If you're anything like me, you have heard that a bath is wonderful for you, but maybe it hasn't fit into your schedule or just wasn't really top of mind. As it turns out, a ritual bath — which helps relax sore muscles, soothes a busy mind, restores you after a long day of work, and helps you get better rest when you sleep — is wonderfully simple and accessible. 


My goal in creating this guide is to help make having a bath become the easiest thing in the world to slip into — a self-care ritual that nourishes your nervous system and soothes your mind and body with very little effort. In this post, I list the simple items you need, suggestions for where to find them, and my tips and recommendations for optimal enjoyment. You deserve a delicious and easeful ritual that improves your mood, refreshes your energy for your creative work, and nurtures your wellbeing.

Keep in mind that a ritual bath in its essence is a soothing retreat for all of the senses. Our five senses (vision, hearing, scent, taste, touch) are incredibly powerful and essential to everything we do, and they are also often overly taxed in the demands of modern life and work (especially our sense of vision, as we use our eyes constantly and are also often on screens for long hours). You will see in the suggested items below that we are bringing together elements that delight, support, and soothe our eyes (vision), ears (hearing), nose (scent), tongue (taste), and skin (touch) as a way of accessing the body and nervous system so that we can relax, rejuvenate, and feel refreshed. 

 

WHAT YOU NEED FOR YOUR RITUAL FLOWER BATH

Here is a list of my favorite elements for a ritual bath, including why they are nourishing and supportive, where to find them, and what senses they support:

 

 

01 — BATHTUB

Guidance & Tips — Fill your tub with water that is between warm and hot. I often seem to go too hot, thinking that will be better than too cool, but then it's scalding when I go to step in. Test the temp with your hand as you fill the tub. Leave some space to add cooler water once you go to step in. You want the bath to be warm to hot but not at all uncomfortable. In my own efforts to do things "right" I often "overdo" by accident, so if you're like me, scale back and allow the intensity or seriousness you may bring to what you do to melt away. Make this luxurious and comfortable for you.

Where to Source — Our house came with a tub, which is nice, but it's terribly small, so when I was renovating my studio, I procured an old claw-footed tub from the local architectural salvage shop to double as my floral studio tub (for filling and cleaning buckets and vessels) and as an al fresco bath to enjoy. The water pipes down into our canyon garden into a tub we reuse to water our canyon garden plants and bamboo.

Senses Served — Sense of Touch, Sense of Hearing

 

02 — EPSOM SALTS

Guidance & Tips — Epsom salts provide magnesium, which the body absorbs as much as it needs through your skin, and which helps to relax muscles and reduce soreness. It also helps to promote better sleep and can be nourishing and balancing for the skin too. I use around 2 cups of the salts in each bath.

Where to Source — Buying Epsom Salts in bulk will be the most affordable and easiest option. I used to buy myself a pretty little jar from a local boutique every once in a while, but those are pricey and run out quickly, so bulk is a great option. You can get a bulk bag of Dr. Teals on Amazon that will last a long time and keep things simple.

 Senses Served — Sense of Touch (plus muscle and mind relaxation)

 

03 — ESSENTIAL OILS

Guidance & Tips — Different oils carry different properties and effects, so consider what you need to help you choose. A few of my favorites are lavender or geranium (for relaxation), grapefruit or sweet orange (for a warming citrus twist), or jasmine or tuberose (for deep, sweet fragrance). Follow your instincts and trust which scent is calling to you or feels the most relaxing or refreshing to you in the moment. This is a great way to tune into your body and begin the harmonizing effects of a ritual bath.

Note that a few (5-7) drops of an essential oil (or two) go a long way in adding aroma therapy to your bath, so you don't need much. Also, some essential oils can burn the skin if they're not mixed with a carrier oil or stirred into the water, so give the bath a stir so the oils aren't just sitting on the surface before you step in.

Where to Source — Most health food stores or natural grocers carry essential oils in the section for bathing, body care, and vitamins. Two brands I have used that are easy to find are Banyan Tree and Now Essential Oils, which you can also find on Amazon.

Senses Served — Sense of Smell, Sense of Touch

 

 

04 — CANDLE(S)

Guidance & Tips — Candles are optional, but they add a lot of ambiance. My floral tub is outside, so I can take an al fresco bath under the night sky, but it also means I don’t have any other lights (unless I leave a light on in the studio), so lighting a candle or two gives me just enough soft, relaxing light to see while I soak.

Even if your tub is indoors, which most are, you’ll want softer lighting to allow your eyes, brain, and body to relax. Bright overhead or vanity lights in bathrooms are often designed to help you see as you put on makeup or wash your face and are not particularly relaxing. Candles are a glorious choice.

Where to Source — I recommend candles made with natural waxes, like beeswax, soy wax, or coconut wax, as they burn more clearly and don’t release toxic gasses into the air. A simple Google search for "natural beeswax or soy wax candles" will garner you lots of great options. I also like to check my local neighborhood shops for these, as they're such a nice treat and a great way to support local businesses.

Senses Served — Sense of Sight, Sense of Smell

 

05 — FLOWERS OR PETALS 

Guidance & Tips — Flowers add a romantic visual touch to a ritual bath, and they contribute to the overall nourishing effect of the water on your body. 

Make sure you do not use flowers or petals from commercially grown or imported flowers from the flower market, as these flowers likely have been sprayed with various pesticides, chemicals, and preserving agents that are fine to handle for floral work but that you don’t want to steam into your body. Instead, use organic and preferably locally grown flowers that are in season, healthy, and grown without toxic chemicals. If you grow any flowers yourself, and you don’t use any chemicals on them, those are a great option too! Fresh flowers or dried flowers both work.

Note that there are some flowers that are toxic, including foxgloves and chrysanthemums, and should not be put into a bath. Great reliable options are rose petals, feverfew, lavender, rosemary, peony, sunflower, phlox, and cosmos.

Where to Source — The best places to get organic, chemical-free flowers are from your own garden or from a local grower who grows organically or without harsh chemicals. You can also search for "organic dried flowers" or "organic dried flower petals" for baths online, if you want an option that can be shipped to you and will keep.

Senses Served — Sense of Touch, Sense of Smell, Sense of Sight

 

 

06 — SEASONAL HERBAL TEA 

Guidance & Tips — Depending on the season, you can pair your bath with a relaxing herbal tea that enhances your self-care ritual and complements the effects of the season on your body, mind, and wellbeing. In the colder months, opt for a cup of steeped, hot herbal tea. During the warmer months of summer, you can drink chilled or room temperature tea, and you may like to utilize the sun's energy to create "sun tea" — tea that you steep in a large glass vessel during the day using the sun's own heat. 

Where to Source — As far as teas go, Traditional Medicinals is a brand that I love that is organic and available at most health food grocery stores. There are several wonderful organic, herbal loose leaf and bagged tea options from Rishi Tea & Botanicals, Full Leaf Tea Company, or The Boulder Tea Company, to name just a few.

Senses Served — Sense of Taste 

07 — CRYSTALS

Guidance & Tips — Crystals are another elemental option to add to your ritual bath by placing stones that carry the energy you are calling in or cultivating around your bath. I like Crystal Quartz for peace and spiritual connection, Selenite for clarity and moving energy, Smokey Quartz for grounding and release, Tourmaline for grounding and removing negative energy, Rose Quartz for love and compassion, or Citrine for abundance.

Where to Source — Crystals are at all kinds of spiritual shops and online. If you are curious about types of stones and the energetic meanings and properties they carry, I recommend The Pocket Book of Stones, by Robert Simmons as a great reference and fun book for your library. 

Senses Served — Sense of Sight (plus energetic and spiritual properties)

 

 

A FEW PRO TIPS FOR YOUR RITUAL BATH

While a bath feels good anytime you are able to make space for it, I want to share with you a few simple guidelines to further optimize your bath experience:

• TIMING — While I was studying Ayurveda, (an incredible and ancient system of holistic health and wellbeing from India) for my Ayurvedic Health Counselor certification, I learned that it is not good for your digestion to take a hot shower or bath directly after a meal. It’s aggravating to your body, which is not what we want. Instead, give your body an hour or more after a meal to take your bath. It will also be most effective for restful sleep if you take your bath an hour or so after dinner as part of  your wind-down pre-bedtime rituals.

• LUNAR CYCLES — For women, a ritual bath is particularly supportive to our monthly cycles and hormones on the New Moon and on the Full Moon. This is often referred to as “Moon Bathing,” and it has several benefits. For one thing, it helps you become more aware of the lunar cycles, which often sync up with our ovulation and menstrual cycles. When we are more in tune with nature and the natural cycles around us, we often become more aware of our own nature, our connection to those cycles, and to our own cycles as well. For another thing, the Moon, which causes the tides and is powerfully linked to water, offers specific energetic opportunities in its brightest (Full) and darkest (New) phases that a peaceful bath ritual makes space to observe. The Full Moon is a time of high energy and visibility, as a cycle comes to completion — a good time to mindfully release and make space for a new cycle to begin. The New Moon is a time of magic darkness, emptiness, and new beginnings, when energy is lower — an opportunity to invite in new intentions for the next cycle just beginning.

However you go about your bath, customize it to your highest enjoyment and ease. Any combination of or collection of the elements listed here will be lovely, even if it's just you and a warm bath with a candle on a random Tuesday. When you're ready, step in, take a deep breath, and allow yourself to receive the relaxing reset and rejuvenation a ritual bath provides. 

 

Take care of you, and keep blooming,

 

XX

 

 

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Cover image captured by Ariel Min.