The other day, Mr W and I were in such a stress rut from constantly needy kids on spring break and the endless demands from work that he gave me an offer I couldn’t refuse.
“Let’s get massages,” he said. “I’ll pay.”
Ok, where did I find this man, and how did I get so damn lucky?
After the dinner dishes were done, we abandoned the kids (“Don’t kill each other, k? And don’t bother calling our cell phones because they’ll be off. Yes, even if the house is burning down, we will not answer.”) and headed to our favorite little spa in Fairfax. From there, we soaked in a tub and enjoyed the silence. Sure, we took advantage of the uninterrupted time to get whatever we needed to off our chest. But all we had to talk about was work or the kids. So silence was a lovely sound.
30 minutes later and we were called in for our massage. I went with a short Portuguese girl, and Mr W got the leggy blonde. My girl was extra giggly, but knew her stuff. All of a sudden I was transported into the promised land by just her hands. I stayed silent for the first 30 minutes except to let her know that her pressure was perfect whenever she asked. But once I was completely relaxed, the two of us just started talking. I learned that she was studying different forms of massage that helped pinpoint emotions, which I have always found fascinating. In that training she was learning how to read someone’s pulse so that she could tell where that person needed work the most, what kinds of foods they should be eating, and what their body was lacking. She encouraged me to attend a seminar at the center she volunteered at, and I asked her what they might tell me. She said they’d probably tell me that I needed more electrolytes and to flush out my intestines.
Which was amazing because I’ve been having intestinal issues (biggest reason for going Paleo), I never feel like I’m getting enough water, and my energy level is nil.
From that conversation she told me about this thing called Sole (pronounced Sole-ay), an elixir made from Himalayan salt crystals and water. I am not an expert on this, but basically you take these rock crystals and place them in water so that they’ll dissolve. You keep adding crystals until the water contains so much salt it can’t dissolve anymore. That’s when it magically changes from salt and water to the mysterious sole. Then, every day, add one teaspoon of the salt sole to a glass of water and drink it first thing in the morning before you’ve eaten of had your first sip of coffee. The benefits are that it will help flush out your intestines, give you electrolytes, increase your energy, lower addictive cravings (like maybe chocolate?), clear up skin blemishes, and more. This site has a bunch of good information on how to make salt sole and every single other way you can use it for.
And then my Portuguese princess remembered that she had a salt crystal in her purse and offered to give it to me. All this, and she accidentally gave me an hour and a half massage instead of an hour. I scored.
The first night I stuck the crystal in a glass of water and then just drank the water. Saaaaaalty! Then I learned the proper way to make sole and let it sit for a day. Today I went to Whole Foods (they’re $3.99 a pound at our Petaluma store) and bought three more pink crystals which I added to my pre-sole. I set it next to my mother Kombucha so they could keep each other company. And then I got my love beads and did a hippy dance because I’m totally digging all this new-age old-fashioned stone age way of living. I might just quit my job and live off the land, man, because all we need is love, right?
Ok fine. I kind of like money. And benefits. And my iPhone with access to anything in the world should I want to look it up.
Anyway, now it’s the waiting game to see how the saltwater will be once it’s transformed into sole and rids me of my ugly intestines to give me new ones. In the meantime, if you’re familiar with this magical elixir, fill me in.
P.S. Forgot to mention that no metal is allowed to touch the sole, so mixing should be done with a wooden or plastic spoon only. Also, seems that sole is very potent for a complete cleanse of the intestines. Read: the first day or two you will be stuck to the toilet. I won’t fill you in on the ugly details, but let’s just say if you’re anything like me and are deathly afraid of dropping a deuce (and worse) in a public restroom, you should definitely wait till it’s the weekend and you don’t have to go to work. And Coffee doesn’t make the process any prettier. I learned all this the hard way….
Wine Country Mom 
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