SWEET FACIALS OF SUMMER

Whether home is in Papete, Mexico City,
Gatineau or Sydney, a facial picnic
with friends will always be fun.

How delicious it is to reach summer! You can almost feel the taste of the sun on your tongue and its sent on your skin. Skin is such a fascinating organ, the largest of your body, sensitive to what is going on inside the body as well as outside, and a great communicator between the two. This summer give it a facial it will remember for a long time.

Ayurveda and aromatherapy for beauty

Taking care of the skin with ayurveda and aromatherapy is a delight, especially

ONLINE BIOVEDIC FACIALS AND TREATMENTS: SO MUCH FUN, SO PRACTICAL

No time is the best time. A great illustration
by my friend Hughes Chassé.

One of the great pleasures and mysteries of energy work is that is knows not the boundaries of time and place. As a practitioner I can give facials and treatments from home or while traveling and you can be at home, at the cottage or anywhere else to receive it. The precision and quality of the facial, treatment as well as the sense of intimacy are the same whether we are geographically in the same room or 35,000 km apart.

CACAO, EGGS AND EASTER

Yesterday evening I meditated with cacao absolute*. It was an experience that illustrated the paradoxes of life and its kapha* aspects: heavy, humid, slow, patient, motherly and loving nature. It also showed sluggishness, muddiness, pain and depression as well as the importance of acceptance, dreamtime,  sacrifice, infinity and the process of birth, death and rebirth. In the process, it provided a glimpse of

SCENTS AND RELATIONSHIPS

Your nose knows.

A flash thought about Valentine's Day took me by surprise this morning. A bit early in the season I thought… But whatever triggered that idea inspired me to dedicate this blog to the topic of relationships and scents. It also inspired me to use essential oils associated with love since Antiquity for the next Meditations on Beauty.

Curiosity led me to search for recent information. The findings led me to

ABOUT THE AURA and THE AURA CLEANSE AND PROTECTION PROGRAM

One of the ways you could
see your aura. Thanks to
Gilbert Heim for this picture.

As the vibration of the Earth changes, more and more people are sensitive to “energy”. The best proof is in the exploding numbers of people who see or perceive the aura, who have premonitions, perceive angels or entities of various realms, and of people attracted to reiki, shamanic work, bioenergetics, healing work, channelers, aromatherapy, and so on. You may be one of them.

So what is that energy that people perceive but don’t necessarily see? The most common term used is “the aura.” As a kid, seeing light of different colours around the head of the priest during mass, I wondered why it was not gold and floating above his head like in pious pictures. Later on, as a teenager, I wondered why I saw this and what  was the role of the aura. Since the late 1990s, I studied and learned to work with it. A couple of weeks ago, 

AROMA MUSES FOR THE ARTS - A CALL TO BUDDING, AWAKENED AND FULL-FLEDGED ARTISTS

What is fearlessness for you? When and how does it come about? For most fearlessness is present when one is determined to go into the unknown or to meet a fear face to face. That could be in any area of life: relationships, self-inquiry, profession, creativity or exploring the world. It always is triggered by a need for freedom and expansion, from knowing that you can do more and be more fully who you truly are. The arts and aromatherapy provide a perfect platform to meet fears with curiosity and innocent fearlessness.

RECIPE: MUSTARD COMPRESS FOR COLDS AND FEVERS

Use this with CAUTION. Mustard can be quite heating and irritating to the skin, so make sure you don’t let it burn you or the person under your care. Some people have allergies to mustard seed; in doubt, ask or do the muscle test.

Ingredients:

2 cups of flour

4 Tbsp. dry mustard powder, or less according to strength

Warm water

Method:

• Mix the flour and mustard, then gradually add warm water to make a paste. Aim for a smooth and easy-to-spread, but not runny, consistency.
• Take a clean tea towel, or piece of cotton or flannelette and apply the paste on it.
• Fold up the bottom half of the towel and apply to chest area, fabric side on the skin. Do NOT apply the paste on the skin! This would cause blistering.
• Before covering with a blanket to encourage sweating, make sure you put another piece of fabric on top of the paste to avoid staining the blanket.
• Leave on for 10 to 20 minutes. Tingling, heat and redness of the skin are normal as heat and blood circulation is drawn to the surface but too much can bring blistering. Remove if skin turns deep red. If using on a child, watch carefully as young skin is more delicate.
• Remove poultice, wash skin with a warm cloth to remove any trace that may have seeped through and dry.
• Apply sesame oil.
• Repeat the same procedure on the back.

Apply every 4 to 6 hours as needed.

A good recipe to make your own mustard paste is available at http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2010/oct/12/how-to-make-mustard-home.

Making your own shampoo: a healthy, inexpensive and fun choice (1)

Although buying ready made shampoo is extremely convenient, regular commercial shampoos are definitely a health hazard. Buying organic shampoos is certainly an improvement, but may not necessarily remove all the risks and they are much more expensive. Making your own is safe, affordable, simple and fun.

What is in shampoos these days?
Actually, unless you know about chemistry, chances are you don’t know. Companies use many synthetic chemicals in their shampoos, most of them known carcinogens, or agents that become carcinogenic when mixed with others, or that allow two or more ingredients to bind and become carcinogenic compounds. So here are some words to recognize.

Not interested in all the chemistry information below? Skip to Part 2 of this blog for simple and inexpensive Face to Grace shampoo and hair rinse recipes. See how much fun it is to make it yourself.

Summer affects your skin? Take charge with delicious natural recipes!

Most people love summer and soaking in the sun, happy to show up at the office with gorgeous tans in contrasting white shirts, skirts or dresses. Others will demonstrate their painful kinship with the lobster family.

But why is it that some people can bear the rays with apparently little damage and others not? There are many factors, including the level of melatonin in the skin, heredity and good preparation.

Know yourself, know your skin

Ayurveda has a very simple way to analyze the human body. It looks at the balance of the five elements that make up the universe (space, air, fire, water and earth) and how they interact. From that perspective, taking care of the skin becomes quite easy, simple and enjoyable.