Ayurveda Health Retreat
In Alachua, Florida, just north of Gainesville, the Ayurveda Health Retreat was established in 2001 by Richard A. Masla, an Ayurvedic practitioner. The retreat uses a holistic approach to achieve and maintain wellness. Ayurveda is a healing tradition from India that dates back some 5,000 years. The term derives from the Sanskrit words ayur, meaning life, and veda, meaning knowledge, so it translates to “knowledge of life” and relates to knowing oneself and learning to live in harmony with nature. Ayurveda embraces the whole person rather than treating symptoms.
Ayurveda Health Retreat offers a choice of Panchakarma treatments—the two-therapist Traditional Panchakarma and the one-therapist Royal Spa Panchakarma. Panchakarma is a gentle cleansing process that works to remove toxins from the body and rejuvenates energy to help boost a body’s natural defenses through the lymph, circulatory, and immune systems.
The Traditional Panchakarma treatment consists of five procedures: massage (abhyanga), aromatherapy (swedhana), nasal therapy (nasya), warm oil drip on one’s forehead (shirodhara), and therapeutic herbal and oil enemas (bhasti), an optional treatment for those who do at least five days of Panchakarma.
Guests at Ayurveda Health Retreat enjoy a private room and are treated to three delicious Ayurvedic vegetarian meals and yoga classes daily. Breathwork, Ayurvedic talks, cooking classes, and yoga nidra (yogic sleep) are also included. Dietary restrictions can be accommodated when mentioned at booking.
A wellness retreat at the Alachua facility can include à la carte services such as facials, health consultations, cranial touch therapy, meditation sessions, and yoga. Workshops are also available, including Ayurvedic Nutrition and Cooking Weekends and Ayurveda Wellness Weekends.
Alachua is located in Central Florida near Gainesville. Visitors can enjoy wading or swimming in warm water springs, canoeing or kayaking in rivers, or walking or hiking trails that are less than a 30-minute drive. O’Leno State Park offers hiking trails, including one across a wooden suspension bridge; Devil’s Millhopper Geological State Park allows for walking through rich rainforest; San Felasco Hammock Preserve State Park has hiking and off-road biking opportunities; and Ichetucknee Springs State Park has warm-water tubing, kayaking, and canoeing on the six-mile Ichetucknee River. For more information, check out floridastateparks.org.