Your mother-in-law just called to say she's coming to town and the kids won't stop bickering. You're drained and you desperately need to escape to the yoga center to relieve the stress, but there's no time. But hold on. You probably didn't know there's an excellent yoga studio right inside your own house—in your bathroom!

There, you can experience your floating body no longer held down by gravity, smell the aroma infusing the air, feel the warm water caressing your skin and enjoy a few moments of nurturing stillness right smack in the middle of your busy day.

Coming To Our Senses

The latest buzz word in stress reduction is mindfulness, or "coming to our senses." It's about paying attention to your senses in the present moment. Simply smell, listen and feel with your complete attention for just five to 15 minutes.

1. Aromatherapy

Tack a "Do Not Disturb" sign outside the bathroom door, turn on the tap and add a few drops of essential oil. There's an oil remedy for every stressful occasion. Your toddler trimmed her hair today... and the dog's? Try lavender oil for steadying nerves. Your boss wants you to take a crash course in accounting and you can hardly balance your checkbook? Add a little rosemary oil to invigorate your brain. Bergamot oil gives perfect headache relief and eucalyptus oil tackles that month-long cold that should have lasted a week. And for romantic types, both jasmine and ylang-ylang oil are reported aphrodisiacs—the vapors travel to your brain to help stimulate those feel-good receptors.

2. Every breath you take

Focus on your breathing. Feel your inhalation as air enters your nose. Dip your ears under water and listen to your long, slow exhalation. Breathe your stress away.

3. Free floating

Your sense of touch is a great way to stay mindful in the tub. Close your eyes. Pay attention to your body's tension zones like the neck and shoulders. Notice how all your muscles relax into the warmth that surrounds you. Feel your whole body floating. This floating feeling evokes the corpse pose, that nurturing still pose at the end of yoga class. But calling it corpse pose is a bit of a misnomer, since you experience a rebirth in this position, whether you're in liquid or on a mat. After being "dead" still for these few precious moments, you'll step out of the bath with a complete rejuvenation of mind and body. The only thing drained now is the tub.

Evelyn Neaman is the Director of Tikkun Yoga Centre in Vancouver, British Columbia, and has been teaching Restorative Yoga for 12 years. She has lived and studied in India, Nepal and Thailand, and continues to teach not only at Tikkun, but further abroad like Hawaii. Her best-selling North American DVD Restorative Yoga: Healing Through Breath and Stillness is available online at fitnessorganica.com.