Health and Wellness
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Mental Health Awareness: Let’s End the Stigma
May is Mental Health Awareness month. Mental health issues are important to me both personally and professionally. As a nurse practitioner, I have cared for patients with a variety of disorders at varying levels of severity. Personally, I have struggled with anxiety and depression that at a time became very debilitating. Family members of mine have also battled anxiety, depression, and bipolar disorder. I know it’s now the end of mental health awareness month, but I still want to share my perspective with you. I have been thinking about, planning, and trying to write this for weeks now. But mental health awareness is such an important topic, that I didn’t…
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Favorite Essential Oils: Top 5 Must Have Oils
Over my years of using essential oils I have definitely noticed there are a few that I reach for more often than others. That is to say, I have developed some favorite essential oils. The 5 essential oils I think no household should go without are lavender, lemon, peppermint, thieves, and stress away. I use all 5 of those oils almost daily. Lavender and stress away are always in my bedtime diffuser blend. I diffuse different blends in the main house daily. At some point in the day the diffuser is always running some combination that includes thieves, lemon, and/or peppermint. The immune system supporting roller blend that I apply…
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Essential Oil Safety 101: what you need to know
*** Disclaimer. This post is in no way intended to give medical advice. Always consult your personal health care provider before starting any new health care routine, supplements, or products. *** Essential oils are concentrated liquid compounds extracted from plants. The essential oils are obtained from different parts of the plant (root, stem, leaf, flower, bulb; depending on the plant and the oil) via steam distillation, cold press, or resin tapping. These concentrated plant liquids are very potent and can provide toxin free, natural support to all our body systems. As with many things in this world, essential oils can potentially be harmful if not respected and if not used…
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Essential Oils: Holy Grail or Just a Bunch of Hocus Pocus?
*** Disclaimer. This post is in no way intended to give medical advice. Always consult your personal health care provider before starting any new health care routine, supplements, or products. *** Essential oils have gained tremendous popularity over the past few years and even more so in the past few weeks in light of the worldwide Covid-19 pandemic. Everywhere you turn, someone is talking about essential oils and why and how you should be using them. But what are essential oils and are they actually that amazing? Let me start by saying, I personally love and use essential oils daily. I think they are fabulous. I do not however, think…
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The Truth About Fruits and Vegetables
Hello friends! If you read my How to Make 2020 the Best Year Yet post, then you know one of my goals this year is to really up my fruit and vegetable intake. Some days I’m really killin’ my goal, and others, I’m sad to say, I don’t eat a single fruit or vegetable. It’s something I’m still working on daily. But it’s a goal that is really important to me because I have become much more aware of my body and what it actually needs to function at it’s optimal level. And two things my body NEEDS are, fruits and vegetables! We all know fruits and vegetables are part…