Healing the Healer: A Naturopaths Journey to Heal and Balance Her Body, Mind and Spirit. : Sea Veggies and Mermaid Dreams

Kelp Soakingl Mermaid from Artist Renee Nault

Last night I felt like I was Ariel from the land of The Little Mermaid soaking in my bath filled with 3 cups of Kelp and Dulse swirling around my limbs like I was floating in the Celtic Sea.

Ahhhhhhh - it was SO relaxing! I am a self professed bath lover and bathing connoisseur. I love all things bath related. I order pounds upon pounds of assorted sea salts, (Dead, pink Himmalayan, Black Lava Hawaiian, Epsom.... I cold go on!) all shipped to my home. I've taken (smuggled) home wet sea clay on trips to Martha's Vineyard zipped in zip locks and have soaked in glorious natural hot springs during my year abroad in Japan. I am not even embarrassed to say that I am a bath snob~ Always have been!

And when I buy my house next year- I will buy it based on the bath or the potential of the master bath. I'd renovate the bathroom over any other room first. You should see my pinterest board I am building for the bathroom of my dreams - centered around a fabulous infinity style whirlpool bath tub.

Perhaps bath time is one of my few fun memories of childhood. Back then I loved bubbles- lots of bubbles. I'd give myself bubble beards, bubble boobs and piles of bubble hair.

Nowadays I just love sea salts and herbal soaks. I'm not kidding when I say I could bathe all day long. And I have- in Japan we'd bathe for an entire day - and I was so in my element! Someday I plan to return to Japan and when I do all I want to do is soak! Soak all over the entire country!

I'm fully free in a bath - limbs floating free, head and chest bobbing up and down in tune with my slow, meditative breathe. I actually enjoy the silence of head immersed and listening to the sound of my own heart. If you've ever done this, it really gets you in tune with your ticker. Literally! You can hear the amazing force of your heart pumping and the swooshing of your blood as it pumps in and out of the heart. Tuning into this force is amazing. I love doing deep breathing exercises to see how long my entire upper body can stay submerged into the depth of my bath tub and slowly release the air as I rise bouyant to the surface - tuning into the slowing of my heart rate and how my breath controls the speed of my heart beat.

The bath tub is where all my amazing ideas originate. I get some fabulous ideas - many that still remain as ideas yet- but tons that have been implemented and worked on. For me, I feel like bathing is getting back to source. Connecting my soul to something greater. Perhaps, as I realized last week, in one of my many weekly baths- that fetal position in water is more soothing than any other position... the warm water is all encompassing and it's nurturing. Maybe that is even why I enjoy baths so much- the nurturing power of the bath is what I need.

Iodine is also something I desperately need. After doing an iodine urine test profile, it became very clear just how deficient my body is of this core metabolic enhancing mineral. I'm so deficient and so much of the uterine fibroid and PCOS is rooted in a lack of iodine. I've been painting iodine on my body daily and after some research, I've been trying out soaking in iodine rich seaweed baths. The water actually turns a yellowish green color and I soak at a minimum of 45 minutes.

The benefits of Iodine are really quite spectacular especially on tumors and fibroids as well as any type of thyroid disorder/dysfunction/deficiency. Sadly our diets lack iodine and even when we have iodine exposure, elements like chlorine (in water sources) and bromine (in all flour products) are stronger and bond more easily to our iodine receptors, blocking out iodine. Eating iodine is key, then supplementation and then topical application is another way to get exposure to iodine (painting/baths).

If you feel like you want to get your inner Ariel on = here is my recipe: