Do you ever feel like your energy is stuck? You get enough sleep, you eat well, you're happy but yet..., you feel off? Your physical body may be find but your energy (and spirit) could need some care. Cleansing your chakras is a good way to help fix your energy. I like to do this onechakra at a time using the 7 chakra system. This can help you let go of old hurts,  physical pain, focus, cleanse and create a sense of positivity. 

Recently, I've had a ton of changes (job change,  move, back to school and more). So I figure it is a good time to focus on my chakras and ensure my energy is flowing to get me back on track. Each week or as my body directs me I will be focusing on one chakra at a time to cleanse and align my body and mind.  So we start.... at the bottom with the root chakra.

The Root Chakra (Muladhara) is the first chakra. It is located at the based of the spine. The root chakra is our survival center and the most instinctive of the 7 chakras. I've heard this referred to as the flight or fight chakra.  This chakra creates a feeling of safety and security when balanced. It is like creating a foundation for the body. You start here at the root chakra and build up.

When unbalanced in the root chakra, one may cling to old beliefs of toxic behaviors. Feelings of fear, insecurity, guilt and not belonging all stem from the lack of balance in the root chakra. When balanced, the root chakra helps with feelings of safety, security, set-assureness and strength. 

Crystals & Color 

The root chakra is symbolized as the color red. While many believe crystals have to match the color of the chakra, this isn't always the case. It is more about the energy associated with the crystal. The healing frequency of the crystal will resonate with the vibrational frequency of your chakra and can help activate and balance your chakra.

 Crystals that are a good match for the root chakra are: 

• ​Red Jasper - Nurturing & stabilizing just like the root chakra. Native Americans believed it to symbolize the blood of the earth. It sustains in time of stress and is good to help stimulate change. According to Exodus 28, it is one of the stones in the High Priest's breastplate to symbolize the 12 tribes. 
• Garnet - Mostly red but also comes in other colors. This stone helps change behaviors and is good for grounding and survival.
• Black Tourmaline - Provides protection while energizing. It is good for grounding,  letting go of fears and neuroses. 

There are many other stones great for the root chakra. This list is just a few. 

To use the crystals for healing you can wear them in everyday life. Use them during meditation whether you're simply holding the stones, placing them on or near the chakra or arranging them in a formation to cleanse.  Personally, I hold the crystal meditation and/or place is on my skin as a lie down. 

Sound 

Words are power. You're heard that before, I'm sure. But, it's not just words that contain power but also sounds and vibrational frequencies. Each chakra has a specific mantra to chant. The root chakra's mantra is: LAM. You can chant "Lam' silently or aloud to help cleanse the root chakra. 

It is also helpful to use affirmations to help focus yourself on your intention. 

• "I am safe"
• "I am protected"
• "I am secure"

Start or end your meditation or day with one (or more) of these affirmations. Write it on a post it note and stick it to your door in the car.  

Yoga 

Yoga can also help you to align your chakras as well. Here are a few poses to help! 

• Mountain Pose (always good to start with to calm  the mind)
• Tree Pose 
• Head to Knee Forward Bend 
• Standing Forward Bend (Yes, like high school. gym class)
• Reclining Bound Angle Pose

A video of the various yoga poses to. align the root chakra can be found here. Stay in each pose for 30 seconds to one minute. Breathe. Relax. 

Smell

Scents, besides just smelling good, help to activate the mind and body. Essential oils are a great way to help align and cleanse the chakras. Plant therapy has a chakra set specifically for this purpose. It runs about $50 but they website usually has a promo code for new customers!  Young Living recommends itsHarmony blend for the root chakra. 

But if you want to take it one oil at a time or mix your own set, here are essential oils that are good for the root chakra: 

• Vetiver- good for anxiety. This is a grounding oil that has a very rich earthy smell.Vetiver is good for trauma or shock. It is calming and helps to complete the circle from root to crown (frankincense and myrrh also have this quality) 
• Sandalwood- great  for grounding and positivity. 
• Ylang Ylang - helps with fear and cools down excessive root energy. Ylang Ylang is relaxing but also help stimulate feelings of desire in the bedroom.
• Cinnamon
• Cedarwood 

These oils (and many more) can help align your root chakra. You can diffuse one or more while meditating, mix them with a base oil and massage your body or create a personal inhaler to use. 

The Journey 

So how do you add all this up? One section may be for you and others may not.  This is not something that is super easy and you may feel like you're not achieving success but stay persistent and learn more. Life is a marathon right? There are also Ayurvedic, holistic and other types of shoppes that will help you in your chakra cleansing. Take time to visualize a swirling ball of red at the base of your spine.​ Happy balancing. 

* There will be a video coming soon with me explaining and showing all of these steps! 

It's back to school season and that means.... LUNCH! Every mom's favorite time of the year. (I'm lying. I hate making my kid's lunches but that is another story). We're all about the healthy snacks... but not about the plastic waste.. (yay environment!!) So what do you do, besides let the kids starve?
Here are a few mom approved alternatives to plastic ziploc baggies!  

Lunchskin Paper Bags 

• Loseable! Well you throw them away so that means the kids don't have to keep up with them! (That doesn't happen in my house, my kids lose everything)
• Recyclable 
• You can seal the bag! I've had wax bags before and had no clue how to close them (roll it or use a rubber band?)
• Made from wood pulp 

Beeswax Wraps & Bags 

• ​Clings to food like plastic wrap yet, no plastic!
• Washable  
• Reusable & Biodegradable

There are also many off-brand reusable baggies available on amazon and other retailers that are a bit cheaper so it might not hurt as much if they don't make it home one day. 

Eczema sucks. There I said it. It sucks. My husband's daughter is plagued by eczema. Yes, I know its all about what you eat and you can help correct eczema through an all clean diet. But what about when a flare up happens? How do you manage the skin?

When our 6-year-old's eczema was really bad when she'd come to our house it was my mission to fix it! That meant some extreme measures. So here are things I did that actually worked! 

Bathing: Only used castille soap for bath time and not too long in the tub. My fav castille soap is Dr Bronner's. We'd use the unscented kind for her skin. 

Then came the real work. Buttpaste. Yes, I'd lather her whole body in buttpaste.  It sounds crazy but it works. On top of the buttpaste to seal it all in, I'd add Aquaphor then put her pjs on. ( I wouldn't recommend Aquaphor now in my current crunchy level of living) 

Then repeat. When she woke up, we'd do it all over again (just a bit lighter on the application if we were leaving the house). Her eczema was healed in less than a week. Her skin was amazing again. I do admit we'd reapply during the day as needed or whenever I'd notice scratching. 

What I learned from this is the zinc was the true cure for the skin.  Since that original time I've found Wedela Skin Food. This product is amazing also! It contains Zinc Sulfate and tons of other awesome ingredients for the skin that truly help. Yes it is crazy expensive but it works!

​Another product our family loves for eczema is Thena Healing Cream.   This is a very natural lotion to help keep the eczema at bay and is very light. 

I've got a new favorite essential oil! (I say that with each one I buy) But ya'll turmeric is awesome! It's helps with skin, hair and overall health. I originally got it for my young mildly achy bones. My knees and shoulders tend to hurt (yay high school sports) and I read that turmeric oil, beyond just being amazing in curried chicken, could possible help my joints. AND IT DID. Yes, I start off smelling like I'm seasoning chicken to cook for later but that's okay because I don't hurt. (priorities right?)

SO I began looking into turmeric to see what else it could do. Did I want to diffuse it? Was it kid friendly? Or was it just for my bones? The answer my friend, is for so much more: hair, skin, digestive, depression, and so much more. The warm, spicy, earthy, orange oil is very useful.

Chemical Makeup of Turmeric 

So we know that essential oils don't just smell good, they have good chemicals in them that do awesome stuff. It's that chemical make up that allows the essential oil to do certain biological properties that they contain.
Turmeric has a lot of chemical components (over 300) including: turmerone, curcumin, alpha-turmerone, beta-turmerone, ar-tumerone, zingiberene and 6-gingerol.  Its major compounds are sesquiterpenes meaning they are able to pass through the blood brain barrier delivering nutrients and oxygen to the brain.  So let's begin there.

Turmeric,  the Brain & Cells

Turmeric is able to work on a cellular level and its molecules are small enough to pass through the blood brain barrier bringing nutrients and oxygen to the brain. Turmeric is able to help with cognitive functions and even may help with many issues that affect the brain. But why? Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) declining is a key issue when it comes to many disabling brain diseases like Alzheimer's.  Turmeric can help BDNF to increase.

In it's conclusion, a 2010, study stated that curcumin (a component of turmeric) shows a strong chance of being able to prevent or event treat age-related brain diseases like stroke,  Alzheimer's,  and Parkinson's.

Ar-turmerone (an aromatic part of turmeric) hinders microglia which is a type of brain nd spinal cell that proves the presence of disease. 

​There have also been many studies that show turmeric may help against cancer this is because of the curcumin and one study suggests its pairing with turmerone.  Thisstudy points out curcumin can selectively kill cancer cells and not normal cells. While many of the studies were looking for items to help create drugs to fight cancer, why not use the components where they are naturally found? In Turmeric. 

Other health benefits on the cellular level: 

• It helps the body recover from chronic stress
• Combats depression and promotes a positive outlook
• It causes the body to release bilirubin which is an antioxidant that comes rom the breakdown of red blood cells and is excreted by the liver. 
• Promotes hormonal balance and liver health 
• Supports healthy glucose and lipid metabolism
• Enhances cellular antioxidant enzymes 
• Stimulates glands

Turmeric, Skin & Hair 

Pimples, where? Not with turmeric. You can use it as a spot treatment or an all over face moisturizing mask. Turmeric also can help lighten scars and heal wounds, bruises and other skin issues. Of course to apply the essential oil topically you'll want to dilute in a carrier oil depending on the strength desired (usually 2%).

Here are a few recipes, mix with: 
​
SKIN 

• tamanu oil as a natural acne cure 
• argan oil (a healing moisturizer) to reduce blemishes 
• jojoba oil to help with sunburn
• almond for anti-aging benefits as it also prevents damage from free radicals  
• emu oil (good for healing) for wounds 
• castor oil (detoxing) for feet and heels 
• can help heal herpes as it speeds the blister healing and improved overal immunes system to reduce outbreaks 

HAIR 

• neem oil for dandruff and lice 
• olive oil for hair growth (helps keep the scalp healthy) 

Turmeric & The Body 

Turmeric, when ingested, helps with bloating, excessive gas, and cramping. The zingiberene and 6-ginerol help stimulate the digestive system and increase gastric juices.  It also acts as an anti worm and parasitic compound. 

When applied topically turmeric can help with arthritis and other muscle or joint pain. It inhibits actions of inflammatory compounds and prevents swelling.
Other health benefits for the body:

• After working out, turmeric can help with recovery.
• Good for detoxing 
• Adding turmeric to toothpaste can help with periodontist disease. 

Remember, I am not a doctor. I am only sharing information I have researched and use for my own and my family's health. If you have any health concerns and want to use turmeric to help talk to your natural practitioner or family doctor. 

Creativity, motivation, releasing anxiety and more… all areas where many claim incense can benefit (depending on what you’re burning). But there are also many ways you can burn in incense. 

Cone, stick or resin? What type of incense do you use? Believe it or not, all incense is not created equal. Like anything, there’s a crunchy version and a synthetic version. While there are a few studies about the dangers of incense the main points I have about the incense is “What are you burning?” and “How’s the ventilation in the room?”

In order to not release dangerous VOCs (volatile organic compounds) in the air which can cause harm to your body. You don’t want these VOCs in your home! But there are ways to help purify the home… but I digress. 

DIRECT BURNING

Direct burning is usually done in the form of incense sticks or cones in which you directly apply heat and burn causing the aroma. When it comes to cones in the cone actually burns the incense with less smoke as there is no wood to burn. You also have to make sure the incense is scented in natural incense and not synthetic which can also be harmful to your health. The wood inside the incense also needs to be “clean” wood as it burns as well. 

INDIRECT BURNING 

Resin incense is the most common for of indirect burning. You put the resin on charcoal and burn the charcoal, in turn burning the resin.  The traditional way would consist of taking coals from a fire putting it on a stone (or non-flammable surface), then placing the resins or loose incense herbs over the charcoal to release the smell. The important aspect here is to only buy the herbs or resin from place you trust. You have to ensure the product is pure. (Omg I sound like I’m talking about drugs “Make sure the product is pure”, but seriously that’s important).  I get mine from my local health food store that I trust. 

You also have to make sure the charcoal you’re using is pure also. I use this one made from coconut husks.

There’s also bamboo charcoal that is a better alternative than regular charcoal which often has additives to burn faster and longer, these can release VOCs into your home… (BOOOO!)

WHAT’S SO BAD?

Well, I don’t know exactly what could be in your incense but neither do you. The exact type of pollutants released into the air (and your home) depends on the chemicals present in the incense being burned. That’s why I’m a crazy person when it comes to gettin only pure and natural incense and charcoal. Whether you choose stick, resin or a cone incense, choose something clean and pure to the best of your ability and stay away from synthetic incense. 

FINDING THE GOOD STUFF

Incense De Santa Fe 

It’s a cone type incense in the shape of a rectangle. This company offers 7 different types of natural wood incense made in the US. There is also a sample back where one could try all the offering for a good price. 

Blackbird 

Its a modern twist on incense cones. Their most popular mix is called Blood Countess, a dragon’s blood resin and frankincense Combination to lift the mood and add some edge.

Nippon Kodo

It’s a Japanese specialty brand that isn’t too pricey but has been around a very long time! These are natural and trusted brand.

Maroma 

This is the brand my local health food store and local Whole Food’s offer. It is a natural brand with ingredients I can understand (Yay me!).  These also offer the tradition scents like frankincense and myrrh that aren’t blended so you decide for yourself on the scents you like. 

Also check out your local health food store to see what they offer for incense, just make sure you read the packaging to ensure there’s no artificial or synthetic fragrances.