Go jump in the tub

We have become a society of people who shower rather than bathe. In a strange, convoluted way that might explain why we have become anxious and stressed. We also have a tendency to hurt ourselves while tripping over the sidewalks, and ourselves, checking our cellphones for the 15th time in the last hour.

We want the dopamine rush, just like any addict.

We need to slow down. Be mindful. Appreciate what we have right now.

Showering allows us to escape our life and the confines of the stall — we can be at work, at the bar or checking our cellphone and never really notice the water falling on and cleaning our bodies.

But the bath lets us submerge ourselves in the water and the present moment; the water not only cleans our bodies, but our brains as well. We definitely need a long, long mental bath to wash away the accumulated plaque of our daily lives.

Canadians are among the world’s biggest users of antidepressants, with as much as nine per cent of the population on one depression-fighting drug or another.

And it’s probably going to get worse because the Canadian Pediatric Society just officially approved the use of one class of antidepressants — which includes Prozac — for children. The drugs have already become commonly prescribed among Canadian kids.

If you don’t want to give up the shower stall for the tub, you can still take a bath — in the forest. Some benefits of forest bathing, which started in Japan and South Korea in the 1980s, include reduced stress, improved mood, deeper intuition, more energy and greater concentrative abilities. How can that be a bad thing? If this appeals to you, but don’t want to go too far astray, try earthing. You can look that one up: earthingcanada.ca.

If you’ve ever stared into water, especially with fish swimming around, you know how relaxing watching the salmon run can be. Kohanee are making their annual run from Okanagan Lake up to birth places in feeder creeks. Feeling relaxed yet?