As part of a sneak peak for our new membership (Connected) we offered up the product Deep Breath as a Collective Focus. We talk about conscious breathing and more in this post. At the end of that post we mentioned something called Planetary Acupuncture. In the below audio clip, Star explains what it is - as well as leads you through a first round of breathing. We hope you enjoy it! 

I came across this quote on President Oabama's Instagram the other day and I felt like it so concisely put words to something I've been feeling since we entered into this season of being safer at home.

"We are living in a moment that will define generations. We will look back on these days as the world changes into something new, and we will ask ourselves...what did we do to help?" - Chef Jose Andres (doing AMAZING work through his Chefs for America movement right now).

I'm still working out my answer to that and will come back to it in the coming weeks but I do want to start by sharing some of the learning I've been doing with y'all. I've had the opportunity to attend group mental health sessions each week for the last month with a group of fellow female entrepreneurs. Each session has been led by licensed therapists and have been unbelievably valuable. I have also been closely following leaders with high EQ like Brené Brown and Glennon Doyle.

A theme that seems to weave its way through each call, podcast, IG live, and article is the idea that we are experiencing a collective trauma. More importantly, the reminder that when experiencing trauma there is a deep need for self-compassion. Here are a few notes, a quote and the supporting episodes from Brené Brown's new podcast, Unlocking Us.

1. Episode #1 called "Brené on FFTs". FFT is short for F*#cking First Times and it is so relevant right now. In my weekly calls each therapist has noted how challenging it is to be navigating this first time experience alongside their clients. Brené helps put clear language around the phenomenon we are experiencing. 

2. Observe what you're feeling and name it. Make a list of what you're grieving. Don't try to find meaning too quickly, it can be tempting to jump to all the good and the silver linings but this can slow down the grief process. This quote from Glennon Doyle feels like a breath of fresh air:

Pain is not tragic.

Pain is magic. Suffering is tragic.

Suffering is what happens when we avoid

pain and consequently miss

our becoming.

So, consider this a reminder to feel all your feelings. Whatever they may be. As we know - repressed feelings are good at hiding in our body and now more than ever it's important to let them flow through. Listen to episode #6 with David Kessler.

3. Gratitude is a wonderful thing and yes, having a gratitude practice is key for our mental health. But forcing ourselves to feel grateful because we don't think we deserve to feel our feelings (because someone else has it worse) is not useful. Listen to episode #5, "Brené on Comparative Suffering..."

The most important take-away from each of these humans, is to be gentle with yourself. We are all in this together, for the first time. You are not alone in your feelings and your feelings (no matter what they are) are valid.

Deep Breath // Divine Inspiration; Inhaling and Exhaling

Let’s all take a deep breath together. I invite you to pause, close your eyes and take a deep inhale and then a deep exhale.

Conscious breathing is simply the act of being aware of ones breath. The average person at rest takes close to 1,000 breaths per hour. If we can become aware of our breathing for even just a few minutes each day, many of us will feel immediate positive effects.

There are many different breathing techniques, some conscious breathing is designed to be calming and anxiety relieving, some is designed to warm your body, some to give you energy and still others to put you to sleep. The list of possible benefits from breath work is seemingly endless. Kelsea's favorite breathing practice is box breathing. The simple act of inhaling for 4 seconds, holding for 4 seconds, exhaling for 4 seconds, holding the exhale for 4 seconds and starting again. Illustrated here:

Star believes that all the different breathing techniques have one thing in common, they help raise our vibration. A higher vibration supports our immune system, our lungs and so much more.

The Deep Breath essence is made from eucalyptus because it helps us breathe. Deep Breath and of course the eucalyptus essential oil (found in Super Immune Spray) support our lungs. According to Louise Hay (Heal Your Body), lung issues can present around the emotion of grief. There is a lot of grief in the world right now, and grief is a frequency that can lower your vibration.

Anyone else been hit with a cold, or even the flu? Go to sleep feeling fine one night and boom, whatever has been incubating seems to hit hard in the morning. I reached for a lot of remedies to try and decrease the effect of the symptoms and hopefully shorten the length of my cold.

A FEW OF MY FAVORITES:

Wellness Formula // High in Zinc and Vitamin C, a few studies have shown that zinc specifically may shorten a cold up to 30-50% for some people. 
100% Cold Pressed Green Juice // From my local juice shop - Kale Me Maybe (lol) was full of dark leafy greens, ginger etc.
Super Immune Spray // I have a special appreciation for Eucalyptus whenever I have a cold. 
COLD EEZE Zinc Lozenges // Always have these on hand for first defense.
Homemade Bone Broth // Nothing quite like a healing broth when you're sick. I added lots of veggies and black pepper to mine for a hearty sinus clearing soup.

Celestial Seasonings Sleepy Time Tea-Extra // Valerian root for the win!

I also took a lot of baths, used eucalyptus shower steamers, cut out dairy/caffeine/alcohol. Drank Emergen-C and Nuuns and so much water to stay hydrated.

When I reached out for more tips, you all responded to my email and Instagram story with SO many good ideas and products! I wanted to share them with you and also make sure they got written down so I (we) could reference them again next year.

One customer shared these two products from companies who are also made by women, which you know I LOVED.

Urban Moonshine // Immune Zoom! 

Maine Medicinal // Elderberry Syrup

As a former Vermonter, I love Urban Moonshine (specifically their bitters) so I'm excited to give Immune Zoom a try next time I need it! 

MORE TIPS & PRODUCTS SHARED:

"Elderberry anything (liquid, gummies, capsules)"

"Thyme and chamomile tea - I’ll drink 6-8 cups/day sweetened with honey. Thyme is super antibacterial and helps kill the bacteria; chamomile helps flush it out. I use this to stay healthy when others are sick around me, and always rely on it when I have a fever."

"I either use a drop of frankincense in water."

"Lots of ginger!"

Post written by Beth of Sacred Moon Herbs / Pictures of Star by Annabel of Belathee

Linda, my hypnotherapy teacher in school many moons ago placed this thought in my mind & it's stuck w/ me for 20 years now. "In this very moment, you are doing the best you can." She applied this to everything for everyone over & over & over again throughout that semester. When a student would raise their hand & said something like, "But what about when someone murders someone?" And again she'd say, "In that very moment they were doing the best they could." (She had worked w/in the prison system in California for many years prior become a teacher at our school & had in fact worked with many murderers over the decades.)

Some of you may be quite clear on this. Others might change their course several times throughout life. Many might have zero clue how to answer this question. We are all on our own paths in life. We are all humans & all different at the same time. What she was really trying to do was drive home that what our "best" in one moment will be different than the next. As human beings, all of us know that some days are better than others in life. All of us know that there are moments in our lives where we have said or done something that today when we reflect back we think, "I can't believe I ever did that." Typically after that thought comes regret, maybe fear of others knowing & often times guilt over something we cannot go back & change as time flows on always. This is an experience ALL human beings experience.

Hopefully we are all able to learn from those moments & move forward on our highest path. Sometimes I feel like that path is super straight in life just like I35 in Texas. Other times in life I feel like a ship lost at sea searching for direction. In the last 10 years when I felt like that ship, I would work with this flower & gem essence ~ Soul Purpose.

This is vibrational medicine and tunes you into the frequencies...kinda like how a radio can pick up waves in the air...is how I always explain essences to others. This formula has sometimes gently pushed me in directions & other times I feel shoved whenever I let fear block my path. But time & time again, Soul Purpose has realigned me back to the reason I've come to this planet at this time on Earth.

Many of our customers have worked with Soul Purpose over the last 7 years & have shared their stories with us. Sometimes the stories were just a slight nudge they needed, other times their entire lives changed quickly. So if you feel like you want to get clearer on your Soul Purpose path in this lifetime, drop by Moon & pick up a bottle. We think you'll be quite pleased you did! Here's to living your Soul Purpose in this Lifetime.

Post written by Beth of Sacred Moon Herbs / Pictures of Star by Annabel of Belathee

A fun story about the Holy Harmony Spray -

Recently I gave a little flower essence talk at our local raw food potluck and I left a bottle of Holy Harmony Spray for my friend Janis who was the hostess. About a week later I got tagged on Facebook from Janis's sister saying I was the star of the weekend. Then I received a text from Janis saying call me and I’ll tell you why you were the star.

Come to find out there was a 48 hour film project and it was on Janis’s sisters bucket list to make a movie. Apparently she didn’t even have a movie camera. Well, everything came together and they pulled together a team of 7 to make the movie (which had to be written, scripted, acted, filmed, edited and turned in in 48 hours). The guys doing the filming were 20 years old, which meant the group ranged from age 20 to 67. They called themselves the Generation Gap.

At one point they came to an impasse where they thought it just wasn’t going to happen. Janis pulled out that bottle of Holy Harmony and sprayed everyone, and soon after they came to terms again. That happened a few times, and each time they sprayed the Holy Harmony and got through. They made the movie, and got it turned in on time. And guess what they called the movie? Holy Harmony!!! I got to go to the screening, and it was so fun!

How does the saying go? "Big things come in small packages.”

A few weeks ago we posted on Instagram about how much more we notice when we slow down, at the time we noticed the tiny rainbows shimmering off of the side of an amethyst in the window. We’ve been trying to remember to slow down, to notice the little things, to appreciate our surroundings more since then. This itty bitty flower was recently one of those things.

While eating breakfast outside on an unseasonably and rare warm morning recently I looked down and noticed a small patch of greenery in the mostly brown yard. Upon closer inspection I noticed the tiniest purple flowers tucked neatly amongst the leafy greens. A sign of spring!

This sweet discovery prompted a slow stroll around the rest of the yard to see what else was growing out here that I hadn’t noticed from afar. I was rewarded with a treasure trove of resilient, determined bright green curly-q shoots, tiny purple and yellow blooms low to the ground, a few bright red blossoms hiding behind a lifeless bramble, all launching a colorful, minuscule, campaign for spring.

This 15 minutes changed my whole perspective on my day. There is so much life all around us every day that we don’t notice. We often remark on how abrupt the seasons change when really it’s that we hadn’t taken the time to observe the minute changes happening around us.  As a person who often feels starved for color, flowers, and growth in the winter, all it took was a walk around my yard and a closer look to find what I thought wouldn’t be here for weeks or more was right in front of me.

This also serves as a gentle reminder: too often we sit waiting for a sign that what we want has arrived. We wait for the big, loud, notification that it’s the perfect time NOW only later do we realize that what we were searching for was right in front of us we just had to get outside of our comfort zone and look closer or listen harder.

A dear friend of mine has a peyote plant that was gifted to him around 10 years ago. I often say hello to this little peyote plant as I walk by it when I visit my friend and his lovely wife at their home. He has spoken to me about this plant numerous times; he loves it and has a deep connection with it. One of the times that we were talking about the plant he told me that it had bloomed shortly after he received it years ago but it has not bloomed since then.

One day, I received a picture from his wife and the peyote plant had bloomed! The window of bloom was small and it had closed up shortly after it had opened that same day. Would it open back up? Was there a possibility of making a peyote essence? I went over to visit the plant and this is what I saw (pictured below). There were two buds.

There was the one that had already bloomed and was finished but there was also a second one and it looked like there was a possibility of another moment of bloom!

As we observed the buds I talked to my friend and he shared more about how much he loved this sacred plant and together we wondered if it would bloom again.

I had company coming over that night so I went home and occupied myself with cleaning up the house and preparing dinner and then I got the call. The flower was open! At first I thought this was not a good time! I was in the middle of preparing dinner for company that was supposed to be coming over. But the peyote flower was saying, “It’s time. Now is the time.”

I dropped what I was doing - forget cleaning the house for my company, they would understand. This was more important!

I began searching for the bowl that I use to make essences but it was nowhere to be found. Instead, seemingly out of nowhere, another one appeared...  I found small glass bowl that I had never used before. I couldn’t remember where it had come from and it was beyond perfect for the job. The perfect synchronicity. I am SO GRATEFUL!!!

I immediately went to their house, and we proceeded to easily and gracefully make the peyote essence together. The bowl that I had found in place of my usual bowl was a different shape; it was rounded and it curved in at the top. This turned out to be the ideal shape for making this essence because I didn’t want to cut the flower for this one. We gently poured the water over the flower and the way that the bowl curved perfectly inward directed the flow of water over the flower and into the bowl, avoiding any water that had touched any dirt or anything but this sacred bloom in a way that wouldn’t have worked so perfectly had I brought my usual bowl. More magic.

While we were making this essence we made the connection that the person who had gifted my friend this peyote plant 10 years ago had been on one of my trips to Peru and has taken my flower essence course! Somehow we had not put this together before and we wondered… had she (unconsciously) given him this plant for this moment 10 years later so that we could make this essence? Enchanting to ponder.

Right after I took this essence I felt my DNA spinning in my spine and on up to my head and out and then spinning out in a tube torus. One day I will aim to create an illustration of that. I also felt an inner smile grow within and then spread into an outer one. I actually got all giggly. The way this essence (as with most essences) will affect you will depend on where you are at the time. They seem to know you and take you where you need to go.

After making the essence a bubble appeared at the top of the bloom. The first photo shows a reflection, which seems to validate the flowering back to yourself. In second one I see an angel, which feels like the deva of the peyote showing herself.

Ask questions when you take this essence, form intentions, and affirm your desire to learn. Then listen. The peyote flower essence fosters a greater connection to our higher selves, our source. It helps us receive guidance and messages from our angels. Can aid in increased mental alertness as well as performance and creative problem solving by working with the brain, pineal, and pituitary. This essence can be used in ceremony for a new stratosphere of experience.

Tap into our truth. Flower back to ourselves. Endurance, empathy, insights, clarity.