Aromatherapy 101

Aside from smelling wonderful, some essentials are actually helpful! I keep a few of these handy:

ROSE: romance, love, joy, sensual pleasure, happiness, passion, desire, soothes emotions, lifts depression, eases anxiety and stress, insomnia

JASMINE: decreases anxiety, depression, nervous exhaustion, stress, elevates spirits, balances moods, encourages optimism, self-confidence, diminishes fear, emotionally and physically relaxing, spurs creativity, inspires artistic expression, awakens intuition, sensual stimulant, promotes feelings of beauty and allure, confidence
Warning: do not use if pregnant

LAVENDER: eases feelings of depression, fear, insomnia, irritability, melancholy, mood swings, nervousness, stress, worry, anger; helps balance emotions and provide mental well-being

ORANGE & TANGERINE: emotional balance, revitalizes, energizes, calms nerves, optimism and positivity especially in wintertime, subdues stress and depression, encourages adventurous attitude, tangerine especially helps sooth me to sleep

CINNAMON CASSIA: warming and uplifting, encourages inner-strength, courage, confidence, promotes healthy digestion and immune system, stimulates metabolism
(sometimes I add a drop of cinnamon to my lipgloss, it stings my lips a little, and plumps them :-)

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I am not a doctor and I cannot advise what will/won't work for you, but...
Here are essential oils I use organized by need/mood/emotions:

Appetite Stuff
grapefruit: boosts energy, curbs cravings, endurance
bergamot and lavender helps keep me calm and alleviate stress, positive emotions, motivation
orange, lemon: emotional support, energizing
peppermint: relaxes stomach muscles, calm mood, mentally alert, energizing
patchouli: sedative/relaxation
cinnamon: regulates blood sugar levels to reduce mood swings (emotional balance)
ylang ylang: helps mind think clearly

Fear
essential oils: cedarwood, sandalwood, patchouli, thyme

Confidence, Self-Worth
essential oils: jasmine, ylang ylang, rose, bergamot, clary sage, frankincense, lavender, basil

Nervous Energy
essential oils: rose, chamomile, clary sage, jasmine, lavender, rosemary

Calming when I'm Stressed Out, Negative Emotions
essential oils: frankincense, lavender, chamomile, sandalwood, ylang ylang, clary sage, rose, bergamot

Grief and Sadness
essential oils recommended: bergamot, chamomile, jasmine, rose, basil, lavender, peppermint, thyme

Depression
essential oils: bergamot, rosemary, jasmine, juniper, peppermint, chamomile, sandalwood, ylang ylang, frankincense

Need an Uplifting Mood
essential oils: bergamot, rose, basil, sandalwood, orange

Stimulating, Get Up and Go
essential oils: peppermint, rosemary, basil, lemon, grapefruit

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IMPORTANT NOTE: Fragrance oils are NOT the same as essential oils. Fragrance oils are most often synthetic, they are for fragrance purposes only. Fragrance oils do not have natural healing properties like essential oils do.

Where to buy: if ordering online, I like http://www.gardenofwisdom.com  If you want to smell the essential oils before buying, I suggest checking out your local Sprouts because they often have better sales than Whole Foods. Walmart and Rite Aid carry some essential oils now. I also see "100% pure essential oil" bottles at TJ Maxx/Marshalls/Ross stores sometimes.

How I Use Them:
---take a whiff directly from the bottle cap
---a few drops into a cup of boiling water, inhale the steam

---in a diffuser or humidifier

---in shower steamers
---on an aroma locket necklace


WARNING! these essential oils are poisonous to cats: Oregano, Bay Leaf, Parsley and Savory, Cedar Leaf, Sage, Hyssop, Cyprus, Lavender, Eucalyptus, Mint ,Caraway, Citronella, Clove, Ginger, Chamomile, Thyme and Rosemary, Pine, Peppermint, Lemon, Melaleuca and Tea Tree Oil, Cinnamon Bark Oil, Wintergreen

Eye Contacts 101 (my tips + hacks)

I've been wearing contact lenses for 15 years now, so here are things I wish someone had told me to begin with!

1. use the heavy-duty cleaners daily! (like Clear Care)
These cleansers are serious business! they get off all the oils and dirt that regular cleansers can't. If you don't use this to clean your contacts you're not smart enough to be wearing contacts. PERIOD. And a huge warning here: the contacts have to be left to clean for at least 6 hours!! If you try to take them out early and put them in your eyes LOL it will burn like HELL! I'm a busy girl and don't always get 6 hours of sleep so here's how I work around this restriction:

I use the 2-week contacts, so I go through 2 lens pairs each month. I give each pair its own Clear Care cleaning lens case. 

OK- so I label 2 cleaning cases pair#1(date) and pair#2(date). I wear pair#1 and then put them in a cleaning case; next day I wear pair#2 and let pair#1 keep cleaning/soaking. I rotate the contacts I wear and they each get a full day cleaning so I'll never risk burning my eyes. At the end of the month I throw both pairs out and start anew. I never wear each pair of contacts more than 15 days total per month.

What to do when only 1 contact lens gets ruined?

I put a fresh pair in my eyes and mark the new date on the cleaning case (so I know when to change them out during rotation) and I put that 1 good contact in a spare case to use in the future if there's an emergency [most often I will keep it in a saline solution-filled case in my purse for any on-the-go emergencies, see tip#4 below]

2. fill each contact lens with simple saline solution before inserting it in your eye
fill each contact like it's a little cup of water- this makes my eyes feel more moisturized and helps the contact suction better to my eye, think of it as a lubricant. I always put my contacts in before my makeup because this does cause a drip like a big tear. I think this step fights dry eye.

3. keep an extra pair of unopened contacts outside your home- your purse, school locker, work desk, car, suitcase while traveling, gym bag, just any place you might need it

4. keep a leak-proof contact lens case filled with saline solution in your bag, refresh the solution every couple weeks. Emergencies come up and it's easier to keep a filled lens case then to carry a lens case and a bottle of saline solution. And saline solution is always better than spit or tap water if your contact falls out of your eye- do a quick rinse in the pre-filled case and pop it back in your eye!

*bonus tip: extra contact lens cases are great hiding places/carrying cases for vitamins, allergy medicine, etc

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DO NOT WEAR ACUVUE OAYSIS CONTACTS!! They are the WORST contacts I have ever used, they gave me insane dry eye. My eye doctor pushed these contacts on me and repeatedly told me she's never had a customer complain. That doctor was a LIAR! There's reviews all over the internet of Oaysis-wearers complaining about severe dry eye. I should not be suffering after 3 hours of wearing contacts! STUPID! It wasn't just the dry eye- the contacts would scratch and tear easily. And if I barely got eyeliner on a contact lens then there was no way the smudge was coming off without destroying the contact.
So if you're somebody who wants to argue with me and be like "oh I love my Oaysis contacts" then you are a liar!
GET OFF MY BLOG! YOU'RE NOT WELCOME HERE!

Allergies? Try NETTLES! (natural remedy)

SPOILER: this plant changed my life!

I have horrific allergies every day of the year: environmental pollution, hayfever and cats. I've tried Benedryl, Claratin, Zyrtec, Allegra, Afrin, Sudafed, Clarinex, some Rx eyedrops-- nothing ever works more than a couple hours :-(

My doctor told me my last option was a steroid......... and I dumped that doctor!! He never once offered me non-pharmaceutical options, clearly he only saw my health as easy $$$ in his pocket. Important life lesson: you have to look out for yourself!!

 allergies are miserable

I discovered NETTLES while browsing the vitamin section of Sprouts (it's like Whole Foods, a natural grocery store). I was looking at the hippie stuff in the allergy section and most of the ingredients lists included "nettle leaf"...... so I went home and Googled my heart out! ♡ NETTLES are like a secret cure for allergies- why don't more people talk about this??!

 

My friend has normal/seasonal allergies when doing yardwork: she takes 1 capsule (400mg) when she needs it before going outside and says it works great!

My allergies are more intense- I can't sleep with the window open in the summer, I vacuum everyday and run an air purifier 24/7. So what works best for me is consistent nettles in my system: I take about 800mg worth of NETTLE capsules twice/day. NETTLES take a little longer in my body to stop my severe allergies (about 15min+) but mentally I'm a lot more clear than when taking otc allergy medicine. No drowsiness. No high feeling.
UPDATE: now that I've been taking NETTLES for a few months, I've noticed that my allergies have significantly improved, YAY! I've forgotten to take my nettles once or twice and didn't realize it- my allergies weren't torturing me :-) So sometimes now I'll take 400mg in the morning and only a second capsule later if my allergies kick back in and I need it. Nettles are amazing!!

how to: AMETHYST Crystal Healing Powers

 Use AMETHYST to heal & cleanse your MIND, BODY, and SPIRIT:

protection against negative energy- amethyst works like a magnet to suck in all that negative energy around you and transform it into peaceful, positive energy to heal you and create emotional balance

stress relief and easing headaches- the soothing power of amethyst allows you to focus better, improving motivation and leading to success

intensifies creativity and passion- amethyst helps artists thrive with originality

putting amethyst under your pillow helps fight insomnia and enhance dreams, including remembering and interpreting them

amethyst opens your crown chakra- use it to enhance memory, intuition, and psychic abilities

helps provide emotional stability and inner strength, especially in time of grief

boost metabolism and immune system- amethyst gives healing energy to fight addictions (like alcoholism) and compulsion (like helps with portion control/dieting)

improves communication between soulmates, promotes pure and faithful love, heals the heart- use amethyst any time you're fighting with your lover or you've been separated (like a long distance relationship) to help strengthen your bond

Instructions:

1.   wearing amethyst around your head & chest area (the crown, third eye, and etheric chakras) so basically earrings or a necklace-- will allow the amethyst to stimulate your energy best. But you can wear it anywhere, keep it in your pocket, or just having amethyst in the same room can help yield positive results.

2.   a cluster of geode amethyst crystals is especially powerful, but any natural amethyst works (no man-made gemstones for energy healing). All shades and shapes of amethysts work, use what you naturally feel yourself attracted to, use your instincts and the crystal will choose you!

3.   cleanse and charge your gemstone! get a glass of water and put it in the window where it can get full moonlight- set the amethyst against the water glass (I never put my gems inside the water)- now leave the gemstone there overnight. I know this sounds super hippie LOL but this is how it works! Amethysts trap all the negative energy from getting to you, the moonlight cleanses the amethyst by sending all that bad energy far away into the black hole universe. Repeat this ritual as often as you feel is necessary (I normally do it once/month, but if life is really stressful I'll recharge once/week)

Crystal healers have different methods for cleansing+recharging their gems; some use sage, others prefer burying crystals in the ground, but the most common is letting the crystals sit in the window sill for 24 hours. All crystals can be cleansed by moonlight, but not all crystals should be charged in sunlight. Amethyst is one of the few crystals that should NOT be left for long periods of time in sunlight because its color will get damaged! Other gems include: aquamarine, lapis, opal, rose quartz, and turquoise.