3 Self-Care Exercises for the Weary
Here at Takes a Break, we are always looking for ways to explore Taking a Break (AKA self-care).
Here are three self-care exercises the TAB crew has tried and is sharing for you.
1—The Color Bath.
What's required? Imagination. This practice uses a pretty straightforward breathing exercise wherever you’re comfortable. Sit in the shower, in the wind, in the grass, anywhere that provides physical stimuli for your skin. With your eyes closed, imagine you have layers upon layers of paint on your skin. Then, throughout the breathing exercise and depending on your choice of stimuli, imagine each layer slowly dissolving away, one at a time, with each layer representing something you are shedding, dismissing, releasing, and removing from your mental and physical presence.
Winter tip: Our TAB crew living up north swears by lying beneath an electric blanket and imagining the colors melting away. Editor-in-Chief approved.
2—The Mud Bath.
Similar to the color bath, the mud bath involves a literal application of different colored face and/or body masks to the skin. The idea is to have a physical representation of the various layers we imagine in the color bath. This one is a bit trickier, but it’s great for those who lose focus easily. And, when paired with meditative music, it can help extend the color bath exercise.
How’s it work? You apply different colored face or body masks to your skin then slowly rinse each layer off, imagining that each layer leaving your body is something you are washing away. The mud bath is great for those trying to work up to the mental exercise of the color bath or who prefer to see a physical manifestation of their meditative work.
Added bonus: beauty treatment! We like getting variety packs and having a blast! Sephora has a trial kit on sale now.
3—Color Breath.
This is for the gurus out there. If you're feeling particularly relaxed or want to get into a relaxed state, YouTube has great guided color breath meditations. In a nutshell, you breathe in one color, you imagine that it combines with another color within you, then you exhale the third color you get from those two colors mixing. Color breathing is one of our favorite techniques for helping us achieve the mental state (relaxed, energetic, concentrated, whatever!) we’re aiming for. Here is a starter meditation from YouTube.
Note: there are a gazillion variations of this, if you find a variation you just love, Please Share!
