Heavenly Citrus

Today we have a post by guest blogger Laura Old, a resident of Peachtree City, GA and member of our oily team, The Aloha Droppers.

Try this diffuser recipe to give your home a refreshing, summertime vibe.

Hot flashes aside, Summer seems such a happy fun-filled time to me. Everyone has different ideas as to the perfect pursuits – some crave adventure, exploring, adrenalin rushes; others simply wish to drift away, serenely relaxing on the beach, by the lake, wherever.

It’s impossible to think of Summer without citrus. How can you enjoy a meal without some form of it included – orange juice, lemonade or limeade, Citrus Fruit Salad, simple orange sections to clear your palate after dinner….

A favorite Diffuser Recipe is Heavenly Citrus. Each oil has benefits!

Grapefruit Essential Oil inhaled helps overcome things like hangovers (!), aching heads and blue moods. It is an appetite suppressant, air freshener, even a diuretic! It has antibiotic properties, supports endocrine function, assists in digestion.

Orange Essential Oil benefits include promoting feeling of happiness and warmth, elimination of toxins in the body, stimulating lymphatic action to promote balance in water processes, improving digestion, repelling insects!

Lemon Essential Oil has antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and free-radical quenching properties, and is known to fight respiratory infections, coughs, sore throat, to lower blood pressure and promote healthy blood circulation, to detoxify your body, inhibit inflammation, soothe acidity and heartburn by balancing stomach pH level and more.

Bergamot Essential Oil boasts powerful antibacterial, analgesic, antiseptic, antispasmodic and soothing effects. It helps reduce anxiety and stress, speed up healing process for cold sores and mouth ulcers, helps prevent or improve skin conditions from fungal infections.

Put all this in your diffuser and WOW, what a powerful combination of goodness! Best of all, it smells amazing and just plain makes you feel good all over! Try it out, feeling confident that positive molecules are clearing your air and helping your body and soul. Then come back here and make a comment on how you responded to this combination – we’d love to hear from you.

Click here to order a Premium Starter Kit from Laura (member number 11162020) and get started on the oily path of wellness!

All information relevant to properties of the essential oils mentioned found on www.mercola.com.

DISCLAIMER: The information here is based upon my research and personal use of Young Living essential oils. The statements made and the products mentioned on this website have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration and are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

A First Step

How we feel in our bodies is important because our bodies are the vehicle for how we perceive the world. They house our spirits. Imagine for a moment, that you no longer have your five senses. You can no longer smell, touch, taste hear or see anything. What are you without these things? Without your physical perceptions, what is left? Everything that we know and believe is based on something that we’ve perceived though our senses. Are we just the sensory images that we process?

Clearly we are more than just physical beings. We have minds with the ability to create as well as take in and process information. We have spirits that can connect to others and to God. We have feelings. We have ways of expressing who we are. We have hopes and dreams. We have desires. None of these things are physical however we need our physical bodies to express these things. How we feel in our bodies affects everything else about us…I have a friend who insists that she’s getting so old and worn out that soon she’ll just be an eyeball in a jar. Our physical self matters.

How are you feeling in your body right now? Do you have physical pain? Are you tired, cranky, angry, sad? Are you stressed out? Whenever I teach a class on healthy living, pretty much everyone has at least one of these things going on. And that’s just sad. I don’t want life to be like that for you, or me, or anyone else. So let’s do something about it-one small thing at a time. Starting now.  Here’s your first step. It’s small and it’s easy…baby steps are important, right? Are you ready…

Drink more water.

Add a handful of fresh blueberries (crush them  with a wooden spoon), 2 drops Lemon Vitality, a squeeze of fresh lemon and 10-15 drops of liquid stevia to a glass. Fill with water and ice for a refreshing drink.

I’m not going to go into detail about why you need to drink more water. You know and I know that water’s important. If you want to know all the medical details about why we need to drink water than GTS (Google That Shit). Just drink a lot more water (filtered water is always a good idea). Get all those cells in your body plumped up and functioning properly. Something I do that encourages me to drink more water is to add some fresh fruit along with a couple of drops of Young Living Lemon or Lime Vitality essential oil and a dropper full of liquid organic Stevia extract. I love the refreshing taste and citrus oils have some cleansing and detoxifying properties as well. To learn more or to order click here.

I got so thirsty writing this that I had to hop up and grab myself a glass of water. I’m already feeling better and I know you will be too. This is just the first step of many that I’m planning on sharing with you so be sure to follow along. I’m so excited to be going on this journey with you… the path to wellness is more fun when you travel with others.

With much aloha,

Shelly

 

 

Wellness

What does wellness mean to you? If you’re like many people, you believe that wellness is being fit; that is, you see wellness as needing to go to the gym and work out and run marathons and be buff and look good in your bathing suit. If that’s the case, I’ve got news for you…wellness is not the same as fitness. You can be fit and still be extremely unwell. You can also be well but not be fit. They are not the same thing.

Wellness is making choices that lead to a healthy and fulfilling life. To me wellness means feeling good in your own body, and with who you are. It encompasses your mind, body, spirit and emotions. It can also include your community and family; it is difficult to find wellness when you live in a family or community that is chaotic and unhealthy. Wellness is similar to peace in that it is freedom from disruption within your body, mind or spirit. Wellness means that everything in your life is working harmoniously together for the good of your higher self.

I think most of us spend a good portion of our lives seeking this kind of wellness. And if we don’t, we end up desperately searching for it after being diagnosed with some type of catastrophic illness. I’m a lifer when it comes to learning about and seeking wellness- I remember being unusually curious about it at an early age. I grew up on a small farm where my mom had many gardens. One of these gardens was an herb garden and I remember her pointing out different plants to me and telling me about the ways people used to use the plants for healing. I began reading books about herbal medicine when I was in middle school and books about Earth healing and Wiccan spirituality when I was in college. To me it made such complete sense that people would use nature to bring their bodies, minds and spirits back into balance.

I fell away from these types of healing when I got married and started a family because, although I knew that things like herbal medicine, Wicca and Earth healing are inherently good, they were misunderstood and shunned  by the people who I was around at the time (and continue to be so by many people). But everything comes full circle in life. The things that we are drawn to as children are often things that we are called to teach about later in our lives. I now have a business teaching people about using essential oils as natural tools to support wellness and I often find myself presented with new opportunities to learn about other forms of natural healing. Life is so interesting!

My husband and I were recently invited to participate in a series of classes that teach about Lā’au Lapa’au, or traditional Native Hawaiian healing. The class has just begun I am already inspired to learn, write and share about wellness and healing. To me, being a part of that class is just a reminder from The Universe that learning and sharing about wellness is something I’m meant to do. I hope that you will join me here at The Aloha Lounge over the next several weeks as I share with you some of what I’ve learned and am continuing to learn about wellness.  It is my prayer that the practices I share with you here, will help to transform your life and will put you on a path towards health and wellness. I look forward to journeying along this path with you.

With much aloha,

Shelly

Sunshine

Short periods of time (10-15 mins.) in the sun without protection are actually good for you.

Like plants, we need the sun. Our bodies produce vitamin D through being exposed to sunlight. Vitamin D is important to your body in many ways: it helps with the absorption of calcium, helps fight disease and depression, and surprisingly may even help with weight loss. Most people are deficient in vitamin D, due to lack of exposure to the sun. This is due mainly to two things: spending too much time indoors, and using copious amounts of chemical sunscreen. Despite being toxic to your body and the environment, chemical sunscreens block out most of the sun’s rays which our bodies need to produce vitamin D. Take a look at who is making these products (large corporations who care more about money than they do about people or the environment). And then stop using them.

Mike and I live in Hawaii. We are outside all the time. We never use chemical sunscreen. We use a mineral based sunscreen and we take astaxanthin and almost never burn (unless we are in the water for long periods of time and forget to reapply). Astaxanthin is a supplement made from marine algae-It is derived from microalgae which produce astaxanthin as a protective mechanism to shield the fragile algae from harsh ultraviolet (UV) light and other environmental stressors. It is antioxidant and anti-inflammatory. We have found it to be helpful as an internal sunscreen in addition to all its other benefits. We like Nutrex Hawaii Bioastin Hawaiin Astaxanthin – 12mg, 50 Gel Caps (pack of 4) because it is locally sourced (from Hawaii) and pure.

As far as mineral sunscreen goes, we have tried several brands. Our favorite by far is the new sunscreen from Young Living. It is SPF 10 which is strong enough to prevent sunburn while still allowing your skin to produce vitamin D. It smells good, doesn’t leave any white residue, is reasonably priced-and costs even less when you have a wholesale membership. Mike and I are Young Living members and business owners and we are happy to help you get started with this amazing company-whether with a retail or wholesale membership (for more information or to sign up send us an email or check out our page here).  Whatever brand you decide to go with, make sure your sunscreen is mineral-based and natural… Your body and the environment will thank you.

Sunshine is good. Embrace it-go outside, do fun stuff. Live your life with aloha.