Set Up a Soothing Home Spa Experience
By Elizabeth Scott, M.S., About.com Guide
Updated April 02, 2006
About.com Health's Disease and Condition content is reviewed by the Medical Review Board
If you’re as busy and stressed as most of us, you may not take time out for self care very often. However, personal pampering has many stress relieving benefits, and should be incorporated as part of a low stress lifestyle. If you don’t have the budget for a high end spa, you can create a relaxing home spa experience for yourself. The following are some basic elements to include in creating a home spa experience that will melt away stress and leave you feeling pampered and relaxed.
Difficulty: Easy
Time Required: 30 Minutes to One Hour
Here's How:
1. Privacy: Perhaps the most important part of the home spa experience is being sure you have some uninterrupted time for just you. If you have to hop out of the tub to circumvent a catastrophe with your toddler or answer a string of calls, you may end up feeling even more tense! So make arrangements for some uninterrupted solitude, let the phone go to voice mail, and prepare to indulge.
2. Music: If you can arrange to have music in your bathroom, you’ll be glad you did. The right soothing melodies can help melt away the stress, make you feel more removed from reality, and, if you live with others, drown out the household sounds that may remind you of everything else going on, taking your attention away from the here and now of your home spa experience.
3. Lighting: You’d be surprised at how lighting can create a stress-relieving mood. Lighting the room with candles can fill the area with a soothing scent and create a very relaxing atmosphere.
4. Bath Products: You can go a long way in creating a luxurious bath with a few helpful products. Lavender-scented bubble bath, for example, uses the power of aromatherapy to soothe you. Body scrubs are used in spas to exfoliate skin, and can be used at home as well. There are also skin-moisturizing oils you can add to your bath to nourish your skin and make the pampered feeling last.
5. Beauty Treatments: While you’re relaxing, you may as well get more beautiful! Putting a conditioning treatment in your hair and a purifying masque on your face can make your face and scalp feel good and leave you looking more beautiful afterward. Rubbing your dry skin with a loofah and scrubbing calloused feet with a pumice stone can be a little more work, but you’ll love the results, and it’ll only take a few minutes.
6. After Tub Care: You may want to follow up after you get out of the tub by applying a rich conditioning cream to your skin and a coat of nail polish to your toes. Again this will keep you feeling more pampered between spa treatments.
7. Massage: You may think a home spa treatment can’t include a massage, but it can! If you can’t enlist the soothing hands of a partner, you can use a self-massager to do the same job: loosen up tight muscles, promote circulation, and make you feel great. Or, if you’re really in the mood to indulge, you can even hire a professional massage therapist to come to your house!
Tips:
1. Block off a specific amount of time for yourself. Sometimes busy people have a hard time just doing nothing because we can think of so many other things that need doing. If this break is scheduled to be a specific length, you may feel more entitled to just enjoy it.
2. Try to do this on a regular schedule, like once a week or twice a month. With repetition, you may see your spa time making a significant impact on your overall stress level!
3. Don’t feel guilty for taking some time for yourself—you deserve it!
What You Need:
* A bathroom,
* A tub.
* Some privacy.
MY THOUGHTS
believe me. it works. it can be done at home. you may have to make some adjustments- especially if you don;t have a tub and a partner. doing the rest still works.
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Saturday, August 29, 2009
fun ways to relieve stress
Top 8 Fun Stress Relievers
From Your Guide, Elizabeth Scott, for About.com
Created: June 21, 2007
About.com Health's Disease and Condition content is reviewed by the Medical Review Board
There are many great stress relievers out there, but it's not always easy to stick with them. However, the fun stress relievers do seem to be easier to practice on a regular basis--you look forward to them! So for those of us who like a little fun with our stress relief, I've compiled a list of fun stress relievers, along with explanations of their other benefits as well. Enjoy!
1. Stress Relieving Games
Sometimes playing a fun game on your computer is just what you need to keep your mind off of stress in the office or at home. You don't have to go anywhere, you can play for just a few minutes, and you can return to the tasks at hand with a fresh frame of mind. These stress relieving games can help you relieve stress in just a few minutes, without being addictive.
2. Stress Relieving Books
Nothing takes your mind off of stress like a good book. And these stress relieving books can provide just the right distraction and escape from stress, as well as teaching you something new you can use to relieve stress. With a book, you can also take as much or as little time as you have available for stress relief.
3. Laughter
A good laugh can be a great stress reliever: it releases endorphins and other healthy hormones, takes your mind off of stress, and can even provide a decent physical workout if you really get going. It also leaves you in a more positive frame of mind, and can bond you to those with whom you share a good laugh. Learn more about laughter as a stress reliever, and see how you can incorporate more humor into your life.
4. Gardening
Planting a garden (or even tending to a houseplant) can be a great way to reconnect with nature, beautify your space, and enjoy other stress relieving benefits. Learn more about the stress relief benefits of gardening, and see if this is the stress reliever for you!
5. Drawing
Rediscovering your artistic side with anything from doodling to serious sketching can be a good stress reliever for several reasons: it's a good distraction, it helps you express and process emotions, and it leaves you with something beautiful to enjoy when you're finished. Learn more about the stress relief benefits of drawing and how to incorporate them into your life.
6. Music
Music is a great stress reliever for many reasons, and it can also improve health to the point that it's being used in hospitals to promote health! As a stress reliever, it provides distraction, inspiration, can speed you up or calm you down, and more. And you can use it durning your commute, while exercising, or at any time as you go about your daily activities. Learn more about the benefits of music, and find out how to incorporate it into your life to relieve stress.
7. Sports
Enjoying sports, from karate to mountain biking to tennis and more, can be a fun way to get exercise and relieve stress, providing endorphins, a social outlet, a way to release frustration, and more, and leave you healthier and happier in the end. Find ideas on what types of stres relieving activities to try in this section.
8. Mini-Vacations
Vacations are a wonderfully fun and sadly under-used stress relief resource. If you find yourself longing for a vacation but don't have the time or the funds to go on the trip you deserve, you can still treat yourself to a stress relieving mini vacation and get similar stress relieving benefits without expending as much!
MY THOUGHTS
The title itself takes out the stress - fun stress relievers. And these are quite easy - and cheap!!! Laughter, for example is free. I should know. When I was born and the midwife (yes! midwife pa - haha) slapped my butt, I didn't holler and cry. I hooted with laughter. I guess that's why although I get into the brink of stress I never got to the point of killing my self or killing someone else. I do manage to kill stress.
From Your Guide, Elizabeth Scott, for About.com
Created: June 21, 2007
About.com Health's Disease and Condition content is reviewed by the Medical Review Board
There are many great stress relievers out there, but it's not always easy to stick with them. However, the fun stress relievers do seem to be easier to practice on a regular basis--you look forward to them! So for those of us who like a little fun with our stress relief, I've compiled a list of fun stress relievers, along with explanations of their other benefits as well. Enjoy!
1. Stress Relieving Games
Sometimes playing a fun game on your computer is just what you need to keep your mind off of stress in the office or at home. You don't have to go anywhere, you can play for just a few minutes, and you can return to the tasks at hand with a fresh frame of mind. These stress relieving games can help you relieve stress in just a few minutes, without being addictive.
2. Stress Relieving Books
Nothing takes your mind off of stress like a good book. And these stress relieving books can provide just the right distraction and escape from stress, as well as teaching you something new you can use to relieve stress. With a book, you can also take as much or as little time as you have available for stress relief.
3. Laughter
A good laugh can be a great stress reliever: it releases endorphins and other healthy hormones, takes your mind off of stress, and can even provide a decent physical workout if you really get going. It also leaves you in a more positive frame of mind, and can bond you to those with whom you share a good laugh. Learn more about laughter as a stress reliever, and see how you can incorporate more humor into your life.
4. Gardening
Planting a garden (or even tending to a houseplant) can be a great way to reconnect with nature, beautify your space, and enjoy other stress relieving benefits. Learn more about the stress relief benefits of gardening, and see if this is the stress reliever for you!
5. Drawing
Rediscovering your artistic side with anything from doodling to serious sketching can be a good stress reliever for several reasons: it's a good distraction, it helps you express and process emotions, and it leaves you with something beautiful to enjoy when you're finished. Learn more about the stress relief benefits of drawing and how to incorporate them into your life.
6. Music
Music is a great stress reliever for many reasons, and it can also improve health to the point that it's being used in hospitals to promote health! As a stress reliever, it provides distraction, inspiration, can speed you up or calm you down, and more. And you can use it durning your commute, while exercising, or at any time as you go about your daily activities. Learn more about the benefits of music, and find out how to incorporate it into your life to relieve stress.
7. Sports
Enjoying sports, from karate to mountain biking to tennis and more, can be a fun way to get exercise and relieve stress, providing endorphins, a social outlet, a way to release frustration, and more, and leave you healthier and happier in the end. Find ideas on what types of stres relieving activities to try in this section.
8. Mini-Vacations
Vacations are a wonderfully fun and sadly under-used stress relief resource. If you find yourself longing for a vacation but don't have the time or the funds to go on the trip you deserve, you can still treat yourself to a stress relieving mini vacation and get similar stress relieving benefits without expending as much!
MY THOUGHTS
The title itself takes out the stress - fun stress relievers. And these are quite easy - and cheap!!! Laughter, for example is free. I should know. When I was born and the midwife (yes! midwife pa - haha) slapped my butt, I didn't holler and cry. I hooted with laughter. I guess that's why although I get into the brink of stress I never got to the point of killing my self or killing someone else. I do manage to kill stress.
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