The Ultimate Healing Bath Ritual To Help You Rest When You Are Grieving

If you have spent time on my website, blog, or Instagram profile, then you know I am passionate about guiding people to cultivate their mental health toolkits. Some may say I'm even obsessed. When you assemble your mental health toolkit, you accumulate practices and techniques to help you support and heal yourself.

Often when we are grieving, we also experience depression. Research suggests that taking a 30-minute bath in water at the temperature of 104 degrees Fahrenheit can help improve depression. There is a considerable amount of practices and techniques you can add to your depression toolkit. Today, I'd love to share one of the most valuable tools in my mental health toolkit: ritualized baths.

The Ritual Begins Before You Slide Into The Tub

I encourage you to use all three pieces of this ritual together. But, if you can't incorporate all parts and instead use the individual elements on their own, you still have the potential for a powerful healing experience.

Set Your Intention

Prepare The Water

Self-Guided White Light Meditation

---

Step One: Set Your Intention

Incenses are a powerful tool used in spiritual practice throughout numerous cultures around the world. Incense is typically made from a blend of biological materials such as wood, resin, or other plant medicine. When burned, incenses release scented smoke that can be used as aromatherapy and to cleanse the surrounding air. There are numerous styles of incense but I find cones and sticks to be my tools of choice.

In addition to cleansing and aromatherapy, I like to use incense to signal the beginning of my bath ritual and to help me set my relaxing intention before I even begin to fill the tub with water.

I like to use Frankincense for my bath ritual. Frankincense has been around and used in ceremonies for a few millennia. It comes from different kinds of Boswellia trees that are found throughout Africa, India, and the Middle East. The word Frankincense is derived from an old French word that translates into "high-quality incense."

The sweet woody aromatic profile of Frankincense is a sedative that enhances mood by diminishing feelings of stress and anxiety. Since the body responds to grief in the same way it responds to stress, Frankincense is a great tool to soothe you as your grieve.

Here are the steps you can take to set your bath ritual intention:

Step One:

With the soles of your feet on the ground, begin to take a few deeper than normal breaths. Inhaling through the nose and exhaling through the mouth.

Step Two:

Step Three:

In today's modern capitalistic economy, I believe it's important to take the time to responsibly source incense. The good news for you is that I've already done the research.

Tiloka incense is made in India by fair-trade cottage industries with over 150 years of experience. If you aren't able to find Tiloka incense locally, I encourage you to check out the Sensia Website.

Step Two: Prepare The Water

You honestly do not need to add anything to your bath water to have a restful healing experience. But adding things like bath bombs, herbs, salts, or oils can increase the healing potential. Many companies have begun to make bath products with the specific goal of aiding rest. I want to encourage you to look at the labels of what you purchase and try to use products that do not contain synthetic compounds.

When deciding what to add to your bath, it is ultimately up to you and the scents that you are attracted to. With that being said there is significant research that suggests roman chamomile and lavender can encourage calm and deeper rest.

I've tried a lot of bath products over the years and have found the recipe below to be my powerful go-to.

Step One:

Before adding water to the tub, pour in one to three cups of Epsom salt.

Step Two:

Step Three:

Step Four:

Step Three: Self-Guided White Light Meditation

That bathtub is a perfect place to meditate and will take the healing power of your bath ritual to the next level. White light meditation is a potent way to tap into our innate ability to heal ourselves. This technique will allow you to focus the energy of your body to help you settle and quiet your mind, body, and spirit

Practicing white light meditation involves using visualization to see your body being caressed and cocooned in healing white light energy. Before you begin to doubt that this is something you can do; please allow me to remind you that meditation is a practice. There is no such thing as perfectly meditating. If all you can do right now is acknowledge white light as healing energy you will being to open up to its healing potential.

For this meditation, we will focus on bringing the white light into our chest and the area of our hearts and lungs. To begin make sure you are as comfortable as you can be in your bath.

• Notice how your body feels being in the water. Notice how the water feels on your skin and how the warmth of the water surrounding your body begins to melt away physical tension.

• Take five deeper than normal breaths, breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth. Notice on your inhale how your abdomen expands. And on your exhale see if you can release an audible sigh.

• Continue with your natural beautiful spontaneous breath. At this time if it feels safe to do so, close your eyes and keep them closed for the duration of your meditation.

• Begin to envision the space around you. See the configuration of your bathroom, and notice the color of your walls and floor. Notice the location of your tub and see the items that surround it.

• See yourself laying in the water of your tub.

• Imagine that the surfaces of your bathroom and the structure of your tub begin to shimmer with a pearly white iridescent light. With each passing moment, the white light grows brighter and stronger eventually flowing into the water of your tub.

• Notice how it feels in your body to be floating in white light. If feelings or sensations are arising, use your exhale to focus on the release of this energy.

• As you continue to breathe in and out begin to envision the white light coming into your body along with the air you are breathing in. Take a few moments to allow this energy to enter your body and begin to flow into your chest.

• Imagine your lungs being filled with healing white light. Notice how this energy has changed the integrity of your breath. Allow the white light to become a part of your lungs as you expand and contract.

• Now, encourage the white light to begin to travel to the area of your heart. Notice your heart softening with each passing breath.

• Allow the white light energy to swirl in your chest as you feel the tension of this area melt away.

• Sit in this space with the white light for as long as you would like.

• When you are ready to end your mediation bring your hands to your chest Anjali mudra (prayer hands). Bow your head to your heart and thank you for giving yourself this practice.

• Place the palms of your hands on your eyes and begin to gently blink them open, returning to your physical surroundings.

Mental Health Toolkit

There are numerous scientifically proven health benefits to taking baths, and that is why baths are a non-negotiable part of my mental health toolkit. I hope that by sharing my ritual, I can help you bring this tool to your mental health toolkit. Ritualized baths are one of my favorite tools because of the endless possibilities to tailor the experience to other types of mental health symptoms.

Having a mental health toolkit that gives you actual approaches that sustain you will encourage you to live a much more confident life. Knowing you can rely on yourself to soothe and actually make yourself feel better is invaluable. Click Here if you are ready to book a strategy call and discuss how I can help you build a customized mental health toolkit.