Spa spy Good all over

An Ayurvedic massage at Beetroot Sauvage, Edinburgh, soothes the soul

The treatment

An Ayurvedic Body Massage with Ruby, £45 for 60 minutes (or £65 for 90 minutes) at Beetroot Sauvage, Edinburgh.

Why go?

For some soul therapy. This community friendly place, in the former premises of Earthy, features a downstairs cafe and garden, serving plant-based wares, as well as a gorgeous light and bright upstairs yoga studio with underfloor heating. The therapy room, where they offer everything from iridology to reflexology, is equally warehouse sized, with a fir tree outside the window, chairs slung with grey blankets and shelves dotted with succulents and potions.

Our spy says

I immediately feel comfortable here. The room is scented with an orange, clove and cinnamon aromatherapy candle, and therapist, reiki master and yogi Ruby has a relaxed manner.

She explains that, because it’s “dreich outside” and I’m feeling low energy, she’ll give me a massage that will focus on re-balancing my kapha dosha (the Ayurvedic mind body type that’s associated with the cold and lethargy).

This will involve marma point stimulation, reinvigorating moves and palmfuls of the gorgeously scented DOTERRA Wild Orange Oil, which is like liquid sunshine.

I’m a bit self-conscious, getting undressed in this room, since there are no curtains and the windows are massive, but we’re high up, and there are no houses that overlook this place. Only the birds in the fir tree will get an eyeful, hopefully not enough to put them off their seed for life.

Once I’m face down on the therapy table, Ruby re-enters, and works from my feet to my head. There are swishing moves along the edges of my soles, and long, warming strokes on my calves, to stimulate the lymph, all while I inhale the smell of oranges.

My back is rubbed, using pressing moves along my spine, and the muscles in my neck are pressed and lengthened.

I turn over, and she works from the feet up again, like I’m a toothpaste tube being squished from the bottom up. Once my thighs have been kneaded, we’re onto my shoulders, and my arms are lifted about my head, folded, and my hands rubbed.

Ruby traces a route from my clavicle to behind my ear, over the top and round again. Hypnotic, especially alongside the chanting that’s playing on the stereo.

Then we’re about done, and I tune in to the patter of the rain on the fir tree outside.

The results

I’m not bothered by going out in this weather, my kapha dosha has been ignited. An autumnal tonic. n