Once you experience the Zen Timepiece's progressive tones, you'll never want to meditate any other way.

There’s nothing like economic calamity to focus the mind. But instead of obsessing over your job security or declining 401(k) balance, try diminishing your stress with a new assist from a very old tool: meditation.

Stretching back thousands of years to ancient spiritual traditions, meditation has been attracting a growing following of secular practitioners in recent years. While it’s still not exactly mainstream, data released in December by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, an arm of the National Institutes of Health, show that 9.4 percent of adults surveyed in 2007 had tried meditation at least once during the previous 12 months, a significant increase from 7.6 percent in 2002. And 1 percent of children had zoned in, too.

Your choices are extensive—mindfulness meditation, transcendental meditation, and the latest trend, compassion meditation, are three of many approaches, each with a slightly different intent. Compassion meditation aims to foster a feeling of lovingkindness toward others, for example, while mindfulness meditation focuses on awareness and acceptance of the present moment.

Whatever the variation, certain basic elements are common to all forms of meditation. Comfortably seated, lying down, or even walking around, you focus your mind on your breath, a word, a mantra, an object—something specific—possibly for a few minutes but perhaps much longer, gently pushing away distracting thoughts. As you learn to stay focused, you experience a sense of calm. Your body relaxes. Your breathing slows. Your heart rate drops.

Many of those who practice meditation turn to it to help them deal with emotional stumbling blocks like stress and anxiety. It can also be used to change unhealthful eating habits or to battle substance abuse. And studies continue to add to the ways in which meditation might be able to play a therapeutic role—for example, it has been shown to bolster HIV patients’ immune systems, ease chronic pain, and reduce blood pressure.

Gene control. New research has been taking these discoveries to a deeper level, revealing how meditation and other relaxation techniques work in cells, turning on and off genes that are associated with inflammation, cell aging, and free radicals, all of which are associated with damage to cells and tissues. French philosopher René Descartes famously believed that the mind and body were separate entities, but emerging evidence is proving him wrong.

Once you experience the Zen Timepiece's progressive tones, you'll never want to meditate any other way.

“What this shows is that you can actually change the brain with the mind,” says Herbert Benson, director emeritus of the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital. He is a coauthor of a study demonstrating such genetic changes that was published in July in the online journal PLoS One.

Meditation’s psychological and physical effects both are tied to the “fight or flight” response. When we are under stress, the brain sends hormones and other substances racing through our system to ready us for action. We become hyperalert, our heart rate and breathing speed up, our muscles tense, and our digestive processes shut down. While modern Americans are less likely to face physical danger than were our prehistoric, mastodon-hunting ancestors, there’s no shortage of other sources of stress. High-pressure, overbusy lives, coupled with the unrelenting economic uncertainty of much of the past year, can put the body in a constant state of hypervigilance. That’s not good. An ongoing state of revved-up alertness can damage tissues and organs, suppress the immune system, and cause anxiety and depression.

Mental workout. The calm that meditation engenders produces physical and emotional changes that represent the flip side of fight-or-flight. For those with overtaxed lives, a bonus of meditation is that a little of it apparently goes a long way. One study of individuals who were new to meditating showed measurable brain and behavior differences after just two weeks of daily 30-minute sessions, says Richard Davidson, director of the Waisman Laboratory for Brain Imaging and Behavior at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. But meditation is like any other workout: To reap the benefits, don’t stop. “This is mental exercise,” says Davidson. “If one wants [benefits] to continue, you have to continue.”

Experts and practice centers that can serve as sources ofmeditation training are becoming easier to find. One of the best known and most studied programs is the Mindfulness-Based StressReduction Program, which started at the University of Massachusetts Medical School nearly 30 years ago and is now offered by certified instructors at centers around the world. (You can see if there is one in your area atumassmed.edu/cfm/mbsr.) The program brings together a group of people once a week for eight weeks to learn sitting and walking meditation practices and gentle yoga stretches. For those who would rather learn on their own, books, tapes, and CDs are available from Jon Kabat-Zinn, founding executive director of the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society at the University of Massachusetts and creator of the MBSR program, at mindfulnesstapes.com. They can help do-it-yourselfers learn the ropes.

It serves as the perfect meditation timer. Available in 5 wood styles, including bamboo.

No amount of meditating can magically erase the stress of losing a job or a loved one. But it can help people cope. “It can transform the emotional brain in ways that promote higher levels of resilience [and] less vulnerability and affect the body in ways that can improve health,” says Davidson. All that for just minutes a day? Even a shellshocked investor would have to admit: That sounds like a good deal.

By MICHELLE ANDREWS for US News

Use our unique “Zen Clock” which functions as a Yoga & Meditation Timer. It features a long-resonating acoustic chime that brings your meditation or yoga session to a gradual close, preserving the environment of stillness while also acting as an effective time signal. Our Yoga Timer & Clock can be programmed to chime at the end of the meditation or yoga session or periodically throughout the session as a kind of sonic yantra. The beauty and functionality of the Zen Clock/Timer makes it a meditation tool that can actually help you “make time” for meditation in your life. Bring yourself back to balance.

It serves as the perfect meditation timer. Available in 5 wood styles, including bamboo.

Now & Zen – The Acoustic Chime Meditation Timer Shop

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Carved Wooden Thai Buddha with Singing Bowl

The Himalayan peoples have been using metal bowls in their rituals and as offerings to Deities since at least 560 B.C.  These hand-hammered Himalayan alloy bowls have come to be known as “Tibetan Singing Bowls”

The Himalayan peoples have been using metal bowls in their rituals and as offerings to Deities since at least 560 B.C.  These hand-hammered Himalayan alloy bowls have come to be known as “Tibetan Singing Bowls”  because of the unique way they are sounded by rubbing a mallet over the rim so as to produce harmonic resonances and overtones.  Although the bowl that comes with your Zen Timepiece is not technically a Tibetan Singing Bowl, it will produce harmonic effects if a mallet or striking stick is rubbed around its edge in a circular motion.

Singing Bowl Alarm Clocks for a Gentle Awakening

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Once you experience the Zen Timepiece's progressive tones, you'll never want to meditate any other way. UTAMARO, Kitagawa, A Mother Dozing While Her Child Topples a Fish Bowl

Pay close attention to each feeling, and let it be

Let’s say you slam into the back of a car that cuts you off or your boss moves your deadline up a week. How do you react? Perhaps your pulse quickens as you berate yourself for not foreseeing the circumstance. Maybe your breathing shortens as you feel anger or panic—or both. Most people, though, don’t notice such details; they react with an “Aargh!” and distract themselves with a run or a beer or a gallon of ice cream.

But researchers say one of the best ways of soothing stress is to be “mindful,” to pause and actually tune in to what’s going on at the moment. Being acutely aware of what you’re experiencing—the racing heart, the tumbling thoughts—and accepting it without judgment, observing as it changes, has a strong calming effect, experts say. “You might have a thought like ‘I’m a failure,’ but you know that it’s just a thought,” explains researcher Elissa Epel, an associate professor of psychiatry at the University of California-San Francisco School of Medicine. That will prevent you from turning those thoughts into a self-fulfilling prophecy by, say, quitting the gym or a challenging job.

Wandering thoughts. How do you get to a mindful state in the midst of a panic? Most people need to practice a form of meditation that focuses on their breathing and sensations in each body part. If your mind wanders (and it will), you just acknowledge the errant thoughts, let them go, and bring your attention back to the breath. Check out a mindfulness tape at mindfulnesstapes.com, or take a free virtual-mindfulness class on YouTube with Jon Kabat-Zinn, a professor of medicine emeritus at the University of Massachusetts and author of several books on mindfulness. “You are training your mind to be less reactive and more stable,” he writes in Full Catastrophe Living. A 2007 study found that mindfulness classes gave students an improved sense of well-being—and that practicing the technique for about 30 minutes a day helped induce a mindful response when people would normally feel stress.

It's exquisite sounds summon your consciousness out of your meditative state with a series of subtle gongs.

The practice may also help alleviate some of the physiological damage caused by chronic stress, like the tendency to store fat around abdominal organs. Epel and her colleagues are currently studying whether 50 overweight women who describe themselves as “stress eaters” can curb food cravings by practicing mindfulness—by noticing a raisin’s color, texture, and smell, say, before eating it. If stress reduction practices lower cortisol levels, the body’s storage of fat should shift from the abdomen to the hips and thighs, where it won’t cause insulin resistance, Epel speculates. A bonus: It might get easier to stop at one Oreo.

By DEBORAH KOTZ for US News

It's exquisite sounds summon your consciousness out of your meditative state with a series of subtle gongs.

It's exquisite sounds summon your consciousness out of your meditative state with a series of subtle gongs.

‘Om’ is where the heart is:

Meditation is gaining attention as a potential way to maintain well-being and good health. It can calm your mind, relax your body, and soothe your spirit. In addition, it’s inexpensive and its risks are minimal.

Meditation techniques aren’t new. They’ve been around for thousands of years. Anyone can meditate, regardless of religious or cultural background.

Consider these suggestions from the Mayo Clinic to get you started :

• Select a meditation technique that fits your lifestyle and belief system. Many people build meditation into their daily routine.
• Set aside some time. Start with 5-minute meditation sessions once or twice a day and work up to 20 minutes each time.
• Keep trying. Be kind to yourself as you get started. If you’re meditating and your attention wanders, slowly return to the object, sensation or movement you’re focusing on.
• Make meditation part of your life. Many people prefer to start and end their day with a period of meditation. Others prefer to take meditation breaks during the day. Experiment and find out what works best for you.

– Nancyann Rella

Meditation is generally an inwardly oriented, personal practice, which individuals do by themselves. Meditation may involve invoking or cultivating a feeling or internal state, such as compassion, or attending to a specific focal point. The term can refer to the state itself, as well as to practices or techniques employed to cultivate the state. There are dozens of specific styles of meditation practice; the word meditation may carry different meanings in different contexts. Meditation has been practiced since antiquity as a component of numerous religious traditions. A 2007 study by the U.S. government found that nearly 9.4% of U.S. adults (over 20 million) had practiced meditation within the past 12 months, up from 7.6% (more than 15 million people) in 2002.

Once you experience the Zen Timepiece's progressive tones, you'll never want to meditate any other way. It serves as the perfect meditation timer.

Once you experience the Zen Timepiece's progressive tones, you'll never want to meditate any other way. It serves as the perfect meditation timer.

Now & Zen – The Meditation Time Shop

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orders@now-zen.com

N

It's exquisite sounds summon your consciousness out of your meditative state with a series of subtle gongs. Once you experience the Zen Timepiece's progressive tones, you'll never want to meditate any other way. It serves as the perfect meditation timer.

Brain imaging shows experienced meditators can prevent their minds from wandering

(HealthDay News) — A new study finds that people skilled at meditation seem able to turn off areas of the brain associated with daydreaming and psychiatric disorders such as autism and schizophrenia.

Learning more about how meditation works could help advance research into a number of diseases, according to lead author Dr. Judson Brewer, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Yale University.

He and his colleagues used functional MRI to assess brain activity in experienced and novice meditators as they performed three different meditation techniques.

Regardless of the type of meditation, skilled meditators had decreased activity in the brain’s default mode network, which has been linked to attention lapses and disorders such as anxiety, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and the buildup of beta amyloid plaques associated with Alzheimer’s disease.

It serves as the perfect meditation timer.

The researchers also found that when the default mode network (which consists of the medial prefrontal and posterior cingulate cortex) was active, brain regions associated with self-monitoring and cognitive control were also activated in experienced meditators, but not novices.

This suggests that skilled meditators constantly monitor and suppress the emergence of “me” thoughts and mind wandering. If they become too strong, these two states of mind are associated with diseases such as autism and schizophrenia.

The experienced meditators were able to co-activate the two brain regions both during meditation and while resting, which suggests they have developed a “new” default mode that’s more present-centered and less self-centered, the researchers said.

“Meditation’s ability to help people stay in the moment has been part of philosophical and contemplative practices for thousands of years,” Brewer said in a Yale news release. “Conversely, the hallmark of many forms of mental illness is a preoccupation with one’s own thoughts, a condition meditation seems to affect. This gives us some nice cues as to the neural mechanisms of how it might be working clinically.”

The study appears Nov. 21 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

More information

The U.S. National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine has more about meditation.

– Robert Preidt

SOURCE: Yale University, news release, Nov. 18, 2011

Use our unique “Zen Clock” which functions as a Yoga & Meditation Timer. It features a long-resonating acoustic chime that brings your meditation or yoga session to a gradual close, preserving the environment of stillness while also acting as an effective time signal. Our Yoga Timer & Clock can be programmed to chime at the end of the meditation or yoga session or periodically throughout the session as a kind of sonic yantra. The beauty and functionality of the Zen Clock/Timer makes it a meditation tool that can actually help you “make time” for meditation in your life. Bring yourself back to balance.

It's exquisite sounds summon your consciousness out of your meditative state with a series of subtle gongs. Once you experience the Zen Timepiece's progressive tones, you'll never want to meditate any other way.

Now & Zen – The Meditation Timer Shop

1638 Pearl Street

Boulder, CO  80302

(800) 779-6383

orders@now-zen.com

Therapeutic Tones

The Zen Alarm Clock’s chime is tuned according to the ancient method developed by Pythagoras.  The larger chime on model 4502 corresponds to an “E” note, and the smaller chime on model 4460 to a “B” note.  However, these notes vibrate at different frequencies than their equivalent notes on a modern piano.  Modern instrument tuning makes each note slightly flat or sharp so a whole range of instruments can play together.  But modern tuning compromises the enchanting and therapeutic quality—the purity—of the naturally occurring tones discovered by Pythagoras.  As a result of their natural tuning, the tones of your Zen Alarm Clock correspond to the vibrations of nature—the motion of the planets and the frequencies of life.  This is the secret of its therapeutic effect.

The ancients took harmony very seriously.  Healing music was practiced in ancient Egypt, China, Africa, and especially in the Pythagorean mystery schools.   Number patterns and harmony were central to Pythagoras’ metaphysical philosophy.  The Pythagoreans studied the harmonies of music as a key to understanding the harmony of the cosmos.  The primary focus of the Pythagorean schools was the use of music and vibration in the healing arts.  Their symbol was the pentagonal star—representing health and harmony

The ancients recognized in the seven-note scale the macrocosmic design of creation.  The ancient lyre (the original ancestor of the guitar and all other stringed instruments) had seven strings.  The lyre’s seven-tone scale was considered an imperfect representation of the pure vibrational pattern that orders the universe.  The playing of the lyre was thought to entrain the vibrations of body and mind so as to bring them into tune with the pure vibrations emanating from the Creator.

The music of the lyre was used to heal through its affect on one’s emotions.  Pythagoras was said to have subdued the murderous wrath of a drunken man and to have calmed a raging bear by playing appropriate tunes on his lyre.  The ancients well knew the connection between emotions and the immune system—they used musical harmony as a way of bypassing the intellect and directly affecting one’s emotional well-being.

The Zen Clock’s long-resonating Tibetan bell-like chime makes waking up a beautiful experience – its progressive chimes begin your day with grace. When the clock’s alarm is triggered, the acoustic chime bar is struck just once … 3-1/2 minutes later it strikes again … chime strikes become more frequent over 10 minutes … eventually striking every 5 seconds until shut off. As they become more frequent, the gentle chimes will always wake you up – your body really doesn’t need to be awakened harshly, with a Zen Clock you’re awakened more gradually and thus more naturally.

Specially tuned Zen Alarm Clock by Now & Zen, Inc.

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Awaken gradually

Dreaming of a Good Night’s Rest

How you awaken each morning can also influence how well you sleep. Some experts believe your body is naturally designed to awaken gradually with the rising sun and should not to be jarred awake by a screaming alarm clock. Dawn simulators recreate a natural sunrise by slowly increasing the intensity of light in the room. A study in BMC Psychiatry found that dawn simulators improved the quality of sleep during winter months for a group of about 80 randomly chosen people.

The right light can also help you fall asleep more easily. Studies have shown that exposure to 2,000- to 10,000-lux light (the equivalent of gazing at the horizon on a sunny day and up to 20 times brighter than normal room lighting) can improve overall sleep quality, says psychiatrist Daniel Kripke, MD, of the University of California, San Diego. This is most beneficial for about 20 to 30 minutes in the morning and a few hours prior to bed. More specifically, light therapy has been used to reset body clocks for those with sleep-timing problems and to correct erratic sleep habits caused by depression. A recent study in the journal Sleep found that evening exposure from a light box effectively treated people who often woke up too early and were unable to fall back to sleep. Exactly how light therapy improves sleep for people with depression remains unknown, Kripke says, but one popular theory is that bright light increases sleep-aiding serotonin levels.

Now & Zen’s Digital Zen Clock’s long-resonating Tibetan bell-like chime makes waking up a beautiful experience – its progressive chimes begin your day with grace. When the clock’s alarm is triggered, the acoustic chime bar is struck just once … 3-1/2 minutes later it strikes again … chime strikes become more frequent over 10 minutes … eventually striking every 5 seconds until shut off. As they become more frequent, the gentle chimes will always wake you up – your body really doesn’t need to be awakened harshly, with a Zen Clock you’re awakened more gradually and thus more naturally.  Unlike artificial recorded sounds coming out of a tiny speaker in a plastic box, natural acoustic sounds transform your bedroom or office environment.

adapted from Natural Solutions Magazine, December 2005 by Matthew Sloan

Natural Awakening, Digital Zen Alarm Clock

Now & Zen’s Chime Alarm Clock Shop

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zen alarm clocks are Pythagorean Tuned

Pythagorean Tuning

The special tuning of the Zen Alarm Clock’s chime takes its inspiration from the ancient Greek master Pythagoras who lived in the 6th century B.C.  Pythagoras is one of history’s most mystical geniuses.  Although he is best known for his theorem in geometry, Pythagoras was primarily a religious teacher, and his understanding of the universe retains much vitality for our day.  Pythagoras embodied the ancient Greeks’ zest for understanding and their passion for the “physics of spirit.”

Pythagoras’ spirituality was informed by the ancient cult of Orpheus, the Greek God of music and science.  And the tradition of Orpheus has continued to be a potent source of artistic inspiration down through the ages.  Legend recounts how Orpheus was given a lyre by Apollo and was taught to play by the muses.  By playing his lyre, Orpheus produced harmonies that joined all of nature together in peace and joy.   In Greek mythology, Orpheus, through his music, acts as the mediator between humanity and the gods—fitting together that which is separate. And this is the definition of harmony: an agreement between disagreeing elements.

Inspired by this Orphic tradition of music and science, Pythagoras was led to conduct perhaps the world’s first physics experiment.  By playing strings of different lengths, Pythagoras discovered that sound vibrations naturally occur in a sequence of whole tones or notes that repeat in a pattern of seven.  Like the seven naturally occurring colors of the rainbow, the octave of seven tones we recognize as “do re mi fa so la ti” reveals the sevenfold structure that orders all vibrations in the universe.  These tones can be identified by their specific vibrational frequencies which are measured in cycles per second.

In the course of his experiments with sound, Pythagoras discovered that certain tones sound very good together, while other combinations of tones are rather displeasing.

One combination of tones that always sounds good together is known as the Fifth.  The Fifth is a harmonic sound produced when two tones are in a relationship of 3 to 2.  In other words, the Fifth is sounded when one tone is vibrating one-and-a-half times as fast as the other.

For example, if you sound a middle “C” on the piano, and then sound the “G” five notes ahead on the scale, it will sound satisfying and harmonious.

Since its discovery by Pythagoras, the Fifth has come to be universally recognized for its beauty; it forms the structural basis of musical compositions in almost every cultural tradition.  The Fifth is an archetypal expression of harmony that demonstrates the “fitting together” of microcosm and macrocosm in an inseparable whole.  That is, the Fifth is a beautiful sound because it demonstrates how the universe works.

chime alarm clocks by Now & Zen

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musical chime and gong alarm clocks by Now & Zen, Inc.

Set Time Aside to Sleep!

Changing Your Life and Your Alarm Clock: Getting More Sleep Can Improve Your Health

By LARA SALAHI (@larasalahi1) and CHRISTINE BROZYNA

Amid the hustle of every day stress, there are some simple steps people can take to get a better night’s sleep.

“You need to set aside the time for sleep. You need a few hours to unwind before. It takes time for the brain to wind down,” said Dr. Charles Czeisler, professor of sleep medicine at Harvard Medical School.

At Northside Hospital Sleep Disorders Center Roberts was taught “sleep hygiene,” — a healthy routine that should be practiced before bed.

Also, choosing the right alarm clock can make all the difference in the world. The Zen Alarm Clocks with chimes is the perfect, peaceful solution.  Invest in gentle and relaxing sleep tools like The Zen Alarm Clock or The Zen Timepiece with Tibetan-bowl gong!

gong alarm clocks offer alternatives to jarring, loud alarm clocks

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Soaking

Water, a powerful and restorative element in exquisite rituals throughout the ages, finds itself front and center in most spiritual rites of passage. Many cultures consider water essential for both physical and spiritual cleansing, and millions continue to embark upon quests to holy rivers and healing springs, drawn to water equally for its soothing properties as well as its promise of purification.

Perhaps this draw to water feels so instinctual because our brains, blood, and even our muscles are composed mainly of water. When we submerge ourselves, we return, in essence, to a deep, primordial connection with the world around us. Through the simple act of bathing, we can celebrate this ancient relationship between water and life. With minimal effort, a daily bath becomes a meditative and mystical experience, helping us to connect with our own inner wisdom.

“Mankind has used water to restore the physical, mental, and emotional body since ancient times,” says Barbara Close, founder of Naturopathica Holistic Health and author of Pure Skin: Organic Beauty Basics (Chronicle Books, 2005). “From the beginning, the use of water as a conduit or healing agent has existed for both its physical and emotional healing properties.”

Long before holy wells began to draw pilgrims or the custom of “taking the waters” became popular at lavish bathing halls in Europe, ancient cultures in Asia, Indonesia, and Mesoamerica had their own elaborate bathing rituals, which often involved the use of steam and ceremonial sound. Both the Aztec Temazcal and Mayan Zumbul-che wove in musical elements to signify the start of the cleansing ritual. In parts of today’s world, including Indonesia, Southeast Asia, and island nations of the Pacific, cultures still associate wells, springs, and rivers with the Goddess, the feminine principle, and birth. Women add flower petals to ritual water as an extra flourish, imbuing their bath with the powerful spiritual energy associated with native plants. In the Javanese bath ritual that prepares brides for their wedding night, attendants first scrub and exfoliate the skin with turmeric and then rub it with yogurt to soften it. A luxurious bath with flowers and petals follows, and only then is the bride deemed purity incarnate.

soaking in sacred water

“Each and every one of us, and every fragment of life on our planet, has an inner and outer relationship with water,” says Nadine Epstein, author (with Rosita Arvigo) of Spiritual Bathing: Healing Rituals and Traditions From Around the World (Celestial Arts, 2003). “The first living cells were formed in the salt bath of the sea, and I love imagining the blood that flows within us as a kind of internal sea. We are beings of water on a planet that is distinguished by its possession of water, the rushing waters that the early Jews called ‘living waters’ or mayyim hayyim.”

Ritual and renewal
You can connect with the healing energy of water by preparing your own spiritual bath at home. First order of business: Decide what you want to manifest in your life. The prospects run the gamut from the desire to release personal sadness or frustration to the hope of reducing global suffering. Next, establish the mood. The usual suspects, candles and incense, have traditionally been part of many prayer settings, but let your imagination run wild. Create an even richer ambiance by including specific music, scents, symbols, and images that resonate with your concept of the divine.

Set Your Singing Bowl Chime Timer for a Sacred Soak at Home

“Personally, I love singing and chanting on the surface of the water, watching the ripples of my breath, and soaking up the sounds in the air,” says Epstein. “I’ve always been fascinated by sound waves and how they travel through solids, gases, and liquids. As a little girl, I remember my father, a physicist, mapping the trajectory of sound waves through crystals. The symmetries of these waves were and are a beautiful thing to behold. It all boils down to connecting with what the Maya call ch’ulel, the Chinese call chi, the Hindus call prana. Nearly every culture has a name for the subtle energies or vibrations that exist within us and beyond.”

Ultimately, only the reverence with which we enter the water matters. If we are receptive enough, our immersions can gradually wring a sea change upon our spirit, teaching us that we can learn as much from floating as we can from standing on firm ground.

Liquid Assets
By varying water temperature, length of soaking time, and what you add to the bath, you can create a variety of healing environments.

“Adding herbal extracts and essential oils can intensify the healing experience,” explains Barbara Close, herbalist, aromatherapist, and founder of Naturopathica. “Essential oils are lipophyllic—meaning that they repel water and are attracted to fat-based substances such as the adipose tissue that makes up human skin. Baths are one of the most effective ways to utilize the benefits of aromatherapy. In addition to cleansing, essential oils can be used for their decongestant, diuretic, and antiseptic properties, as well as the emotional benefits they offer in quieting or energizing the body.”

In her book, Pure Skin: Organic Beauty Basics, Close offers the following guidelines for optimal bathing.

To relax, relieve stress, and promote restful sleep: Water temperature should be warm, about 92 to 100 degrees. Add essential oil of rose, lavender, mandarin, or neroli to water, swirling to disperse, and soak for 20 to 30 minutes.  Be sure to set your Zen Chime Clock to end your soaking practice.

To energize, renew, and revitalize: Water should be tepid to cool, with temperature ranging from 80 to 92 degrees. Add essential oil of rosemary, lavender, or grapefruit. Soak for 10 to 15 minutes.

For detoxification: Water temperature should be between 100 and 110 degrees. Add essential oil of juniper, lemon, cypress, or grapefruit to water. Submerge body for no more than five to eight minutes; then rest quietly and allow blood pressure to return to normal.

Flower Bath

Flower Baths
Recognizing plants as living, sentient beings, many cultures have traditions that involve bathing with flowers, such as the bridal preparation baths of Indonesia and the petal baths favored by the Incas. While easy to replicate, remember to use only organic flowers and herbs, as the pesticides and chemicals in conventionally produced botanicals may leach into your bath water and be absorbed through your skin. Whenever possible, gather the herbs and flowers yourself, giving appropriate thanks to the living plant as you harvest.
•• For an Incan bath as described in her book Spiritual Bathing, Nadine Epstein suggests gathering plants (the equivalent of a handful) on a sun-filled day between the hours of 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. Good choices include burdock, plantain, St. John’s wort, roses, zinnias, and marigolds or the leaves and flowers from herbs such as sage, thyme, and rosemary.
•• Place the flowers in a basin of water or other vessel that will accommodate 3 to 5 gallons of water. While chanting, reciting prayers, or setting a specific intention, gently squeeze the flowers with your hands, releasing their essence into the water. Allow the mixture to remain in the sunlight for several hours; then pour the water over your body in the shower or tub. (Be sure to cover your drain so that the plants don’t cause clogging.)
•• Appreciate the visual and olfactory pleasure of the plants. As Epstein says, “There is something hypnotic about the strikingly lovely, swirling, ever-changing patterns created by hollyhock and rose petals as they traverse the surface of water.”

adapted from Natural Solutions, March 2007 by Debra Bokur

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Bamboo Zen Alarm Clock with Chime

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