Litsea is a bit off the beaten path for some folks. Those familiar with Traditional Chinese Medicine, however, will know that Litsea (or May Chang) has been used medicinally for thousands of years. Native to Southeast Asia, Litsea has been used for everything from asthma to digestive issues.
Autumn is approaching, at least for those of us with discernible seasons. Though days here in Durango, Colorado, are still reaching the 90s, nights and mornings are cool and the sun is getting lower in the sky. Whether you love pumpkin spice and changing leaves or struggle with the shortening daylight hours, a great way to mark the seasonal change is to make your own natural perfume blend for the fall.
There are some scents that have been prized for millennia, being used for ritual, ceremony, worship, perfumery, and medicine. You’ll find them in ancient holy books as well as writings on medicine and perfumery that date back thousands of years. Many of the most popular sacred aromatics, however, are not sustainable, at least at the moment. Here, we’ll delve into some divinely scented aromatics that have been able to keep up with the exploding demand for essential oils.
When sadness hits, your energy may be low or you might feel paralyzed. In these times, you might just skip making a fancy inhaler or spray. Just grab the bottle of oil and take a couple sniffs every couple of hours, being careful not to spill it. If you’re going to be out and about, a spritzer is nice, as it’s easy to use and less of a disaster if it leaks in your bag.
Essential oils can be a great way to keep moving. They’re super helpful after an injury but are also great for preventing injury.
Two great steps to take to support your musculoskeletal system and reduce the chance for injury are to use a warm-up liniment on muscles before physical activity and to use a soothing topical on joints and sore muscles afterwards.
I once lived on a magical little farm and had a fairy godmother landlord. It was a great place to be an herbalist. But…the house I lived in also housed a small country’s worth of moths. Some of them hitchhiked with me to my new place, as evidenced by the occasional moth fluttering around the bedroom and holes I sometimes find in my shirts.
Here are some great oils and a few ideas for blends to get into the seasonal mode and lighten up the dark days. Essential oils are fun and useful to use any time of the year, but especially to spice life up in these (for some of us) colder and darker months.
Your lymphatic system is a network of vessels, glands and lymph fluid and is a critical part of immunity, the transport of hormones and other bioactive molecules, and detox (think “vacuum cleaner”). Herbalists have traditionally turned to “lymphatic herbs” to assist the body during
If the changing seasons have you wondering what to eat, try this sesame milk smoothie with orange essential oil. For those of us who eat seasonally, September and October are transitional months. Depending on where we are in the northern hemisphere, the heat could still be holding on, or there might be a noticeable crispness in the air. Straddling seasons can leave us a little stumped in terms of what to eat.
On my left shoulder I have a tattoo of what I call my “herbal medicine chest.” It is an image of several different herbs and plant medicines which I consider to be essential for keeping a healthy body-mind-spirit complex.