Taking a bath should be easy. I mean aren’t you thinking right now, don’t you just add water?
Problem is, if you’re an adult, there may be some barriers to get through in order to enjoy bath time like when we were young. Let me save you the time and trouble as I pass on what I’ve learned about taking a bath as an adult.
I’m not sure the last time you took a bath. For me it was when I was a wee little (scratch that, I’m still little) young one and my mom prepared everything for me, including washing my hair.
So when I was recommended by my Functional Diagnostic Nutritionist to take a bath as a relaxing activity that would help with my adrenal fatigue and also increase my magnesium exposure, I thought it would be pretty easy.
Fill the tub with warm water, add Epsom salts, get in there to relax & enjoy. I had no idea it was going to be a stress inducing activity where I had to buy things before I could even begin.
Baths in the Movies
When I think of an adult taking a bath, my brain automatically runs to the typical scene you’d find in movies and music videos.
In my head I picture this luxurious image. A woman sitting in a claw foot tub with bubbles up to her eyeballs, in a huge bathroom with candles all around. She’s just relaxing and soaking it all in. Maybe I’m picturing a scene from Pretty Woman mixed with images of this Nicki Minaj video.
That is not what a typical bath, let alone my baths, look like (though I do love that purple tub!). Actually, I’m lucky we even have a bathtub at all.
To Tub Or Not To Tub
Several years back when we remodeled our bathroom, Jeff & I were considering replacing the pink bathtub that came with our house, with a standup shower.
We didn’t (and still don’t) plan on having kids and neither of us had taken a bath since we were kids ourselves so we didn’t see a need for a new bathtub. After talking it through further before the remodel, we eventually decided on a brand new white bathtub.
And now I’m glad we did.
Tales From My First Adult Bath
When we were on our road trip East last year we stayed with one of The Paleo Porn Family Members, Karen, when we were in New York state. We talked to her about our feelings of discontent the year prior and she had mentioned she felt the same.
While we were chatting, she recommended I pick up a bag of Dr. Teal’s Epsom Salt when I got back home and take an epsom salt bath to relax when I was feeling anxious. I made a mental note at the time but didn’t get around to it until a couple months after we were home.
I looked at my local grocers for Dr. Teal’s and all the bags were enhanced with ingredients beyond the natural salts, so I decided against buying any because I wanted a basic bag and didn’t feel like doing any further research beyond Karen’s recommendation.
For Christmas, my mother-in-law bought me my first bag of bath salts from a local company. Prior to Christmas I had finally pulled the trigger and purchased my first doTERRA essential oils, so I also had some EOs on hand.
With both of those things I went hunting for the bathtub plunger that I thought had come with the new bathtub when we remodeled all those years ago. Unfortunately I ran into another hurdle because either we threw out the bathtub stopper or it never came with one.
A few weeks later I finally had a stopper and I was able to have my first adult bath.
One More Hurdle
At this point I thought I had everything I needed. I had a bathtub stopper, some bath salts and essential oils for added smelly goodness.
I brought a few of my brand new doTERRA essential oils into the bathroom along with some epsom salt. I set the water to hot and started filling it with water. I poured a cup of salt into the bathtub, added a few drops of Grape Fruit, Frankincense and Wild Orange EO and swirled it all around and continued to fill the tub.
When it was ready I stepped in and tried to relax but there was this constant blup, blup, blup and I had no idea where the noise was coming from. I was lying in our newly cleaned bathtub, surrounded by the scents of relaxation, trying to actually relax and the water was slowly disappearing.
I called Jeff into the bathroom because I couldn’t figure out what was going on. He quickly put two and two together. If you didn’t already guess it, the blup, blup, blup was the noise of the water disappearing from the tub.
Apparently some smart engineer a long, long time ago created a safeguard so you would never overflow your bathtub by leaving the water running and walking away. I’m not talking about the bathtub stopper, because that was working. About halfway up the tub, between the drain and the faucet, there is this second fail-safe. It also has a hole in the top and/or bottom that leads to the drain. If water gets higher than the fail-safe, it will slowly drain the excess water.
I couldn’t believe it! I just didn’t understand why I couldn’t get “bath time” to work for me.
When I got out I texted my mom to see if this safeguard existed when I was a kid. I distinctly remember taking baths and playing with my toys as a kid in the tub and never having this problem. But she reassured me that yes, the bathtub I grew up playing in also had this feature.
Take Your Bath To New Depths
As I was sitting in the tub freaking out that it would only fill halfway with water, Jeff went directly to Amazon and ordered a solution. With Amazon Prime, I had the solution to a full bathtub in my hands in only a couple days.
Enter the Deep Water Bathtub Drain Cover. This thing is amazing and it’s the last piece to the puzzle that is taking a bath as an adult.
Not only does it keep the water levels at the level you would expect, it’s also easy to install. Thanks to the suction cups all along the edge you just make sure the hole is at the top, then press and go.
The Best Espom Salt
Now that I had both the bathtub stopper and the drain cover along with my bath salts and essential oils I was off. I used up all of my local made bath salts in only a couple of uses.
After it was all gone I did a little research and found a brand I was happy with, thanks to the San Francisco Salt Company. I ordered a giant bag of their Epsoak Espom Salt and it has been absolutely fantastic.
I even spotted the company when we were in Anaheim, CA for the Expo West Natural Product Expo which was great because I ordered the bag off Amazon and didn’t even look at their website. They actually have many different salts to choose from on their site besides the bath salts.
What’s That Burning?
With my new salt and bathtub issues behind me I was turning into a relaxation bathing pro. Until I ran into another couple of issues.
The first was a silly problem. I had been dropping the essential oils directly into the water and swirling them around before getting in and while laying in the bath I would sometimes get a burning sensation on my leg or on my arm.
Each time it was in a different location and I couldn’t pin point where it was coming from because it was so inconsistent. While I was talking it through with Jeff, and after verbalizing everything, I realized it was the essential oils. I was adding a few drops directly to the water and they were creating these pockets of oil that when I would sit down would wind up irritating my skin.
Remember I said I was new to essential oils so I didn’t think about this being a possible issue. But I now have a quick fix!
Before I start the water, I transfer 1-2 cups of epsom salt to a glass jar. Then I add the essential oils to the jar and stir to coat them well in the salt before pouring everything in the tub with the water. And I now add a little shake of baking soda as well and everything has been great!
Limit Your Baths
I was loving the epsom salt baths so much, I found myself taking several of them a week. And then I realized that wasn’t such a good idea.
I would recommend you limit yourself to two epsom salt baths a week.
Beyond Your Bathtub
If you’re enjoying your baths at home, maybe you want to take things up a notch and seek out a float tank near you. Another name for float tank is a sensory deprivation tank.
If you’re not familiar with them, floating is a relaxation practice of being buoyant in approximately 10 inches of water in a solution of 1,000 pounds of magnesium sulfate, otherwise known as Epsom Salts. You can reserve a float session for 60 or 90 minutes and sometimes even longer.
The temperature of the water is set to the body’s normal skin temperature. This practice can be accomplished in a special floatation device like a float pod, a floatation tank or a float room.
Recently Jeff & I attended the grand opening for Float Sixty in Chicago. There is also a tank in the suburb of Carol Stream at NorthCoast Wellness Center. If you do a quick search for “float tank” and the name of your town you should be able to find one closest to you.
I’m looking forward to our first float experience soon. In the meantime, here are some quotes from Joe Rogan, who loves to talk about the benefits of floating.
Everything You Need For A Successful Adult Bath
Ingredients
- a bathtub stopper
- a Deep Water Bathtub Drain Cover
- epsom salt, I recommend San Francisco Salt Company’s Epsoak Epsom Salt
- baking soda
- essential oils if you want some relaxing scents around you (optional), I recommend doTERRA
Directions
Place stopper and drain cover where they need to go. If using essential oils, add epsom salt and EOs to a glass jar and stir to combine. Start the water on hot and add to the tub. Pour salts into the water and stir to combine. Add a sprinkle of baking soda and let the tub fill with water to your desired level. Remember, when you step in, the water will rise. ;) Get in there and relax for about 20 minutes.
Note: Remember the water will get colder the longer you’re in there so you want to start with the water pretty hot. But also be sensible about it and be sure not to burn yourself.
Read more about magnesium in this Mercola article.
