Why baths can be self love

Here's a mandate for loving yourself. This week we're encouraging men to get into the habit of dosing up some self love. Whether that's admiring their own beauty, exploring what feels good to them and why or finding out why they have crumbs in their beds, this is a week of self exploration, because you can't love anybody else if you don't love yourself...

A nice soak in the bath, ahh… when’s the last time you did that?

Historically, baths haven’t always had much to do with cleaning. In ancient Rome, it was a deeply rooted social and cultural habit, according to Baths and Bathing in Classical Antiquity, by Fikret Yegül, and it was enjoyed by everyone from emperors to servants. They had them in libraries, lecture halls, everywhere!

Then they sort of fell out of fashion in the UK. The West generally didn’t get into bathing again until the 1800s, when plumbing allowed for indoor - public - baths. From there, we decided that for hygiene reasons, we might as well wash often. We also decided, somewhere along the cholera line, to make bathing more of a private thing.

Elsewhere, bathing has and is still used for religious, ritualistic and even therapeutic purposes. So even if you’re getting in there to scrub the day away, there’s plenty more to tap into! Estee Lalonde, YouTuber and founder of Mirror Water is all about the power of a good bathing session, and self-love generally.

For Lalonde, “self care is a habit and it takes time to get into the swing of things. Don’t overdo it by booking four yoga classes, signing your life away to a meditation app and ditching caffeine. Start slow and use your intuition to figure out what you need the most of.” Though of course, she enjoys a good bath.

“First of all, I always have a huge glass of water on hand…and sometimes a glass of red wine. When I run the bath, I dump in a handful or two of our SOAK Bath Salts, which are filled with stress-relieving magnesium and Himalayan pink salts and add a few drops of our SMOOTH Body Oil for some extra moisture while I soak.” She says.

As for self-love, Lalonde can’t stress enough that “it’s so important to take extra care of your mind and body by doing what feels right! Self love doesn’t have to be productive or extravagant”. And hey, it’s nearly Valentine’s Day. Or Tuesday, whatever you’d prefer to call it. So why not dedicate that day to some self-loving by upping the bath-time routine? Perhaps your partner can join in if they’re around!