Indulge in a Home Spa to Reduce Stress

Don’t you just feel like indulging in a spa or wellness retreat once the going gets tough? The positive effects of spa treatments on the emotional and physical well-being of a person has been discussed for years, with light being thrown recently on the efficacy with which spa can both rejuvenate the mind and body.

However not only a spa session is relatively expensive, a lot of people are stuck in an extremely busy schedule, and at times can't even afford an afternoon off. That is why I recommend a do-it-yourself, inexpensive home spa session to both pamper your body and relax your senses.

And how does this help in reducing stress? By the same principle adopted in professional spa centers, a home spa works to provide a tranquil ambience and calm your mind, along with pampering and relaxing your body.

Things you need:

• Your preferred essential oil fragrance
• Face Steamer (optional)
• Facial scrub
• Scented candles (optional)
• Good music
• A face mask
• Rose petals
• Skin moisturizing body wash
• 2 cucumber slices

Give yourself some ME time- Make sure that you are completely free for at least an hour while you indulge in your home spa. Switch off the phone, and shut down the laptop. Be absolutely sure that there will be no disturbance at all. Play a soothing musical track in the background.

Scented candles work in two ways. First, it effuses another soothing fragrance that mingles with the fragrance in the essential oil and provides a tranquil ambience. Scented candles also plays on the lighting, you can switch off the lights completely and light up these candles to create a complementing atmosphere.

However, make sure that the fragrance of the scented candles and that of the essential oils does not starkly contrast with each other or that one overpowers the other. Look for options that blend well like vanilla and rose, or chamomile and orange.

Steam and Scrub- While the bath water heats up, steam your face and neck using a face steamer. This helps to get rid of the dead skin cells, improves blood circulation, and brings out a healthy glow to the face. This improved blood circulation also helps in de-stressing. Now scrub your face using a good quality cosmetic scrub or you can make one yourself. Take a teaspoon of honey and add 2 teaspoon of ground coffee. You can also make a citrus face scrub by using dried lemon or orange peel, which is ground into a powder form and mixed with half a teaspoon of plain yogurt. This scrub pack helps to remove the dead skin cells and has a moisturizing effect on the skin.

Follow this step with applying a herbal face pack. Anything with clay is a good option, but if you have dry skin look for face packs that have tea tree oil or glycerin.

Prepare the bath- Fill the bath with a little more than lukewarm water and add a few drops of essential oil and the skin moisturizing body wash. Some people prefer to use a scented bath ball or drops that bubble up. However, it is best to use a combination of the essential oil (so that the fragrance comes out more prominently) and the skin moisturizing body wash to ensure that when you step out of the bath your skin isn’t pruned but feels hydrated and moisturized.

The last step is to drop in the rose petals and step in. Put cucumber slices on your eyes, relax and try to picture a scenic tourist spot that you might have seen in the picture or better still imagine an event or a situation that will give you immense pleasure. However, remember to visualize something that calms you and not charges you up. Thinking about your goals or ambitions will excite your brain, which in turn robs the whole purpose of the home spa.

Once you feel the water turning cold, start with massaging your shoulders and rotating your joints. If you have a self massager, then it becomes easier to massage more than just the key shoulder and neck areas. Massaging helps immensely in reducing the pent up muscle tension and de-stresses the body.

This is just one version of the DIY home spa, but this helps to alleviate stress by working on most of your senses. While you hear soothing music in the background, and feel the warm refreshing water on your skin, you also inhale a calming fragrance and your eyes are busy reveling in a beautiful mental picture painted by the brain.

If you are prone to stressing out a lot, keep two days every week aside for a personal home spa and you will notice a remarkable change within the first month itself.