Why Busy Philipps Swears By Her Nightly Self-Care Ritual of Taking a Bath—Especially During Full Moons
“During the pandemic, I rediscovered my love of baths, and I started taking nightly baths to relax and to help me get to sleep,” says Philipps, whom I spoke with in relation to her new collaboration with essie and Oui by Yoplait for the #OuiFreshYourselfSweeps (where you can enter to win a OuiFresh kit) for International Self-Care Day. “It’s really about taking myself out of the fray for a bit, closing the door, and locking in those 30 minutes for myself.”
"I think that when you really boil down what self care is, it's about being in the moment for yourself and being present." —Busy Philipps
Even as the world inches out of lockdown, Philipps is committed to keeping her bath ritual intact, not only as a way to relax and wind down at the end of a packed day, but as an outlet for a personal check-in. “I think that when you really boil down what self care is, it's about being in the moment for yourself and being present,” she says, adding that it's become all the more important for her, given her “quickly aging kids.” She jokes: “There’s a finite amount of time when you have them in the house, wanting to hang out with you, so I try to show up for them as much as possible—which is tough to do if you’re feeling frazzled or overwhelmed.”
Naturally, that’s where her nighttime bath really comes into play. “I turn the lights down, play some soft music, and always have a huge glass of cold water while in the bath, too,” she says, adding that product-wise, she sticks mostly to Epsom salts to soothe her sensitive skin.
When life gets hectic, Philipps admits that she might miss a bath night here or there, but there’s always one particular time of the month when she considers the ritual essential, and that’s the full moon. In astrology, full moons can unleash bold energy, as the moon symbolizes our gut instincts and emotions. They can also illuminate hidden truths or bubble repressed feelings to the surface, making any full moon an ideal time to take hold of those intuitions and learn from them. And there’s perhaps no more natural channel for them than a bath full of water, as it’s the element most closely tied with the moon itself.
“I’ll add some flower petals and dim the lights,” says Philipps, a Cancer sign—the emotions-driven caretaker of the zodiac, which is also a water sign and ruled by the moon—in describing her moon-bath ritual. And she’ll also include her daughter, Cricket, a fellow Cancer who enjoys a bath (almost) as much as she does. They use the time as a moment of mindfulness to get grounded. “I really believe in intention,” Philipps says, “and I believe in positive thoughts, and the power of projecting things into the universe that you hope for and that you want.”
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