Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Crazy Health Ideas from Ancient Roman Baths - Hey, I'm 1/2 Italian

So, sometimes I get these funny/crazy ideas and I think hmmmm maybe it is true on some deep level and I should share it OR maybe I am just nuts. Hopefully it is the former. 





You see, I went to Bath, England with my mom about 7 years ago and I learned something really amazing on the personal tour of the ancient Roman baths there. (By the way, Bath is an incredibly romantic English town and I highly recommend it to couples.)


I learned from a tall elderly life long tour guide that the people of that time period would not use soap often...if at all. They would go the the Roman Bath to bathe and it was a step by step process that involved a sauna like room to sweat out toxins (Finnish people practice this daily.) Also, there are resting areas to smooth olive oil over your skin and sea shells to scrape off dead skin before entering the hot spring pools/baths. I remember my Nanny telling me that the Italian women of South Philadelphia would use Olive Oil on their skin regularly as this was the tradition. I do not know if they scraped like their ancestors though.





This was interesting to me that the focus of cleaning was on scraping off dead, dirty skin more than lathering up soap on top of the skin. As you know skin is our barrier to the world around us that may or may not take in toxins from pollution or chemicals we are exposed to.


I saw this again in Dr. Colbert's book "Stress Less" where he talks about Free Radicals causing havoc in our bodies due to stress and detoxification through eating lots of organic raw veggies and fruit and secondly, showering every day and scraping off dead skin with a Brillo type pad in your shower. Now I didn't have that kind of thing in my shower and the sea shells I have in the house from our trip to the beach last summer are somewhere lost in the kids rooms, (probably River's as she likes to surround herself with natural beauty:) So I used the next best thing, my finger nails. I would just scrape my face and to my surprise (even though I had just washed my face) there was thick dark dead skin coming off. I was worried that I may be getting rid of my tan and have lines across my face but sure enough after my shower upon looking in the mirror my face just looked...well....clean. 





I am writing this as I have these medical ideas every once in awhile like the time I wrote about how oxygen heals and so we should breath in more to heal our insides. I know, I know, sounds crazy but hey, it COULD be true. So like the oxygen theory, I believe that the scraping off of dead skin all over your body lets your skin breathe and allows you to sweat more effectively while working out so that you are able to detox your body more effectively. 


Another way to detox is not just getting the bad off or out of your body but putting the right thing in. Juan and I and the kids are considering starting the Daniel Fast this Sunday with our church. The Daniel Fast is Fruits and Veggies and water only for three weeks. 






This super funny message that inspired this is here:


 www.liquidchurch.com 

We also had two other separate leaders from two separate places in America (out of no where) speak to us directly that we should fast and pray within two days of this message. Before the message we were already even considering it. 

We feel that sometimes in life we are called not just to be healthy and detox our body or eat well for our health, but we should couple that with a motivating force to draw in close to Jesus and pray. In doing so we believe that we will not only have physical breakthrough in our bodies but spiritual breakthrough in our lives. 

Hoping in some small way, this information is helpful to you and yours,

Tracy:)


1 comment:

  1. I agree with your idea to fast. Every time I have done this, I have had a meaningful time alone with the Lord; hearing him more clearly for specific answers. I am grateful for His leading, and appreciate your views.
    LUV in Him,
    Mona

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