Back to school. Septenergy. Call it what you will. But if this month had a mood, it would be ‘on’. The Cornish beach where I spent the August bank holiday feels as distant as the next Glastonbury, the Q4 To Do list as heavy as the barbell I’ve promised myself I’ll start lifting three times a week.
I’ve got form for hitting September hard. Two years ago, I harnessed the vibes to launch a newsletter about friendship with a publishing schedule best described as ‘punchy’. The following year, I channelled the same enthusiasm into turning my newsletter into a book proposal – a 30,000 word feat that would end with a prescription for an SSRI and a return to therapy.
So it’s with a full-body fear of making autumn burnout my entire personality that I promised myself that, this year, things would be different. Which is how I found myself, one Friday in September, face up on a massage table, having the top layer of my dermis removed by a woman with the softest hands I’ve ever encountered.
Seasons change
I’m in the rooftop spa of the Four Seasons – a byword for luxury even before you learn that the Park Lane outpost is a stone’s throw from Green Park, where the trees are a kaleidoscope of colour and nature is in all-out show-off mode. But while the bird’s eye view of the park the spa delivers could earn it a segment on Autumnwatch, it isn’t the leaves I’m here for.
I suspect it’s no coincidence that the hotel unveiled its new three-month spa and wellness membership the same month our collective wellbeing falls off a cliff. And considered in the context of a looming autumn therapy bill, the £1,250 fee – which unlocks access to the hotel’s gym and spa, with a PT assessment, 60-minute spa treatment and one-night hotel stay thrown – doesn’t feel all that unreasonable.
The gym is as decked-out a space as you could ever hope to train in, resplendent with the latest Technogym equipment and the kind of treadmill views you usually have to go on holiday for. Unlike most of London’s luxury gym chains, it’s also open to members 24-hours a day, making it a particularly attractive prospect for anyone who does their sweating at antisocial hours.
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Groom with a view
But I’m here for a different kind of sweat – and the park-view sauna is the least of it. Back to my face and the woman with the soft hands is midway through delivering the Four Seasons’ signature Deep Cleansing Facial. And after a summer during which my skin took a battering (CC five heatwaves and a UV index off the charts) the postbiotic moor mud from the mineral-rich waters of Hungry’s Lake Hévíz, courtesy of the luxury skincare brand Omorovicza, feels as refreshing as a cold-water dip.
The facial is designed to be a journey for the senses as much as an experience for the dermis. Whether it’s the soft hands or the soft playlist I can’t be sure, but somewhere between the first mask and the final cleanse, I slip into a slumber so deep that the next thing I know, I’m being woken to learn that my treatment has finished.
Freshly napped and minus several layers of dead skin cells, I spend a few hours ambling between the spa’s myriad rooms, each one more regulating than the last. The eucalyptus-infused steam room makes light work of a lingering cold while the aptly-named vitality pool serves as the aqua equivalent of an espresso.
Future facing
By the time I make my way over to the Pavyllon restaurant for a brunch of whiskey and soy-glazed salmon and two perfectly-poached eggs, I feel like I’ve unlocked a different version of myself; the ambition and enthusiasm of my September self is still present and correct, but sitting alongside her is a sense of silliness I can usually only access in August. Q4 still looms large, but with both nervous system and glow restored, I feel ready to meet it.
Can a spa day future-proof my body against burnout? No. But giving myself permission to press ‘pause’ before I press ‘go’ has proffered some timely reminders, the kind I have form for forgetting: there are no prizes for productivity, rest is as valid a health habit as movement and your To Do list will still be there tomorrow. Oh, and no matter how diligent you are with your skincare routine, even the most potent of actives can’t complete with the gentle touch of a stranger – if only you can stay awake.
Nikki was a guest of The Four Seasons, where rates for the three month wellness and spa membership start at £1,250.
