There is something wonderfully familiar about eucalyptus when a cold begins, the bright freshness of lemon when a room feels stale, or the gentle sweetness of Roman chamomile when we are feeling miserable and want nothing more than a little comfort. These plants have been valued in aromatic and herbal traditions for generations, and their essential oils offer us a wonderful variety of ways to create comforting personal care preparations and more inviting surroundings.

We often think about changing our moods through positive thinking, changing our circumstances, or finding something enjoyable to do. Yet there is another avenue available to us, one that works through our senses and doesn't require us to reason our way into a different emotional state.

Have you ever had one of those days when everything seems to be going wrong and, before you know it, you're standing in the kitchen eating potato chips straight from the bag? You weren't necessarily hungry when you walked into the room, but the moment you saw them, they seemed like exactly what you needed. Maybe your preference is chocolate, a piece of cake, or something warm and buttery. Whatever your choice, the desire can be remarkably strong, particularly when you're feel

Have you ever walked into a room and immediately recognized a fragrance before identifying where it was coming from? The unmistakable smell of freshly brewed coffee may bring a sense of anticipation, while the scent of a forest after rainfall can change our experience of the surroundings almost immediately.

if food provides our body with energy, why doesn't eating more always leave us feeling more energetic? The answer begins with understanding that the energy contained in food and the energy our bodies can actually use are not quite the same thing. Food supplies the raw materials, but our bodies must digest, absorb, transport, and transform those materials before they become useful to our cells. Every part of that process depends on a remarkable collection of nutrients, enz

We spend a great deal of time thinking about whether we are moving our bodies enough, but there is another kind of inactivity that receives much less attention. We can be surrounded by stimulation all day and still use a surprisingly narrow range of our senses. A television can give us colour, movement and sound. A phone can give us photographs, voices, music, maps, conversations and entertainment without requiring us to move more than our eyes and a finger.

There was a time when feeding a family involved a great deal more than deciding what to pick up on the way home. Meals were planned around what was available, what could be afforded, what was growing, what had been preserved, and what could be made from the ingredients already in the house. Cooking was not treated as a special interest or hobby because, for many families, it was part of running a household. The person preparing the food learned through repetition.

What Happens When Kindness Doesn't Stop With You? Gratitude recognizes that something good has reached us. Generosity decides it doesn't have to end there.

There is something valuable about looking three months ahead because it gives us enough distance to imagine a meaningful difference without pushing the future so far away that it becomes vague. Ninety days is long enough for strength to improve, routines to settle, meals to become easier, a project to move forward, or one neglected part of life to receive the attention it has been waiting for, yet it is still close enough that we can picture ourselves standing there and looki

Most homes are already filled with scent long before anyone opens a bottle of essential oil. Shampoo, laundry products, hand soap, candles, cleaning products, plug-ins, perfume, fabric softener, room sprays, and personal-care products all contribute something to the aromatic environment we live in every day, yet because scent has become so closely associated with making a house smell pleasant, it is easy to forget that aromatherapy offers us something quite different.

There are movements we once did without giving them any thought at all. We bent down to tie our shoes, stepped over something in our path, climbed stairs, reached behind our backs to fasten clothing, crouched down to retrieve something from the floor, carried groceries from the car, stood up from a chair without leaning heavily through our arms, and sat down on the ground without first wondering how we were going to get back up again.

The season is changing. Your movement can change with it without disappearing.

There are almost an endless number of essential oil combinations that can be created, but creating a beneficial and well-balanced blend is not choosing three oils that sound appealing and putting them together. We consider the purpose of the blend, the aroma, the strength, the method of use, the people who will be using it, and ingredients that may need to be avoided or adjusted. Sometimes we make a small change to a recipe, and others the person and situation become the star

It is also especially useful if you live somewhere else in Canada and are wondering whether we can still help you. You do not have to live close to Nova Scotia to have a conversation with us. We work with people remotely, ship across Canada, and can discuss products, custom formulations, and appropriate service options no matter where you are located. Sometimes ten minutes is all it takes to answer the question that was keeping you from reaching out in the first place.

You cannot make an informed choice about something you’ve stopped noticing. Something can become part of your normal environment long before you ever stop to ask whether you actually want it there.

You cannot make an informed choice about something you’ve stopped noticing. Something can become part of your normal environment long before you ever stop to ask whether you actually want it there.

Meal planning is so much more than creating a grocery list. Long before your first bite. Behind each meal comes awareness, intention, and planning — or lack of them. When does your supper actually begin? Most of us would probably say that it begins when we sit down with the plate in front of us, or possibly when we take the first bite, but by then a remarkable number of decisions have already been made. Someone has decided what the meal will be, the ingredients have been chos

We use the word energy all the time. We say we have none left, that someone changed the energy in a room, that certain foods give us energy, or that getting outside and moving can somehow make us feel more alive. Most of us recognize these experiences immediately, but we rarely stop to ask what is actually happening, why our energy can change so quickly, or how much of what we feel each day may be influenced by what we eat, how we move, and the people around us,

For most of us in Canada, water has always seemed abundant. We turn on the tap and expect it to be there. And most of the time it is! But increasingly erratic weather is changing the way we need to think about water. Long dry stretches can be followed by sudden heavy rain — sometimes so much, so quickly, that instead of soaking into the ground, it rushes away.

How do you let your child become their own person without losing the relationship that helped them become one?