Chalice of Self-Worth

Before you immerse yourself in New Year, New You, you are invited to raise your chalice of self-worth…

Who holds
The chalice?
Our measurement
Of self-worth?
Who decides?

Ancestors?
History?
Society?
Colleagues?
Friends?
Family?

Our puzzle pieces
May fit together.
Perhaps
Not quite.
Our imperfections.
Our beauty.
Who decides?

Closed eyes,
Breath deep,
Energetic feelers
Search for connection.
For affirmation.

When the
Moment of
Clarity
Beams from you,
I’ll be there.
To cheer,
To celebrate,
To love.

You are enough.
Your chalice is full.

Whether
Puzzle pieces
Fit
Or not.
You are enough.

Affirmation
From within.
You are enough.

Recognition of
Self-growth.
When and how.
Comes from within.
You are enough.

Cheerleading,
Celebration,
Love.
From within.
You are enough.

I am enough.
💗

If you feel called to explore self-care, self-love and self-worth, at any point on your journey through womanhood, whether for menstural health, fertility health, pregnancy health, or menopause health, lets get together in 2019

Hunkering down for the winter

Are you feeling the call to slow down? The energy of winter pulling you inwards? How easy is it to listen to the call at this festive time?

As winter solstice falls upon us, we may find ourselves searching for warmth and enduring comfort. On the day of the longest darkness, it’s a time to gently sow idea seeds and intentions, readying for emergence as the light gradually returns.

What’s the nature of your internal landscape though? Are you in your inner winter and menstruating in sync with the winter solstice? It’s a beautiful opportunity to offer your blood back to the earth as your set your intentions and sow those seeds.

Are you in your inner summer, ovulating and craving an expansiveness that may be hard to reach on a wintry day?

Breathe into the qualities of your internal terrain in the solstice darkness.

Hunkering down, you may feel yourself called to aromas that act as a balm to your needs. So, to ease you through the winter months, here is a selection of essential oils and a resin that will nourish and offer comfort; your very own blanket of aroma care!

Cedarwood – cedrus atlantica

Atlas cedarwood is a woody, sweet, slightly balsamic and deeply nourishing oil; it offers a softness in it’s aroma that you just may want to welcome with open arms during the winter.

But, don’t underestimate the softness of this healing oil, it’s one that offers solidity and stability. According to Valerie Ann Worwood “It has qualities which are often needed when the spirit is weakened by living too much, loving too much, and being unable to forgive” (The Fragrant Heavens, Valerie Ann Worwood)

It’s the perfect oil for menopause “It encourages the strength we need to continue on our pathway, and urges us to hold fast to our dreams, helping bringing our hopes to reality” Valerie Ann Worwood

As a physical support, winter coughs and colds can also be supported by atlas cedarwood, with it’s warming expectorant and anti-spasmodic actions.

It’s considered a powerful tonic, according to Gabriel Mojay “The oil is tonifying to the kidneys and spleen-pancreas and may be used for general lethargy, nervous debility, lower back ache and poor concentration” (Aromatherapy for Healing The Spirit, Gabriel Mojay)

Delicious oils to blend with cedarwood for winter nurturing are, frankincense, petitgrain or orange.

Ginger – zingiber officinale

Spicy, pungent sometimes sweet tones, but ever so warming.

Ginger is a perfect companion during the festive season, with its digestive qualities; useful for nausea, bloating and flatulence.

With ginger’s ability to stimulate circulation, add it to a massage blend over the abdomen to relieve not just digestive, also menstrual disturbances.

This is another oil that encourages strength, according to Valerie Ann Worwodd “Ginger is a fragrance of valour and courage”. (The Fragant Heavens) P Holmes agrees “It is recommended for conditions associated with loss of motivation, will or inner strength, especially when these present apathy, listlessness, indecision, confusion and disconnection” (The International Journal of Aromatherapy)

When blended with sweet orange, you are gifted with a warming chocolate orange aroma. One you may quite happily envelope yourself in all winter!

It blends beautifully with all other citrus oils, or introduce some fun into the long wintry nights with aphrodisiacs such as ylang ylang, rose or patchouli.

Geranium – pelargonium graveolens

As Valerie Ann Worwood proclaims: “Geranium resonates with Mother Earth. It signifies the archetypal energy of goddess culture, and encompasses the energy of the feminine, of reproduction, of birth and rebirth” (The Fragrant Heavens)

With an aroma that is sweet and floral (even though it’s the leaves of the plant that hold the essential oil), it is soft, green with ever so slightly citrus notes.

Along with deeply feminine qualities, geranium is regenerative and an anti-depressant, as Gabriel Mojay shares: “Clearing heat and smoothing the flow of Qi, geranium, like lavender is able to relax the mind, calm agitation, and ease frustration and irritability”. (Aromatherapy for Healing the Spirit) It has PMS support written all over it.

Geranium blends well with citrus oils, but as a menstrual support it’s beautiful with clary sage and lavender.

Benzoin – Styrax benzoin

The balsamic, warming sweetness of Benzoin allows it to act as a deeply holding oil. It takes seven years for the tree to be ready to share the resin, giving it an energy of maturity and groundedness.

Supportive in winter with it’s anti-infectious and expectorant properties. And peaceful for the soul as an anti-depressant, with it’s calming and reassuring aroma.

Gabriel Mojay in Aromatherapy for Healing the Spirit comments that “…it is recommended for those who pursue “spiritual journeys”, as it helps to steady and focus the mind for meditation”. Supportive in those moments when you can escape the festive throng.

There is a low risk of skin sensitisation with Benzoin, so use well diluted. Only 2-3 drops are needed in a blend to experience the comforting warmth and sweetness of the resinoid.

For a tender, yet uplifting blend, benzoin with frankincense and orange creates a perfect aroma blanket.

Enjoy the oils and blends with care, remembering less is more when using essential oils. If in doubt please contact an Aromatherapist for advice.

All my body work treatments include a blend to meet your needs on the day. For more information on how I work and the treatments on offer, check out the link here.

Winter Solstice blessings


Harry, My Angel

Harry, My Angel

***Trigger warning. Contains description of baby loss***

The blue lines

Announce your presence.

But I know you are

With me,

Before

Any pee on a stick

Proudly

Displays life.

~

Such a quiet

Soul

In my womb.

Always quiet.

All 21 weeks

We are together.

~

Your peacefulness

Tells me

There is unease.

That you’re not meant to stay.

~

But,

When we hear

The words

“Anomalies”,

“Termination”,

“Decisions”,

A knowing shock

Overtakes me.

~

Awake with you

For the week

I still

Hold you

In my womb.

Still giving you life.

~

The day arrives.

Remember, remember

The fifth of November.

A homely room

For two.

No, for three.

~

“Take this pill”

They say.

The pill

To ensure

You are

Born sleeping.

Too shocking

To comprehend

~

You come

Earthside

That same day.

~

“You don’t

Have to endure

Pain”

They say.

~

A live birth,

In another room,

Means

No pain relief.

For hours.

~

Oh the blinding

Pain.

Until finally,

The big needle

Gives some respite.

~

Fireworks

Explode outside.

While inside

Oh so peacefully,

You arrive.

Silent.

Forever sleeping.

So tiny.

~

Dressed as an

Angel,

I hold you close.

I kiss you.

~

We say goodbye.

And then,

They take away

Your physical body

~

There are no tears.

Just a chasm,

So deep,

No emotion

Can surface.

~

No baby

To hold

On the journey home,

After birth.

Just your tiny

Hand and footprints.

~

In the days after,

Life-giving milk

Flows

From my breasts.

How utterly

Futile.

~

But still no tears.

Until I see

Your toy-sized

Casket.

And finally,

We weep.

 ~

“ARC is the only national charity helping parents and healthcare professionals through antenatal screening and its consequences

Around 800,000 women in the UK become pregnant each year. More than 40,000 will be told there is a risk their baby has a serious fetal anomaly. Naturally, this causes a great deal of anxiety and uncertainty. Most parents will ultimately be reassured the pregnancy is progressing as expected. Sadly, some will receive the devastating news that their baby has a serious, sometimes lethal condition or might be told that the outlook is very uncertain.

ARC offers non-directive information and support to parents before, during and after antenatal screening; when they are told their baby has an anomaly; when they are making difficult decisions about continuing with or ending a pregnancy, and when they are coping with complex and painful issues after making a decision, including bereavement.”

Lighting the Way Out of the Darkeness

Is it just me or has it felt like an extraordinarily long winter this year?

As Spring Equinox was finally with us yesterday, I welcome in the light with immense gratitude, the balance that it brought and now for all the new possibilities and a time of ascension.

A question was asked of me this weekend – which essential oils would support the spring equinox?

I’ve pondered the oils would help to ease us into the new light, a time of nurturing fertility, not just our own, but that of the earth and of our souls?

Here are three essential oils that might just help this time of transition…

My first choice would have to be Sweet Orange (citrus sinesis)

4627303801It’s an oil that exudes utter joy; is uplifting and a perfect fragrance to bring you gently out of the winter darkness. An oil of regeneration; it is sweet, fruity and fresh, and often lights up the eyes of those who breathe in its revitalising odour.

It blends well with so many other oils, but for the purposes of super boosting regeneration and a fertile soul, a more summery oil, Jasmine Absolute (jasminum officinalis), and a fellow spring oil Bergamot (citrus bergamia), are beautiful. These three oils offer sweet, slightly bitter, and deeply floral notes which come together in synergistic bliss.

My second choice of Spring Equinox support is Bergamot (citrus bergamia or citrus aurantium).

I love Valerie Ann Worwood’s description of the oil “It lightens the shadows of the mind, bringing illumination and laughter…lifting us from stagnation, bringing an awareness that the light will rescue us and take us ever forward to the realms of peace and joy” – The Fragrant Heavens by Valerie Ann Worwood

A popular oil, it’s gentle aroma and flavour is used in Earl Grey Tea, but psychologically, as Valerie Ann Worwood alludes, an aroma particularly wonderful for depression. When used with other oils it tends to take not just the blend, but the person receiving it, to wherever they need to be. I can’t think of another oil it doesn’t work beautifully in synergy with.

And finally… Helichrysum

The last oil I’ll mention to ease you through the changes of Spring Equinox is Helichrysum (helichrysum italicum or helichrysum angustifolium), also known as Immortelle or Everlasting.

It has a bitter-sweet aroma. As Gabriel Mojay writes “At it’s most transformative, everlasting oil can loosen the hardest of knots lying deep within the psyche…” Aromatherapy for Healing the Spirit by Gabiel Mojay.

Using Helichrysum in a blend during an Abdominal Massage, especially at the solar plexus and over the womb, could truly be a game changer in emotional release.

4627303801Blending Helichrysum with uplifitng citrus oils such as Bergamot and Grapefruit makes emerging from the darkness into the possibilities brought by spring, quite a magical prospect.

To support the transition from winter to spring, a wonderful way of using the oils mentioned would be to vapourise them, or ask your local friendly Aromatherapist to use them in a blend for you. For optimal results with vapourising, do so in an airy room, for not more than 10-15 minutes.

Blessings on your spring emergence.

x

 

***A couple of notes of caution
Jasmine should not be used during pregnancy, unless under the guidance of an Aromatherapist.
Bermamot (unless it is furocumarin free), is phototoxic, if not used in a safe dilution, and can cause burning if exposed to UV light.