February 26, 2024
Flower Blessings
Please remember that nothing herein should be taken as medical advice nor a diagnosis or prescription in any form. Thank you for always making the sovereign choices that are best-suited to you.
Over time, I have discovered and documented many healing aspects of Nature and of flowers, and am excited to share that researchers are also, beginning to take note.
For example, researchers at several institutions of higher learning, including Harvard, Texas A&M, Tel Aviv University and Rutgers have reported that including flowers in our lives can provide many benefits, including helping to:
- encourage health and healing
- reduce stress
- decrease depression
- increase our self-esteem
- evoke an increased sense of happiness
- increase compassion for others
- help refresh recent memory in seniors
- help encourage companionship-seeking in seniors
- improve creativity, innovation and creative problem-solving
- perk up morning moods
- boost enthusiasm for work
And initial research shows that participating in a flower-arranging course may help reduce pain in patients with fibromyalgia.
October 21, 2023
Dandelions
Please remember that nothing herein should be taken as medical advice nor a diagnosis or prescription in any form. Please and as always, make the sovereign choices that are best-suited to you.
Dandelions (Taraxacum officinale) are composite flowers, and what appears to be one dandelion flower is actually a flowerhead consisting of hundreds of tiny ray florets.
The tenacity of dandelions is almost unmatched among flowering plants, and thank goodness! All parts of dandelions provide benefits. Dandelion flowers contain beneficial phytonutrients and antioxidants; dandelion leaves contain multiple vitamins and minerals; and the roots have long been used for supporting digestion, detoxification, and sacred healing, and can make a tasty, caffeine-free coffee substitute.
The persistence with which dandelions continue to appear signifies their unrelenting and resolute support of humanity. Dandelions can instill the importance of faithful determination, persistence, and perseverance, and inspire the pursuit of our highest happiness.
The signature golden-yellow color of their proud mane can further encourage us to assimilate higher wisdom, remaining flexible and optimistic as we navigate life: a recipe for attainment and ascension. This ability can reduce distress and inform multiple systems of the body to release defensive stances when unnecessary and instead, focus on fundamental, restorative processes.
As we flow through life with a practical and simultaneously-mystical outlook, the result is the fruition of our highest potential, as echoed by dandelion’s spherical seed head, appearing after flowering. There is something within us that understands the supreme perfection and enchantment of a natural sphere, and the decisive balancing resonance we can receive in their presence is almost unmatched.
[For more on dandelions and other sacred flowers, please see The Sacred Healing Alchemy of Flowers: Book One of the Sacred Nourishment Series: Working with Nature to Restore our Divine Blueprint and Optimize our Well-being.]
September 1, 2023
Rosehips
Please remember that nothing herein should be taken as medical advice nor a diagnosis or prescription in any form. Please and as always, make the sovereign choices that are best-suited to you.
Roses (Rosa spp.) are part of The Rose Family, which includes many fruiting plants, including almonds, apricots, cherries, nectarines, peaches and plums (Prunus spp.); apples and crabapples (Malus spp.); hawthorns (Crataegus spp.); pears (Pyrus spp.); blackberries and raspberries (Rubus spp.); strawberries (Fragaria spp.); and more!
Like other family members, after roses bloom, they produce fruits that are technically considered “pseudo-fruits”, known as hips.
Rosehips are edible and therapeutic. Rosehips contain a high natural source of vitamin C, a highly fortifying, immune-boosting, and detoxifying nutrient, plus they contain beneficial phytonutrients.
To eat the rosehips, first remove the inner seeds and “hairs”, leaving the flesh and skin to eat. Cultivated roses, such as Rosa Rugosa, produce larger hips (approximately cherry-size) that can be “de-seeded” and “de-haired” fairly easily. Rosehips can also be made into a restorative tea.
Wild roses also produce hips, and these tend to be even more nutrient-rich, but fairly small in size (pea-size), making the de-seeding process a bit more challenging. As such, they tend to be best-used for making restorative teas.
I typically harvest our cultivated rosehips in Autumn, and harvest wild rosehips in early Winter, leaving plenty for the birds!
Enjoy Nature’s blessings!