I love love love citrus oils! They make me salivate whether it’s lemon, lime, mandarin, orange, or whichever. They’re also some of the best mood-supporting oils and are awesome for many other reasons.
First, some safety considerations with citrus oils:
Botanical names of herbs sometimes tell you what the herb does. Motherwort’s botanical name is Leonurus cardiaca, meaning “lion hearted.” It is, indeed, a supreme herb for the heart.
Here are some of the things Motherwort does for cardiovascular health:
Ah, winter—the season of retreating indoors, finding every way to keep warm, and snuggling up with your favorite book or Netflix show for a slow descent into hibernation, solitude, and a fair amount of seasonal down time.
While the frigid cold winter weather outside can affect your energy levels and leave you with the sluggish winter blues, there are seasonal winter herbs that can also lift you out of your winter funk to revitalize your well-being and mood with some natural herbal supplements.
I’ve always loved that patch of stillness that succeeds the holidays: No work, no school, no parties to prepare for or gifts to buy. The sun doesn’t rise until 7:20 and it sets again just after 5, abandoning well over half of the day’s 24 hours to darkness. For me, this means I can embrace my tendencies toward hibernation without feeling antisocial. The first quiet days of January feel like a reprieve from the tumult of the previous year.
Breathing in a waft of heady geranium essential oil can be a scent only truly appreciated by the cultivated sniffer. Its fragrance challenges one to dig under the surface of the traditional floral notes and sit with the discomfort geranium assists one in facing. In my opinion, geranium is a scent for the both the mature nose and the mature heart and here’s why I think that is:
Mental illness can often seem frustratingly abstract. Unlike the flu, a broken bone, or even a paper cut, the physical manifestations of conditions like anxiety and depression can be nebulous, their sources uncertain.
Let’s not pretend that there are not hard times.
Let’s be real that we all go through them, are going through them, and will go through them again.
Sandalwood, to me, smells like the inside of a temple, like deep meditation, like prayer. It is the scent of a third eye chakra open and aware, peering into the cave of darkness to access wealths of insight and divine inspiration.
Frankly, with words like chia, flax, probiotics, goji, and more making the rounds, it’s understandable to become sick of the whole bandwagon of health food and stick to a normal diet instead.
A. At least you are aware that you are consuming too much sugar and that it is not good for your health.