Cool Off With an Ayurvedic Milk Bath

When it’s hot and muggy and pitta is high immerse your whole body in a cooling rose milk bath.  It reduces that itchy irritable summer heat and balances the emotions.   I spent many summers offering an ancient Ayurvedic treatment called takradhara, which  involves a steady stream of herbal buttermilk flowing over your head and forehead, cooling the entire body and mind. 

 Due to Coved 19, this summer,  I am not offering very many treatments but instead, I am recommending home treatments that have similar effects. 

 I learned  about the Rose Milk bath from my beloved teacher, Vaidya Mishra who not only developed products but shared royal traditional Ayurvedic treatment instructions.   I have added one additional step to his instructions which is to use a big cup to pour the rose milk over the head and body into the bath tub to somewhat mimic the takradhara.  

It’s very easy and relaxing to experience. Here are the steps:

Ingredients:

1 Gallon Whole Organic Milk at room temperature. (leave out of refrigerator a few hours or gently heat the milk on the stove.

1 bottle pure rose water.

a few drops of rose essential oil.

Coconut oil pitta massage oil if you plan to do abhyanga before the bath

a cup of fresh rose petals if possible.

a large cup or pot with a handle on it. 

Next take a quick shower to rinse off.  Then start to fill the tub with luke warm water.   

Sit in the tub and pour the room temperature milk into the cup. Pour the cup of milk slowly over your head and let it run into bath tub.  Keep pouring the milk over the chest, the arms, the legs. 

 

Repeat until the entire gallon of milk is now in the bathtub. Add the cup of rose petals, the bottle of rose water, and rose essential oil to the milk bath.

Continue to fill the cup up with the milk water and pour over head and face.  The idea is to cool a hot head.  And children can benefit from this if they are also cranky.

Next sit back and relax for a minimum of 20 minutes in order to get the full benefit with your body fully immersed in the tub.  If you get cold, add some warm water. This is great to help one fall asleep better in hot weather. 

After you are complete with the bath, collect the rose petals before you drain the tub so they do not clog.  Then take a shower and wash your hair so you do not smell like sour milk!  Do not use hot water to rinse and wash your hair because it will undo the benefit of the treatment.  Use cool or lukewarm water and do not spend too much time in the shower, just enough time to get the job done.  

Enjoy some pitta pacifying tea or hot milk, wear white cotton pajamas and get into bed with some clean cool cotton sheets. Good night.

 

Ayurvedic Health Benefits of Milk Bathing:  Traditionally, the Ayurvedic Milk Bath is done with all pure milk and no water.  That’s about 25 gallons of milk. According to Vaidya Mishra, “milk is a highly intelligent and delicate substance, the molecular structure of milk is unique from all other foods.” He says that any type of alteration destroys the intelligence of the milk. People can not digest milk in modern times due to this alteration – homogenization, creating low fat milk, adding vitamins and storing it for long periods of time. He says that altering the milk in this way alters the molecular structure and it clogs the microchannels of the body.  He says that milk that is fresh, organic, non homogenized and raw if possible maintains the intelligence of the milk.  According to Ayurveda, there is no substance that can compare to milk, it is a unique substance which when used with spices and boiled can be nourishing and balancing to vata and pitta. 

Ayurveda recommends that one boil the milk three times, meaning that you have to let it rise and fall three times using spices such as ginger, black pepper, turmeric, cinnamon and clove.  You can also had dried rose petal.  Boiling the milk like this and with the spices allows the milk to be absorbed into the microchannels of the body rather than clogging the microchannels.   Cold milk is clogging.  The black pepper helps to carry the milk into the channels. The cinnamon helps to balance blood sugar.  He also said that you should only use milk from happy cows.  Avoid using milk from large factory farms where the cows are often cruelly mistreated.  If you can find a small family farm that loves and respects their cows, that would be ideal. Drinking fresh milk from happy cows is the ultimate rasyana.  

Vaidya Mishra was famous for his contribution to Ayurveda with his use of Transdermal products, herbal products applied to the skin and absorbing herbal nutrients into the body via the skin.  A milk bath also is transdermal.  Your skin will absorb the nutrients through the skin, and will pacify pitta.

Here are some other benefits of the milk bath:

• eases sunburn
• promotes sleep
• relieves poison oak and other inflamed skin issues
• soothes and hydrates the skin
• reduces stress and calms the nervous system
• good for dry skin
• exfoliates skin