Embrace your inner light during the darkest time of year by signing up for one of the exciting wellness experiences centered on the Winter Solstice, which are being offered at Sunrise Springs Spa Resort in Santa Fe, New Mexico. In addition to the new experiences, which include mindful intention building, firelight reflections, and meditations in nature, the wellness sanctuary is also offering a new all-inclusive Awakening Journey package, and introducing a hypnotherapist.

SPA PROFILE: SUNRISE SPRINGS SPA RESORT

From December 16, 2018 to January 7, 2019, guests can choose from the following Winter Solstice-inspired experiences:

• Firelight Reflections: While winter solstice is the shortest day of the year, it also marks the gradual return of the light and new life. The new firelight reflection experiences include an Illuminated Intentions session that encourages individuals to set goals for the coming year. Participants can personalize their own candle that symbolizes their intentions, which they can meditate on going into 2019. Also, Candle Circle allows guests to discover their place in the light through a mindful meditation class in a room surrounded with lit candles designed to encourage the restoration, reflection and renewal of their relationship to themselves and the light.

• Meditations in Nature: Connect to nature with new classes that deepen your connection to Mother Earth. Nature’s Solstice Shrine sessions empower individuals to assemble different items found around the property that speak to the soul to create a personal memorial. Cultivate presence, patience, reflection and vision at Waling Meditation: Balancing Act that focuses on balancing the inward and outward energies.

• Solstice Cuisine: Discover new and traditional winter solstice recipes with immersive cooking classes such as Solstice Bread, where participants learn to make the traditional solstice loaf that is shaped like the sun; Winter Wassail, which celebrates the seasonal shift with a warming beverage to offer cheers to the sunny season ahead; and Warm to the Bone: Seasonal Culinary Support, which enables participants to learn nourishing recipes that support in building energy and spirit through the darkness of winter.

• Solstice Traditions: Honor the seasonal change with new classes that allow guests to discover the solstice traditions and rituals of other cultures. Native American Solstice Rituals explore the traditions of the diverse indigenous tribes of New Mexico; and Qigong for Winter Solstice encourages participants to partake in a traditional Chinese wellness ritual that celebrates the shortest day of the year and the return of the light.

Sunrise Springs also welcomes the resort’s first hypnotherapist, Jade Gonzalez, who is a native of the Iroquois Nation and brings extensive training in the field of clinical hynotherapy, as well as her experience working alongside tribal chiefs and prominent medicine carriers. In addition to Spirit Animal & Totem Reading, Gonzalez also offers Hypnotherapy Sessions, which are custom-designed to focus on each client’s desired results, and include everything from past life regression and stress relief to pain management and personal or business goal achievement. (Individual sessions: $160/80-min; Couples: $240/80-min)

Lastly, the all-inclusive Awakening Journey Package takes travelers on a three-night intuitive journey, is tailored to each guest’s spiritual needs and intentions, and includes a private guidance session with the resort’s Spiritual Guide, Jessica Ibarra. Guests can participate in the sacred sweat lodge ritual, receive an outdoor Ojitos soak, and have $150 self-care credit to use towards their service of choice, such as the new CBD massage. The package includes premium accommodations in a spacious casita, unlimited access to the resort’s daily schedule of activities, and daily farm-fresh meals. (Package starts at $472 single/$765 double occupancy per night.)

Rates start at $265. For more information or to reserve a spot, visit the resort’s website and follow them on Instagram: @sunrisespringsnm

[Images courtesy of Sunrise Springs Spa Resort]

Sunrise Springs Spa Resort

242 Los Pinos Road

Santa Fe, NM 87505

505-780-8145

Kamala Kirk is a University of Southern California graduate and has been an editor/writer for more than a decade. She has written for E! Online, Total Beauty, TravelAge West, Malibu Times Magazine, and many more. She resides in Los Angeles and is a proud pug mom. Follow her on Instagram: @kamalakirk