Bathing is a simple and beautiful process. You will find it interesting that bathing the body is just over 200 years in other countries. In India, it has been around for thousands of years. A Yog Shastra has beautifully described this process and explained the importance of cleansing the body and mind with the elements of water. However, our modern lifestyle has disrupted the beautiful process of bathing and people make some mistakes. Today, we will see what these mistakes are.
Bathing with hot water
A long hot bath feels very nice especially in winter. But hot water removes your skin’s natural oil and can leave your skin dry and itchy. It is best to use room temperature water for bathing. In the case of those who are elderly or have some health issues, slightly warm water may be used. In ancient times, people used to go to river to have their bath at the time of sunrise. The flowing water in the river was always warm.
This flowing water had warmth of the earth and the person looked at the sun, expressed his gratitude, prayer, and pure thoughts in the mind. Water brings humility which we have not created. Water brings natural strength which we need to first take water in your hand and thank God for it. But in present time, most of us live far from river streams. Hence, we should try to bathe in the water which is at room temperature. The attitude has to be that you are harnessing divine strength.
Apply soap all over the body
Some strong soaps can kill even good bacteria. This may allow bad bacteria to grow. Harsh soap also dries up your skin, especially sensitive skin. So use mild soap and only in certain areas. When taking a bath, we should concentrate on moving our hand on every part of our body and massaging it properly. Take a small towel, wet it in water and rub it on the whole body. This is the first step in the process of taking a bath.
These days, there is a lot of air pollution. That’s why it becomes necessary to use soap. Generally, water itself is enough for cleaning the skin. But we can use a little mild soap and apply it in the armpit and the groin part. It must also be applied to the feet and in the areas where there is air. For the other part of the body, just rubbing with water is important. This rubbing must be done for the second phase of the bath with soap.
For the third time, it can be done only with plain water. So our hands should go all over the body at least three times. In the olden days, people used to use fresh milk, curd with a little turmeric and honey in place of soap, especially during winter when your skin tends to get dry. Each person will have to experiment what suits his or her skin since everybody’s skin is different.
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Washing hair every day
How often you should watch your hair depends upon personal factors such as your hair texture, hair condition, your lifestyle or schedule and so on. Some people wash their hair every day or every time they take bath. Daily hair washing isn’t necessary. When you wash your hair too frequently, you remove the natural protective oil from your scalp.
This leads your scalp to produce more oil. Shampooing hair too often removes sebum from your hair. Sebum is the natural oil produced by your own scalp. Sebum helps to protect your hair strands from moisture loss. Washing it all away can lead to a tight, dry scalp and coarse strands which are prone to breakage.
This may be a cause of excessive hair loss. In South India, where the weather tends to get too hot and humid, some people apply a lot of coconut oil on their head to keep their body cool and wash it off every day. It is essential to find what works best for your hair type and weather condition. If you need to wash your hair frequently, it’s best to use plain water or a natural soap. Natural soap made with herbal ingredients.
Stay in bathroom for too long
A long shower removes the essential oil of your skin, leading to inflammation and irritation. These oils are natural moisturizers whose absence can cause skin to become dry, peel, crack or turn pale. It is best to limit your bathing time to less than 10 minutes. This is enough time to cleanse and hydrate the skin without overdoing it. Take a bath twice a day if you want. According to Indian tradition, the time when you take a bath has a great significance. It is best to watch yourself at sunrise and sunset to rejuvenate the mind and body.
Neglecting to clean the soles of your feet
Along with the rest of your body, it is essential to clean the soles of your feet. Many people ignore them or forget to wash their feet completely. Actually, it is your feet which gets more dirty and smelly. You should wash your feet properly to clean and exfoliate them.
Regularly washing the skin on your feet, topside and bottom and sides with soap and water is an easy way to stop them from smelling. Use a foot scrapper or stone to remove the dead skin cells. This will prevent calluses or hardened areas of skin that build up due to repeated friction. Sometimes people walk or play barefoot. You should also wash your feet to avoid infection.
Bathing immediately after eating foodTaking bath immediately after eating means you are disturbing your digestion. One must ensure that every activity should be done on a specific time period. And doing the same during odd hours can actually harm the body. Ayurveda believes that the fire element in our body gets activated when you eat food to help in the process of digestion.
If you take a shower, the body temperature goes down and the digestive process slows down. Since the body starts cooling down, it has to work extra hard to maintain the standard temperature to help digestion. It can also cause uneasiness and indigestion. So it is best to wait for two hours after eating to take a shower. It is even better to take a bath before eating as it leads you feeling very much refreshed and enhances your digestive fire.
Also Read, https://www.everydayhealth.com/treatment/skin-and-beauty/ways-you-could-showering-wrong/
Bathing immediately after a workout
It is important to cool down at least for 20 minutes after you workout. Do some gentle stretches and allow your body to come back to its resting state. This helps in normalizing your heart rate and body temperature. Hydrate yourself with water or fruit juice. When you stop sweating, then you may take a bath. If we do asanas regularly, it is good to take a bath before yoga practice. This will allow your body to become more flexible and to move into some challenging poses easily.
The first niyam in yoga is shouts. That is cleansing at internal, external and mental level. These are the levels which we have to clean ourselves. However much we clean ourselves externally, if we have bad thoughts, its toxic effect will definitely influence the mind. It is very important to observe the internal as well as external cleanliness. After having a bath, a person should sit quietly at least for 10 minutes and not to do any activity.
You can do shavasana, meditate, sit peacefully and pray. The ideal thing to do is to pray so that further internal cleansing can take place. You also get the confidence that God is there with you and you feel that everything will be alright. We should begin our day with such a feeling.