holistic healing

There’s little better than fresh lavender, whether as an essential oil, an herb for cooking, in a fresh bouquet, or, my personal favorite, growing abundantly on a local farm.

With all of the devastating wildfires ravaging California, the western United States, and much of Europe, thousands of people have been affected by wildfire smoke. Unfortunately, much of the smoke produced during these wildfires contain enormous amounts of toxins. 

Frankincense (Boswellia) is best known as incense to most folks. It’s been used for thousands of years as a wonderful aid for mood, medication, ritual, and prayer. As such, frankincense was extremely valuable in the ancient world and was a key part of the spice trade 2000 years ago, making the folks who controlled frankincense trees in the Southern Arabian Peninsula and East Africa extremely wealthy (1).

Frankincense is also great support for the digestive tract.  More on this in a moment…

Bitters hold their history in old European herbal medicinal traditions and used to serve the same purposes that tinctures do today. Tinctures are herbal extractions made by steeping dried or fresh herbs in a highly pure form of alcohol. Any part of the plant can be used to make tinctures, although some parts may render different effects than others. Commercial processes use ethyl alcohol, but for home crafted tinctures, 100 proof vodka is the best choice.

Edible mushrooms are fantastic for our health. Eating mushrooms is my favorite way to reap their benefits, but at times a stronger dose may come in handy.  This is where mushroom extracts can be handy.  For those who’ve purchased commercial mushroom extracts, you may have noticed that they’re a bit expensive.  Why not learn to make your own?

Syrups are a great way to take your medicine and to spice things up in the kitchen.  Here are a couple of easy syrup-making methods. The first method is the way to go for medicinal syrups that can also be used in recipes. You can use these by the spoonful daily.  The second is just for introducing some exciting new flavors into your recipes rather than for medicinal usage. 

Mary Beth Shaw is an energy healing practitioner with whom I recently enjoyed a session.  The experience was a roller coaster of emotions that left me feeling more strongly connected to my Self and my loved ones, and also with a clearer vision of my purpose and personal priorities.

Are adaptogens the next best thing for the human health quotient? Or are they as overblown as the antioxidant theory? Make an informed decision…

Go to any nutritional or lifestyle coach and you’ll hear the term adaptogen bandied about quite a bit. So what are adaptogens? To understand that, let’s begin with what adaptogens aren’t.

Some of the most sacred and valued scents over the centuries are those deeper aromatics—Frankincense, Myrrh, Benzoin and others—whose use predates the millennia-old religious texts in which they’re noted.  These scents are “heavier” because the chemicals they’re made of are heavier than those in “lighter” oils such as lemon or bergamot.  Another way to look at it is that the scents

Welcome to Healing Journeys - a corner of Basmati.com where you can read about our team's real experiences with different holistic healing modalities. Trying a new type of healing can be overwhelming and you might first want to hear about someone's experience before taking the plunge. Healing Journeys will cover many different types of healing.