Tag: health

5 Benefits of Using Aroma Diffusers

There are many ways to integrate essential oils into your wellness routines! One of the most common ways is through using aromatic diffusers. There are two types of aromatic diffusers:

  • Active diffusers are either electric or battery operated appliances that uses water to carry the essential oils into the air.
  • Passive diffusers are solitary materials that carry essential oils. Common passive diffusers are lava beads and felt. I often use felt balls for passive diffusers.

Benefits of Using Diffusers

Essential oils are strong and come from plants with medicinal and therapeutic properties. Using an aromatic diffuser can be helpful in many ways! Here are several ways diffusers can be beneficial:

  • Fills the air with essential oils quickly.
  • Allows you to inhale the essential oils and potentially experience the benefits of the essential oils being diffused. Be careful to only diffuse essential oils that are safe for all in your household.
  • Can help relieve stress and promote relaxation (Cronkleton, 2019).
  • Can help increases clarity, focus, and attention (Homesick, 2020).
  • Can cleanse the air with the some of the essential oils antibacterial and antifungal properties (Lane, 2022)

References

Cronkleton, E. (2019) “How to Use Essential Oilshttps://www.healthline.com/health/how-to-use-essential-oils

Homesick (2020) “16 Essential Oil Diffuser Benefits” https://homesick.com/blogs/news/16-essential-oil-diffuser-benefits

Lane, J. (2022) “12 Essential Oils Diffuser Benefits for Health and Wellness” https://www.lovingessentialoils.com/blogs/essential-oil-tips/108254726-12-essential-oils-diffuser-benefits

Making Physical Health Goals

We are constantly being told by society how we should look, what we should weigh, and how to have the “ideal” body. Today we will discuss making physical health goals…but not goals that someone else has for you. Today we will reflect on your goals and what’s important to you!

Defining Physical Health

When thinking about self-care for your physical health, this can include anything regarding taking care of your body and it’s biological system. All of us have a unique system and our goals can be unique to what our body needs. Here are some questions to consider when thinking about making goals:

What areas of my health am I wanting to change to take care of my body?

What does my body need to function at it’s best?

For me personally when making physical health goals, I often get overly focused on my weight or my appearance. But I’ve been learning to instead focus on my internal health. Asking myself questions like what would help me manage my multiple sclerosis better? What will help me have more energy? What is a good way to take care of my body’s internal functioning? What makes my body feel good and healthy?

What about your internal health is a priority for you in this season of life?

What are your physical health goals?

Setting Goals

When setting goals it’s important to be specific and have a plan to put your goal into action. Here are some questions to consider:

What actions will I need to take to accomplish my goal?

How will I know if I’m making progress?

What routines can I put in place to support my goals?

Any form of change takes time! Be patient with yourself and remember taking care of our physical health is a life long journey.

Defining Holistic Health

When we think about being healthy we often have a hyper focus on physical health. Physical health is important but there are so many sides to who we are as people. Today is all about reflecting on what it means to be holistically healthy.

I made this graphic to show all the different sides of health! It is empowering to see all the ways we can be taking care of ourselves!

What do these areas of health mean to you?

  • Mental Health: focused on the health of our thought process, story, the way we see others and ourselves, and personality traits.
  • Emotional Health: processing feelings and focused on the emotions we experience. This can also include our ability to emotionally connect with others and to the work we do.
  • Spiritual Health: our connection to something greater then ourselves. Can be connected to our sense of purpose.
  • Sexual Health: our expression and fulfillment of our sexual needs.
  • Physical Health: involves taking care of our physical body. This can involve nutrition, exercise, and sleep.
  • Social Health: the health of connections we have with other people in our lives. This can also include healthy boundaries.
  • Intellectual Health: this type of health is how we challenge our mind and memory. It can involve learning new things or practicing mental stimulation games.

Which of these areas of health are most important to you?

What are you health goals?

Lavender Essential Oil Spotlight

Lavender

Lavender is originally native to Northern Africa and the Mediterranean region, and is often harvested for the purpose of being distilled to become essential oils and for medicinal uses (Nordqvist, 2019). Lavender is apart of the lamiaceae family, which is the mint family of flowering plants (The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica).

Benefits of Lavender

The lavender plant is known for having many benefits including (Nordqvist, 2019; Bowman, 2021):

  • Relieves Anxiety
  • Helps alleviate difficulty sleeping
  • Anti-Inflammatory
  • Aides in the healing of burns and wounds
  • Decreases nausea
  • Decreases upset stomach and abdominal swelling
  • Helps with Acne
  • Decreases eczema
  • Helps with Headaches
  • Treats Hair loss

These statements have not been reviewed by the FDA, but have been observed by people who have used essential oils or consumed the lavender plant (Nordqvist, 2019). If using for internal concerns you can use lavender blossoms in tea or in recipes. Though some people drink essential oils it is not recommended due it being so potent.

How I Use Lavender

I use Lavender blossoms and essential oil in a variety of ways. I use the essential oil in my body care recipes, in my aromatic diffuser, in my roller bottles for use on my skin, and have made room sprays with it. I have also cooked with lavender blossoms to make lavender cookies and I enjoy lavender tea as well. Below is a recent blog post where I shared a recipe that I use that involves Lavender Essential Oil.

https://atomic-temporary-170538561.wpcomstaging.com/2022/05/02/face-toner-recipe/

You can find Organic Plant Therapy Lavender Essential Oil for sale in the Blooming Resilient Shop at the link below!

https://atomic-temporary-170538561.wpcomstaging.com/shop/10-ml-lavender-organic-essential-oil/

References:

J. Bowman, (2021). The Many Benefits of Lavender for Mood, Sleep, Hair, and Skin. https://www.healthline.com/health/what-lavender-can-do-for-you

J. Nordqvist, (2019). What are the health benefits and risks of lavender? https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/265922

The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/plant/lavender

Health Tracker

I have gone through many seasons where I used tools to track things related to my wellness. Sometimes it’s tracking what I eat, exercise, stress, symptoms, medications, or progress of a goal. When working towards any new habit we have to put our attention towards making changes or choosing ways to support the new way of life. Writing and tracking my new habit on paper has been the most successful way for me to track wellness goals. I am a life long “journaler” and love to use writing as a way to process, to track, and to plan.

Why Use A Health Tracker?

Developing any new habit can be difficult. It takes time for our brain and body to adjust to the new way of living. The best tool to use when working on a new habit is using the tool of attention. So often as we live our life on auto pilot and we revert back to old habits. Because of this starting any new habit means we have to pay attention. Using a health tracker can help bring intentionality to the everyday choices we make about what we eat and how often we exercise. Being intentional and purposeful in our choices allows us to make decisions that supports the goals we are trying to accomplish. A health tracker can be an invaluable tool when planning for your health, tracking aspects of your wellness, and progressing towards your goals.

My Common Mistakes With Health Goals

There are mistakes that I’ve made when using a health tracker and making health goals that have derailed my progress.

  • Expecting Perfection: there have been times when I planned things out in my health tracker and everything was going well, but then I make a mistake. It could be that I ate that piece of cake or sweet I had been craving, or I didn’t do the exercise I planned for the day, or I got take out instead of eating what I had meal planned. Sometimes when these mistakes happen I would get so discouraged that I would just want to quit and give up on using the health tracker or feel like a failure. DON’T QUIT!!! We are human. We make mistakes and sometimes we just don’t make the best choices, but it’s okay!! Your goal isn’t ruined, you are not a failure, and your hard work is not cancelled out. We all go through this and it’s totally normal. Just make the next right choice. So what, lunch didn’t go as planned, maybe dinner will be better or maybe tomorrow will be better. Just keep going!! Your health is worth it! You are worth it!
  • Making Vague Goals: I often have these big ideas of things I would like to work on, but I forget to break my big goals into measurable small goals. For example, if you are wanting to lose 100lbs, that’s an awesome goal, but a bit overwhelming. How can you break that into measurable small goals? It could be that you are going to make a goal of losing 1lb per week instead of the big goal. Having small victories makes it easier to work towards our big goals.
  • Being Obsessed with Weight: There have been times when I’ve been working on being healthy and I get totally consumed by what the scale is saying. There have even been times when loved ones in my life had to hide the scale from me because I was so consumed by the numbers. I have found that I am much more successful when I make goals around behaviors rather than weight. For example, eating 4 servings of vegetables a day, or having only having one sweet treat per month, or exercising four times a week. These kinds of goals work much better for me because weight fluctuates for many reasons.

Health Tracker Features

There a variety of features to look for in a health tracker depending on what your goals are. Here is a walk-through of a health tracker that I created and the features.

These are affiliate links for items I have bought for my health tracker.

September Vegetable Spotlight: Eggplant

This is a blog spotlight about egg plant being in season in September and the fun of trying new foods.

If you are anything like me, you may not know what vegetables and fruits are in season. In Ohio, one of the vegetables in season in September is the mysterious Eggplant. Besides being a beautiful color, eggplant is nutritious and a good source of vitamin K, vitamin C, and antioxidants (Link, 2017).

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One of my neighbors had a ripened eggplant in her garden that she was not going to use and generously gave it to me to try. I have eaten eggplant at Olive Garden before, which was of course delicious, and had tried to cook it once for myself and it did NOT go so well. I ventured to try cooking egg plant again! This time I used an air fryer, which by the way is amazing and I would highly recommend it. I found a recipe that sounded good and went for it! One thing to know about me is that I am terrible at following recipe directions. I tend to take the instructions as suggestions and just do what I think sounds like it would be tasty and I don’t always measure. Because of this I am not here to give cooking advice, but want to spot light some vegetables and fruits to try each month.

The original recipe I used was by Holly, on Spend with Pennies (2021). I first cut the eggplant into slices and sprinkled salt on top to get out any extra moisture. After leaving it for about a half hour I used a paper towel to press out any excess moisture. I then dipped the eggplant in a bowl of whisked eggs and then in a bowl with panko, parmesan cheese, and seasonings. Then I cooked it in the air fryer. for 12 minutes on 380 degrees and flipped the slices after 6 minutes. The eggplant was soft and went well with quinoa and brown rice noodles and tomato basil sauce. Consider giving eggplant a try this month and find a recipe that fits the cooking tools and equipment you have at home!

Egg Plant Breaded with Panko and Parmesan Cheese

Leave a comment if you try a recipe with egg plant this month!

-Daejanna

References:

Link, R. (2017). 7 Surprising Health Benefits of Eggplants. Health Line. https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/eggplant-benefits#TOC_TITLE_HDR_2

Holly (2021). Air Fryer Eggplant. Spending with Pennies. https://www.spendwithpennies.com/air-fryer-eggplant/#wprm-recipe-container-203892