My kind of medicine!
Luckily, ayurveda held more for me than awkward nose-cleaning. Hot baths four times per week were to calm my body and mind. This part seemed easy enough. Sign me up!

Though at first I sometimes forgot to draw my bath, or would from force of habit go straight to bed, within a couple of weeks, bath time became sacred. This was not a time for me to scrub, shave, or preen myself; I took care of that during morning showers. For the 20 minutes I spent bathing, I simply felt the heat and water around me and let go.

I followed these baths with abhyanga , or self-massage with oils. I loved abhyanga , which allowed me to nurture forgotten parts of my body: I awakened atrophied muscles surrounding an old foot injury, loosened my tightly clenched jaw with small circular motions, and eased the carpal-tunnel cramping in my forearms.

So did a regular home spa help heal me? No doubt about it. The relaxation factor cannot be underestimated. Before, I'd avoided baths because they seemed to be a waste of time. Now I know that time spent relaxing is never wasted!