I’ve been sick all week. The constant sneezing, cannot sleep kind of sick. It feels like the exact same cold/flu virus I had just a couple of weeks earlier. So this time I decided to take a few steps to kick it faster – and hopefully for good. You know, actually do all of the things I tell other people to do!
First, I cracked open a new bottle of the clearing room mist – sprayed it everywhere, particularly our bed, sofa, and office area. It contains essential oils of peppermint, lavender, lemon, tea tree, clary sage and eucalyptus, which are prized for their antiviral, antibacterial and immune-stimulant properties. I swear it opened up my nasal passages almost immediately. I felt the tiniest bit of relief from headache too. Which got me thinking of other ways I could use the power of herbs to facilitate faster healing.
I decided to give myself something I haven’t in a very long time… an herbal bath. I got a big bowl and started filling it with dried herbs and botanicals I thought might help.
Some came from our kitchen – rosemary, thyme, ginger, peppermint.
Others were grown in our garden and dried for times like these – calendula, comfrey leaves, eucalyptus leaves, lavender.
And the rest were all wildcrafted from nature – wild rose petals and buds, chamomile, plantain leaves, juniper berries, pine needles, yarrow flowers, elderflowers.
I also added about a cup of bath salts and natural clay. Both of these mineral-rich ingredients are detoxifying. They promote sweating, which is helpful when trying to get rid of viruses, toxins, etc. Just keep in mind that detox can take a toll on you if you’re not feeling strong enough for it. You can absolutely leave these out and just stick with your chosen herbs and botanicals instead.
See tips below on creating your own bath soak blend. And don’t let my crazy blend intimidate you. Keeping it simple with just 2-3 plants is very easy and can be just as effective.
I’ve actually been making a lot of herbal bath blends lately.
Sore body bath tea
A friend of mine recovering from illness has been dealing with horrible body aches and muscle pain. I sent her a big jar of goodies – dried arnica, wildcrafted juniper berries, rosemary, lavender and eucalyptus leaves. She added them to her bath, as well as epsom salts, and wrote to me saying, “well you told me not to expect any miracles, but I think I just experienced one. The bath herbs you sent are divine. I feel almost normal again!”
Bath tea for her
A few days before that, I created a bath blend for a friend who recently had a miscarriage. I literally kicked the kids out of my space, went to my cabinet where I keep many jars of dried herbs, and asked the universe to lovingly guide me in choosing some for her. It began with tender oats and mineralizing himalayan pink salts. Then came the plants…
- red raspberry leaves
- yarrow flowers
- rose petals and buds
- chamomile buds
- calendula blossoms
- elderflowers
- comfrey leaves
- lavender buds
- rosemary
- hibiscus flowers
All of the above have an affinity for women. They can support our systems, particularly in the centermost parts of our bodies. The parts associated with bleeding and birthing. The parts that absorb everything we’ve ever experienced. My hope is that she can soak in all of this herbal goodness and clear out some of the stored trauma or grief. Or at least feel a bit more connected to them there in order to find her way through.
Calm baby bath tea
Since 2022 began, we’ve had more orders for the Calm Baby Bath Tea than ever before. It was designed with newborns and new mamas in mind – a soak they can do together. Even the most gentle things can feel powerful in those weeks after birth. Never forget that a mother is also born along with her baby. And she is reborn every single time in the process.
My babies all took their first baths in this blend. I was in the water with them too, holding them in my arms while the botanicals floated around us. Just me, them and the plants – a special little cove we entered for a bit of time. I still remember it vividly and hope I always will.
The calm baby bath tea is made with organic gluten-free milky oats plus some soothing botanicals we have sown, grown, harvested and dried ourselves – calendula blossoms, lavender buds and chamomile. If I could, I’d add red clover blossoms to the tea too. I’m always so tempted to add them anyway, but the label on the jar restricts me. This is why I love creating for friends, because then I can follow my intuition during the process, rather than a label that was printed some years ago.
What is it about baths then?
Why do I always underestimate the potential of a good bath?
Nearly 20 years ago, I was a young woman living alone in Budapest, Hungary, where extravagant bathhouses are open to the public. I went a couple of times every week. It was my only way of bathing, actually, as my little flat was limited to sink and toilet. But even if I’d been lucky enough to have a private shower, I would have still gone to the bathhouses. Everyone did. In an opulent, cathedral-like setting, time came to a screeching halt. People moved slowly, calming, intentionally. Going there was like hitting the reset button.
Today, we are lucky to have our own bathtub in our home, but it’s only the kids who use it. Before I became a mother I regularly carved out time for baths, even used them like preventative medicine before illness or imbalance set in. These days, however, I use the shower. And I shower as quickly as possible! Not much time for long, steamy showers. Certainly not for slow, luxurious baths.
This is why bathing rituals have become a lost art, I’m afraid. They require time and intention, and they aren’t productive, or at least not as we define productivity nowadays. They are passive, pleasure, a practice that enriches our lives and may offer us healing from things that we’re constantly trying to rush away from. Herbal baths are the opposite of our technology-logged worlds, which are extracting, buying and selling our attention at an alarming rate and price. They don’t offer the cheap fast rewards, but the slow deep magic.
Bathing can even be a way for us to connect with our most ancient origin place. The story of life, including our own, begins in the sea. Some 500 million years ago, we were just tiny, wriggling sea creatures. And we still carry that story in every cell our bodies today. Every salty tear and drop of blood is a testament. But even as fully modern people, we all began life in the safe, nourishing waters of our mother’s womb.
Many African rituals either begin or end with bathing. Bathing symbolizes washing away old habits and old wounds. It is a way to renew one’s spirit – a way of taking a new step, of embodying healing energy and moving from one stage to another. It also symbolizes rebirth and a state of purity.”
Sobonfu Somé
In some African countries, there is still a cultural ritual of bathing newborn babies with fresh herbs gathered by the grandmothers or elder women of the community. I remember a post that @mydarlingdoula made about a year ago talking about it. She said that barks, roots, tree saps and medicinal plants are gathered and boiled, and then used to bathe a new baby with. During the bath, songs are sung and prayers are spoken for the new life. This bathing ritual can go on for the first 3 months of a baby’s life. How gorgeous is this?!
But it’s not just in Africa. Across the globe, bathing rituals are apart of our shared history and experience. Now medical science has begun to talk about the benefits of water therapy, or hydrotherapy too.
I’ve written a bit about hydrotherapy before here, but living in Sweden, I don’t have access to wild waters for at least half of the year. Perhaps I could stand a few moments of ice bathing, which would undoubtedly push that big Reset button, but during the cold, winter months, there’s really nothing like a warm, herbal bath. Adding plants to water can truly boost its curative properties.
Benefits of herbal baths:
- soften and rejuvenate skin
- reduce skin irritation or itching
- detox the body from toxins
- fight colds and viruses
- soothe body aches and pains
- alleviate menstrual cramps
- promote healing of wounds
- reduce stress and anxiety
- cleanse, tone and clear your skin
- replenish your mind and promote balance
- calm your nervous system
- improve quality of sleep
- sharpen concentration and memory
- invigorate the circulatory system and lymphatic flow
… and dozens of other potential benefits, depending on your chosen plants, salts, clays, etc.
Creating Your Own Herbal Bath
Baths can be customized in an infinite number of ways to meet any occasion.
The first step is to gather some active botanicals or herbs. Which could literally be anything! Flowers, aromatics, common “weeds,” roots, leaves, kitchen herbs, dried berries of all sorts, seaweeds, barks, etc.
You can even layer dried and fresh materials. Use what you have and what calls out to you. Even a couple of plants can be just as powerful as using many.
There are several ways you can add the botanicals to your bath:
1 – simply dump them in the warm bathwater. But be prepared to have a lot of stuff floating around in the water with you, oftentimes sticking to your skin. Some people are bothered by this, while others actually love it. Also be prepared for a more laborious clean-up. You’ll have to scoop all of the plants out of the water by hand before draining the water out. I find that a fine mesh strainer does this job quite easily. But still, it’s a process you could easily skip by…
2 – add your herbs/botanicals to a thin cotton muslin cloth and tie it up. Then all of the plants will be steeped into the water but contained within the bag. If you order a wyld bath tea, we always include a cotton muslin bag with drawstring for this reason! This is the method I use most often. Throughout the bath, I love to squeeze the bag of botanicals, extracting even more goodness into the water. After the the bath, I hang it up to dry completely. Then it’s easy to either re-use the materials for another bath or compost them.
3 – a third method is to literally make a tea. Bring a kettle of water to boil and pour boiling water over the botanicals/herbs. Let it steep for a while, and then strain out the solids. Now you have an herbal tea that can be poured into your bath. The nice thing about this method is that it also creates a “steam” that you can enjoy during the steeping process. A facial steam, or full body steam. Just breathe it all in and let your pores soak in those lovely properties.
Other than plants, you can also add salts and/or clays to your bath. These can help detoxify, but they’re also rich in valuable trace minerals that the skin can absorb. Some people add sodium bicarbonate to the bath to facilitate sweating and further detoxification. Others add dead sea salts or himalayan salts to relieve arthritis pain. Epsom salts are great for relieving muscle and joint pain, for detoxing or just getting a big dose of magnesium.
So light a candle if you will. Or pour a glass of wine if that’s what you fancy. Grab a book if you want, or perhaps just let it be a time for closing the eyes or staring at the wall if that’s what you need! You don’t have to be productive. For 20 minutes, just be. Be restored by the warm, plant-infused water.
