment our lives.
• for extraordinary holistic health services and
  education that promotes nutrition, fitness,
  self-empowerment, spirituality, and more.

In short, Asante is a combination of a natural beauty spa, an alternative medicine, massage, and healing center, and a holistic health and education facility.

 

And that's why our name is so long: "day spa and holistic health center." We hope in the next decade that all spas will provide the breadth and quality of spa beauty, health, healing, and educational services we do. Then we'll be able to shorten our name to simply "Asante Day Spa." Until that time, our long name stays and so does our enthusiasm about what we're innovating with you.

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The "Natural Spa"

 

We call ourselves "The Natural Spa." We admit that the term "natural" has limitations because it means so many different things to different people.

 

So what do we mean by natural? We'll start with what we don't mean by it. By "natural" we're not referring to "fru-fru," "woo-woo," "granola-like," nor "macramé-inspired." Alright, some of our healing services may appear "woo-woo" to the uninitiated. We're also not saying "no make-up" either (although we think it's great to feel like you don't need it all the time). After all, we do offer extraordinary spa beauty services.

 

By natural, we mean different things depending on the subject and context. When we say "obsessively natural skin-care products," we're describing our intention to support you in becoming so healthy that eventually you will be able to use only skin-care solutions that are so natural you would happily eat or bathe in them.

 

By natural beauty, we may be referring to relishing the natural beauty that we see in you when you're experiencing a moment of joy and desire.

 

By natural, we're also referring to the types of questions we ask ourselves. For instance, "Will this solution facilitate or impede the body's natural ability to heal itself?" or "What exists in nature that informs us of an appropriate solution?" or "Is this the most natural solution we can find?"

 

By natural we sometimes (loosely) mean "organic", i.e., free of pesticides and genetic modification—natural. Our planet had a pretty good track record of maintaining a natural balance in food production before pesticides and gene splicing came along.

 

So, when we call ourselves "The Natural Spa" it's not to invite comparison with other spas but rather to inform you of the intentions that live behind our questions and answers and your solutions.

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Authentically Holistic

 

By "holistic", we refer to treating your whole being: body, mind, spirit, and environment. For example, when we evaluate a skin-care product, we consider potential results and impacts upon all systems of the body and environment, not simply the skin. When we think of your health, we consider your health as an individual, as a member of a family system, and as a member of your broader environment. That's why, for instance, we provide family massage services, holistic education workshops and classes, and alternative health services, and also why we have gathered a network of holistic MDs, dentists, ophthalmologists, and chiropractors to whom we can introduce you.

 

By "authentic" we mean the way we examine our own commitment to holism, not anyone else's. Judgments don't serve; they only separate. We ask ourselves questions like, "Are we being authentic to our commitment to find the most holistic and natural solution available?" "Is there a solution that is even more organic and natural?" "How will this ingredient affect the entire system?"

 

Holistic Values in Perspective

 

The academic and business communities have now identified a population of 60 million adult Americans (1 out of every 3.5 adults, and vastly more outside the U.S.) who share deeply the following values: health of body, mind, spirit, and planet; sustainability, spirituality, authenticity, and social fairness. Sound holistic? This values-based group is called the Cultural Creatives.

 

While this group is estimated to be growing at between 20 and 30 percent a year, other identified values-based groups are shrinking. Cultural Creatives comprise people from every race and socioeconomic background. They are responsible for the growth of alternative medicine in the U.S.—a $275 billion per year industry—and for the growth of stores like Whole Foods (30% annually), and the ever increasing demand for organically grown products. Because Cultural Creatives appear so culturally and economically different from one another, they have yet to realize that they are a group.

 

Asante shares these same values, deeply. And we just want to remind you that if you do as well, you are not alone. There are more who share your yearnings than you might have known. The health and the world you have wished for is coming, despite your doubts in the past.

 

So, when we entitled this web page title "About Us," we were referring to you and us, all of us. We really are all in this together. Now that's holism.

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Holistic Education Services

 

Many spas have emerged out of a beauty-salon environment. Asante, on the other hand, has emerged out of a holistic healing arts education tradition. We are affiliated by ownership and management with The World School of Massage and Holistic Healing Arts, which has been training healers, massage therapists, and holistic health practitioners throughout the Bay Area for more than 23 years. We provide holistic educational services and workshops at our San Rafael and Pleasanton locations in conjunction with the World School. What this signifies practically is that:

 

• we're as concerned with what you put inside as
  what appears superficially on your skin.
• we're as interested in understanding the broader
  picture of your health as we are in addressing
  the "problems" (symptoms of detoxification and
  self-repair) that are revealing themselves now.
• we're as dedicated to making self-improvement
  resources available to you as we are products.
• we're as invested in providing holistic health services as we are beauty services.
• we're as desirous of paying as much attention to our thoughts and feelings about ourselves and you as to what we say and do, for we know that our thoughts and feelings affect yours.

 

Sustainable Health and Skin-Care Solutions

 

Your skin reflects your inner state of health and balance. Skin "problems" are usually not "problems" at all. They are your body's attempt to eliminate unwanted toxins—toxins such as the chemicals that appear as ingredients in most spa products. As such, these symptoms are a sign of your body's natural self-repair and balancing.

 

Sadly, many spa products sold today alleviate symptoms, while failing to treat the underlying causes. Worse still, many are designed to promote long-term product dependency. Such approaches do not meet our standards for "sustainability" because they deepen the underlying causes of the "problem." They are actually part of the problem, not the solution.

 

Knowing that your skin is a pathway for your body's natural detoxification processes, we choose only those solutions we know will either nourish your body or which your body can safely absorb and assimilate. We choose long-term, sustainable skin care approaches that enhance life, longevity, vitality and reverse ageing.

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Obsessively Natural Health and Skin-Care Products

 

Have you checked the labels on your health and skin-care products lately? We compulsively avoid the use of chemical products that your skin and body must ultimately eliminate. Our products are free of dyes, artificial fragrances, lanolin, propylene glycol, parabens, sodium lauryl sulfate, heavy metals, petroleum and its by-products, artificial colors, curious numbers, and names that sound like they come from a chemical lab.

 

Your skin efficiently absorbs much of what you apply to it. Your body eliminates what it cannot tolerate, often through the skin. That's often why people develop skin "conditions." Therefore, we have a question for you:

 

Why would you be willing to put anything on your skin (e.g., chemicals and known toxins) that you wouldn't be willing to put in your mouth or at least bathe in?

 

When this question becomes your starting point, then maybe our use of the word "obsessive" isn't really excessive after all.

 

Our commitment to excellence

 

We're committed to results, to elegance, and to excellence. We consider these values intrinsically fun and compelling. For this reason we've hired a quality improvement expert as part of our management team to help design our business from top to bottom. We've got a long way to go to meet our continuously emerging standards for excellence, yet we're relishing the creativity of inventing a new approach to health and beauty. Our customers tell us they appreciate it too.

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Asante's invitation to the spa industry

 

Since totally effective and natural solutions for skin care already exist, why not take advantage of them? If we already know that our bodies have not yet evolved to assimilate and transmute manufactured chemicals, why consume or absorb them?

 

Many of the spas and even alternative health-care organizations have yet to embrace truly holistic, natural and organic standards for skin-care beauty. We would like to extend an invitation to all spas in the industry: if you are interested in providing your customers with only the most health-enhancing products or solutions, call us. We would treasure an opportunity to open a dialogue with you about safe and healthful products and services. We may learn some things from one another. Most important, let's join together in creating ever-greater demand for authentically healthful products in the skin-care industry.

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