The I in Miraval is You

So much to say about Miraval but the best thing is always to start at the beginning. Not that we didn’t get a good laugh from our Fairfield/Airport Hotel experience. Not that we didn’t have a great time laughing and making fun of each other all night…cuz we did, but we were more than ready when the Miraval van came to pick us up and take us to spa bliss. As we drove, I tried to take it all in. All the cactus was bringing up this déjà vu feeling from my childhood. We lived in Arizona while I was in kindergarten. My main memories are localized around cactus, heat, and my dad killing a whole (nest?) of black widows. I also found I had a small anxiety reserve that I couldn’t place until I remembered I had sworn off ever going to Arizona after hearing stories about Gila Monsters from my aunt Carol. I had been quite sure I would never get within a one state radius of the awful things. But here we were and it was so interesting to see so many rock lawns instead of grass. The heat was warm but dry and (because the grass is always greener and all...), I thought it was a fantastic trade in from the humidity.


The resort was just beautiful. Really amazing. Palm trees, serene and beautiful desert landscaping everywhere. We found that we were quite hungry and decided on lunch before a tour of the property. I can’t remember the exact name of our first meal there. But it sounded similar to all of our meals there to follow, and the general gist is: Exotic fish prepared with such and such, on a bed of something fancy or another with a tasty something something sauce. Bottom line? Amazing gourmet food that if I were to let my guard down right now, I could cry because I miss it so much.




After lunch was a tour of the property which went pretty much like, “Amazing pool here, yoga center there, Spa, restaurants…I’m tempted to say blah blah blah because I’m so excited to blog about my bed. My bed there needs to be blogged about because of its extreme awesomeness. If there was any way to get it past the staff on the way home like when you take the toiletries I really think I would have thrown my moral code out the window and done it! The first morning I woke up in it I didn’t want to get out of it. I mumbled something like, “I don’t wanna get up, it’s like sleeping on a cloud.” For the rest of the trip we referred to our beds as the cloud bed. I miss you bed. You were the best.


So Miraval is so different than your typical spa resort because along with the beauty, and the food, and the wonderful pampering, there is a challenge course. There are several challenge experiences you can do if you want. This ended up being such a central theme to our stay there and we all have the bruises to show for it. (But at least those bruises are now on exfoliated good smelling skin right?) We went down to the challenge course 5 times during our stay there. Sometimes doing 2 challenges in a day. We were out of control.
We ended up having the same instructor the whole time, which I think is rare, but it was so fun. His name was Faine. You heard me. We seriously considered co-creating a "Faine #1 fan club." Or was that just me? Oh well, i can't remember. Faine was the absolute coolest. At first he just seemed like Mr. Wise Mysterious Desert Man. He would have us walk down to the challenge course in mindful silence. Thinking about why we had chosen this challenge. You don’t see the challenge course from walking around at the resort so as we walk further into the desert the challenge course just kind of appears.



The first time we were walking down and we saw it I was so surprised by it, I hurried and snapped a picture. I quickly felt guilty and resumed my mindful silence.



It’s so hard to describe really all that we learned by doing these challenges because it was so much and so personal and individual. Before the challenge, we sit in a circle and Faine would talk about these challenges being somewhat of an experiment. How do we react to the challenge, the fear, and what do we learn about ourselves from it? You would get strapped into the harness, being belayed by Faine down below. But don’t think asking multiple questions would help you feel more secure about what you are about to do. One of our favorite quotable Faine lines was, “I don’t know, I guess you’ll have to figure that out...” Doing Desert Tightrope, I went first and was terrified at letting go of the pole and walking out onto the metal cable. I call down to Faine, “How am I supposed to get onto the cable?” Faine: “I don’t know, but I bet it would help if you let go of that pole...” After challenges we would all talk about our experience. What were we feeling, what scared us, what propelled us? He did make us the promise each time that we would walk back up the hill knowing more about ourselves than when we walked down it. I have to say he was right.
He would walk the group back halfway and then turn back into the desert from which he came. He was wise and fun and helped us all realize that we need to trust ourselves. That we are stronger than we think and that life is short. We don’t want to get to the end and realize we weren’t present for a lot of it. That we need to be active participants in our life. If we are always thinking 2 steps ahead or dwelling about the past, we are never really enjoying, or experiencing the present.

The experience was so surreal at times. One minute you were lying at the pool under palm trees


the next minute you were doing this…










You could be sitting in the comfy chaise lounge in the quiet room waiting for your spa treatment overlooking the mountains and the beautiful landscape, chill at the pool watching a movie on the big screen, remembering that right before you were doing this…






Giant’s Ladder was the most physically demanding of all the challenges. I had a massage the same day after we did it and the therapist was all, “I see you have lots of bruises here so I’m going to guess you’ve been on Giant’s Ladder.” 27 bruises and counting.



Because we were the only 3 signed up for the class we didn’t get any footage of us doing it. Although it’s more of a torture device than any ladder I’ve seen. Long wooden beams spaced between 6 and 8 feet apart, going up 40 feet. Tied into harnesses, we had to work together to get each of us to the next “rung.” It was an amazing experience relying on each other, understanding what was working and what wasn’t. Encouraging each other through some of the toughest ones. Faine had made the distinction once that you can stop doing a challenge because you decide you are done, or physically you just can’t do it anymore. I was proud of us. We reached the 5th rung before we were physically done. If we had decided we were done using our fear or frustration we would have been done a lot earlier. Anyways, very cool challenge

This was an adventure and an amazing experience from start to end. I’m so glad I got to do this with 2 amazing, adventurous, and supportive friends. We left physically and emotionally spent, but in such high spirits. Because of all they have to offer, your visit there could look different every time. Maybe next time we’ll go there for a very yoga, peaceful, Zen type trip. Yeah, who are we kidding? Faine says our next time there they’ll need to invent some more challenges just for us and well, that’s probably true! My advice after leaving Miraval? Be present and meaningful with your time. It's all we have, and it's all about how we spend it. Don't let anything hold you back because you're strong and you know yourself better than you think.

And like Faine says, "A little bit of fear is a good thing."