We all need to find time to be with ourselves. To relax, to recharge, to create and to be fit to give to the ones we love. Sometimes it can seem like an impossible feat to even find just 15 minutes to sit quietly and take a breather, let alone 30 minutes to meditate and think about nothing. We all must take time to bath and dress each morning and prepare ourselves for bed each night, so why not steal time during these necessary rituals to create a more mindful experience. All it takes is some candles and a few aromatherapy oils to create the magic.
How?
1. Take unscented tea-lites or scented container candles and place around your bath or shower and around your sink and keep them there. Have matches handy in a bathroom cabinet. This way, whenever you enter the bathroom make it a habit to light your candles regardless of whether you plan to be there 10 minutes or 2 hours. How about candles scented with frankincense, geranium, rosewood, myrrh, neroli, rose or vetiver? These are soothing and meditative scents and the flickering lights of the candles become hypnotic and slows the racing mind.
2. Create an aromatherapy bathing experience.
"When you need to relax, bathing is more therapeutic than showering. When you're immersed in water, nearly 90 percent of your weight is displaced, so you feel lighter, slightly suspended, and instantly at ease. Water is the only medium that perfectly contours and flows freely around your body, and warm water promotes peace and tranquility by lowering your blood pressure," says Jo Glanville-Blackburn, author of Home Spa - Relax.
Nothing compares to the magical simplicity of a bath. But it seems that life itself prevents us from truly enjoying the experience. It only takes a minute to add 6 drops of essential oil to the bath. But the effects can last for hours. Try the following essential oils:
Lavender - Lavender is balancing. It soothes the mind and body when you're under pressure and can treat a headache and insomnia.
Chamomile - Chamomile is calming.
Rose - Rose works as a sensual sedative. It calms the nerves, lifts the spirits and restores inner peace and tranquility.
Geranium - Geranium acts as both a tonic and a sedative on the nerves and is one of the best oils for relieving anxiety.
Sandalwood - Sandalwood is both seductive and sedative.
And if you still can't seem to find time for that bath?
3. Add an essential oil to your shower gel. Have a separate empty 1 or 2 ounce bottle set aside. Each morning you can add your shower gel to this bottle and add 2-3 drops of essential oil per ounce of gel. This way you can use a different oil each morning.
Where there is a desire, there is a way. Don't neglect to take care of yourself. Find the time to pamper yourself and relax.
Daphne Moss is the author of The Sweet Smell of Success, a guide to starting your own bath, body and aromatherapy perfume business. She teaches and writes on aromatherapy and perfumes. For more information visit: http://www.aromasuccess.com | |
