Flowers, sweets, fragrant oils, fruits, candles, lights, all set the mood for festivities. Festivals many a time turn into hectic madness with one-upmanship of gifts, to receive and give, so much so that the very essence of a festival is lost.
Be it any festival, our homes, however, are full of flowers, oils, dry fruits and even fresh fruits during this time and they tend to pile up—who can eat so much really?
Festivals need to be a cleansing of the inner and outer self, including the cleansing of our homes, our relationships, and our emotions, that are often bogged down by extraneous factors.
The scrub solution
What is the point of prayers and festivities when one has blockages in the mind and heart? Use these prayer offerings after the festivities to help cleanse and detox skin and body. You can make the most wonderful body scrub to hydrate and nourish sluggish looking skin that is either recovering from a festival or needs to be rejuvenated for the next.
Take the following ingredients and make this wonderful body and face scrub without a trip to the parlour:
100 g powdered almonds
10 mashed figs
10 pounded walnuts
A handful of marigold petals
A handful of rose petals
2 tsp fresh cream
10 strands of saffron
1pinch of gold dust (if u can procure it) or 2 leaves of gold varak
2 tsp honey
Mix all the ingredients and smoothen all over the body. Wait for 5-10 minutes and scrub off with warm milk and then water.
What the mind needs
Cleansing can be of the mind too so put on some light soothing music and meditate with diyas or candles. Have an aroma lamp burning in your room of lavender or geranium oil that will soothe the senses and nerves while you meditate. Try this daily over a week for at least 5-10minutes. It will help calm you.
Most of us forget that when we pray it has to be with our inner silence and to whom we believe in. This inner voice is stronger than the roar of the sea and more powerful than the most ostentatious ceremony. Learn to listen to that inner voice and reach out to the universe—the one that lies within you and the one that lies outside. Believe me you will be resonating with an inner glow that exudes from within you.
Until next time!