Apologies for the delay in posting this, last weeks post.

Naturopathic Notes:

Naturopathy or naturopathic medicine uses natural remedies to help the body heal itself. It embraces many therapies, including herbs, crystals, essential oils, reiki, massage, acupuncture, exercise, meditation, mindfulness, diet, nutrition and life coaching.

The goal of naturopathy is to treat the whole person — mind, body, and spirit. It aims to heal the root causes of an illness — not just stop the symptoms.

A naturopathic consultation can take up to an hour, as I will ask questions about your health history, stress levels, and lifestyle habits. We will then develop a health action plan, just for you and your specific needs.

Naturopathy focuses on education and prevention, so we will discuss diet, exercise and stress management tips. I may suggest complimentary medicine such as homeopathy, herbal medicine, aromatherapy or acupuncture as well as other naturopathic treatments such as reiki or massage.

Naturopathy is a distinct and complete system of health care. Six foundational principles underpin the practice of naturopathy:

• The healing power of nature
• First do no harm
• find and treat the cause whenever possible, not only the symptoms
• treat the whole person
• education, and
• prevention

I keep these six principles are kept in mind when I meet with you, listen to your concerns, work with you to develop a health action plan and offer suggestions for long term good health.

Detoxification (detox) is a process of cleansing or eliminating toxins, from our body and our environment. A detox can take many forms.

A detox diet is generally a period of fasting followed by a diet of fresh fruit, vegetables, juices, water and herbal teas – for a period of a few days or more. There are stricter detoxes, but this post is just about some general information / education, for more invasive detoxes, seek the advice of a health professional.

Why would we detox, even for a few days? To give our organs a chance to rest, to eliminate toxins in our body, improve circulation, provide our body with nutrients, minerals and vitamins, and may help with obesity, digestive issues, inflammation, allergies, bloating, fatigue and other health issues.

We can also detox our homes, cars, and work environments. Think of it as de-cluttering but from a health perspective. It might be getting rid of cleaning products or self care products with chemicals and heavy metals. It takes a little research but it is worth it, our body, mind and spirit and those around us, will benefit from the changes, no matter how small.

Doterra offers and self care – Balance and Adaptiv

This month Doterra specials include Balance Roller, free with orders of 125PV or more, ordered before 15 Feb, and Adaptiv roller as part of an incentive if we enrol new members. This got me thinking about how these two oils together and separately form part of our self care routine, helping with negative emotions and moods, anxiety and depression. I am not saying they are a cure for anything, but diffused or applied to pulse points, these two oils certainly do improve moods and emotions and help us through ‘stuff.’

I highly recommend these two in any household, particularly in those with small children, school aged children, high schoolers, husbands, extended families…

The beauty of the roller bottles is they are ready to go in our bags, cars, pockets to take with us and applied when needed.

I saw this earlier in the week, and thought it was good, so I am sharing, in case this is something you may feel is right for you too.

February is the short month and the easiest to challenge yourself.

I have seen people pledge to give up social media, alcohol, chocolate, and pledge to exercise and work out more, to walk 50kms and work out each day for the month of February.

I have considered what is realistic for me. So I am challenging myself for the month of February:

• No chocolate
• No ginger beer
• Read a book a week
• 40 minutes of outside activity a day
• 5 minute meditation at least once a week

What would you do to challenge you?