Supernatural Botanicals

Nothing improves your mood quicker than great music.  Jeff Gold’s Escapes Music for Relaxation is tranquil and relaxing comfort music, ideal for creative inspiration, music therapy, healing, massage, yoga, or just winding down.   We listen to this CD in Supernatural Botanicals’ workshop, and find it to be great music to work to, relaxing the mind and allowing the creative inspiration to flow.  It’s fabulous!  Check out Jeff Gold’s website to listen and purchase to his fantastic music.

After a long day’s work, I love going to the library, perusing the new release section of books, and bringing them home to my bed and scattering them all out for a couple hours of reading before turning in.  It’s one of my favorite things in life! 

My friend Michelle, aka Buffmother, taught me a trick I use on a daily basis.  She loads up her To-Do list with things like Drink 10 oz of water or Stretch for one full minute.   She calls it her five minute mojo checklist.  My favorite way to find my “mojo” is to take five deep breaths, …very…..long…..slow…..breaths.  Controlling your breath centers you, and calms your central nervous system.  Breathing in five (minimum) deep breaths helps you to focus, and is excellent in calming anxiety.  Great stress reliever.   

You don’t have a be an experienced Yogi to to feel the effects of this move, called Downward Facing Dog.  It’s the go-to pose in between Yoga postures.  I probably do DFD at least 10 times a day througout the day.  The key is to get your hips up, up, up as far as you can.  Then stretch your hamstrings and calves right into the floor.  Elongate your back, your neck (don’t hyper extend here), your shoulders, arms, even your fingers.  Keep your heels on the floor…the natural tendency is to go up on the balls of your feet, and resist the urge and keep those heels pressed to the floor.  If you are interested in learning Yoga, start here.  Learn this move.  This is a move that you’ll constantly come back to throughout your Yoga session, so learn how to do it properly.  Make a home with it.  Even if you aren’t that interested in Yoga, learn it anyway.  It feels so great, keeps you limber, and stretches everything!

This step by step is courtesy of my friends over at www.YogaJournal.com. 

Step by Step

1.  Come onto the floor on your hands and knees. Set your knees directly below your hips and your hands slightly forward of your shoulders. Spread your palms, index fingers parallel or slightly turned out, and turn your toes under.

2.  Exhale and lift your knees away from the floor. At first keep the knees slightly bent and the heels lifted away from the floor. Lengthen your tailbone away from the back of your pelvis and press it lightly toward the pubis. Against this resistance, lift the sitting bones toward the ceiling, and from your inner ankles draw the inner legs up into the groins.

3.  Then with an exhalation, push your top thighs back and stretch your heels onto or down toward the floor. Straighten your knees but be sure not to lock them. Firm the outer thighs and roll the upper thighs inward slightly. Narrow the front of the pelvis.

4.  Firm the outer arms and press the bases of the index fingers actively into the floor. From these two points lift along your inner arms from the wrists to the tops of the shoulders. Firm your shoulder blades against your back, then widen them and draw them toward the tailbone. Keep the head between the upper arms; don’t let it hang.

5.  Adho Mukha Svanasana is one of the poses in the traditional Sun Salutation sequence. It’s also an excellent yoga asana all on its own. Stay in this pose anywhere from 1 to 3 minutes. Then bend your knees to the floor with an exhalation and rest in Child’s Pose.

   December can be maddening.  Almost every day of the month is dedicated to making someone else happy…which is a great thing, but don’t forget about yourself.  Take some time to reflect, to appreciate your life, your family, and the good things around you.  Make this year your “first annual” whatever.  Make some memories, start some traditions, do something to make people remember you when you’re gone.  Stay positive and happy this month.  That’s what it’s all about, after all.  This holiday was created around a great and joyous event (remember?)  Fill your home with great scents, indulge in at home spa treatments, take a nap, just take a second for yourself.  Throw an hour of Yoga or Pilates in, and you’re set, girlfriend.  Now go on and take a sec! 

   Slimming seaweed wrap:   The firming seaweed used for this wrap is packed with detoxifying marine extracts.  Following an exfoliating body brushing, the skin is coated with seaweed, wrapped in muslin cloths, then warmed with thermal blankets, and ends with a massage. 

The skinny:  Results:  Seaweed and algae are loaded with minerals that eliminate toxins by raising the body’s pH levels and increasing circulation.  They are also very moisturizing.   Adding heat to promote sweating helps you to shed water weight so you look trimmer for a day or two.  Cellulite is usually less noticeable as well, because wraps get rid of the fluids that cause it’s lumpy appearance. 

Rating:  Although seaweed wraps can be expensive, usually averaging $185.00, it’s a fantastic splurge a couple times a year, deeply relaxing, and effective in making the body look trimmer.  Seaweed wraps get a 5 star rating.