Relaxing @ The Victorian Warehouse Hotel

A couple of Sunday's ago on World Yoga Day, I was invited for an afternoon of relaxation by Ocean Finance at the (v quirky) Victorian Warehouse hotel.

The thinking behind the event was to completely unwind from everyday stresses, including finance worries, daily pressures from work and just generally feeling freed from our fast paced lives.

It was such a fantastic afternoon, and back massages (and gorgeous Thai food) aside, it certainly made me stop and think about how often I stress. Not just about work or money, but about pretty much everything and anything - and how I don't really do anything constructive about it.

Focusing on de-stressing is something we rarely do as humans; and I don't know about you but I let things build up and add little things together, so it was lovely to actively focus on breaking all that down - if you're thinking this all sounds a little bit indulgent, don't! It was great to have 'me' time and be somewhere that encouraged just being 'present' in the moment without stressing about anything.

www.victoriawarehouse.com/content/yoga-centre-and-spa.aspx

After introductory drinks and a bit of a mingle (who doesn't love a mingle), we settled into the spa and got to choose a treatment - I opted for a neck and back massage as that area of my body always seems soo tense no matter what I do.

Needless to say it was d-vine and sorted me out a treat, she absolutely went to town on all these weird, tough knots, and told me afterwards she could have spent another hour knuckling them down. A sign I need to book massages more often..?! I'm fine with that.

So happy about Reflexology

I also had a reflexology treatment. I'd never had it before but let me tell you this, when I could tell the session was coming to an end I could have cried, it was that soothing.

Part deux of the event was an invigorating Hatha yoga class, focusing on aligning breath with a multitude of poses - I hadn't done any yoga in a few weeks and so doing downward facing dogs and child's pose felt all the more relieving; I've made a conscious vow to myself not to leave it that long as it feels so good!

We then had a workshop on relaxation from Rachel Watson, a lifestyle coach. She offered us key advice on dealing with stress and also useful tips to help you relax, which I'm going to post on here soon, as they rung true and have stuck with me, so watch this space.

To round everything off, we enjoyed a tofu Thai curry and left with an amazing goody bag;

(..and that's with a looot of things already having been devoured..)

The venue was really cool (if not a little bizarre - as a former Warehouse Project venue it was odd being there sober!), and the spa inside the hotel is great: our yoga class was run by Nikki Hambrook from Manchester Yoga & Holistic Central, and their class schedule can be found here.