CATEGORY
Mindful Meditation
DESCRIPTION
Soak your cares away in a tub of warm, soapy water.
INSTRUCTIONS
Use commercially prepared bubble bath, fizzy balls, bath salts, bath teas, or simply add five to ten drops of baby or mineral oil and splash of essential oil to your bath water. For a skin softening bath, slowly pour a cup of powdered milk into the running water as you fill your bath tub. Feeling adventurous? Add a few drops of food coloring to the water. Carve or write words on pieces of soap and let them soak in the bath water with you. Invest in playful and luxuriant gizmos and toys -- inflatable cushions to lean against, whirlpool jets, floating toys, plastic massage rollers, and tub-side candles. Use the time you're soaking to condition your hair or give yourself a facial. Invest in a set of plush towels that you only use for these special occasions.
If you feel a little guilty investing this much time and effort in yourself, remember that stress management is not a luxury. It is an essential part of staying healthy, just like exercise and nutrition. Re-frame the experience as a necessary treatment or preventive strategy for anxiety, fatigue and insomnia. For those of us who channel our stress onto the physical plain, this activity is a great way to alleviate those symptoms. Remember that your friends and family will appreciate this investment in yourself because the relaxed you is probably a lot more pleasant to be around than the stressed-out you.
RELATED IDEA
Still think you have no time for a bath? Step in the shower with aromatherapy body washes, loofa mitts, and a special shower head for your faucet, and watch your problems wash down the drain in half the time of a bath. The trick is to focus on the experience of your shower, instead of what you have to do when you're done.
Design and create your own body wash using unscented shampoo and your favorite essential oil, or your own bath salts essential oils and Epsom salts. Most ingredients can be found at drug stores, health food stores and grocery stores.
JOY'S JOURNEY
Jumping into a hot shower with lavender bath soap and textured scrubby gloves is always wonderfully relaxing for me, especially if I close my eyes and keep my attention on the feel of the water and the smell of the soap, rather than on what caused me to hop into the shower. I become sort of tranced, and walk out of the bathroom in a cloud of lavender steam, a smile on my face, my feet not quite on the ground, thinking, "Oh well, there's always tomorrow..."
QUOTES
Dodie Smith
There must be quite a few things a hot bath won't cure,
but I don't know many of them.
Sylvia Plath
I'm gonna wash that man right out of my hair.
Oscar Hammerstein
Dr. Joy is available to present playful workshops (playshops) at your corporate training retreat, non profit organization gathering, or club membership meetings. She is located in Denver, Colorado, and travels throughout the US to deliver Serious Fun ™ Programs for personal growth, wellness, and inspiration. Please see the program pages for details and contact information.
This playful meditation activity is COPYRIGHTED. If you are a professional trainer, coach, human resources person, counselor, or therapist it is not ethical nor legal for you to use it or share it with your clients or those you supervise/train as part of your job. See the copyright notice on the front page of this e-book. Remember, character is what you do when no one is looking. Please take the high road, and pay me appropriately to use these materials professionally, even if you work for a church, school, non-profit or the government.
© Copyright 1999-2008 by Joy Koenig. All Rights Reserved.
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