Thursday Treat Time – a hot bath

Time for another Thursday treat, and as usual I’m linking up at the bottom of the post with thrifty blogger Penny Golightly.

Today she’s interviewing home worker Samantha, who used little treats to stay sane while paying off a large debt. It’s worked so well she’s managed to pay off £36,000 in two and a half years!

Not a bad principle to copy when you’re working hard.

Have you been slaving away over your computer and getting tense in the shoulders and maybe a little bit chilly in this cooler weather?

Then a hot bath is a welcome break and a cheap treat for a weary home worker, and may well pay off in terms of unexpected inspiration, as you’ll see below.

Occasionally in the winter I end up getting so cold that the only way to warm up again is to have a good soak in a hot bath. A few years ago and I lived for a year in a house that had no bath, and I honestly don’t know how we survived that icy winter with only a shower.

A hot bath is a good way to relax and ease out tired limbs and shoulders, especially if you add something therapeutic to the water. My all-time favourite is Elemis Aching Muscle Super Soak, a rich green liquid that smells divine, minty and herbal, and really helps you relax. The only downside is that it costs over £30 a bottle, but there’s no way you need the two capfuls the directions tell you to add to your bath. Eke it out and you’ll still get the benefits.

Second favourite is Molton Brown Seamoss Stress-Relieving Hydrosoak, a tin of glorious blue-green granules that turn the water the same colour. Again not cheap, but an excellent reviving treat.

For everyday baths, try in a bottle of unperfumed foam bath like Waitrose Pure Foam Bath or Essential Sensitive Foam Bath, which have no perfume or colour) and a selection of essential oils you can combine for different effects.

Neals Yard has a huge selection of essential oils, most of which are organic (we find you need less) and their website suggests other oils to blend them with. Or you can buy a ready-mixed blend to calm, de-stress etc. (The Focus blend would be a good one to use in a burner in your home office too).

And finally a hot bath is a good place to get ideas (although I seem to get more while I’m cleaning the thing!) as proved by the Greek scholar Archimedes. He is supposed to have shouted ‘Eureka’ (I have found it) when he got into a bath and realised the water level rose in proportion to the volume of his body under the water.

It’s said he then ran through the streets naked, something you might not want to emulate, no matter how inspired you get!

Do you like a long soak in a hot bath, topping up when the water cools off, or are you more of a shower person? Do you ever retreat to the bathroom when work gets too much or you’ve ground to a halt?

And now it’s time to dry off and click over to Thursday Treat Time on Penny Golightly for ways to keep your sanity with little treats when life is threatening to get on top of you.