Keep Cornwall Beautiful

Sunday, 29 June 2011

 

Have you visited Cornwall? Do you care about keeping our natural environment beautiful?

Can you spare 2 minutes, then, to do your bit to protect Cornwall's areas of outstanding natural beauty?

All we want you to do is fill in a short online survey about your trip to Cornwall.

Red Hotels Ltd, owners of Bedruthan Steps and the Scarlet hotels, is supporting sustainable tourism enterprise CoaST with its project comparing sustainable practices in national parks and protected areas in Europe. CoaST's aim is to discover how we can improve our practices here in Cornwall.

CoaST is an independent body and social enterprise based in a refurbished barn in Cornwall. CoaST consists of 3 women and 1 man who variously:
    •    encourage,
    •    inform,
    •    network,
    •    research,
    •    lobby,
    •    measure,
    •    persuade,
    •    object,
    •    question,
    •    bend ears,
    •    break boundaries and
    •    never knowingly give up.

Most of Cornwall's visitors come for the environment and visit one or more of the 12 distinctive Cornwall Areas of Outstanding Natural
Beauty (AONB) during their stay.

We are asking you - followers and friends of Bedruthan Steps and the Scarlet hotels, and as visitors to Cornwall - to answer a few simple questions about how we can develop sustainable tourism in Cornwall's beautiful protected areas.

CoaST's short survey only takes 2 minutes of your time, and we would really appreciate it if you could complete in the survey online.  The deadline is 31st July 2011.

Click here to complete the survey.

Find out here what else Bedruthan Steps and the Scarlet do that is sustainable.

Thank you so much for helping.  If you have any questions, please contact:
Marja
At CoaST
01872-562057
info@coastproject.co.uk

 

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Anniversary weekend at the Scarlet

Tuesday, 10 June 2011

Thanks to Ben and Zoe Hughes for sending us these pictures of their highjinks on Mawgan Porth Beach and the dramatic sunset photos of the Scarlet.

We are  glad you had a brilliant anniversary stay with us.

See you again soon!

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A Spa with a Difference - Ayurveda is our Inspiration

Sunday, 01 June 2011

By Genevra Fletcher

 

 "My therapist was lovely about the sobbing -

even when I drenched her plush spa towels with tears and snot."

 

Feeling a little out of sorts? Chances are that trying a little traditional Indian homeopathy is unlikely to be top of your list of possible pick-me-ups.

And if I were to ask you what your dosha type is? If you're anything like I was before I learned about dosha, your response is likely to be "What's my what?"

Yet Ayurveda – which comes from the Sanskrit words for “longevity” (ayus) and “related to knowledge” (veda) – is gently becoming more mainstream here in the west.

 

The Scarlet spa is Ayurveda-inspired; it is the holistic ethos that appeals to us. What does that mean? I suppose what it means is that the Scarlet spa focuses on treating the whole person, working holistically to identify and redress emotional, physiological or spiritual imbalances rather than merely responding to symptoms.

 

Massage is an important part of it, working on marma (vital) points around the body, to open up and realign energy channels and is the focus of much of our treatments at the spa.

 

My skeptic's mind would be tempted to dismiss all this talk of marma points, realignment and energy channels, had I not experienced the power of a Scarlet spa massage myself a few months ago.

I had been coming to terms with a bereavement and my lovely boss sent me off to the Scarlet spa for the afternoon for a therapeutic massage. For the first time in months, I actually relaxed and let go. Of course, the old flood gates opened too (not a pre-requisite of an Ayurveda-inspired massage, I assure you).

 

My therapist Bev was lovely about the sobbing - even when I drenched her plush spa towels with tears and snot - and I really did go away with a clear mind, a lightness of step and a deeper understanding of myself, which is what the spa director says is her aim in our marketing blurb.

 

A case of a spa really doing what it says on the tin.

 

Ayurveda is 6,000 years old and  still used widely in India to prevent and treat illness through lifestyle interventions and natural therapies. In Western medicine, Ayurveda is classed as a complementary or alternative medicine (CAM) that is used to complement, not replace, any treatment or advice a patient may be receiving from their existing doctor.

 

Massage - as I discovered - really can release blockages, putting body and mind back in synergy with each other. Ayurveda also uses herbal remedies to combat ailments which are traditionally treated in the West with prescription medicine.

 

Ayurvedic medicine is all about balance. The idea is that if there's an imbalance in body or mind, illness can gain a foothold. Not only must you find balance in a general sense, you also must figure out what "type" of person you are - in other words, what your "dosha" is - and maintain its balance by exercising in specific ways and eating specific foods.

 

What's your dosha type?

There are three doshas:
1.    Vata (wind),
2.    Pitta (bile),
3.    and Kapha (phlegm).

These teachings are also known as the Tridosha system.

Vāta is the element necessary to mobilize the function of the nervous system. It affects the windy humour, flatulence, gout, rheumatism, etc.

Pitta is the bilious humour secreted between the stomach and bowels and flowing through the liver and permeating spleen, heart, eyes, and skin; its chief quality is heat. It is the energy that uses bile to direct digestion and hence metabolism into the venous system.

Kapha is the body fluid that relates to mucous, lubrication and the carrier of nutrients into the arterial system.

These doshas share qualities with the four elements astrological signs share (earth, fire, air and water); they're also similar to the "humors" theory of ancient Greek, Roman, Muslim and Western European medicine, which focus on balancing four substances within the body. Hindu medicine also incorporates five natural elements: air, water, fire, earth and spirit.

The central concept of Ayurvedic medicine is the theory that health exists when there is a balance between three doshas.

To discover your dosha type, click here!

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