Welcome Spring!
Time to clean up! As we begin to enjoy the warmer weather and bright skies, we think of opening the windows, raking up the last of the fallen leaves and getting the gardens ready for planting.
It’s an awakening, a perfect time to make room for the NEW!
Clean up with Greens and Spring Fruits
We should eat “seasonally” as much as possible, as your body “craves” the specific vitamins and minerals of the seasons to help improve and prime our immunity for the season ahead.
While you’re cleaning up the house or the yard, consider that Spring is also a GREAT time to do a Spring cleaning and detox for yourself too, as the new season brings some wonderfully fresh fruits and veggies for us to clean out our bodies after a long winter. Think fruits such as fresh apricots, lemon, kiwi, cherry and avocado for fruits, and for the Spring veggies, go for asparagus, radish, tender rhubarb, arugula, fresh micro spring greens, green onions and even those funny little things called fiddleheads… never ate one, but there part of the bounty of Spring.
Clean out with Essential Oils…
Spring can be a time for all things new, and with the warming and blooming and new growth, many pollens, toxins, molds and fungi are also blowing around and blossoming while the leftover decay of last Fall’s leaves can leave us sniffling, sneezing and grabbing for the tissues.
Enter the essential oils… the medicines of nature, to help relieve these symptoms as well as clear up our insides along with our outsides. Diffusing essential oils in the air can help clear out airborne toxins and leave your home fresh. Topically (in a suitable carrier oil such as coconut, jojoba, olive, seabuckthorn oil) essential oils can be used to help relieve congestion, soothe aching muscles (from all that yard work), as well as reduce symptoms of sneezing, runny nose and cough/congestion.
The best Spring cleaning oils to diffuse in the air or apply in a carrier oil to help detox and clean out your body are:
- Oregano
- Clove
- Cinnamon Bark
- Frankincense
- Ravintsara
- Cistus
- Mountain Savory
- Hyssop
- “Thieves” – a blend of clove, lemon, cinnamon, eucalyptus radiata and rosemary – extremely powerful anti-viral and anti-bacterial blend)
Adding a drop or two of oils such as lemon, cinnamon bark, oregano, or clove to your water or herbal tea can be a powerful way to detox and clean out your system. These oils have anti-viral and anti-bacterial properties and can help improve your digestion and prime your immune system.
They can be added to salads, fruits, and teas, a little hot cocoa or soups (think oregano in tomato or clove and cinnamon bark in a butternut squash soup).
The other oils listed above can be added to a small jar of carrier oil and made into a balm to apply to your chest, back, neck and bottoms of your feet. “Thieves” oil is specifically good for fighting off viruses and bacteria and has been in use for literally thousands of years as a powerful natural way to fend of germs. Mixing several drops of this “thieves” blend of oils into a bottle of distilled water makes a perfect household cleanser that is non-toxic, safe for all surfaces and also safe for you and yours – toes and paws included. Plus, your home smells fresh, clean and it’s not loaded with chemicals that can be more toxic and harmful than actually good.
CLEAN up and CLEAN out this Spring and welcome the warmth of the season feeling your best!
EnJOY!
Erin-Michelle
