lavender | Paper Clay Nature

Lavender Soothes Lions and Lambs

March 11, 2016

Posted by Sharon

Lavender Essential Oil

Whether your March has come in like a lion or a lamb, I suggest some lavender to ease the transition to spring. Lavender holds the energy of summer sun, but the blue color is cooling and creates a sense of equanimity. Click on the image to the left for information on how to buy a bottle of essential oil with a 24% discount.

Lavender for Eating

Thanks to Elaine’s Lavender Page for the delicious lavender cookies recipe:

RECIPE FOR LAVENDER COOKIES.

Ingredients

2/3 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 tablespoon dried lavender flowers
1 1/2 cups self-rising flour

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 deg. Grease two baking sheets.
Cream the butter and the sugar together,
then stir in the beaten egg.
Mix in flowers and the flour.
Drop spoonfuls of the mixture onto the baking sheets.
Bake about 15-20 minutes, until the cookies are golden.
Makes about 30 cookies.

If you are looking for culinary quality dried lavender flowers, I recommend Mountain Rose Herbs. I order online and have been really happy with this company and the quality of the products.

Lavender is an aromatic perennial evergreen shrub. Its woody stems bear lavender or purple flowers from late spring to early autumn, although there are varieties with blossoms of white or pink. Lavender is native to the Mediterranean, but now cultivated in cool-winter, dry-summer areas in Europe and the Western United States. The use of Lavender goes back thousands of years, with the first recorded uses by the Egyptians during the mummification process. Both the Greeks and the Romans had many uses for it, the most popular being for bathing, cooking, as an ingredient in perfume, healing wounds, and as an insect repellant. Lavender was used as an after-bath perfume by the Romans, who gave the herb its name from the Latin lavare, to wash. During the Great Plague of 1665, grave robbers would wash their hands in a concoction called Four Thieves Vinegar, which contained lavender, wormwood, rue, sage, mint, and rosemary, and vinegar; they rarely became infected. English folklore tells that a mixture of lavender, mugwort, chamomile, and rose petals will attract sprites, fairies, brownies, and elves. (SOURCE)

Lavender for a Soothing Spring Bath

Take a soothing spring bath with a few scoops of Epsom Salts (not actually salts, but the magnesium helps with muscle relaxation and headaches) or Sea Salt and put 6-8 drops of lavender essential oil into the bath. Just sit back, breathe in the steam and the aroma and relax. If you would like, use the very simple meditation suggested by Lama Surya Das:

Breathing In—-Just this, here now.

Breathing Out—Just this, here now.

Just make sure that you don’t relax TOO much and fall asleep in the bath and be aware that oils and salts can make the bathtub and tile floors a little bit slippery.

Lavender Crafts

How about these heart-shaped lavender sachets designed by Martha Stewart?

These little lavender soaps are so cute!

Make a lavender eye pillow.

This post written by Sharon Fennimore, MA, E-RYT, RPYT, a yoga and meditation instructor based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and working with women all over the world on creativity, insight and joy. Find out more about Sharon. Join Sharon’s online community MAKE ROOM for just $8 a month and clear all your physical and emotional clutter.

Meet Me at The Market

April 18, 2013

Posted by Sharon

What am I selling?

Catnip toys for your kitty friends ($2 each)
Lavender sachets for your drawers, purse or to prevent moths in your yarn stash ($12 bundle of 3)
Wool lavender sachets to bring beauty to little corners of your world ($8 each)
Lunch box napkin sets for adults and kiddos ($12-18 each set)
Organic lavender and flax seed eye pillows with washable cover ($15 each)

I will also have treats including discounts on introductory packages and yoga spa sessions (hint, hint: Mother’s Day is coming up!). The other vendors look awesome and I hope you will come out to support crafty (and healthy!) goodness in Pittsburgh.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to SHARE this post and event information with at least five of your friends. Don’t know which five to choose? Well, you can always send it to more, but if you are going to send it to just five, then make them the five most creative, fun and fabulous friends you’ve got!

Posted by Sharon Fennimore Rudyk, a holistic health coach, yoga instructor and doula with a special interest in working with women, couples, children and families. www.sharonrudykyoga.com

For the Love of Lavender

February 4, 2013

Posted by Sharon

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Since I feel particularly calmed and grounded by the scent of lavender, I thought I would re-post this informative article written by David Crow on how lavender can be used to promote health and well-being for everyone in your household. As we approach Valentine’s Day, I reflect on how this scent brings me into a state of open awareness that is also beneficial to my meditation and yoga practices. Regardless of your state of partnership or romance this season, how delightful to take an opportunity to think about ways to live more deeply from your heart and to ground your decision making and movements from this deepest and our original seat of intelligence. And, if you are new to buying essential oils from Floracopeia, please take advantage of the 25% discount I offer to my students.

Lavender

By David Crow, L.Ac.

(Published in Yogi Times, Oct. ‘04)

Lavender is one of the most well-known, versatile, and extensively used essential oils in the world. When we use lavender essential oil we receive the blessings of the feminine, because lavender could be described as an angel of healing from the floral realm, and an expression of the earth’s compassion.

Lavender has a long history of use. Originally, it was an herb used primarily in European herbology, but it has now spread worldwide. When one thinks of lavender oil cultivation, images of Provence in the south of France may come to mind, where it has been grown for centuries. But lavender has migrated across the globe, and is now at home in places as diverse as northern California, New Zealand, Kashmir, and the Himalayan states of India. Because demand for high quality organic oil is high, lavender is an ecological crop that provides income for many people. Lavender cultivation is also a source of ecotourism, as people are naturally drawn to the beauty and peaceful atmosphere where it is grown.

What is the fragrance of lavender? One who is unfamiliar with the aromatic world might assume that all lavender oils are the same, but there are hundreds of species and varieties that create oils with different perfume notes, as well as differences produced by the soil, water, and climate. In general, lavender has a soft, sweet, and floral aroma. However, depending on the quality and place of origin, it can reveal a wide range of other scents, including hints of spiciness, fruity undertones, and green and herbaceous notes. When one smells lavenders from different places, it is easy to imagine the different elements that influence the plant: the hot summer Mediterranean days, the icy mountain winters, the spring rains.

Therapeutically, lavender oil is one of the most versatile and safest of all essential oils. Its wide spectrum of benefits can be summed up as calmative and relaxing, cooling and anti-inflammatory, antibacterial and immune enhancing, and hormone balancing. Lavender enhances the healing powers of the body: it is effective against colds, flus, and infections, and is used specifically for burns. It has pain-reducing properties, which, because of its feminine nature, are more pronounced in women than men. Lavender’s pleasing fragrance and skin-regenerating benefits make it one of the most commonly used oils in cosmetic and body products.

Lavender is safe and effective for children, who are more sensitive than adults and therefore more susceptible to its soothing influence. Used in diffusers in the home, it creates a background scent that calms hyperactivity, excitability, and irritability of both parents and children.

How would yogis and yoginis use lavender? In Ayurvedic terms, the effect of lavender oil could be described as pacifying to the vata (calms, relaxes, and restores the nervous system) and cooling to the pitta (anti-inflammatory). It is a highly sattvic oil, meaning that it purifies aggravated emotional states and helps bring mental peace.

Use a few drops in a diffuser at the end of asana practice to make the transition into a calm state of rest. A few drops in a bath afterwards will refresh the mind and support the purifying effects of the asanas. If you are sitting down to meditate after a busy day, sprinkle a few drops of oil on your palms and inhale the fragrance. This will assist in making the transition from an active state of outwardly-focused sensory stimulation to an inward state of absorption and mental serenity.

Sprinkle a few drops on the pillow and sheets before starting yoga nidra, yogic sleep. The fragrance of lavender will make it easy to imagine beautiful scenery and peaceful visions before drifting into sleep. The combination of this fragrance with meditative sleep will give deep rest to those suffering from insomnia, and will assist in waking up refreshed and renewed.

Find this article on the Floracopeia website here.

Posted by Sharon Fennimore Rudyk, an independent yoga instructor and doula based in Pittsburgh, PA. I proudly use and sell Floracopeia aromatherapy products to my students and highly recommend them for their incredible quality and strength.