Salt Lamps: Benefits & Why I’m Totally Obsessed

As some of you guys know, I was in London recently & every day I was waking up feeling totally fatigued, depressed & lethargic. What a buzzkill.

For the first few days I couldn’t figure out why I was feeling like that, then I realized it was SAD. For anyone who doesn’t know, SAD stands for Seasonal Affective Disorder & is a mood disorder primarily affecting sufferers in the winter months.

I literally couldn’t believe how much I felt like a totally different person. It was a mixture of very few hours of sunlight, not working out, jetlag, & not being on a normal schedule. It’s like there was wool over my eyes & I had this super heavy energy.

From teaching Pure Barre & Pilates, I became very in-tune with my body, & still have that mind-body connection. Something was off- I could tell. I hopped on Google, started researching, came across Seasonal Depression & realized…this always happens when I travel somewhere that’s dark.

Immediately I went into finding solutions for this problem. One of them was a happy light ( which I immediately bought ), supplementing with St. John’s Wort, dawn alarm ( an alarm that wakes you up with light instead of beeping ), exercise, journaling, aromatherapy, & a salt lamp.

To be honest I didn’t have immediate access to a salt lamp so I kinda forgot about it. After Christmas was over, we went to Gstaad, Switzerland to celebrate New Years. ( Are you guys interested in a post on where to go in London & Gstaad? )

There is the most magnificent spa at the hotel we stayed at in Gstaad- Le Grand Bellevue Gstaad. The spa had all these different saunas & steam rooms…I mean ALL THE SAUNAS…wet, dry, wood, herbal, bio, stone, Turkish, Finnish, infrared, steam- like all of them.

Ironically, they also had a salt room. Basically, you go in in your hotel robe & sit there & stare at this huge salt lamp. On the wall there was a list of all the benefits & on that list was good for mood, & great for depression & anxiety.

So I sat there for 20 minutes, staring at this salt lamp, waiting for it to work it’s magical powers. After 20 minutes guys…I kid you fucking not, I felt 99% better. LITERALLY couldn’t believe it. I was out of my mind over it & almost wrote a blog post right there, on the spot. But I figured I’d wait & do some more research & get access to my own before I talked to you guys about it.

It’s known to lift depression & anxiety immediately, especially for people who live in dark, rainy areas.

You should know it has tons of other benefits too:

♡ natural antihistamine

♡ good for digestion

♡ improves metabolism

♡ reduces stress hormones

♡ lowers cortisol

♡ good for vascular health

♡ balances electrolytes

♡ prevents muscle cramping

♡ supports a healthy nervous system

♡ improves sleep

♡ reduces electromagnetic radiation

♡ reduces static electricity

It’s said that positive ions can really drain your energy, but a salt lamp releases natural negative ions which can bring your energy back up.

You know I love to find a niche, so instead of getting the huge one I got 2 salt lamp night lights. They’re pretty, pink & SO on brand- something you just want in your house. They’re so perfect for my & Michael’s bathrooms & so great for taking a shower at night ( especially when you have eucalyptus hanging from your shower head ). Even better if you want to listen to Tibetan Bowl music while you shower.

It completely calms me down at night & I like to have it on in the day too, especially if it’s cloudy. After using this salt lamp night light situation for the last month, I ended up buying the big square one for our bedroom. Now we sleep with it on for the whole night.

You already know about this tip if you follow my new Instagram account @and.the.skinny.was.like. Be sure to follow if you aren’t already because this account is full of hot tips like this. No B.S. or curated photos, just TSC-approved products that I know you’ll all love.

If you live in a dark, cloudy area & you only ever take ONE TIP from The Skinny Confidential, let it be this tip, ok? It’s life-changing & will take you from feeling fatigued & lethargic to feeling completely normal. Just stare into it for a couple minutes a day & even sleep with it for a calming, pink, warm glow over room- you just can’t go wrong here.

Question for you guys: have any of you experience SAD?

If you like this post you’ll love the one about eucalyptus showers. It goes hand in hand with this post.

I’m off to drink my hot mushroom cacao, read Scar Tissue by Anthony Kiedis of The Red Hot Chili Peppers & stare into my magical salt lamp.

Hope you guys are having a super productive day.

x, lauryn

+ Don’t forget to eat your salt. Check out this post on Himalayan salt benefits.

++ Stalk my full nighttime routine here.

Kick SAD’s Ass