How do you start your day? Are you bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, feeling excited and optimistic? Or do you drag yourself from bed with weariness and dread? Despite our personal challenges, we can choose how we start our days. I say "choose", because we can be intentional in how we begin each day. Although I ...
Calm the Heck Down – Motherwort Herb Benefits
Benefits of Motherwort Motherwort herb is a lovely plant with a long history of use in supporting women’s health. The benefits of motherwort include effects on the circulatory, digestive, and nervous systems. Motherwort herb is a wonderful way to calm frazzled nerves and emotions. Motherwort Herb – Offering ...
These 4 Simple Foods Fight Cold and Flu – Sage, Ginger, Garlic and Honey
Marketing and commercialization by the pharmaceutical and health food industries tries to convince us that taking responsibility for our health is difficult. We are encouraged to buy expensive products and to rely on the “experts” to guide us in our choices. Treating our colds and flu at home doesn’t ...
How to Use Roses as Food and Medicine – 6 Rose Recipes
Healing Medicine of the Rose Roses as Food and Medicine for Physical, Spiritual, Emotional Healing Exquisite, graceful, alluring, the rose is associated with sophisticated beauty and love. But the rose is much more than an ornamental flower adored for its heady aroma. The healing medicine of the ...
Lemon Balm Recipe – Lemon Balm Cookies
Lemon Balm Uses Lemon balm is a delightfully aromatic culinary and medicinal herb. With a fresh lemon aroma and flavor, lemon balm can be enjoyed in a variety of ways and makes an attractive addition to any garden. A member of the mint family, lemon balm is easy to grow and can tolerate both sun and shade and ...
Slowing Down and Living Joyfully
Sometimes I feel like I am on a treadmill and running through my life. Going to work all day, then coming home to take care of the cooking, cleaning, paying bills, doing laundry, and tending to my family’s needs. And worse, despite working really hard, I rarely enjoy any sense of accomplishment – in all the rushing ...
Blackberry Season and Five Easy Recipes
Blackberries are a sweet summer berry and endlessly versatile. Learning to enjoy seasonal foods, we have found freezing fresh blackberries to be a wonderful way to preserve the freshness of summer to enjoy all year long. Freezing fresh seasonal blackberries is really very simple, and I ...
Healing With Comfrey and How to Use Comfrey
Comfrey, also known by the descriptive name “knit bone”, is an excellent plant with a long history of use in treating cuts, abrasions, bruises, torn ligaments, tendons, and broken bones. Comfrey has so many practical uses and benefits, I want everyone to know how to use comfrey! Studying herbal medicine, it is one ...
7 Things to Do With Basil Beyond Pesto
Every year I tell myself - plant less basil. But then spring rolls around and I think I can’t possibly have too much fresh basil, can I? And so the seeds get planted and my excitement rises as I pinch my first fresh leaves. Oh, the aroma of fresh basil! The plants start slow, but by July I just can’t keep up. ...
Make Your Own Rose and Aloe Cooling Lotion and Spray
All-Natural Rose and Aloe Cooling Lotion and Spray Roses are alluring and beautiful, and despite their delicate appearance, they offer some pretty amazing health benefits. Combining the anti-inflammatory and cooling property of rose petals with soothing aloe, we can create a simple, all-natural rose and aloe ...
DIY Summer Skin Salve – All Natural Relief for Summer Skin
Warm breezes and sunny days, summer is the time for outdoor activities. But along with the summer fun comes summer skin irritations like sunburn, blisters, insect bites, and the dreaded poison ivy. You can buy over-the-counter products to treat all of these, but you will also be getting the added chemicals and ...
Feeling Anxious, Wired, and Tired? Benefits of Passionflower – Reduce Anxiety and Sleep Better Naturally
If you find yourself anxious, edgy, and you can't stop thinking about your worries, the beautiful passionflower herb can bring you back to feeling centered and calm. Let me share the benefits of passionflower and how to use passionflower to soothe your frazzled nerves. “Anxious and shaky, it seems any little thing ...
Seeking Joyful Simplicity is about living your best life after 40. I write about using a holistic approach combining herbal remedies, nourishing foods, and self-care to reduce overwhelm, manage our weight, and enjoy more vibrant health in our 40's, 50's, and beyond.