Are painful cramps keeping you down? Feeling a little emotionally distressed or stressed out? Sore after a long workout perhaps? Whether you are suffering from muscle cramps or menstrual cramps, a nice warm bath can do wonders to aid in your pain and aches. However, you can make the most out of your bath’s soothing experience by making a few additions.
Here are just a few things you should consider adding to your next bath when you need pain relief and relaxation.
Epsom Salt
Believe it or not, these bath salts aren’t actually made of salt at all, but it is a mineral compound of magnesium and sulfate. The wonders of Epsom salt has been well-known for hundreds of years and has proven to have several beneficial properties that soothe the body and mind. These bath salts contain a high level of magnesium that allows you to easily release muscle tension, soothe inflammation, and ease the aches and pains of cramping. You can easily mix a small hand full into your warm bath water or you can mix it with oil or soap for an exfoliating body scrubs while you soak.
Lavender Essential Oil
This essential oil is well-known for its stress-reducing properties that are wonderfully calming. This has made is a wonderful scent for soothing anxiety, depression, emotion stress, nervous tension, and headaches. This quality also makes it excellence for helping you to achieve quicker and better quality sleep.
That aside, lavender oil also has been proven to be an excellent remedy for various types of pains including those caused by sore and tense muscles, muscular aches, rheumatism, sprains, backache and menstrual cramps. In fact, a study done on postoperative pain relief showed that combing lavender essential oil vapor into the oxygen significantly reduced the amount of pain experienced versus those who only had oxygen.
Peppermint Essential Oil
Along with lavender essential oil, peppermint is also great for soothing pain. The presence of calcium antagonism in peppermint oil aids in removing pain from the affected areas. It is also peppermint’s natural cooling nature allows an intensely cold sensation to any area it is applied to. This makes it great for providing relief, reducing swelling, and eliminating the chances of uncomfortable inflammation.
Peppermint essential oil also has other benefits that can aid you during this time. Like many other essential oils, peppermint is able to provide relief from depression, stress, and mental exhaustion due to its wonderful and refreshing nature. Not only has this proven helpful against anxiety, but this oil also helps to stimulate mental activity and increases focus on cognitive tasks. Feeling out of it or finding it hard to focus? Peppermint essential oil is there to wake you up!
Ginger
Along with the other additions to your bath water, ginger is a wonderful addition for upset stomachs. You can easily pour two to three tablespoons of ground ginger into your warm bath water. Not only are ginger baths great for tummy aches, but also for fending off colds and helping immensely with the pain of bloating. If you are not up for putting it in your bath, ginger tea is just as wonderful.
