October 22nd, 2009
Elemental Things and the Hottub
There’s a lovely sense of mystery to hottubs, and their appeal is sometimes obvious yet also very unknown. It has something to do with the way the body is naturally attracted to water, and it offers a sort of return to an elemental level of being that is simply a nice feeling. There are certain health benefits, such as reduced stress and tension, and better circulation, that have something to do with their popularity, but there’s something that’s simply inviting about them that’s hard to pin down.
It doesn’t matter at the end of the day, because when you start to relax into the warm water, you’ll just know that you’ve made the right decision in having your own personal spa. They do offer fabulous health benefits, and a well-maintained hot tub can help in easing the transition to sleep, stress reduction, and heart health. But for the mysterious qualities, you might want to check with your friends and neighbors when they’re visiting you, enjoying these benefits, and find out what they think. Or you might forget the question and decide to just enjoy it, because it’s simply amazing and that’s really more than enough.
Water has fascinated human beings since the beginning of time, most likely, and almost every system of thought includes water in its cosmology, representing one of the major building blocks of everything there is in the universe. When thinking of the four elements, earth, air, water, and fire, most people will go to European sources and the court magicians for the sources. It’s actually older than that, however, and may have origins in Ayurvedic philosophy. But then again, it’s also found in Maya writings, and the case could be made that it was part of the philosophical principles of every civilization on earth. In most of these systems of thought that try to explain the cosmos, there is a fifth element, ether, to make things even more interesting. What’s ethereal can either get washed away in your hottub, or, if you like, soaked into the skin so you can meditate on it all more deeply. You’ll have the opportunity.
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