As the heat of summer transitions into cool autumn breezes, I find myself drawn to the coziness of being indoors. Just as plants draw their energy to the roots this time of year, allowing ourselves to go inward through self-care rituals can sustain us during the busy season of feasts and giving.

Water is an essential element for physical and emotional wellbeing. The sensuous comfort water provides connects us back to our bodies, and sometimes, this simple pleasure is the perfect medicine for whatever ails us.

As with preparing herbal teas to drink, extracting a plant’s constituents in water synergizes its healing properties and makes them more bioavailable to us. Submerging ourselves in this primal botanical elixir allows the body’s largest organ, our skin, to absorb the beneficial properties of herbs while also engaging the olfactory system through the power of fragrance.

Making your daily bath or shower an easy self-care practice with herbs can improve your health in many ways: –

-Relax tense muscles
-Open pores
-Encourage digestion
-Improve circulation
-Soften the skin
-Assist in natural detoxification
-Boost the immune system
-Promote restful sleep

All of this becomes especially important during the chilly months when colds hit, our diets change, and skin becomes dry. Using the healing properties of plants can elevate these processes. Depending on your specific needs and preferences, you can use different medicinal leaves, flowers, and oils to customize your herbal bath experience for relaxation, invigoration, or replenishment.

Freshly picked herbs look beautiful in the tub, but dried plant material is best for extracting minerals and aromatics. Lavender, chamomile, peppermint, and rosemary make wonderful bath herbs.

One of my favorite preparations to make is an herbal bath tea with rose petals and calendula flowers that I harvested and dried from the summer garden. I drape a drawstring mesh bag filled with the flower blend over my faucet and let hot water run through it. Once the tub is full, I toss the tied bag into the water and swish it around for a strong herbal infusion.

Another method is to make a large pot of tea with the herbal blend and then add it while hot to the tub before soaking.