The Ocean Waves Massage & O2 Lounge
"Visit your Oasis in the City"
1570 Southdale Center, Edina, MN 55435
www.oceanwavesmassage.com
(952) 922-3600
Ocean Waves Massage & O2 Lounge, in business three years in the Twin Cities and award recipient in 2006 from the National Association of Women Business Owners, was created to cater to busy people. "We all find excuses not to take care of ourselves and continue to work constantly without a break," notes founder Sandra Wiendels. "We are getting more and more distant from the vital things in life."
Ocean Waves Massage is a virtual vacation store where customers can relax and have a massage or use recreational oxygen with aromatherapy from as long as five minutes to as much as their time and budget permits. Originally a full-body massage with therapists, Ocean Waves now offers seated-chair massage, shiatsu massage chairs and dry hydrotherapy, where customers float above warm water with their clothes on, get a massage through six-horsepower jets and listen to the ocean. The Spinal /Chi exerciser also is available to help with the lower back flexibility, lymphatic and blood circulation.
And don’t forget the oxygen. "We are not a bar as much as a relaxing lounge that offers oxygen sessions to help beat stress, fatigue, headaches, hangovers and jet lags," Wiendels says. "If body tissues are well nourished (saturated) with oxygen, most viruses cannot live in that type of environment. People living in the fresh air tend to have stronger immune systems and be more healthy."
"Our customers have different feelings when they first experience the oxygen," she says. "Some feel very relaxed, others feel re-energized, others do it for headaches and others say they feel a clear mind. It all comes down to how your body metabolizes and uses it."
She says we all find excuses not to take care of ourselves. "We continue to work constantly at our computers with twisted necks trying to hold a cell phone and multi-tasking on other issues at the same time, such as rocking the baby with one foot while stirring the food on the stove. We are getting more and more distant from the simple things and connection with our bodies."
Center for Inner Awakening, LLC
"A Meditation-Focused Yoga Center"
4100 42nd Ave. S., Minneapolis, MN 55406
www.CSpiritAwake.com
(612) 721-4100
Nestled among urban homes and small businesses, Center for Inner Awakening offers a welcoming spirit and open door in the Longfellow neighborhood of Minneapolis, just north of Minnehaha Park at 41st Street East and 42nd Avenue South. Its founder, president and teacher Alan L. Pritz, emphasizes that this "Spirit-directed center" is a beacon of light generated by those who gather in silence to go within.
Author of Pocket Guide to Meditation, and As I Awaken: Crafting a Spiritual Life, Pritz has more than 30 years of experience in spiritual development based on the teachings and tradition of Paramhansa Yogananda, whose mission in the West was to introduce Kriya Yoga to rapidly accelerate spiritual growth and the universality of truth. A blackbelt in two forms of martial arts, Pritz was inspired greatly by Yogananda’s seminal Autobiography of a Yogi to study yoga formally and become a teacher.
At this location since April, Center for Inner Awakening is an eclectic teaching facility. "My orientation is not to ram doctrine down anyone’s throat," Pritz says. "People of all faiths are welcome, and people of all faiths – Jewish, Christian, Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist – have attended sessions here, from throughout the Twin Cities. I feel people are really hungry for community, and I hope to help get their needs met."
Center for Inner Awakening teaches yoga, which in truth is more than just stretching the body in difficult postures. While the West has come to see that practice, known has hatha yoga, as yoga, the discipline actually is a complete system that balances mind body and soul through movement, meditation, energy control and right living. For those seekers who sincerely wish to learn, Pritz offers donation-based sessions on mornings and evenings, Monday through Saturday, that involve chanting, meditation, spiritual hatha yoga, energization exercises and applied philosophy. Drop-in attendance is permitted, but you are advised to call Pritz for more detailed instruction on what to wear and bring.
