One Hot Night

Oh my. Last night was quite a wild one.
I decided that I should just keep truckin’ along with my detox mission, and pull one more cleansing trick from my sleeve. While I was researching this month, I stumbled across a “ginger detox bath”, and recalled my herbal medicine teacher mentioning this one time back in class.
The idea is to immerse yourself in a hot bath filled with ginger (fresh or powdered) and some Epsom salts. The ginger makes the bath “hotter” as it comes into contact with your skin. This allows your pores to open, your skin to sweat, providing a clear path for toxins to get out. Simple and effective!

I thought I would give it a shot.

And let me tell you…I haven’t felt that hot in a very long time.

After about 10 minutes my scalp started dripping and my heartbeat got so strong, I could feel the pulse in my teeth! It was totally wild. I brought a book into the bathroom with me in case I got bored, but all I could do was stare at the ceiling and try to focus on not melting. It was INCREDIBLE!

Here are the full instructions so you can try it yourself:
1. Measure out 1/8 cup ginger, fresh or powdered (powdered goes deeper), and mix with 1 cup Epsom salts.
2. Run a hot bath (as hot as you can handle) and pour the ginger/salt mixture into the tub.
3. While the bath is running, take a dry skin brush (or vegetable brush if you must!) and brush all parts of the body in a circular motion toward the heart. (Skin brushing can be very beneficial because the skin is a primary avenue for detoxification) See full instructions here.
4. Sit in the bath for 20-30 minutes, making sure that you have a very good sweat on (if you don’t, the water isn’t hot enough). I recommend rubbing all areas of your body in clockwise circular motions for a count of 20 in each area while soaking. Rub each breast (great way to ward against cancer) your stomach area, etc. You'll find that you will get quite uncomfortably "hot and sweaty" so it helps to have some bottle water handy to help flush the toxins out. Do not remain in the tub for more than 30 minutes.
5. When you get out of the bath, go straight to bed and wrap yourself up in blankets, with towels against your skin (DO NOT apply lotions, potions or serums to your skin as you might normally before bed, as this will clog your pores and defeat the purpose of cleansing). You will continue to sweat for about an hour, but you’ll probably pass out before then. Keep water next to the bed in case you wake up in the night thirsty.
6. Upon waking, you may feel slightly “flu-y”, but this is a good sign – it means you are really releasing toxins from your body! Continue to drink lots of water the next day, especially if you are feeling tired or sick. This didn’t happen to me, but I sure was thirsty!

I had a great experience with this ginger bath and I would highly recommend it to anyone who loves saunas or steam rooms, but can’t get to the spa every week! This is certainly something I will add to my cleansing repertoire, and maybe even just for kicks when the temperature drops below -15 degrees (more often than I care to experience these days).

I hope you’ve taken some of my advice this month, and are welcoming February feeling renewed, refreshed and squeaky clean inside!