THE HEAL ALL GO TO
I’m a big fan of the epsom bath. Playground cuts, bruises, tummy aches, and growing pains all get sent upstairs for an epsom bath in our house. As mentioned in my Finding Balance article, I had a somewhat humbling trip and fall walking back from school drops a month or two ago. Once I got over the annoyance of the injury, I took it on as a project to learn new ways to find natural healing methods. I decided to follow my own advice and have an epsom bath, everyday for a week, and use myself as a guinea pig to see how fast I could speed up the healing process of a decent sized cut knee, with a matching very impressive bruise on the other knee!
RAINBOW KNEES
With each day I could visibly see the progress of the recovery. The cut very quickly sealed over, and the bruise came to the surface and started changing from deep purple, to blue, to green within a matter of days. After one week the improvement was huge and my poor little knees were well on their road to recovery. Over the course of the week I started to notice lots of additional benefits to having a daily epsom bath. I knew they were very calming but there are so many more benefits that I didn’t know about till I tried it. Here are some of the benefits I notice:
Speed up healing of bruises
Speeds up healing of cuts
Speeds up muscle strain and injury recovery
Relieves muscle pain, tension and inflammation
Softer and more even toned skin
Relieves stress and promotes the production of serotonin (rest & restore hormone)
Regular bowel movement
Eliminates pre menstrual bloating and cramping
Promotes a better night sleep
Regulates blood sugar levels and reduces food cravings
MISSING MINERALS
Epsom salts are made of magnesium sulphate – an important mineral which is becoming harder get adequate required daily amounts. We usually get it in our diet from fresh fruit and veg, but with the high turn over in agriculture, the soils are becoming increasingly depleted in their minerals – magnesium sulphate being one of these many minerals along with a long list of others. High consumption of caffeine also strips our systems of the essential minerals.
It’s now almost two months later and I’m still loving my epsom baths. I’m still seeing the benefits and definitely feel more balanced on the days where I carve out a bit of time for even just a 10 minute soak. Like meditation, sometimes you might not be in the mood, or you feel you don't have time, but a little self push in the right direction is needed when you know the results are guaranteed!
Ruth Delahunty Yogaru