Recycle those Roses from Valentine's Day to enjoy the rest of the year

Wondering what to do with those Valentine's Day Roses your sweetie gave you? (Besides tossing them out or into the compost pile if you have one that is.) Here's an easy way to recycle them so you can enjoy them all year long, especially when that special someone ticks you off and you need to remember why you love them in the first place. ;> 

Roses are wonderful energy tools the plant people have gifted to us. In their flower form, they absorb negative energy and are an effective visualization to protect you from negative energy in dense energy places, such as hospitals, doctor's offices, and even government agencies. 

Even removed from their flower form, the rose vibration is the highest vibration you can include in your baths, rosewater, oils, lotions, and body butters. Commercial, distilled rosewater is rather expensive, but you can grow your own and make your own. And who doesn't like the scent of a rose bush in their back yard?

Drying the Rose Petals

1. Once they're starting to show some wear, before tossing out the stems pluck the petals / flower heads and store in an open container. Make sure the container is open otherwise they'll mold.
   
2. If you live in a dry climate like I do in Colorado, simply toss them by hand like a salad until all the petals are dry.
   
3. If you live elsewhere you may want to either put them through a dehydrator on low or in a cool (like 100 F) oven to dry. Remember to toss in there as well.
   
4. You can also rack dry them if you've been working with your own herbs to the point where you have racks and space. 

Using the Rose Petals

Once the petals are completely dry you have several options for use:

• Rose Petal Bath 
  Sprinkle the dried rose petals in a bath for a soft rose scent on your body
  
• Make your own Rosewater
  Rosewater is the most gentle astringent and an excellent toner for fair or dry skin. This is a bit more involved than the other options if you do it the "right" way by making a home still with a firebrick, large pot, bowl, and ice but you can do a simpler version just by soaking the petals in pure water --- just barely enough to cover them --- over low heat. Make sure they're covered with a lid. After heating for several hours strain out the petals and store for use later. You can use the rosewater in any number of things for the scent, as tone for skin, in home made lotions & body butters, and even in food, but if you're going to use it in food please make certain the roses were organic. :)
  
• Make your own Rose Infused Olive Oil
  Make a rose infused olive oil just as you would make marigold / calendula infused olive oil only use your rose petals instead. (You can also do it some other oil if you prefer, like grape seed.)
  
  You can do this several ways but for the small quantity you have from a dozen roses probably the easiest way is to put the petals in a glass quart container --- recycle a jar, a mason jar for canning, or whatever glass jar you have handy --- and cover the rose petals with olive oil. Sit them a sunny window sill for several weeks and shake it when you pass by. My kitchen faces south, so that's where I do this and since I'm in the kitchen a lot (like most of us) it's easy for me to remember to shake it when I walk by. :)  After several weeks, strain out the rose petals and bottle the rose-infused oil for use later. Again, use this like your would other infused oils --- as a night moisturizer for the eye & neck area, as part of a body lotions & body butters, or even lip balms. 

Now you can enjoy those Valentine's Day roses all year long, lift your spirits, and lift your energy and vibration!

Luna Wellness Herbals is open featuring Essiac 4-herb salve and "vibrational enhancer" products

We launched the Luna Wellness Herbals store on Etsy today and have several products available. We'll be adding more as soon I get the consistency right on some of the ones on my counter. :D Right now we're only shipping to customers in the US but if you see something you like, either convo me in Etsy or e-mail me at Luna Wellness or post a comment here with your location & I'll check the shipping and paperwork needed to ship it to you, give the quote and then we can handle things through PayPal. :)

One thing we've made and will continue to carry is the Essiac 4-Herb Salve in both 2 ounce and 8 ounce sizes. I've only seen a similar salve on one other site online and I'm pretty sure there's a big need for it. We'll be adding other similar salves soon as well.

We're also going to focus on carrying products I'm calling "vibrational enhancers" because those who are sensitive to energies (like me) --- Reiki Masters and energy healers --- should also feel the difference in the energies while using them the same way I do. And yes, the Essiac Salve is one of those vibrational enhancers. 

Here's the link:  https://www.etsy.com/shop/LunaWellnessHerbals 

We'll let you know when more products are up. I'm finishing up a couple of batches of body butters & lip balm that will go up soon. How does Golden Honey Almond lip balm strike you? ;>

It's amazing the transformation a few minutes of quiet time can have in kids...

Interesting article about how meditation is transforming some of the roughest schools in San Francisco.

Have I mentioned in here how meditation and prayer show the same brainwave pattern? :)

New guided imagery MP3s & 10 tips to help you keep those New Year's resolutions

Before we get to the tips, here's the plug for my new MP3s that are available on Amazon to help you lose weight, stop smoking, reduce your stress levels, and just the meditation music without any voice so you can ride the wave alone if you want. :)

At this time of the year, if you're like most folks you've made a few New Year's Resolutions whether or not you've let anyone else know about them. The most common ones are losing weight, stopping smoking (especially if you're a closet smoker), reducing stress, and meditating more. So we thought we'd give you 10 ways to help you keep those resolutions, starting off the New Year right. 

Guided imagery is a big tool to help you keep all those resolutions --- and using MP3s can help you with your guided imagery, stress reduction, and self hypnosis program. (If hypnosis is new to you, you're probably wondering why folks see a hypnotist. The "big three" are to stop smoking, lose weight, and reduce their stress levels --- why I made those MP3s. ;>) What most people don't realize about the sub/unconscious is that it's very child-like and much like a child it likes having boundaries set and being told what to do. The catch is that you have to tell it what do it in just the right way otherwise it won't listen to you! 

So, buzz on over to Amazon to download one or all of the MP3s (they're very cheap!) then keep in mind the following 10 tips to help you keep you on track. 

1. Listen to the MP3s daily for at least 21 to 30 days.
   There are many ways to ensure access to the subconscious, but one of the simplest is repetition, repetition, repetition. That repetition ensures the suggestions make it into the sub/unconscious. If you use the ones in the link, they have some technological techniques embedded to ensure that you reach the trance state while listening. For best results, use headphones but you can also use speakers (lay in between them, lol :D). While working on these recordings, the sound engineer reached the point where he had to leave the room when I was listening to the playbacks because they simply made him too spacey! (Just because common sense isn't as common as we think, do not listen to these MP3s while driving!)


2. Start a routine and keep at it for at least 21 to 30 days.
   This applies to whatever your resolution is, but especially for any new habit you're trying to establish or for any old habit you're trying to break. See #1 above about repetition and why the 21 to 30 days is important.


3. Replace an old "bad" habit with a new good habit.
   The easiest way to break an old bad habit is to replace it with a new good habit. For example, take smoking. I smoked for years and quit more times than I care to count. I tried everything, including cold turkey, regular gum, nicotine gum, and "happy" pills that made me fuzzy headed, so I quit taking them after a week. What finally made it stick was using self hypnosis and an MP3 --- that was 8 years ago exactly one week before Christmas, and I don't even have a craving to smoke now. Replace the smoke with a glass of water, carrot, or some other thing that's good for you and that goes in your mouth, then keep at it for at least 21 to 30 days (see #2 above).


4. Baby steps count.
   Depending on how big of a change you're trying to make, baby steps do indeed count. The bigger the change you're trying to make the more important those baby steps are. Celebrate each baby step forward, and not with food or a smoke! Remember, "the journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. "


5. If you're having trouble doing something every day (like working out), start out doing it every other day, Monday through Friday.
   Then after 21 to 30 days once that becomes a habit, add another day each week for the next 21 to 30 days, then another until you're doing it every day 5 days a week if that's your ultimate goal. This is a practical way of doing the baby steps in #4.


6. Share with your friends but address any sabotaging behavior.
   This is important for moral support especially if there's another person living in your house besides you. The best intentions can go to hell if your roommate, spouse, or significant other is still bringing home sugar, cakes, brownies, smokes, or whatever it is that you're trying to stop and replace with something better. Sabotage can be sub/unconscious on their part and if you notice it, you really need to discuss it with them. They are probably not aware they're doing it.
   
   Women, if you notice sabotaging behavior in your lover / spouse it is probably their sub/unconscious trying to keep you the way you are because it's afraid that once you're all slim and sexy again you might just trade them in for a new model! Studies have been done that verify when a woman is getting ready to dump her current live-in lover or spouse, she also drops some weight before doing it, so their subconscious is not all out in left field here. A major sit down discussion is needed along with some major re-assurance that you're just trying to get healthy for YOU and not because you're looking to dump them sometime soon.


7. Drink more water.
   I don't care what habits you're breaking and replacing, most of us should be drinking more water instead of soda, caffeinated, or diet drinks. Cut out the diet sodas, regular sodas, and even the crystal light crap and drink cool, clear, clean, refreshing water. Stressed out and counting to 10 before you explode? Grab a glass of water instead of a smoke or a doughnut or [insert carb-of-choice-here] while you cool down some before hitting the "send" button on that flaming e-mail.
   
   There have been several studies now that show diet drinks don't fool the body and they actually just make it gain weight because the body is looking for the calories that should be in those drinks but isn't. So when it doesn't find them it just makes you hungrier and you end up eating more than you would have before the diet drink!
   
   Don't like the taste of plain, cool, clear, clean, refreshing water? Herbal teas without caffeine can also count as water, or how about infused water? To make infused water simply cut up one (1) lemon or one (1) lime or one (1) orange / tangerine in two (2) quarts of water and let it infuse the water with flavor. You can experiment with your own flavors now that you know how to make it.  :)


8. Imagine yourself at your goal.
   Since I'm a hypnotist, I know that not everyone can "see" or visualize things in their imagination. Some of us "hear," some "smell," some "feel," so whatever is the best way for you imagine (we all get how to imagine things in our mind) yourself at your goal, whatever that goal is, just do it. The best time to do this imagining is right before you fall asleep at night because while you're in that half-awake half-asleep state where you're really just too lazy to open your eyes, you're in a trance state and self suggestions are best received then. This imagining is a self suggestion, and one of the best things about the sub/unconscious is that it cannot tell the difference between reality and imagination so it accepts both as completely truthful (even though your conscious mind has a problem with it!). So imagine you as the you, you want to be and your sub/unconscious will help you make it happen.
   


9. Do use positive affirmations.
   There are a lot of technical reasons (hypnotic technique) for not using negatives with your subconscious, but let's just say that using positive affirmations works. Remember to use them for at least 21 to 30 days to make sure they stick in your sub/unconscious. You might even want to pick several that ring true for you and cycle through them regularly. You don't even have to work on creating affirmations for this --- grab a Louise Hay daily calendar (less than $10) for some excellent positive affirmations and just tape the ones that resonate with you to your bathroom mirror and whisper them to yourself every morning and evening, while brushing your teeth. There is something about actually saying them out loud, even it it is only a whisper to yourself, that has a bigger impact on your sub/unconscious than just reading them to yourself. Speaking them gives them more energy so they penetrate deeper into your mind.


10. Stop the overly critical self-talk; Be gentle and kind to yourself; Love yourself! (It's not a sin. Really.) 
    It's very easy in this society to be hyper-critical of yourself. Don't. Think of how you would train a puppy or a child in some new behaviors: you'd do it with love and gentleness of course and you should "train" yourself in the same way. This is one of the best ways to encourage yourself to stick to these resolutions and one of the best ways to break old habits and establish new ones. There are several reasons for this and one of the biggest is to allow the new suggestions and new habits to take root in your sub/unconscious without your sub/unconscious spitting them right back out like an angry teenager. Another reason is that the body as well as the sub/unconscious remembers things and makes things happen for you, whether you want it or not.
    
    A note here: loving yourself is not a sin. Draw a distinction between the behaviors you don't like and the essence of your being --- the spark of Light / God / Goddess inside you --- and love that part if this is an issue for you. If you can't love yourself, how can you expect anyone else to love you? You deserve the best that you have been giving to everyone else. Treat yourself with equal respect and love to what you lavish on others. 
    
    

So grab some inexpensive MP3s (like mine), follow the tips above, and be well, happy, and healthy in this year and all the ones that follow. 

Reed Diffusers can distribute more than just scent in your home --- use the clearing essential oil mix in a reed diffuser for those areas you're having trouble keeping clear

Having trouble clearing out everyone else's energies from your home after the holidays? Sometimes folks (especially family) leave behind more bits and pieces of themselves than you'd like. Old patterns of behavior and old relationships usually find new energy when all the players are together again, so if you need some help clearing your space of all that energy that you'd rather not have around (since everyone has now returned to their own homes) here's something to help. Just set up a couple of these before you start the rest of the cleaning and picking up so they can work on the energies while you work on the rest of it. :)

This idea is something I've been using around my own home the last couple of months because I was getting tired of spritzing and spraying and burning incense every time I turned around and it seems to be working well.

The new dogs are quite sensitive to the energies in the house (even more than me), so keeping it all clear so they won't growl and bark at nothing and freak me out ;>) has been a chore, so I decided to try using the mix of essential oils I've been putting in a spritzer but instead put them in a carrier oil (4 oz) with reeds for dispersal. I have two of these set up --- one uses coconut oil (unscented, liquid) and the other olive oil (the quality you would use for making salves, creams, and lotions) and they've been working great!

The purple one has the olive oil carrier while the blue one has the coconut oil carrier.

Olive oil carrier oil & clearing mix of essential oils

Notice the nice golden color the olive oil presents.

Coconut oil carrier & clearing mix of essential oils

The coconut oil carrier oil is from the second pressing of the coconut, so not only is it liquid it doesn't add the coconut scent to the mix. It's also much lighter in color than the olive oil, so I expect it will evaporate more quickly as well. 

For those who don't know the clearing mix, here it is again. Just replace the 4 oz of water with 4 oz of carrier oil instead and place them around the house. Replace as needed. 

If you're being troubled while you sleep (nightmares, can't stay asleep, hearing things (you think), be sure to put one in the bedroom. We are most vulnerable and open to being approached by other realms while we sleep. That half asleep - half awake state is actually a trance state and our brainwaves are usually in at least an alpha brainwave pattern if not theta waves. 

Here's the clearing mixture for a 4 oz batch, with the oils listed most to least amounts: 

• Rosewood (10-20 drops)
• Frankincense (6-7 drops)
• Helichrysum (2-4 drops) --- very strong scent
• Orange (4-5 drops)
• Juniper Berry (2-4 drops) --- very strong scent
• Myrrh (1-3 drops)

Start with the oils used in the smallest amounts and work your way up. Add them to a base of 4 oz of carrier oil in a reed diffuser bottle large enough to hold it. You can infuse with Reiki/Healing Energy separately or as the finished mixture. Experiment with the proportions and use what your intuition (and nose) tells you. 

If the space is *really* hard to keep clear, use dragon's blood essential oil with the carrier oil instead, and make it strong enough for you to smell. 

Add 6 to 8 reed diffusers and enjoy not clearing your space every time you turn around!  :) 

"Teaching" emotions

This is a follow on to the updated entry I made about us apparently not teaching our little ones & younger ones how to handle their "negative" emotions, as well as my little rant about emotions being what make us human. :)

I'm glad I'm not the only one thinking that dampening down our emotions is bad for us. Dolores Cannon said this about them:

The emotions that have the most to teach us are anger, hate, fear, jealousy, disgust, impatience, shame, pride, pity, indignation, envy, worry and guilt. Many refer to these as negative, but I think that makes them less constructive, so I will call them the Teaching Emotions. They teach us so much about ourselves if we will only look.....

Emotions are what make us different from every other being in the cosmos, and these emotions are only available on this plane. We can’t get this kind of intense training anyplace else.

Dolores is a world-class hypnotist/hypnotherapist. You can read her full blog about the teaching emotions and how emotions are the language of the body here:  http://www.blog.dolorescannon.com/emotions-language-body/

What she's talking about is well known to hypnotists/hypnotherapists (and even energy healing workers and massage therapists): cellular memory. Even when we do not consciously remember a thing, whether that's from this life or a past / other life, often our body remembers as well as our subconscious. Birth marks on the body where we suffered a mortal injury in a past / other live. Rashes that appear for no reason but the root cause found in hypnosis was being burned alive in another lifetime. Weight management issues whose root cause is starvation in another life time. And even cancer because at some point we were told we shouldn't be here in some way, shape, or form. The list goes on and on and on. 

That list of "teaching emotions" is the list of the strongest emotions known to human beings. And of all of those emotions, there is only one that is stronger:  love.

Remember that where you focus your energy and your attention is what you draw into your life. Let's all try and focus on the love & peace vibe a little more this holiday season. 
love & peace blessing to us all,
melodie

Update to soul contracts, evolving ascension & crazy shootings posted

http://lunawellnesscenter.blogspot.com/2012/07/soul-contracts-evolving-ascension-crazy.html