Great Escape: Nia Spa Day at the Fairmont Sonoma Inn & Spa

Each Wednesday, the Great Escape is about offering one great idea to give yourself a well-deserved break to help you feel refreshed and centered. The concept is to prevent burnout by creating a sense of renewal within yourself so that you can bring that renewal back to your family life.

This week’s “Great Escape” hits all the right notes by providing a treat for the body, mind and spirit. These three aspects of ourselves need attention and nurturing to stay balanced and in optimum working order for most people; but for caretakers of small children or elderly parents, or those involved with daily negotiations and navigations with teenagers, the need is greater. Consider this week’s Great Escape a great big dose of attention and nurturing for all the times you stretch yourself thin. And just to be clear, this goes for men and women.

Plan your great escape to a “Nia Spa Day” at the Fairmont Sonoma Inn and Spa in Sonoma. For those of you who aren't already aficionados, we’ll get into what the “bleep” is Nia, but for the moment, let’s bask in the fact that we’re only 30 miles away from a place that people come to from all over the state, the country, the world, to enjoy. Sonoma's Wine Country is an easy half-hour country drive from Novato, and the Fairmont Sonoma Inn and Spa offers a peaceful, bucolic setting where ancient thermal waters flow from over a thousand feet directly below the earth's surface simmering at a toasty 135 degrees. The water is cooled into various pools so you don't have to worry about ending up like a shrimp in tom yum soup.

Upcoming Nia Spa Days are this Sunday starting at 11 a.m., then 11 a.m. April 17 and 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, April 12. The cost is $45 and includes a two-hour Nia class, use of fitness room, pools, bathhouse, steam room and grounds.

Now finally, Nia! What is it and why do you want to do it?

Nia is an acronym for neuromuscular integrative action or the more basic non-impact aerobics — or the more esoteric “Now I Am.” Take your pick. According to its website, the Nia technique is “a revolutionary, original movement and personal growth technique based on the principle of the joy and pleasure of moving.”

I whole-heartedly agree based on my experience taking Nia classes over the last couple years. Nia is simply a fantastic dance class for all levels with the best music ever. In the class I go to at the Marin YMCA on Friday mornings, there are former professional ballerinas and other dancers, dance enthusiasts such as myself and plenty of women in their 70s and 80s. Everyone is doing their thing, at their own level, and with a focus and abandon that might seem paradoxical at first, but which simply means you're in your zone. Nia prides itself on its flexibility and adaptability, similar to other modalities such as and . Indeed, Nia is inspired by nine specific movement forms taken from the world of dance arts, martial arts and healing arts.  

Nia class is normally done in bare feet. Nia combines luscious, varied movements while playing with contrasting tempos in sync with wonderful, mostly non-verbal music. The rhythm of its primal, often tribal and trance-like musical selection dovetails nicely with choreographed routines. I won’t say the choreography is “easy” because that’s very subjective and variable from person to person, but I will say that it’s repetitive and intuitive and that the instructors are well-versed at giving cues, so I see most everyone flowing through the movements with little or no issues. Plus, the emphasis is on moving and connecting to the wisdom of your own body, not “doing it right.”

Basically, you can go as hard and deep as you want to. Class this Sunday will be led by a long-time, popular Marin-based Nia instructor, France-Laude Gohard, and promises to be two-hour-long sweat-soaked, heart-thumping-fest for all levels. Following your glorious effort, lunch is available for purchase at the Spa Café or Big Three Diner, or you could go straight for languorous, luxurious lolligagging in the mineral pools. 

The self-guided signature "bathing ritual" of the Fairmont Sonoma Spa includes an exfoliating shower, two mineral water soaking pools, herbal steam, dry sauna, and cool down showers. Bathing suits required as these spa features are co-ed. You must be 18 years and older to enjoy the pools. Reservations for Nia Spa Day are strongly encouraged and you are welcome to come early and stay late. The spa is open until 8 p.m.