Let Water Move You
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Let’s continue our series on the Natural Elements – Earth, Water, Wood, Metal, and Fire – with a focus on Water.
The word “spa” comes from the Latin word sanitas per aqua - health through water. Since ancient times, healers were attuned to the properties of water to create balance in a person, to detoxify, relax and cleanse. Natural mineral springs were sought out because of their high content of therapeutic elements.
When your body is ailing, there are several ways water can be used to relieve it: salts added to a bath draw toxins through the skin, nerve endings stimulated at the skin bring impulses deep into the body, and hot and cold therapies utilize the body’s natural reactions, to increase blood flow, stimulate the immune system and reduce pain.
We are physically made up of about 75% water, with some tissues of the body at 95% water composition. This is why managing water intake is so important – there is no system of the body that does not benefit from good hydration:
- Muscles are 75% water; they need to maintain their elasticity and mobility to keep you moving smoothly and able to keep an active lifestyle; the moisture that surrounds and cushions your joints needs to be maintained
- Blood is 83% water; sluggish blood flow causes the body to work harder to circulate it, brain activity slows, it becomes harder to concentrate, you bottom out quicker
- Your brain is 74% water; poorly hydrated, its nerve endings do not perform properly and decisions are slower, clarity can be diminished
- Bone is 22% water; add a little fresh lemon to drinking water to boost its alkalinity, a great help in keeping bones strong and straight
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