12 Ways a Sacred Bath Can Make You Happier
by Dr. Paulette Kouffman Sherman
A sacred bath includes prayer, meditation, intention, essential oils, crystals, and visualization. It’s a consistent, inexpensive time and any bathtub will do. In addition, sacred baths have a specific intention, meditation, and prayer. They are done with a colored candle, a few essential oils, and a crystal. All this energy supports the intention for that particular bath ritual, to build that thought form.
So, if our intention was to relax, we could have a meditation asking our guardian angel to help release our tension and burdens. A prayer could be for this angel to assist us in surrendering to love in that moment. Matching essential oils could be lavender for relaxation and frankincense for spiritual grounding. A matching crystal to place in the bath water is celestite, to release stress. The candle could be white to represent peace.
Here are 12 reasons that taking a sacred bath can make you feel happier:
1. Self-Care: Having 25 minutes of enjoyable self-care (at least weekly) is incredibly important. It is therapeutic to connect with our selves, emotions, and spirit in silence.
2. Meditation: Meditation focuses our mind on an intention. Furthermore, stilling our mind allows guidance to come in. It can release toxic thoughts and distractions. Research by Fredrickson, et. al., showed that people who meditate daily display more positive emotions than those who don’t. They also display more mindfulness, life purpose and social support, even three months after meditating.
3. Intention: Our intention directs our outcome in life. Intention is the mental, emotional and spiritual context that aligns our feelings, thoughts, and behavior. Research also shows that intention can manifest in physical reality. Dr. Masaru Emoto asked 2000 people in Tokyo to focus positive intentions toward water samples in an electromagnetically shielded lab in California. There was a different location with water samples that the people didn’t know about, as a control. Ice crystals formed by both sets of water samples were blindly analyzed and photographed and the results indicated that intention did influence the structure of the water. Thus, perhaps the thoughts feelings and intentions we hold when immersed in win the bath affects the structure and quality of that water.
4. The Law of Attraction: Our vibration consists of our thoughts, feelings, and actions. So, we can shift our vibration to become what we want to attract. Our sacred bath, therefore, allows us to release blocks and to focus on what we do want.
5. Visualization: We can visualize what we want to attract in every sacred bath. Research shows that visualization works. In one study, two groups never played the piano. One group played the scale and the other group imagined playing the scale. Afterward, their brains were scanned and the part of their brain that corresponded with finger movements was the same!
6. Call in a Higher Power: Part of taking a sacred bath is calling in a higher power or our higher self. This also helps us to see the bigger picture and to get guidance. Research suggests that calling in a higher power may aid depression and increase well-being.
7. Essential Oils: These carry the highest frequency known to man and have healing properties. Our bodies respond to different environmental frequencies. And essential oils may cleanse our aura and clarify our vibration. Therefore, if our aura affects what we attract, clarifying it may help us to manifest our desires.
8. Crystals: These natural stones have their own vibration, color, and healing properties. Crystals cleanse negative energies so we feel happier. Each one has its own structure, frequency, and attracts different things. They work on the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual levels to align our subtle energies. For example, using a quartz crystal in the bath may amplify and broadcast our energetic intent.
9. Ritual: A ritual is a set of actions performed for their symbolic value. In addition, research shows that rituals help us to value something more. Personal involvement allows us to feel deeply involved in our experience, which can heighten its perceived value. Also, practicing something in a consistent way can heighten its efficacy. Rituals often bring us a sense of wholeness and well-being.
10. Journaling: After our sacred bath, we can journal about the guidance that we received while tracking the changes we want to integrate. Most noteworthy, research shows that writing about our feelings helps the brain overcome emotional upsets and it can leave us feeling happier.
11. Improve Relationships: We can take a sacred bath with the intention to attract love, to wash away a bad date or even take a sacred bath with our spouse to improve communication. As a result, this practice can raise the vibration of our relationship and help couples to embrace a higher shared purpose.
12. Relax & Switch into our Parasympathetic Nervous System: Sacred baths shift us into our relaxed healing nervous system. The sympathetic nervous system handles “fight or flight,” preparing us for defense. Our parasympathetic nervous system rebuilds our body, stimulates digestion, and aids physical and emotional healing. When we breathe deeply we shift into this healing nervous system, which enhances our sense of well-being.
About the Author
Dr. Paulette Kouffman Sherman is a psychologist & author of The Book of Sacred Baths, published by Llewellyn. The Book of Sacred Baths has 52 bath rituals in the areas of relationships, health, career, emotions, finances and Spirit, one for every week of the year. It’s available on Amazon now. Her websites are www.sacredbathing.com and www.DrPauletteSherman.com
