Water therapy
7 ingredients to add to your bath for hygiene and healing
IT’S A COMMON belief that bathing is key to one’s health and peace of mind. I recall my grandmother’s remedy to feeling sick or sad, and how to look energized when one is plain bored, is to just take a bath.
When I was a kid, tubby time would last hours; I spent it while reading books, playing with my toys, praying and, of course, singing.
Luxury
I love the water. There’s something about it that makes you feel fine. It’s sad that in these fast-paced times, one can afford only half-an-hour showers. Long baths have become an old-fashioned luxury no one has time for anymore.
Water baths have a number of benefits people seem to have forgotten. It relieves pain, strengthens the immune system, slows down aging, promotes weight loss, and lowers blood pressure—plus you don’t have to worry about saltwater, sun and chlorine drying your skin and hair.
Great if you can get into a tub in the bathroom. Put away the phone, put on relaxing music (my bath playlist is mostly Esperanza Spalding), and unwind.
Home ingredients
Depending on your intention—whether it’s aromatherapy or getting rid of a cold—pour these home ingredients to make your bath all the more rejuvenating:
1) Lemon Benefits: Lemon cools the body and tightens pores, especially if used in cold water. Bathe in cold lemon water for a cleansing, tightening skin fix.
Perfect on a hot summer day.
2) Milk and honey Benefits: Milk contains lactic acid, which works pretty much the same way as alpha hydroxy acids in expensive skin creams. Honey moisturizes, heals and detoxes the body. Both soothe sunburnt skin and leave the skin soft and smooth.
Perfect after sunbathing.
3) Epsom salts Benefits: Epsom salts are largely magnesium, and bathing with it improves circulation, insulin balance, nerve function, pain relief, muscle cramps and oxygen use.
Perfect after a workout.
Natural antidepressant
4) Sage Benefits: Sage has been used for cerebrovascular diseases for centuries. Adding sage (or sage essential oil) to your bath helps cure depression, substance addiction, convulsions, spasms, infection, and aid digestion and brain function.
Perfect for ending a rough day.
5) Oatmeal Benefits: Oatmeal baths soften the skin, relieve irritations, psoriasis and eczema, and has antifungal properties. Put the oatmeal in a tea bag before dipping in the water so it doesn’t get too sticky.
Perfect on breakouts and dry skin.
Skin detox
6) Baking soda Benefits: Gets rid of buildups in the skin, from yeast infections to unsightly scalp buildups caused by hair products. Exfoliates, smoothens and relieves bites and burns.
Perfect for skin detox.
7) Sea salt Benefits: Strengthens the immune system, maintains the correct balance of electrolytes in the body, and gets rid of minor coughs and colds.
Perfect after an outdoor adventure.