One Herb That Can Help Keep You Sane Through All the Holiday Chaos

Lavender can be your best friend for both the mind and body.

Probably about now you might be doing some last minute shopping, baking, cleaning or still wrapping gifts as you prepare for the holidays.  Perhaps, you’re even having out-of-town family and friends on their way to stay with you.  As much as you look forward to all that celebrating ahead, you also might find all the activities and rushing to get everything done on time can leave you extra tired and stressed.  You may think there is nothing much you can do, but there is something that helps restore your mood and body--lavender.

The lavender that I am referring to is not an artificial lavender aroma from a pretty scent, but the power of the real herb.  There are quite a few proven studies on the effects of lavender on the nervous system for calming, improving concentration, brightening your outlook to relaxing you enough to bring on sleep.  

Of course, you might be tempted just to burn a natural lavender aromatherapy candle that is made from its essential oil.  Though helpful, if you want to get all you can from lavender then you are better served using lavender essential oil and applying it to your wrist.  

Unlike many essential oils that need to be diluted first with a carrier oil, this is safe to apply directly to your skin.  Direct skin contact of lavender essential oil has also been shown substantially reduce blood pressure, the heart rate and its temperature.

So before you get tied up in knots this holiday season, think of yourself and those you love by looking into buying some lavender essential oil for your total well-being.     

Here’s a Wonderful Home Remedy for Minor Burns Worth Remembering

Since my hands are always pulling out a tray of something or another from a hot oven, I do have a knack of burning myself.  Besides running cold water over the burn or applying a cold compress or ice,  I have tried quite a few over the counter products to help with the pain.  Unfortunately, they didn’t seem to do much of anything except cost money.  

Aloe vera is something wonderful for soothing burns at least for many people.  However, when I tried breaking a piece of my plant and rubbing some of that sticky aloe vera gel directly on my burn, it turned my skin black where it was applied.  The strange part is I can use aloe vera as an ingredient in many skin care products without any reaction.

Then I heard about using lavender essential oil for this purpose.  At first, I was skeptical of applying any essential oil directly to my skin without the protection of a carrier oil until I learned lavender is the only essential oil that you can safely use that way.  Anyway, I bought a bottle because knowing my talent for attracting burns, I thought it would get used for this or in another homemade skin care recipe soon enough.  

As fate would have it, I was baking pizza the other day when I burned myself again.  After running some cold water over it, I remembered that lavender essential oil.  I dropped several drops over the area before an amazing thing happened.   My pain was diminished and that burn didn’t look as red.  

I hope that you don’t share this particular talent.  Nonetheless, if you get a burn, I just wanted to share this lavender essential oil burn remedy with you because it worked very well for me.