While many of us maintain a religious daily skincare routine, we often give body care much less attention. Save it for an occasional massage or a day at the spa, right?
The reality is that the rest of our bodies, not just our face, benefits from regular care—even beyond applying a daily moisturizer. In Ayurveda, the mind, body, spirit and external environment are deeply connected, and each element informs the others. Our bodies help us weather through our daily routines. Their aches, fatigue and discomfort—or, on the opposite end, their energy, litheness and strength—reflect the way we treat them, from how well we sleep to what kind of exercise we get to what we eat and drink. External factors like sun exposure, seasonality and pollution can also affect how our bodies and skin feel on a day-to-day basis.
Taking good care of our bodies not only promotes healthy, radiant skin, but it can also treat problems like joint pain, aches, scarring and poor circulation. Certain body care practices, such as dry brushing and self-massage, can also boost our overall health by promoting natural detoxification and a boosted circulatory and lymphatic system. Furthermore, many grounding body care rituals provide a space of mental grounding and tranquility, leaving you feeling more in touch with yourself and your body as a result.
Caring for your body doesn’t have to wait until your next spa appointment. Have a free Friday night or an upcoming day off? Here’s an indulgent step-by-step body care routine that will leave you feeling rested, relaxed and rejuvenated. Many of these steps are fast and easy to incorporate into your daily routine. By figuring out which ones you like best, you can make slow but powerful changes to your body care approach.
Step 1: Set Up Your Space for Success
Set out fresh towels, put on your favorite album, dim the lights. Light a wellness candle to instantly fill your space with tranquility. When given care and attention, your space can play a vital role in inducing calm and boosting your mood, and you’ll feel deliciously ready for a night of self-care.
Step 2: Dry Brush Your Skin
Dry brushing is a powerful Ayurvedic wellness practice that involves running a thistled brush over the skin in firm motions. These stimulating movements exfoliate the skin while also boosting circulation and lymphatic flow, which in turn promotes natural detoxification and radiance. By strengthening the lymphatic system, dry brushing can also reduce swelling and inflammation. Its exfoliating, grounding and tranquilizing effects perfectly prime the skin to reap the nutrients and hydration of an essential oil bath.
Dry brushing involves making short, delicate strokes beginning from the feet and moving upward to the back, stomach, arms, chest, and neck. The chest and stomach should be brushed in circular motions. Here’s a graphic breaking down the steps for an effective dry brushing session.
Step 3: Add a Soothing Essential Oil to Your Bath
Adding a few drops of essential oils to your bath is a great way to target your specific wellness needs while instantly elevating your bath with an aura of luxury. Lavender oil, for example, both improves mood and relieves pain and inflammation, while chamomile lightens age spots and hyperpigmentation. For more on the benefits of various essential oils, you can check out our Oil Files blog feature.
For a formula that was crafted specifically to bring relaxation and nourishment to baths, try our Oprah-approved UMA Pure Calm Wellness Bath Oil, which incorporates calming neroli, lavender, clary sage and more. To use, add 2 tablespoons to your bath for an instantly aromatic, indulgent self-care experience.
Step 4: Pamper Your Feet with a Foot Massage
Our feet can sometimes be one of the most neglected parts of our body—despite the fact that they literally carry us through each day. That period after you bathe and dry off your feet is a perfect time to give yourself a Ayurvedic foot massage.
To do so, find a comfortable sitting position with your feet on the ground, and place a towel underneath your feet. Using an essential oil, massage each toe (and in between the toes), the soles of the feet and the ankle and calf areas. Our UMA Pure Calm Wellness Body Oil makes a luxuriously calming, hydrating partner to the Pure Calm Wellness Bath Oil, providing instant moisture while tightening and brightening the skin.
Step 5: Give Yourself a Hydrating, Refreshing Self-Massage
Now that you’ve given your feet some much-needed TLC, you can move on to the rest of your body with a self-massage. One of the greatest virtues of an Ayurvedic self-massage is the fact that it is extremely personalizable. You can focus on areas experiencing dryness, joint pain or muscle aches—all while providing deep hydration, boosting circulation, providing the skin with essential nutrients and improving memory and focus.
Taking care to pay special attention to your own particularities, you can hydrate and nourish your newly-washed skin by massaging it all over with a body oil, balm or other moisturizer. Our UMA Absolute Anti Aging Body Balm incorporates toning, wrinkle-reducing and brightening ingredients like neroli, grapefruit and sandalwood to provide luxurious hydration without leaving behind any residue.
And there you have it! In 5 simple steps, you can transform a dull night in into a transformative self-care experience. You can mix and match specific practices to perfectly suit your needs, and practices like dry brushing or giving yourself a quick post-shower massage are simple enough to do every day. You’ll find that a little bit of body care goes a long way toward a healthy, happy and rejuvenated self.
