Body Relaxation: For the Bath

Featured Post: Body

Baths can feel luxurious and can relieve aching muscles, but if you have sensitive skin and in general, a bath is recommended to be quick and more toward warm (not hot) as in 5 – 10 mins. It is best to disinfect the tub before you go in (white vinegar in a spray bottle is a great for this use) and to rinse off quickly in the shower after the bath.

This is a good amount of time to do full bath yoga stretches, like staff pose back straight legs out core lightly engaged, and bound angle, seated feet soles touch, relaxing hips. Cat and cow pose flowing one into the other are great stretches to do while partially in the bath holding onto the raised, able to grab tub front, be sure you feel grounded and well-supported, if no grip better not to, standing or inversions in the bath not recommended. You can also stretch against the (dry) wall.

You can bathe just your feet too and then massage them with pure coconut oil; I love this smooth feeling self-massage. A pumice stone too after awhile of soaking can follow and finish with coconut oil or moisturizing lotion.

I am healing my skin I’ve been working with again. I find washing my face twice a day in lukewarm water with Burt’s Bees Deep Cleansing Cream works well, feels calmed, and vert gently pat dry with a soft towel.

And after showering in the morning or washing my face at night, I moisturize with a new green tea-based vitamin c clay type cream from Etsy that I find is essential for me to massage in thoroughly to have pores clear and also can be lightened with some water, and to do so gently, using very little as it is thick. I am trying the method of wetting my hands and face first a little before applying it my skin if it’s dried, or only drying off my face a little after washing. If you have very sensitive skin, you will do best to use a little, spread over clean hands, and gently rub the lotion in fully.

Something else I am working on (another new year’s resolution) is not to touch my face or hair with my hands.

I find this is a fidgety habit, even if it’s a happy thing I am excited about—I have been practicing placing my hands on my lap and noting them there. I try to keep my hair off my face, or tie it back with a loose soft tie at home or hair pin, even placing my hands on my thighs can help, pressing, I am gently aware of my hands after that too, bringing about more mindfulness.

And greatly important is balancing as best at the time and transforming stress, as stress hormones released can stress your skin as well. Activating the body’s parasympathetic nervous system through body1pleasant activities, like massage and yoga soothes the whole body including the face.

My favorite full luxury bath is the strawberry bath, strawberry slices on the body and some to eat, all rinsed, lightly rub your skin with the strawberry slices. I love cucumber on my eyes too, can be done out of the bath.

You may not have time for a long reading session in an intended to be quick bath but if you’d like to read you can choose a section or a few pages. This encourages the opportunity to rest your eyes while bathing, or with cucumber slices over the eyes. A tip you should know is that if a book gets wet from a bath, or anywhere, even in the rain, just place it immediately in the freezer, and in about 10-20 minutes it’ll have crisp pages again, but no longer than about 30 minutes, and move any vegetables aside to reduce moisture to the book. 

Finally, patting your fully body with a soft towel and allowing your body to dry fully before putting on any clothing that is more fitted can also be very satisfying and healing to the body.

Enjoy 🙂

Jade