Kocoon Spa & Lounge…

is an elegant & quite place perfectly crafted  for a gateaway day or night. Is it a day or a night, anyway, it frankly does not matter with its romantic swimming pool, dim lights and soothing music, as you step into a space that radiates only positive energy and where time seems to stop. Their Zen atmosphere allow you to relax the moment you walk through the door and when their professional services start. Despite the type of service you go for, a facial treatment, body massage, or  simple waxing, they make you feel properly taken care of.

Vibrating Tui Na massage

Kocoon’s Tui Na massage is already pretty famous in town. No wonder David Beckham visited it himself when he arrived to Beijing in 2014.  The idea of having my body massaged by the same therapist who massaged Mr. Beckham sounded fair enough to me, but what I mostly wanted to know was, how good  & authentic Tui Na Massage was going to be even though the Kocoon Spa & Lounge was located in a place mostly dedicated to foreign visitors. One Friday morning, I headed off to Kocoon Spa & Lounge, in the Opposite House in Sanlitun Soho, to get my answer.

Vibrating Tui Na Massage, Step by Step

As I mentioned before you feel pampered the moment you walk through the door of Kocoon Spa & Lounge or maybe the moment you sit on couch to get your tea served to you. At the end of the massage you can expect that tea, IF juice, or a smoothie  and a complimentary cupcake by The Lollipop Bakery will be served to you too. What a sweet surprise.

But let’s come back to Tui Na. The therapist set the scene with plenty of warmth, light candles and relaxing Zen music. In the meantime, what you can see in the picture below is me dressed in special, blue pants and getting ready for a massage.

The white mummy you see on the picture below is me again. Before the treatment even started, I was wrapped in white towels and my  feet were gently cleaned with warm, moist tissues. After a minute, the tissues were removed and the massage was about to begin. The massage was given over the towel on both sides of my body – half of the  time I laid on my back, and the other half, on my stomach.

The therapist who massaged, named Grace, started massaging me gently to warm up my muscles and prepared them for more decisive manipulations later on. Grace focused mainly on my lower parts, because, as she found out, it’s where I had the biggest problem (aching ankles, night cramps in legs). You don’t have to tell the position of your aching points to a skilled therapists, because they find them themselves by analyzing your body. After finding your problem areas, the therapist treats them for around 60-90 minutes. Grace’s massage was mostly based on a tapping technique which is much lighter than the other percussion movements such as pounding, grasping and plucking often used in traditional Tui Na. During a tapping movement, Grace used tips of her fingers to gently tap the area. Tapping was mostly gentle, but had a sufficient intensity to produce a slightly hollow sound on contact with the treated area. As Grace explained to me later on, by tapping she was putting my internal organs into a light state of vibration to revive them and enhance temporarily their productivity. During the treatment I felt vibrations going through the tapped areas of my body, that’s why I gave the Kocoon’s Tui Na Massage a personalized name – Vibrating Tui Na. It’s not the name you will find in their offer though.

Grace tapping was light at start, because she wanted to open my muscles gradually to prepare them for more pressure later on. It would make me feel uncomfortable to have deep tissue massage immediately, especially on my lower body muscles  that were tight like an air balloon.

After tapping, Grace used other techniques like rubbing, pulling and stretching my hands and arms. Rubbing took only a while because my upper body parts were not too tight, so she preferred to focus on my aching areas more.

Below you can see Grace massaging and  pulling my fingers. Normally, this is the part of each Tui Na massage I dread. Fortunately the pain this time was scarcely perceptible.

In the picture below Grace is pressing and rolling my tights and ankles.

Towards the end of the treatment, the massage was gradually getting harder and more intense as compared to the light massage or warmup in the beginning.

So, coming back to my question from the beginning. Is it possible to find a good & authentic Tui Na massage in a typical, Beijing location dedicated to foreigner visitors? Yes, it is! Overall, the experience was not only relaxing but also instantly beneficial for my aching lower body parts. I experienced a great relief and felt well taken care of too. Thanks Grace, thanks Kocoon Spa & Lounge!

Grace’s great 5 tips on healthy living

Grace gave me not only a great massage but also accurately analyzed the main aching points in my body. She did it, by visualizing my body while I was laying on my back. Then, she touched my body to feel how tight my muscles were and later pin-pointed my aching points. We talked a lot about my lower body problems, and since we had a great talk, I asked her about 5 general tips she could give you, my readers, to  make your lives healthier. Here we go:

 1. Prepare warm foot bath every evening

Put your legs into bowl filled with warm water (body temperature is enough). If you’re not sick, there’s no need to add ginger, because too hot bath it might block circulation. Warm foot bath will relax you and make you sleep better.

2. Meditate regularly

If possible, meditate every day to get healthy attitude towards life and stay more positive. Happy go lucky, so stop keeping grudges and it will give you a long ride.

3. Don’t drink cold or iced water, even during summer

If you drink cold water, you unnecessarily use your body energy to warm it up. In the long run, drinking cold or iced water is unhealthy. Remember, drink as much water as you want to remove toxins from your body, but make sure it has body temperature or it’s at least lukewarm.

4. Eat healthy & early

Each day eat at least 2 soft meals (porridge, oatmeal, congee, soup), but try not to eat after 7 pm. Don’t overeat. If you have hearty meal at night, do you think your body can digest it in time before your organs want to get a good night’s rest?

5. Be persistent in being moderate

Be persistent and moderate in everything you do.  It’s about having a good, healthy habits which create lifestyle, not about changing it constantly like in rollercoaster. If you know that going to bed before 10 pm and exercising is beneficial for your health, do that each day, not only over the weekends. There’s nothing like instant help and instant improvement in Chinese Medicine. Everything has its time schedule and is being planned. Any instant change its damaging for your health (e.g taking pills, painkillers, ecc), so change your lifestyle gradually and you will get there.

And most of all, remember that you live in the modern world, but the essence of life is to keep everything in the balance. If you go out one night, give yourself a break and take it easy for the rest of the week, because your body needs time to recover. Lay low, take a nap if you’re tired. In China we say, save your life little by little every day, every week, every month, just like we do with saving money, and as you know we Chinese people are pretty good at keeping savings. That’s why we live long – we simply know how to save our life energy too.

Thanks for your tips on health Grace!

Grace studied Chinese Massage for 4 years, first in her hometown then in Beijing  in Chaoyangmen nei, Traditional Chinese Medicine School. Now she works for Kocoon Spa & Lounge where she mostly gives a worth of recommendation personal Tui Na massage.

Kocoon Spa & Lounge has 2 locations in Beijing

Click here to make a reservation at Kocoon Spa & Lounge. Annareco highly recommends!

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