Practice self-care like the Queen you are

No one had to tell Cleopatra that she was “worth it.” The Queen of the Nile knew the importance of a good beauty ritual and that self-care was a necessity, not an indulgence. You can think of her as the original “Beauty Influencer” with her use of dead sea salts, essential oils, milk baths and organic face masks.

The legendary Queen of Egypt raised an army to capture the throne, fought wars to expand her empire, and still devoted time to her self-care with an assortment of beauty rituals. However small or large your “empire” may be, you are probably feeling as busy and overwhelmed as Cleopatra some days. This is all the more reason to start practicing self-care and a good place to start is in your own home with a regular skin-care ritual.

Does this sound completely luxurious and heavenly? It is and we all need more of it! Too often, we neglect deeper self-care practice. This is sometimes referred to as “enduring self-care” and includes activities that bring long lasting health and nourishment to our bodies, minds and souls.

Think of this kind of self-care as your “me time” whether that’s a taking a hike in a beautiful setting, maintaining a meditation or journaling practice, or enjoying a soak in a hot tub with milk like Cleopatra. According to everydayhealth.com, enduring self-care, “requires checking in with yourself and asking yourself how you’re doing and what your body’s asking for.”

Unfortunately, most of us hold a negative mindset around self-care – feeling that we are being selfish with our time or telling ourselves that there are more important things to do when the truth is that there is nothing more important than taking care of ourselves. Women especially are much better at taking care of others than we are about ourselves and this can leave us feeling stressed, unhappy and disconnected from our true selves.

When we practice self-care, it gives us energy to focus on our goals and create fulfilling lives which makes us better partners, mothers, wives, daughters, sisters, girlfriends and friends. If you think you are being selfish making time for self-care, ask if your loved ones if they would want you depriving yourself of happiness and fulfillment. Of course, they wouldn’t.

An enduring self-care practice has a number of benefits including:

• Reducing stress: even the simplest act of self-care, closing our eyes and taking a deep breath (or a few) can help to relieve stress in the moment. Developing a regular exercise practice will help you manage stress better day-to-day.
• Increasing happiness: Giving yourself time reflect in a journal or doing things that bring you pleasure like reading a book or getting a pedicure are an important part of self-care.
• Helping you feel more in control: Daily habits, no matter how small, help us feel good about managing our lives. Sometimes just giving yourself 15 minutes a day to meditate first thing in the morning will help you deal with the hectic pace of the rest of your day.
• Connecting to your physical self: Restorative activities like yoga or hiking, as well as taking a warm shower or lighting some candles in your favorite scent will put you back in touch with your body, your senses and living in the moment.

One of the most luxurious practices of self-care is the traditional Turkish bath or hammam. In ancient Turkish culture, the hammam was where people went to bathe themselves, get warm and relax and socialize. In addition to the bathing and cleansing, our ancestors quickly realized there were meaningful health benefits to relaxing in the humid steam including muscle relaxation and opening the pores. 

The traditional Turkish bath was open to everyone regardless of wealth or class making these hammams different from the Roman baths which were reserved for the elite members of society. Today, the hammam is still very popular in Turkey and Morocco reinforcing the importance of self-care in this culture.

But you don’t have to go to Morocco or turkey to indulge in this healthy skin-care ritual. Creating a “home hammam,” is easier than you might think. A typical Turkish bath experience is about an hour and follows a series of activities designed to relax and rejuvenate you. it involves exfoliating, cleansing and moisturizing the skin over your entire body. Aside from the wondrous physical benefits, this kind of treatment nourishes your soul as well as your body.

With Minarra’s all-natural products, this cultural tradition is now available at your finger tips. The best part is that you can recreate the entire experience at home with Minarra's clean and conscious products and by following these steps below.

• First, create the right environment with calming music and candles. If you can, dim the lights for a truly relaxing effect.
• Next, get the steam going in your bathroom by running hot water in the tub or shower. Then adjust the water temperature to your liking. Sit in the tub for at least 5 minutes, allowing your body to relax and your pores to open up. 
• Apply a thin layer of black soap all over your body and allow your skin to soak up the soap for 5-10min while relaxing in the tub. The soap will prep the skin for exfoliation.
• Rinse the soap and begin scrubbing your entire body with our kessa glove. You will be amazed how much dead skin is left at the bottom of the tub or shower after you are done.
• Follow this scrub by cleansing your body with warm water and Minarra’s Ghassoul, a Moroccan natural clay mask (Tip: mix the clay with natural rose pedals and argan oil for deeper moisturizing!)
• Apply the Ghassoul mask all over the body and face in a circular motion. Leave it on for 5-10 minutes before rinsing. As it soaks in, the khassoul mask will draw all impurity from the skin and nourish your top layer of skin, the epiderm, with essential minerals. Rinse and dry off with a soft towel.

Your skin will feel renewed and ready to be fed and moisturized by our pure organic argan oil and prickly pear oil. Be sure to sip some cool water or hot tea and continuing to relax as long as you can, enjoying your baby soft skin and reinvigorated spirit.

Don’t make your own care and health your last priority any longer. Create a hammam experience for yourself and feel more energetic, nourished, refreshed and, yes, pampered. Because you are most definitely worth it.