Enter The Bath. For as long as I don't know when -- months at least, I did not have a single planned nighttime commitment this week. During one of the nights I ran a couple errands (for the record, they were legitimate ones) but during the other nights I just came home after work, made myself a light dinner, and relaxed by either doing yoga, toning, reading, or TAKING A BATH.
The Bath happened on Wednesday night. I had it on my list; I declared it to my husband. In other words, it was written in stone. There was no escaping it, no last-minute excuses. I came home from work, sifted through the mail, made myself a simple dinner of steamed vegetables and eggwhites (yes, I enjoy boring dinners like this most nights of the week), and prepared my bath.
Do bathe as Jo Ann Kemmerling does, but lose the book. |
There are a few steps that I've found to be most important when taking a grown-up bath by yourself:
- Use epsom salts (at least a cupful, but ideally two). They are the dream product for easing tension and loosening tight muscles. If you're any kind of normal person with a job and life stressors, you're going to need this. It's one of those things that makes taking a bath feel a little bit like a necessity, a trick that works for people who need to do something that has a benefit.
- Do not allow yourself to listen to music. This surprised me for I usually have music playing all the time -- when I workout, in my office, in the car, when I'm cooking or doing chores, etc. Taking a bath forces your world to slow down and come to a hault, which is an incredibly beautiful experience; listening to your mind come to a hault is important, and music might dampen that from happening.
- Do not exfoliate, shave, or wash during your bath. That's what showers are for, child! Plus, who wants to be soaking around in your filth anyhow. If you're dirty and need to get clean, shower first and bathe second.
- Do not read, write, or do anything other than float around and just be. I don't know why, but every single time I take a bath (which is literally three times in the last six months -- that's a lot considering prior to that I had taken maybe 2 baths in a decade), with all good intentions I bring a book in with me. I NEVER READ IT. Beside the point that it's completely impractical with your hands drenched and pruny, all I wind up wanting to do is nothing, floating around, giddy to be in the moment, enjoying my body being completely submerged in 87+-degree water.
Trust me -- I was a skeptic too, but now I'm a convert. It might save your sanity, if your sanity needs to be saved. And even if it doesn't, it will still work wonders. Do yourself a favor, and add a bath to your weekly to-do list.
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