Why Salty?

Khush Raho with Sangeeta

The plane landed at the small Goa airport. As soon as the door opened and I walked down the steps to the tarmac, a heavy, sultry air hit me. I took a few deep breaths and immediately felt my body relax. A smile came to my face. A few more deep breaths of this heavy air, carrying the smell of the sea, and I felt a shift in my entire being. That was three decades ago, and I still remember that first blast of warm, sultry air as if it were yesterday.

Apart from the knowledge that a holiday was starting and the anticipation of everything I had heard about Goa's beaches, food, ambience and culture, there was definitely something in the air. We managed to get to the beach soon after checking in. The first thing I did was walk barefoot in the water, feel the sand between my toes, and felt the fatigue and tiredness lift. Inexplicable then, I felt so much happier than I had been the day before.

Goa is special, but seaside places generally have this uplifting quality, and a lot of it has to do with the salty water of the oceans and the heavy air, which feels like it is the ocean's vapor. Why does salty air and salt water make us feel lighter and happier?

Our ancients knew the answer long before modern science arrived at it. Salt has the capacity to disintegrate negative energies. This is why we use it for cleaning our homes, soaking tired feet in a salt water tub, and in bathing, as soaks, scrubs or simply running salt water over the body, replicating that experience of being in the ocean and coming out feeling lighter and happier. As energy healers we use salt water to disintegrate negative energies during aura and chakra cleansing. I also wash my crystals with salt water to clean them.

Science confirms what the ancients knew. Salt has been part of everyone's lives as far back as we can remember. Our blood shares a similar ratio of salts to ancient oceans, supporting the theory that life originated in the sea. Most of this salt is found in our blood and the fluid surrounding our cells. Our bodies contain roughly 250 grams of salt, around 0.4% of our total body weight. It regulates blood volume, maintains cellular fluid balance, and conducts nerve impulses. Our body is also constantly losing salt through sweat, urine, and tears, and needs to replenish it through oral intake.

Now here is the part that fascinates me. Why does Gen Z use the term "salty" to describe someone who is irritable, resentful, or not in a good mood? Could it be that Gen Z is actually wiser than we give them credit for, and has knowingly or unknowingly picked up one important function of salt, which is to absorb and disintegrate negative energy?

The sweat and tears the body expels probably carry the remnants of the negative energy that salt has dissolved, energy that is no longer useful to the body. So the salty description is layered with meaning, pointing to the irritation and negative emotions present in the person the Gen Z are talking about. Language, it seems, carries more intuitive ancient knowing than we realize.

I suggest a simple practice for you: swap refined table salt in your kitchen for sea salt or Himalayan pink salt. Both carry trace minerals that refined salt has lost in processing, and both bring something of that ancient elemental quality into your daily nourishment.

I am already looking forward to my next visit to a salty ocean, whether in Goa or elsewhere. Until then, close your eyes and breathe. One breath of remembered ocean air, and you are halfway there. I wish you lots of salt baths and foot soaks until you too can visit the real thing.

Small rituals. Profound healing. Until next time — Khush Raho! Stay happy, stay healthy.

(Sangeeta Bhalla

is an Energy Healer, Instructor, and Therapeutic Aromatherapist. She can be reached at www.sangeetabhalla.net)