A relaxed mind equals sheer bliss

Indulgence comes in many forms but the one I love best is a spa experience that has the power to reboot my physical and mental energy. We all know when it's time to pay a visit to a spa, don't we?

Like when you begin to leave your sentences unfinished because you are too tired to complete your thoughts, when your limbs feel like ancient door hinges, when you feel too tired to laugh at a funny one-liner...

I am definitely feeling like a creaky door hinge when I drive up to the Amara Spa at the Park Hyatt hotel, desperately seeking the equivalent of someone who can transform pumpkins into sleek carriages and doormice into racehorses.

The whispering bamboo clusters and the beautiful green landscaped driveway are the first inkling of the positive experience to come. I check in for my Ruby Ceremony that is meant to revitalise and regenerate me. Amara Spa offers a variety of packages such as the Spirit of Amara, Rose, Diamond, Emerald, Ruby and Sapphire ceremonies, each involving different routines and all of them designed to relax and rejuvenate you. Simone Lange, the spa manager, tells me that among the other treatments, the Spirit of Amara and the Diamond Ceremony are the most popular. "The Spirit of Amara has an Arabic touch, because of the special Aleppo soap wash/scrub using the ‘kese mitt'. The Diamond Ceremony has a little bit of everything, an energising body brushing, back pressure massage, a body gel mask application and a foot and scalp massage. We have also included something for the face in the form of an eye massage with chilled lava stones. Perfect for pre-or post-travel relaxation."

The Ruby Ceremony involves three stages of rejuvenation - exfoliation, a mineral body mask for detoxification, followed by a back massage with heated volcanic stones.

But first, I book myself a culinary treat. A choice of drinks and a three-course meal to be enjoyed post treatment. I choose mint-flavoured lemonade, a garden-fresh Greek salad with feta and olives, green tea and a fruit platter for dessert. Fruit smoothies, sandwiches and ice cream with fruit are other options.

June, my masseuse, leads me to a spa room overlooking the exquisite landscape of the Park Hyatt with the languid creek providing a bright blue fringe to its edges. The room is perfectly equipped - a rain shower, changing room, massage table and a large queen-size bed, just in case you want to give in to the amazingly soporific effects of the massage. As June begins to set up my foot soak - a tub of warm water scented with rose petals - I slip out onto the balcony for a while to enjoy the view. My stress levels immediately come down a few notches as I stand drinking in the view. I can actually hear the steady rise and fall of my own breathing.

A must-indulge luxury

Peeling myself away from the beautiful view, I return to the room and willingly give myself up to the treatment. A tingling foot soak and wash eases my weariness in an instant. Then on to the massage table. A Renovatuer Body Cleanse is applied all over my body. This 50-year recipe uses a body mask made from sunflower seeds steeped in essential oils of thyme, clove and lemon.

Immediately upon application the body mask begins a gentle but effective communication with my skin. The result? Impurities are coaxed out, stimulating a detoxification. Do I see a muddy film on the skin of my hands? I don't know, maybe I do but I am too steeped in a state of bliss to notice how the treatment actually works.

After about 20 minutes, the body mask is wiped off and a recharging gel applied following which I am clingwrapped with rapid precision. At this stage languor sets in and I am barely paying attention to what June is saying. But I get the drift.

The gel, she is saying, has important minerals that help replenish the skin's nutrition. I fall asleep inside the clingy cocoon.

After what seems a delicious forever (it is only half an hour!) I am gently woken and led to the shower stall where powerful jets of water from a large rain showerhead strip away the gel along with the remnants of fatigue. Feeling much more relaxed and fully awake, I am ready for the final touch that is meant to ease the stiffness in my neck and deep tissues in my shoulders and lower back - a hot stone massage.

June uses the stones as extensions to her hands and applying the right amount of pressure and rhythm moves the stones over sore, taut knots of muscles, coaxing them into giving up their stress.

It is almost two hours since the Ruby Treatment has begun and as the hot stone massage comes to an end, a sense of sadness mingles with my relaxed emotions. The indulgence is nearly done with. I have been spoiled silly but now it is over.

The full-body exfoliation, the mineral mask and the stone massage work as a three-tiered super treat. Before the beautiful room can turn into a pumpkin, I step out to the balcony to take in the view, again. I sit on a reclining chair, sip green tea, munch on dates and walnuts and watch the sunset. Bliss.

The package has other benefits. You can virtually spend the entire day in the spa's tranquillity garden. As well as that, the spa makes sure you book an extra 30 minutes to be able to enjoy the hand and foot ritual, the rain showers in between and the tea after each treatment.

I walk down to the poolside restaurant to enjoy my three-course meal. After three hours of complete indulgence, I am ravenous.

With my senses heightened, I savour each and every morsel. La dolce vita. Truly.

To find out more about Amara Spa and its special festival packages for Christmas and New Year, call up the Park Hyatt hotel or write to dubai.park@hyatt.com.