Love Yourself

Jasmine Essential Oil

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I cannot seem to get enough of jasmine essential oil lately. I find wearing it along my wrists, behind my ears, under my nose makes for a super calm, feminine feeling sassiness all day long. 

About Jasmine

Although native to the tropics, jasmine is cultivated in gardens around the world, thanks to its beautiful blossoms and exquisite fragrance. The aroma of Jasmine essential oil has an almost universal appeal. Intensely floral, it is warm, sweet, musky, and exotic. 

Due to the delicate nature of the blossoms, Jasmine cannot be distilled like other flowers. Instead, a precious, highly concentrated absolute is made from the flowers. It takes thousands of freshly picked petals to produce a 5 mL bottle of Jasmine absolute. There are over 200 varieties of Jasmine, most of which are native to warm climates in Northern Africa and Southern Asia. doTERRA Jasmine essential oil is sourced in Egypt from Royal Jasmine flower petals (Jasminum grandiflorum). Royal Jasmine is the most sought-after fragrance in the perfume and aromatherapy industries, thanks to its superior aroma. Of course, doTERRA’s standard takes that to the next level with added health benefits. 

Is Jasmine Oil Good For Skin?

Jasmine essential oil provides several skin benefits. It promotes healthy-looking, glowing skin and reduces the appearance of blemishes, fine lines, and wrinkles. It can also be applied to the scalp to nourish and protect the skin. When used in skincare, jasmine essential oil acts as an effective antibacterial, soothing dry skin and eczema and increasing cell turnover to lighten the appearance of scars. 

Is Jasmine Effective for Mood?

There is evidence that aromatherapy can effectively reduce depressive symptoms. A study that looked at jasmine essential oil found that when compared to a placebo, jasmine oil increased behavioral arousal. 

This included significant increases in blood oxygen saturation, breathing rate, and blood pressure. The participants in the jasmine oil group also reported feeling more alert. The researchers concluded that the stimulating and activating effect of jasmine oil could be useful for relieving depression and improving mood. 

Jasmine oil used in aromatherapy massage was found to be particularly effective.

Another study published in the Journal of Health Research examined the effects of jasmine oil inhalation on the central nervous system and mood. When inhaled, jasmine oil affected brain activity and mood states and the participants reported feeling more positive, energetic, and romantic. 

You can reap the mental benefits of jasmine oil aromatherapy by using it in massage oil or in a diffuser, or by inhaling it directly from the bottle.

Is Jasmine an Aphrodisiac?

Jasmine’s romantic scent has long been believed to have an aphrodisiac effect. It’s been worn as a fragrance, and in parts of India, jasmine flowers are often included as décor at weddings in the newlyweds’ bedroom to set the mood for romance.

There is little scientific evidence to back its effects as an aphrodisiac. We do know that inhaling jasmine or using it in aromatherapy massage improves mood and has been reported to increase romantic and positive feelings, as well as energy levels. 

These things could, in theory, prime someone for romance and sex. Also, its stimulant effect on brain waves may make a person more alert to sexual cues, possibly increasing blood flow to the penis, according to a small study that looked at the association between odors and sexual response.

If you’re hoping to spice things up in the bedroom with jasmine oil, try dabbing some of the oil on your neck. Your body heat will enhance the scent. You can also add a few drops on bedding, to a warm bath, or to a diffuser in the bedroom.

Where Do You Apply Jasmine Oil?

Jasmine essential oil can be applied to pulse points for a calming aroma that uplifts mood and promotes a positive outlook. It evokes feelings of joy, peace, and self-confidence. In addition, Jasmine essential oil provides a myriad of benefits to the mind and body.When worn as a personal fragrance on the wrists and neck, Jasmine essential oil helps balance mood throughout the month and is highly sought-after for its ability to stir feelings of euphoria and romance. I love to apply Jasmine across my lower belly from hip to hip and behind my ears.

Are you ready to get Jasmine in your collection? You can grab one here. Check out this amazing ebook, too. It is packed with information to get you inspired to use essential oils for many uses in your home. 

Empower Yourself

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People will drop over $100 per month on lattes and hundreds more on drinking and eating out, yet not want to spend $80 on a gym membership, or hundreds on therapy or a coaching program.

And then they wonder why they don’t feel good or aren’t reaching their goals.

People spend hours scrolling on their phones or watching Netflix and but don’t have enough time to read, meditate or go for a walk.

Your actions show where your priorities are, not your thoughts and ideas.

If you’re having a difficult time making changes to your health, happiness, relationships, business, whatever, take a look at what you’re investing in. Not just with your money, but your energy, time and/or attention.

The more you give to yourself, the more you’ll get back. You deserve to have everything you desire and nobody else is gonna give it to you but YOU.

If you’re worried about the price of getting started, you should see the cost of staying exactly where you are.

We are in the last few months of 2021 and I am offering this package that is worth well over $500 for a deep discount of just $325.

Time is limited to grab this deal.

This bundle also makes an amazing gift. The awesome thing about this program is some of the content is yours to keep and return to over and over.

•Assessment and Personalized Wellness plan ($125.00)
•Two private yoga sessions ($80.00)
•Two follow up Wellness Sessions ($80.00)
•Seven days of Wellness Program to motivate and inspire you ($125.00)
•One-hour body work/energy session. ($50.00)
•Crystal and Essential Oil Blend based on you primary wellness goal ($22)
•Bonus Self-Care Package ($140)
•Essential Oil consultation (free)

You are SO worth it.

Just send me a message and we can roll up our sleeves and get busy! I cannot wait to work with YOU!

Maybe

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Just because someone carries it well doesn’t mean it isn’t heavy. I think that it is pretty likely that each day we hold things in our heart, and sometimes these things become incredibly heavy. But also choosing to carry grace sure lightens that load.

It was on this day that my kids lost their dad forever. It was years before that though they also lost him. I realize that he did the best he knew how to do. It wasn’t ideal by any means, but he did what he knew. And that is okay.

I choose grace.

I choose to hold my head up high. Looking at my grown kids I know that the load I have carried for years was worth every single ounce. My kids are remarkable people and that makes the load all worthwhile.

Someone recently asked me how I got to the point in my process of being able to choose to forgive. And to let go. Well let me first say it wasn’t always easy and there are still times when those feelings of anger or disappoint bubble up, but I try really hard to not allow those heavy feelings to take over. I did a couple years of therapy and I dove into working on myself which invited me to not spend my waking hours fuming about what I didn’t get and instead look at what may have been my part in it all and to be able to learn about perspective.

Divorce takes a little bit of your heart regardless of how amicable it is.

Co-parenting may seem like a great idea, but the truth is finding common ground that works for the kids is even harder when you have two households working. It wasn’t many months after my divorce and my three little kids and I were no longer receiving child support. He didn’t think he needed to and so he chose not to. He also chose to have his visits with the kids shorter and few and far between. The raising of the kids landed solely on my shoulders. It wasn’t just the daily grind, but the big picture things that one parent should never be completely responsible for if the other parent is capable. Or so I used to think.

Maybe he wasn’t capable. Maybe he had no idea how to think beyond himself. Maybe his own heart was shattered and he couldn’t access the part of himself to step up. Who knows.

Within a few years he began to slip into a slow, horrific self-inflicted slow death. He chose to neglect himself. He chose horrible things to do to his body. He chose to give up. Or so I used to think.

Maybe he didn’t know how. Maybe he had something inside him preventing him to get and allow help. Maybe he just couldn’t.

I think about my own father in much the same way. Something in him was missing and he wasn’t able to to plug into being a part of my life. Maybe it was his own addiction or his own beliefs that he had. Maybe he never had a father step up in his own childhood. Maybe he didn’t know how.

When someone asks me how I arrived in a place of peace about my kid’s dad (or my own dad), my simplest answer is that I got tired of allowing all of that pain to take up residence in my heart and preventing me from allowing something much better into my heart, like love. I realized that they both probably never had a father that stuck around. I was able to step back and see that my former husband was a young man with a tremendous amount of responsibility and perhaps he simply could not do it. He was giving all he had to his little family that eventually crumbled in front of him, and maybe it broke him.

I chose to see my father as a lost little boy who had no real father to speak of and an abusive mom. No wonder he was disconnected.

I replaced the feelings of anger and disappointment with compassion and love. Then it was really simple to carry on with a little lighter load in my heart. Being able to do that certainly doesn’t lighten the heaviness of raising three people alone and the huge responsibility that I had, but somehow having a heart full of compassion rather than pain, I was able to move forward and feel good about myself and my kids.

Maybe I will be an example for them.

My Lantern

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Although I feel like I have spent the last ten years or so doing tons of self-work and unpeeling of the layers and layers of ‘stuff’ that has accumulated in my life, I still love that I am willing to do deep soul work.

A few years ago was a definite year of courage and the willingness to listen to my inner voice.  As the dust began to settle from the major changes in my life, I took a month or so off from the heaviness that can come when you are in the labyrinth of self-improvement.  Establishing myself into my new home space and adjusting (again) was my focus. It felt so good to pause from the rigorous self development and instead just enjoy myself.

A course on courage.

Not soon after, I began an online course on Courage.  Brene Brown has been one of my favorite authors and speakers in the last few years and when the course was offered, I said a gigantic YES.  To be guided through courage, vulnerability and shame with a leading researcher and expert was an opportunity I was not going to pass on.

Knowing that I had spent the previous year in the ‘arena’, I was curious as to what I would find I would need to explore in the bravery realm, but willing I was to examine it.  Lesson one offered over one hundred values to identify just one that guides your way in life; everything from accountability to balance to faith to humility to love to optimism to spirituality to well-being.  Where do you hold your highest regard and when this value is not in place you know you are off your path? In my ego mind I wanted my chosen value to be something easy like compassion or kindness.  My soul said go deeper than that and asked what is it that I know for sure, when this is threatened, I am off my center?

Safety.

Safety?? Yea, like in the form of being judged, not being seen or understood for who I am, financial risks, being unorganized and chaotic, feeling unsure of decisions, having people in my life who are disrespectful or threatening, allowing fear to creep in, etc.

Safety.

I wear the armor to protect my safety.

So going into the ‘arena’ again, I had to be open to the rawness and vulnerability of the emotional exposure around this value of safety and to be willing to set the armor down.

The Lantern

Using the metaphor of a lantern, she explains that the flame that burns is the identified value. The glass that surrounds the flame illustrates the behaviors you display and people that you have in your life that protect that value.  The handle of the lantern symbolizes when you have set your value down and walked away allowing your ship to get off course.

My flame is safety. My glass (behaviors and people) that keep my flame protected include  boundaries, choices, self-respect, meditating, journaling, keeping a budget, being organized, people who support and honor me, a knowing and exploring of self.  When I have set this value down I am allowing fear to enter, I take risks, I allow people to speak or treat me in ways that hurt, I am not grounded and I worry irrationally.

Knowing that this value is held in such high regard to me, I can see why some life decisions I have made, and the experiences I have been offered, have caused me to feel such anguish. In addition to better understanding what it is that stokes my flame, I am way more armed with tolerance as to what makes me tick and then respond when the value is threatened.

Safety.

Indeed my highest value for my life is safety.  I know when it is threatened or I am off course because of the internal responses that I have that then lead to behaviors that diminish the flame.  It is so clear to me now.  While compassion or kindness may have been easier, I am so grateful for this new knowledge about myself and can move forward in my life with a strong flame and people and behaviors that will protect that part of me.

Healing Touch

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Most of you know me as a yoga teacher, but I am also a Healing Touch Practitioner. Awesome, eh? Have you ever had a healing touch session? 

In Healing Touch therapy, practitioners use their hands to help restore balance and harmony through working with the human energy field or life force. This is done in a comfortable setting, fully clothed and is a great way to treat unsettled feelings in the mind and body.

Through heart-centered intention and skill, practitioners use their hands to re-establish the natural flow of energy. Healing Touch practitioners do not force or push energy but allow balance and harmony to “reboot” the energy system.

The benefits are amazing:

•Non-Invasive

Healing Touch is done without the use of invasive procedures and offers a gentle, holistic way of healing.

•Effective

Research has shown that Healing Touch facilitates the relaxation response and enhances the healing process.

•Non-Toxic

Healing Touch restores balance and harmony to our natural biofield without the use of pharmaceuticals.

If you are feeling stuck or have feelings that just seem off, or are experiencing pain, I would love to see you! It can be done in person or virtually! Schedule yours today!

YOU Are Worth It

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Worthiness is such a tricky beast. It seems this most everyone has at one point struggling with feeling worthy.

Have you?

  • Have you ever felt so uncomfortable in your skin you avoided really ever looking at yourself in the mirror?
  • Have you ever been so insecure that the thought of being visible scared you?
  • Have you ever said things to yourself that you would never say about another person?
  • Have you ever longed to find out why some people just seem to radiate happiness?
  • Have you ever been so miserable with your health that it felt like you’d never be any different?
  • Have you ever had so much bottled up emotion that numbing it was your only option?
  • Have you ever wondered what you are on this Earth to do?
  • Have you ever listened the quiet inner voice of yourself BEGGING to be let out?

Me too, friend. Me too.

What if I told you that I used to be an angry, bitter, lonely, extremely heavy (in mind, body AND spirit) person that could not be alone with herself for five minutes without some serious negative self-talk? What if I told you I lost over 100 pounds by changing my mindset about myself? What if I told you that I thought the only reason I was born was to struggle and raise my kids? What if I told you that I have been exactly where you are?

What if I told you I learned how to value ME?

Now, what if I told you I could give you some systematic choices and alternatives that are life sustaining and could possibly change all of your answers to the above questions? What if I was in your corner WITH you as you bravely began to navigate across new territory? What if I held the map for you as you take the first few steps? What if I was in your corner to cheer you on and encourage you to live your best self?

Are you ready?

People will drop over $100 per month on lattes and hundreds more on drinking and eating out, yet not want to spend $80 on a gym membership, or hundreds on therapy or a coaching program.

And then they wonder why they don’t feel good or aren’t reaching their goals.

People spend hours scrolling on their phones or watching Netflix and but don’t have enough time to read, meditate or go for a walk.

Your actions show where your priorities are, not your thoughts and ideas.

If you’re having a difficult time making changes to your health, happiness, relationships, business, whatever, take a look at what you’re investing in. Not just with your money, but your energy, time and/or attention.

The more you give to yourself, the more you’ll get back. You deserve to have everything you desire and nobody else is gonna give it to you but YOU.

If you’re worried about the price of getting started, you should see the cost of staying exactly where you are.

We are in the last few months of 2021 and I am offering this package that is worth well over $500 for a deep discount of just $325. Time is limited to grab this deal. This bundle also makes an amazing gift.

The awesome thing about this program is some of the content is yours to keep and return to over and over.

  • Two private yoga sessions ($80.00)
  • Assessment and Personalized Wellness plan ($125.00)
  • Two follow up Wellness Sessions  ($80.00)
  • Seven days of Wellness Program to motivate and inspire you ($125.00)
  • One-hour body work/energy session. ($50.00)
  • Crystal and Essential Oil Blend based on you primary wellness goal ($22)
  • Bonus Self-Care Package ($140)
  • Essential Oil consultation (free)

You are SO worth it.

Just send me a message and we can roll up our sleeves and get busy! I cannot wait to work with YOU!

Frequencies of Emotions

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Yogi’s have known for thousands of years that there is something magical and mystical inside of each of us that is influenced by our thoughts, surroundings, foods, and even our emotions. Scientists are catching on and people are realizing that our emotional well-being, and our energy can be not just measured, but it can also be influenced with a few adjustments to our everyday habits and attitudes.

I learned about this frequency of emotions mindset many years ago, but I didn’t have the language to make sense of it or share it. With some researching and learning, I now feel confident that I understand it and I have definitely seen how the subtle changes that I have made over the last eighteen years in my mind, body and spirit has set into motion the abundant and happy life I now live. We all have met someone who seems to have really “good vibes” and I know that we have all had people in our life that seem to bring us down. That is their energy and how our own energy interacts and received it.

Prior to my great wake-up, I was living in constantly very low vibrating emotions; fear, anger, disappointment, blame, and shame. The outward manifestation of this chronic mindset was that I was physically heavy, I was depressed, I had trouble sleeping, I had little motivation, and even less joy in my life. I had yet to discover a purpose and a passion, and I was living my life on autopilot barely even recognizing that I was alive.

Since my transformation in my mid-thirties, I live in a nearly constant state of happiness and abundance. Experiences that I have wanted to happen, seem to happen. I find the right people at the perfect time. I am inviting into my life amazing opportunities on a seemingly weekly, if not daily, basis. There seems to be little to my life that I wish was different, except perhaps having less physical pain. However, despite having a chronic pain disease I am able to compartmentalize that experience into a place of better understanding and usefulness for my life.

Not that my life is unique because we all have situations in our life that are less than ideal, but it is what we do with it that changes the game. Here is what I have in my world that could send me down the spiral of blame and shame, if I chose to allow it–raising a disabled daughter day in and day out, multiple chronic pain diseases (including lupus) that cause pain and fatigue, the grueling self-employment lifestyle of being 100% dependent on myself to make money and survive, having raised three children alone and with who still lives with me (which means I have technically been a 24/7 caregiver for 31 years with no break), I have never received a financial windfall, my father chose to completely opt out of my life, my children’s father died from self-neglect at a super young age leaving them without any chance of a turn around, I have had multiple orthopedic surgeries in the last 5 years that have taken a toll on my body, and my joints continue to deteriorate despite my greatest effort to be healthy. Pretty heavy, right?

With all that heavy emotion how do we manage our emotional frequencies (vibes) and how can we work to raise our vibration?

Let’s imagine for a moment the image of a ladder. The middle rung of the ladder represents contentment. Contentment is often thought of as a Zen like experience where all is well. It is something that most of strive for at certain times in our life and when we arrive there, we sigh heavily feel as though we have arrived. Hold on. One step under contentment is complacency. Yea, complacency. That emotion where we feel like, ehhh I don’t need to put that much effort into this, or try that hard. Complacency is that who gives a shit mindset where half effort becomes routine. One more step down the ladder we are living in boredom. Then creeps in loneliness. Then sadness. Then blame. Then shame. Then defensiveness. Then anger. Then fear.

Feel that heaviness?

Go back up the ladder to contentment. Imagine again what that feels like. Now, one step UP from contentment is hope. One of my favorite definitions of hope is to expect with confidence. To me hope is walking towards something positive and good with a knowing that it will become. Feels amazing, yes? Well above hope is curiosity. Above that is joy. Above that is happiness. Above that is bliss. Keep going and you will reach the complete wholeness of feeling grateful. A grateful being is a person who lives in a constant (or near constant) state of high vibes. When we live in that plane, we attract all great things into our life–people, experiences, opportunities, purpose, and love.

Here is where it gets even better.

Simply by shifting our attention up, lifting our chin, looking up, elevating our heart we immediately move up from contentment to hope. I mean literally look up. So much of our life is hunched over, head down either worrying or working. Carrying SO much emotion that can feel heavy it makes our physical body shift downward. Constant downward looking, we begin to sink into the spiral of low and often heavy vibration frequencies.

The frequency of abundance measures the same as the frequency of a wild orange. The higher up on the tree, the higher we feel. This is why certain essential oils have the ability to shift our emotional state simply by smelling them. You can learn more about the brain and aroma here.

A simple and powerful tool to keep yourself on the upside of the ladder is to literally look up and notice the tree tops, the clouds, the sky, how your heart lifts with the simple tilt of your chin, take mindful and complete breaths and fill your heart with gratitude. Smelling pure wild orange essential oil is just an added aspect to this magic that can powerfully shift your mood.

Are you ready to work on your emotional frequencies and start attracting experiences and people into your life that resonate with you and your highest vision?

I currently have some personal mentoring session times available if you’d like to learn more about how to shift your emotional frequencies, including the use of crystals and gemstones. Reach out to me, I would love to hear from you! Also, enjoy this upward spiral and downward spiral image to see and feel how good it is to live above contentment.

Self-Care Series

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Self care is often the lowest priority for parents. School is back in session for most and that means many parents will have a little more time to think about themselves. As a parent it is hard to put ourselves first but now is a great time to do that.

For many, many, MANY years I neglected my own well being thinking that I was being a great mom by giving every ounce to my kids. Wrong.

Before long I was overweight, angry and exhausted.

It was time to learn self care

Long ago, when someone mentioned to me the idea of practicing self-care, I had no idea what that could be and I had an immediate reaction that is was selfish. Boy, have I ever come a long way.

Not sure what self-care looks like for you?

For each of us it can mean so many things. There is no one-size fits all when it comes to self care.

The good news is, if you are not sure what self-care can be, I can help!

A self-paced virtual self care series

I have an amazing virtual self-care package that includes a variety of tools to help YOU take care of YOU. And the best part? It is self paced and can be done on YOUR time, in YOUR space, but with my loving support.

Check this out! I’d love to walk alongside with you on finding YOU again.

Gratitude Blend

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Gratitude is the #1 way to shift out of low frequency emotions like fear, grief, shame and lack… and into high frequency emotions like joy, peace, trust and love.

What if you started saying 5 DIFFERENT things you’re grateful for every single day.

Try it! it has changed my life!

Gratitude is the best way to shift your mood! I hope you enjoy this diffuser blend today and I invite each of you to pause for a moment, and think of something that YOU are grateful for today.

This blend includes pure essential oils and amber chips perfectly crafted. Grab one!

Determination

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Losing a battle or losing everything we possessed will bring us moments of sadness. But when those moments pass, we will discover the hidden strength that exists in each of us, a strength that will surprise us and increase our self-respect. —Paulo Coelho

Determination is defined as the ability to continue trying to do something.

Do you have what it takes to push through even the hardest and most unlikely circumstances to succeed? Do you have the will to make things happen despite being faced with struggle? Do you give up because it is challenging?

What if the things that you think limit you could instead inspire you?

It took allowing myself to feel like I lost it all to find my inner determination and strength. And just like this little sunflower, I found my way through the tiniest cracks of hope.

Truth

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Many of you know I have a daughter with a disability. To be specific it is a rare chromosome anomaly with feature of autism and cognitive delay. She is a delight in many ways, but the truth is, many of the “typical” interactions of having a daughter were lost. Out life consisted of therapists, learning to talk and cope and much more.

Having a granddaughter has brought such a joy to my heart through the simple things like painting nails.

While my girl means so much to me, the truth is there is a loss. The honesty in saying that is real. And in that honesty, there is redemption. Her same is Sawyer.

And she loves purple and she loves sparkles.

Awaken Essential Oil Blend

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Ten years ago this month I formally created my business Embracing Sprit Yoga & Wellness.  Over those years I have learned so much about being a business woman and staying in my authentic self, which is not all that easy in the competitive world we live in.

I love the symbolism of spring in helping us remember to push through the hard stuff and awaken to the beautiful, blissful, flourishing, life we desire.

This blend was carefully designed to bring out your inner awakening and encourage you to bloom in all of your endeavors.

  • Enlightening Blend—helps enlightening, feeling emotionally lifted
  • Cedarwood—Protects against negative energy
  • Clary sage—helps with intuition and clarity 
  • Coriander—fosters inner guidance
  • Frankincense—Promotes feelings of being mentally balanced, grounded, and receptive to new experiences and thoughts
  • Litsea—brings out feelings of being inspired and aligned
  • Star anise—empowered, expansive
  • Ylang ylang—Promotes the release of negative sentiments, such as stress, sadness, anger, frustration, and nervous tension
  • Fluorite Gemstone— absorbs and neutralizes  negative energy and stress. Also increases concentration, self-confidence and helps us in decision-making. It encourages positivity, balances energy.
  • Jasmine flower—brings out purity and luck

You can purchase one of these beauties here.