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Sometimes you’re told, “just write” so you do and you save it in a cool purple marble composition book and use a purple pen! I bought this book when I joined a creative writing group at my local library. I was in skin care education and fitness at the time. My focus was educating women on skin care and making it a super quick routine. My focus was combining everyday tasks with some zen to create clarity for the day ahead.
My group was encouraging, so I wrote a collection of stories. My thought was I would share them during my presentations. Life happens, I got busy in fitness and set the book aside.
So, here’s the beginning of my blog from back circa 2013! I present to you:
My First Blog: 5 Minute Scented Steam
Steam rooms and saunas are not just in the spas and fitness clubs anymore.
What is Steam?
Steam is wet heat. It is the feeling you get when taking the lid off your crockpot or a boiling pot of water. Saunas, on the other hand, are just plain hot, kind of like opening your oven to check the cookies.
The sauna is great before or after a great workout or a shower, but let’s talk about the shower.
The Long Shower
I take pretty long showers. On average, they last about 30 minutes! Don’t get me started on the number of times my parents, and, now, my husband, yelled about the water bill!
My showers are on the hot side; you know, the kind that leave your skin red 😊 ommm!
Once my showers became so hot, I noticed the foggy steam in the bathroom. It was so relaxing that on tough, challenging days, I would steam up the bathroom and jump in the shower. This is how the 5 minute steam was born!
Steam is Good
The good part of the steam is the pore opening cleanse. The heat opens up the pores nice and wide and the shower water flushes out the bad stuff (I fondly refer to this as “yucky pore sludge”!!)
OK, so we’re in the steamy shower with the hot water running on us, and we close our eyes as the water washes away the day. Maybe you smell your soap…or the lemon in your water bottle (you DO bring a water bottle in the shower, don’t you?!), and this is that A-HA moment you realize you can add scent to your steam!
Scents That Make Sense
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Essential oils or natural hand made soaps are great for smells. I do a 5 minute scented steam most days of the week just by hanging in the shower for 5 more minutes to inhale the day’s scent.
My favorite scents for a morning shower are peppermint, tea tree, lemongrass and hazelnut spice! The first 2 scents are essential oils and the second 2 scents are natural soaps. For an evening shower, I like calmer, less spicy scents like vanilla, lavender or rose.
I just love essential oils of all kinds. I use Piping Rock products as they are 100% pure and therapeutic level.
Piping Rock delivers the best options for natural aromatherapy products for a profound experience. We offer a variety of pure essential oils without added fillers using the most effective extraction methods for botanicals. Our essential oils are obtained by steam distillation and cold-pressing for maximum concentration and potency. They’re all GC/MS (Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry) tested in our world-class laboratory facilities to ensure maximum purity and potency.
How Does This Work?
Now I don’t recommend bringing the entire EO bottle with you (I learned this from The Tea Tree Oil Scandal!) or putting some on a reed stick as there will be several sticks for the different scents and where would you store them?!
I recommend using a cotton ball/round or swabs. Just a few drops on the cotton of choice and the hot water running on your back will create a scented steam. Just close your eyes while inhaling the steamy scent.
Time To Enjoy!
This is a good time to practice your meditation. If you know how to meditate, go right ahead and start here. If not, just start by thinking of all the things your grateful for. One hand holds the scent under your nose and the other hand is placed over your heart. Think about all the wonderful blessings in your life, inhale for 2 counts, exhale for 2 counts while the water flushes all the negative down the drain! You’ll be walking on clouds after just 5 minutes.
Just Write!
If you want to start writing with me, try my lined journal!
A butterfly gently lands on a rose in the midst of a memorial. Just like the beauty of the butterfly on the rose, your thoughts become beautiful memories of today as you write in the Butterflies and Kisses Lined Journal.
This post contains affiliate links, which means I receive a small commission, at no extra cost to you, if you make a purchase using this link. Please see my disclosure for more details.
Before You Go…
Drop a comment, and let me know if you tried a scented steam …and what scent you used!
I remember those days when I was told to just write in high school English class. I love saunas! They’re so good for your skin and just get all of the junk out. Thanks for sharing all of these facts from your first post!
Nancy ✨ exquisitely.me
Thank you for your sentiment 🙂 planning on creating a collection, so stay tuned!