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Ylang Ylang Essential Oil

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Known for providing antioxidant support, Ylang Ylang can be a great add to a refreshing drink or smoothie. For a quick pick-me-up apply a few drops of Ylang Ylang to the back of your neck. When applied topically, this essential oil is great for uplifting your mood or for an elevating boost.

But seriously one of my favorite ways to use this oil is in my DIY hair perfume. You can prevent the harmful sun rays from damaging your hair with doTERRA Ylang Ylang. Due to the organic components it contains, Ylang Ylang provides protection from the summer heat while increasing the appearance of healthy, shiny hair.

Hair perfume is a great way to leave those you pass by with the sweet and enticing aroma of essential oils. Lightly spray it on your hair to keep it smelling sweet and fresh. Feel free to switch up the essential oils used in this recipe to create your perfect aroma.

 
Ingredients
1 cup rose water
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
4 drops Rosemary oil
3 drops Lavender oil
4 drops Grapefruit oil*
Note: You can purchase rose water at most health food stores in the soap and hygiene aisle.
Instructions
  1. In fine-mist glass spray bottle, add rose water, vanilla extract, and essential oils. Add more or less essential oils depending on your preference.
  2. Shake and spray on hair as desired.

*Please note that citrus essential oils are photosensitive and can lighten your hair if exposed to UV rays.

To enjoy all the benefits of doTERRA Ylang Ylang visit the product spotlight page here. Enjoy this free ebook to learn more about the basics of essential oils and place an order.

If you love my content and want more tools for mindfulness & movement, check out my digital products on Buy Me a Coffee! Your support helps me continue creating. 

Looking for the tools and products I swear by? Visit my Amazon storefront for a handpicked collection of my favorite finds—from kitchen gadgets to wellness essentials. Click here to explore and shop my must-haves.

If you would love to be part of my essential oil community and are ready to start using pure essential oils, shop here or email me for a free 1:1 consultation.

How to Use Mala Beads

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Whether you’re just starting a meditation practice, or you’re an advanced practitioner, Mala beads are a great tool to help focus your attention. They provide this amazing tactile sensation to come back to when your mind starts to wander.

Rolling the beads through your fingers is a physical way to direct your energy and attention back to the present moment. It’s a gentle reminder every few seconds to reground and refocus.

Here are some simple ‘how to’ steps for incorporating Mala Beads into your meditation practice:

  • If this is your first time using a Mala, start by holding it out in front of you.  The tassel represents an end point — signifying you’ve gone all the way around the Mala for a full cycle of meditation. Between the tassel and necklace loop, there is one single bead, called the guru bead.  There are 108 beads in the necklace loop.
  • Now, start with the necklace in your dominant hand, tassel facing towards you
  • Start with the bead to the right of the guru bead
  • Begin turning each bead individually in your fingers, making your way slowly to the next bead
  • When turning the beads, try not to use the index finger as that is believed to represent the ego.
  • Try using your thumb to turn the beads. You can use your thumb nail to pull the bead towards you. Or you can use your thumb to rotate the bead by turning it and moving to the next.
  • You will notice there is hand knotting between each bead, this is meant to help ease the practice of moving from bead to bead.

Do you feel have the hang of it? If you are comfortable try adding some breath work.

  • On each bead, take a deep inhale and exhale. Then move to the next bead. Deep inhale and exhale.

Once you have the breathing down, you can layer in mantra. 

  • On each bead, along with your breath, try silently repeating your mantra to yourself
  • For the sake of this, we will use an affirmation based mantra, which is an “I Am statement”
  • On each bead, inhale “I Am” and exhale a word that embodies how you want to feel in that moment. It can be abundant, strong, patient, intuitive, etc.
  • Inhale “I Am” and exhale your word on each bead
  • You can also simply use one word such as grounded, or love
  • Once you have made it around 108 beads, you will reach the guru bead
  • The guru bead signifies a moment to pause and sit in reflection. Here, you can thank and honor your guru, your mantra, and yourself for taking the time to sit in stillness.

Congrats! This signifies a full practice! 

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What did you notice in this practice? What came up for you? One thing is guaranteed —  your mind will wander. When it does, simply return to the beads.

When your mind wanders, you have the choice to judge yourself and think things like “I’m the worst meditator, I’m never going to get the hang of this.”  These statement only keep you in a place of self judgement and are not useful.

Or, you can acknowledge you’ve had some thoughts, let them go, and return your focus to your Mala beads, your breath and your mantra.

You’ll be challenged consistently in your practice with a wandering mind. It doesn’t mean your a bad meditator — it just means you’re human.

Meditation isn’t about eliminating the thoughts. Rather, it’s about creating space between them, allowing yourself the room to connect to your higher self.

Your mala is a beautiful guide on that journey to the inner self. But remember, like most things it’s a practice.  Make a decision at the beginning of each practice to not judge yourself when your mind wanders. Instead, treat yourself with patience, grace, and love — as you would anyone else.

Check out this video to learn more.

DIY Face Toner

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A few of my favorite things: DIY face toner, lotus & shanti tattoo and a couple mantra bands. I love using essential oils to take care of my skin. Since using natural ingredients and no more harsh chemicals I have seen a huge difference in the health of my skin. I have less breakouts and my skin appearance feels and looks smoother.

Here is what is in my face toner: (5 drops each)

melaleuca (to clean)

lavender (to calm)

geranium (to reduce inflammation)

frankincense (to rejuvenate)

top off with a splash of witch hazel and water. Spray on face or apply with cotton ball.

To grab the oils for this recipe in a bundle with seven more of the most common household essential oils at wholesale pricing click here. You’ll be set for covering so many everyday needs–cleaning, skin, mood, sleep, pain, anxious feelings, belly aches, breathing support and so much more. Also, grab this free guide for the basics of essential oil use.

Jasmine Essential Oil

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Believe it or not, Jasmine is actually from the Olive family and it’s fragrance is POWERFUL! This is no weak scented flower or gentle aroma…it stands up and lets you know it’s in the room! it is sweet, tenacious and floral but with fruity and herbaceous undertones. It’s intense…and LOVELY!

In fact, it’s so powerful that historically it’s been known as “Queen of the Night” and “moonlight of the grove”. Women across the centuries have used and treasured this flower for it’s beautiful and aphrodisiac-like fragrance. And it has always symbolized hope, happiness and love!

It’s primary uses are for the Hormones and for Emotional Balance.

Hormonally, it supports the body where sexual health is concerned, as well as menstruation, pregnancy, labor and delivery. Hormone imbalance also can manifest in the body through the skin, by way of eczema caused by emotional imbalance, as well as dry, greasy, irritated and sensitive skin.

Emotionally it’s reaches deeply into the deepest layers of the soul and opens doors for our emotions to find expression.

Jasmine nurtures healthy sexuality and can ignite passions that have been dormant. Because it helps to foster healthy intimacy and trust, it can help create a positive sexual or intimate relationship where there might have been unhealthy intentions and motivations before. This oil encourages us to honor and respect ourselves and others.

If there is past sexual trauma, jasmine helps us to resolve that pain, and trauma and release it’s hold on our life and heart. It encourages safety within intimate relationships and invites only the truest and purest intentions to our sexual experience.

It Pairs beautifully with two other oils that are known for their powerful sexual properties…cinnamon and neroli.

Inhale this directly from the bottle, or apply to the pulse points in the body. Also can be applied topically over the sacral chakra (lower stomach, lower back and behind the ears.

If you’d like to learn more about the basics of essential oils, check out this free guide.

If you love my content and want more tools for mindfulness & movement, check out my digital products on Buy Me a Coffee! Your support helps me continue creating. 

Looking for the tools and products I swear by? Visit my Amazon storefront for a handpicked collection of my favorite finds—from kitchen gadgets to wellness essentials. Click here to explore and shop my must-haves.

If you would love to be part of my essential oil community and are ready to start using pure essential oils, shop here or email me for a free 1:1 consultation.

Lavender Essential Oil

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It almost feels silly to write a post about Lavender. It is usually the ONE oil that most of us know inside and out and use the most often in our oil experience.

But today, I hope to share a few things about Lavender that might be review for some of you, and brand new information for others!

Lavender is lovingly referred to as the “Swiss Army Knife” of Essential Oils, simply because it has so many uses and is so versatile in ALL the body systems and functions that it’s known for.

This gorgeous oil is sweet, floral and slightly herbaceous in it’s fragrance. It also has some woody undertones that keep it from being overly sweet to the senses.

Children and adults gravitate toward this oil and because of its gentle but powerful nature and because it can be used NEAT (undiluted), it makes it a soothing oil for both the body and the emotions.

This oils is steam distilled from the lovely purple flowering tops of the lavender plant, and has been used for thousands years for its medicinal properties.

The list of individual health issues it addresses is FAR too long to list here, but includes everything from Seasonal Threats (aka allergies), anxious feelings, bug bites, bee stings, anything to do with the skin, highly energetic kids, stress, sleep issues, burns of any kind, all sorts of wounds…and very single thing in between.

The body systems it is especially adept at addressing are the Nervous System, the Cardiovascular System, the Skin or Integumentary System and everything to do with the Emotional Balance in the body, mind and spirit.

And it’s properties don’t stop there!

It is a chief enemy of bacteria, viruses, fungus, inflammation, toxicity, and all things mutagenic in the body, and works tirelessly against these and many more invaders of the body that can’t legally be mentioned here. 🙂

It can be used Topically, Aromatically AND Internally.

My very favorite way to use lavender is a drop in my hand, imagining the power packed goodness in just that one single drop. I’ll then rub my hands together and cup them over my nose and mouth, taking 5-6 BIG, Deep, Life changing inhales. This allows about 1 minute for the sensors in my nose to carry the chemical messages from the olfactory system, directly to my limbic brain where all of my emotions, stress, memories, and hormones originate.

In doing this, I can feel a tangible and immediate release of all stress, anxiousness and tension that I often carry in my body….and in it’s place, a calming. relaxing, and tranquil energy. Who can’t use more of that?!

I then, take my hands and rub over my forehead, my heart space and back of my neck as that is generally where I carry the weight of the world.

EMOTIONAL BENEFITS OF LAVENDER

I touched on some emotional benefits of Lavender above, but there’s so much more to the Emotional benefits, that it warrants having it’s own section!

Lavender is called the Oil of Communication and Calm.

That’s because often our minds are overactive and struggle to find an outlet of verbal expression. In fact, even those who talk a mile a minute often do so because their minds are going far far quicker than their voice can keep up with.

Whenever there is insecurity or apprehension about speaking our truth or even articulating in our own minds what that truth is… Lavender steps in and calms those insecurities and allows for us to have the courage to risk being seen and heard .

Oftentimes, we have been shut down, shushed, and told we are too much or our ideas and thoughts are too much or not enough, so we tend to shut down our expression of those thoughts and ideas. We tend to just go through the motions, making small talk along the way, but deep inside, we know we are holding back our truest expression of our innermost thoughts. This holding back creates a disconnect in our soul and eventually, we tend to lose ourselves and our authenticity of expression altogether.

Lavender encourages Emotional Honesty and doesn’t rest until it’s helped us to speak our innermost thoughts and desires. This expression brings freedom and liberation and it’s through this that we begin to fully experience what we need in this life through love, acceptance and peace.

So if your mind is constantly racing, or you feel fear around expressing your truest self, or even feel like maybe you are unseen, unheard, unloved in any way….Lavender will gently remind you that it’s safe to calmly breathe, express what you need, and embrace the feeling of being seen and loved just as you are.

This beautiful ebook is yours free! 

If you love my content and want more tools for mindfulness & movement, check out my digital products on Buy Me a Coffee! Your support helps me continue creating. 

Looking for the tools and products I swear by? Visit my Amazon storefront for a handpicked collection of my favorite finds—from kitchen gadgets to wellness essentials. Click here to explore and shop my must-haves.

If you would love to be part of my essential oil community and are ready to start using pure essential oils, shop here or email me for a free 1:1 consultation.

Santosha: The Path to Contentment

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Contentment is defined as a state of happiness and satisfaction.

Emotionally it is in the middle of the emotional scale and vibrates at a fairly neutral resonance. It is that space within us where all is okay. It is a feeling that offers neutrality and a sense of ease because there is not the push for more.

When I first began to understand what it meant to live yoga, I wondered if I could I ever really achieve contentment?  The Sanksrit word for contentment is santosha which means to cultivate a sense of being all right with who I am and what I have. And yet, we are humans who have been conditioned to constantly crave and strive for more. Yogi or not, I have dreams and goals so contentment, or santosha, often eludes me. Both on the mat and off the mat.

My work is to balance my dreams with the presence of knowing that all is okay.  I mean REALLY knowing that all is okay.  I can still have my dreams, but right now, in this breath, all is okay.

When we look at this on an emotional level, we see just underneath contentment on the emotional scale is complacency.  And just above it is hope.  So this middle ground of contentment could take you either way, depending on your awareness and your willingness to be, or not to be.

In my life, when faced with a challenge (on the mat or off),  I have three choices.

  1. Stay in contentment. I could recognize that my true self is pure and perfect. I can know that I am whole and good enough, right now.
  2. Slip into complacency. I could get lazy in my efforts and desires.  I could choose to weaken my desires and make excuses as to why it is not worth the effort due to my smugness and perhaps falsely known self-satisfaction.
  3. Rise into hope. I could take a breath and aim for a feeling of expectation and desire for goodness to happen.  I could take in the knowing that dreams and desires are right there waiting to arrive.

I  definitely do not spend much time in complacency. Although I am often vibrating higher in hope, optimism, positive expectation, enthusiasm, passion and ultimately deep appreciation, I am striving to also exist in the space of contentment.

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If you love my content and want more tools for mindfulness & movement, check out my digital products on Buy Me a Coffee! Your support helps me continue creating. 

Looking for the tools and products I swear by? Visit my Amazon storefront for a handpicked collection of my favorite finds—from kitchen gadgets to wellness essentials. Click here to explore and shop my must-haves.

If you would love to be part of my essential oil community and are ready to start using pure essential oils, shop here or email me for a free 1:1 consultation.

Cooling Balance: An Essential Oil Blend for Pitta Dosha

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Cooling Balance: An Essential Oil Blend for Pitta Dosha

Pitta dosha, governed by the elements of fire and water, gives us drive, focus, and a passionate zest for life. But when Pitta becomes excessive—especially in the heat of summer or during stressful times—it can lead to irritability, impatience, and an overheated body and mind.

This calming essential oil blend is designed to soothe and balance Pitta’s fiery energy. With cooling, sweet, and grounding aromas, it helps you restore inner harmony, release tension, and invite a sense of ease and flow. Perfect for moments when you need to cool the flames and reconnect with your natural state of balance.

I finally figured out why I have so much heat (inflammation) in my body. I have a really hard time this time of year and I remembered a few days ago that historically the time that is summer turning to fall is sooooo hard on me because of my Ayurvedic dosha Pitta. (Ayurveda is the sister science to yoga that looks at body constitution). I seem to burning on fire inside and outside, and interestingly bugs and insects are obsessed with me.  They must sense my inner fire and want some.

The last few weeks have been really hard with a constant inner burning.  My joints are on fire, my belly is boiling, I have a burning in my stomach no matter what I eat, my temper is a tiny bit shorter and I am overall just hot.

I have started to implement eating more cucumbers, taking cooler showers and baths, drinking cool water, spending time with blues and greens, meditating on cool water imagery and just doing what I know to do. I also created a lovely and pitta-dosha calming blend—it’s all the lovely cool florals; rose, jasmine, neroli, lavender, helichrysum, geranium and sandalwood. Plus, I added some peppermint for a topical cooling sensation. I added turquoise to amplify it’s cooling properties and bring in the cool vibes of turquoise.  I apply this to my neck, chest and spine a few times a day.

If you’d like to know more about your dosha, let’s chat. I have some great resources and can do a quick assessment. Also, be sure to check out this free ebook for reference to essential oils.

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If you love my content and want more tools for mindfulness & movement, check out my digital products on Buy Me a Coffee! Your support helps me continue creating. 

Looking for the tools and products I swear by? Visit my Amazon storefront for a handpicked collection of my favorite finds—from kitchen gadgets to wellness essentials. Click here to explore and shop my must-haves.

If you would love to be part of my essential oil community and are ready to start using pure essential oils, shop here or email me for a free 1:1 consultation.