Kristen

Simple Summertime Hack

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Sunshine through trees

I realize we are heading toward fall here in the northern hemisphere, but where I live, we are experiencing a late heat wave so sunscreen is still on my mind. Also, it is my understanding that stinging bugs, like bees and wasps, start to get aggressive as summer winds down, so repelling insects remains more important than ever these days.  

Making your own bug repellent is easy and a great way to use all natural ingredients instead of toxic alternatives, but in a pinch it’s really easy to just add essential oils directly to sunscreen before rubbing the mix onto your body. The proportion should be about 2 drops of essential oil into about a tablespoon of sunscreen, with important precautions below.  

You can use just about any essential oil, though some essential oils are more effective than others, all have some repelling qualities to them. Just do not use any citrus oils, meaning orange, lemon, lime, bergamot, grapefruit, or any others that I might be missing. This is because citrus oils attract the sun and can cause hyperpigmentation, which undermines sunscreen. Also be aware that even though peppermint is particularly repelling to bugs, only use one drop in approximately a tablespoon of sunscreen because it is strong and can be irritating to skin. Other essential oils known for being excellent insect repellents are thyme, lemon eucalyptus (not a citrus), citronella, and all of the mints.  

I love Mountain Rose Herbs and have been buying herbs, essential oils, and related supplies for well over two decades, so I am thrilled to partner with them as an affiliate. Not only are they a reputable company with quality products, but they also sponsor my favorite public radio station, KEXP, which has increased my respect for them even more. When you find a company, organization, person, station, etc, that you just resonate with so fully, it’s just such a pleasure to share them with the world. I think these current chaotic times have just made me especially grateful for the like-minded people and organizations out there.

Here’s my short video on the hack that I put on social media:

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Happy late summer! ☀️ 

Celebrating Sustainability

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In a world that is increasingly focused on technology and AI, it’s such a treat to celebrate local foods and sustainable living in a county-wide, community setting. The county where I live, King County, named for Martin Luther King Jr. and home to Seattle as well as the surrounding area, hosts a free festival, Chomp!, every summer at a much-loved county park. All the vendors and booths that are there are focused on sustainability in one way or another, whether it’s a restaurant focused on fresh, local, seasonable foods or a booth for upcycled clothing, kids’ activities, twists on traditional fair attractions, and more, they all have the same base values. They also have live music throughout the day, and I was most excited about seeing Kim Deal, of Pixies and the Breeders fame and her band did not disappoint. Her new album partially reflects on her time as caregiver to her parents, one of whom had Alzheimer’s for twenty years, while still managing to transport listeners with her signature, ethereal voice and musical rhythms that play with quiet, voice on wind moments next to big, banging, all-out rocking beats. 

I loved the whole festival, but most of all I love that King County holds this every year. It reminded me that there are others who truly value sustainability and that all is not yet lost. Even Kim Deal, during her set, kept remarking how cool the festival was and how lucky we must all feel, and I had to heartily agree! I can’t say that I’m often praising the government these days nor feeling overly optimistic, but as far as King County goes, I’m extremely impressed with their priorities and values. I wanted to share this so other people can also be encouraged, as I was, that there are still people, communities, and even some leaders in charge who care about sustainability. 🌿 ️

Kim Deal performing on stage with her band.

Happy late summer ☀

Late Summer

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How is it already moving toward fall? I have been seeing ‘Back to School’ promos all over and it seems like this summer has not even gotten started! The mid-August to mid-September time of year has been my favorite in recent years, so I am not really complaining, although the speed of time passing does unnerve me as we seem to be getting collectively busier and busier.

Part of the reason this summer has particularly been a blur is that I’ve been teaching at a new college four days a week, which means a new campus, new procedures, new course material, new students, and new workplace culture dynamics. I’ve also been teaching my first fully remote class with the college that I normally teach at, which has also meant a learning curve with unforeseen challenges. Now that both of those classes are past their zenith and will be over by the end of August, I’m more than ready to turn my attention to some herbal crafting to prep for the fall.

Mountain Rose Herbs is having a 20% flash sale. I'm using this as my signal to slow down and honor the late summer to early fall season with some herbal crafting.
Campus

Lucky for me (and you!) Mountain Rose Herbs is having a rare sitewide sale where everything is 20% off. I’m an affiliate so they made sure that I knew about it in order to share this information with you and I’m so glad that they did because it would have passed me by without my even noticing in the swirl of information that is modern life.

Here are a few things on my list: I’ve been interested in the “hair and body perfume sprays” that I’ve been seeing more and more often lately, and I’d like to try to make my own. From what I can tell, it looks like a lighter perfume than one that is just intended for the pulse points on the body, so I am planning on using a combination of witch hazel and vanilla infused vodka (otherwise known as vanilla extract) which I need to make. I’ll add the essential oils that fit my mood when the vanilla extract is ready, but since that will be occurring in mid fall, I already know it will include sandalwood and nutmeg (just a drop or two!).

I also want to look at gathering a few stocking stuffers, such as these little ceramic diffusers because there is always another corner or car that needs a diffuser.

I have more things I’ll be looking at when I’m home from work, but right now I need to get dressed to get to campus. I just wanted to share this as soon as possible because the sale will be over tomorrow, August 7th, at 11:59 PM PST.

Here are their details: The code is ORGANIC20 and is valid for 20% OFF ALL regularly priced items.

*Offer expires 8/7/2025 at 23:59, PST. Cannot be combined with other discounts or offers, including wholesale pricing or loyalty point redemptions. We are unable to apply this to previously placed orders. Valid online and at our physical retail locations. While supplies last.

Happy mid August! I hope you are having a great summer and are also looking forward to the cooler weather of fall. ✨🌿☀️

Stress Management with Teas

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Traditional Medicinals Teas

Summer season brings to mind frolicking in the sun, days at the beach, vacations, staycations, and…stress…? This year is bringing about more stress than usual if you are remotely paying attention to world events, and I for one am not finding my usual summertime easy cadence. I was just starting to acknowledge this fact to myself and consider if I needed to add some adaptogens or nervines to my daily herbal routine, when I happened to get an email from Traditional Medicinals asking if I would be interested in trying one of their teas, including one for stress. I happily agreed to the stress related one because that tea features skullcap, an herb that is somewhat hard to find in teas and supplements. Skullcap is one of those herbs that other plants can be mistaken for, so it tends to be avoided in formulations, but it has a somewhat unique traditional use as an herb that can calm repeating thoughts. It is a nervine that is generally used for calming purposes, and it can provide added support for those who tend to lie down at night and suddenly get hit with circular thoughts, or those who have OCD related patterns of thinking. (It’s obviously not a cure for anything and if circular or repeating thoughts is a problem for you, please talk to a medical professional about it.)

The tea with skullcap is Stress Ease Tension Relief and has other supportive herbs in it that combine in a pleasant, lightly minty taste. If you drink from a big mug like I tend to do, two tea bags at a time gives a stronger taste and more of a calming feel.

Stress Ease with Skullcap
Organic ingredients

They sent me two other teas in their Stress Ease line which I wasn’t expecting but already I’m taking one of them, Stress Ease Focus, with me to work everyday. It’s a flavor profile I would not have normally bought for myself because I don’t like fruity teas and this one includes apple, but it does not taste fruity at all. It tastes lightly minty and pleasant and I really appreciate the ginseng in this formula for focus and non-caffeinated energy support. It’s actually the adaptogen I was considering adding to my routine before I received these teas so it seems the universe agreed that it’s just what I needed! I like two teabags of this Focus tea as well because my travel mug is large and a stronger taste suits me.

I have to say that I am really impressed with these teas. If you know their legendary herbal tea, Smooth Move, then you know how long this company has been around. When I worked at a natural foods store over 25 years ago, Smooth Move was our best selling tea by far, and I asked Traditional Medicinals if it is still a best selling tea and they confirmed that it is. I see that they now even have capsules of it as well as a couple of different blends, so if you have issues with occasional constipation, you probably already buy this tea, but if not, you might want to have it on hand. One nice thing about tea packets is you can slip a few into your luggage when traveling or stash them in your desk at work and they don’t take up too much room.

Another thing I like about these teas is that all the ingredients, at least in the teas that they sent me, are all certified organic. That is truly rare and is a testament to not only their values but also shows they are a reputable company that has been around a long time. When it comes to herbs, that really is something to keep in mind when making buying choices.

I’ll be leaning on these teas and other stress reduction techniques for the remainder of the summer and beyond. Honestly, in today’s world, it takes a lot to achieve a balanced sense of well-being so do what you can to prioritize finding yours. The world needs you.

Stay well and let me know if you try any Traditional Medicinals Teas.☀️🌿✨

Quoi?! and Connection

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I just had to share that quite by accident I found out that my book is being translated into French! It looks like it will be available in October. Here’s the link if you want to see the French version on Amazon. This news just delighted me to no end and I hope to see it published in other languages as well.

In other news, I have become a subscriber to Tangle. I highly recommend checking it out, especially if you are in America and have relationships that are struggling due to political differences. It is a free newsletter, although there is also a paid version that is ad free, that takes a news item and gives a short synopsis of how the right and the left are presenting the event or situation. It then gives the founder’s take which sifts through the propaganda of both sides and drills down on key facts and his critical analysis. It is a rare gem in that it offers journalistic integrity that somehow manages to reach both sides of the political divide with an avid readership that spans the spectrum. Here is a link to yesterday’s newsletter.

I found out about Tangle through an episode on This American Life back before the November election. At the time I was too tired of the election coverage to look into it myself, but it stayed with me and I finally looked it up and am pleasantly pleased with what I found. If you are interested in hearing about it through great storytelling, check out the episode. You won’t regret it.

I hope you too have some unexpected, great news this week and that hope and connection find you, support you, and hold you tight.

Shingles Vaccine Shown to Reduce Risk of Dementia

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Rainbow on a dark, stormy day

I am not sure how big in the news this has been recently because I only heard it once and in passing, so I thought I’d share it here in case anyone missed it. Researchers have been studying the link between having shingles and then later developing dementia for a few years. Their findings consistently showed a link between the two conditions, but parsing out the lifestyle differences was always an issue. They managed to study a population and create a scenario that was akin to a randomized trial where they rolled out the vaccine in Wales in a very controlled way. Only 79 year old people were given the vaccine each year, while the people who were already 80 and older never received it. These groups of people were completely alike in every way, yet those who got the vaccine were 20% less likely to later develop dementia. Women showed an even greater protective result. I got this information from the Stanford Medicine News Center which is a well written, easy to read article. The original findings were published in Nature.

The reason that having shingles leads to a greater chance of developing dementia is unclear, but might have to do with the virus itself, or how it weakens certain key elements in the body’s functioning.

Peace and Protection 💜🌱✨

Brain Health Info

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I’ve watched a few of these episodes in this Better Brain Blueprint docuseries, not all, as they are released one per day. This one (linked below) on inflammation is quite informative. We all hear how inflammation is bad, but this actually explains what is happening when we live with chronic inflammation.

Click on this link for the episode: Episode 7: Your Brain on Fire

I’m not affiliated with this in any way, I just wanted to share in case it helps someone.

Easy Roasted Artichoke Hearts Recipe

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Artichoke Hearts with Garlic Sauce

My friend and I like to go to a Spanish tapas restaurant and order their Artichoke Fritters with Serrano Aioli along with sangria. We always do this after a nice long walk, so the food tastes especially good. More than once we’ve finished our shared appetizer and ordered a repeat!

I really wanted to make something similar at home, so I started to search for frozen artichoke hearts, which are surprisinly hard to find. I eventually found some at Whole Foods, but they are not kept in stock all of the time, so when I see them, I grab several bags.

My attempt to replicate the artichoke fritters was a failure. The breading wasn’t the same without the frying technique that the restaurant uses. I decided to just roast the artichokes without breading, and instead just add olive oil, seasoning salts, and some fresh ground pepper, to see how they’d turn out. They turned out fabulously.

It’s so easy to do and artichokes go well with just about any protein you want to add to them. They work well on salad, in wraps, on pizza, or can just be dipped into an aioli or a tzatziki, garlic, or tahini sauce.

Recipe:

Ingredients:

Frozen artichoke hearts

Olive oil

Seasoning Salt

Ground Pepper

Whole garlic cloves (optional)

Preheat oven to 400. Pour olive oil on the still frozen artichoke hearts (and whole cloves of garlic if using) on a pan with parchment paper. Sprinkle seasoning salts and grind pepper on top. Cook for 20 minutes, then flip the hearts over. Cook for another 15-20 minutes.

Quick Video

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Since I am usually just cooking for myself, quick, easy recipes that are still healthy are my favorites right now. I hope you enjoy the idea and it sparks some creative cooking for you.

Happy almost Valentine’s Day!

You are What You Consume

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Most of us know about the Super Size Me documentary. In it, Morgan Spurlock ate McDonald’s for a month and shared his physical and mental decline during this period. Dr Chris van Tulleken conducted a similar experiment using ultra-processed food instead of fast food. He documented his health and well-being over a month when he ate a diet composed of 80% junk food in order to draw attention to the heavily processed food that children in the UK are routinely fed. This can be seen in the BBC Documentary, What are We Feeding our Kids?. What strikes me most about these two experiments is the fact that these people experienced such negative results in just a matter of a few weeks. It does not take long to create significant imbalances in the body.

Whether fast food or junk food, both of these men experienced physical and mental symptoms including weight gain, fatigue, addiction to food, erectile dysfunction, depression, and more. Luckily both were capable of reversing those symptoms once they switched back to a healthy diet. It’s so easy to go through our busy days without thinking about how our food affects us, but it clearly has a fundamental impact on our mind, body, and emotions.

Mind vs. Reality

Everyone thinks they have a healthy diet. Seriously, ask anyone and they will say that yes, they eat healthily. But the truth is we all have a tendency to go with the flow, and ‘the flow’ has been toward ultra-processed, fast and easy foods. It’s understandable. We are busier and more distracted than ever. We lack the time to even think about the food we eat, much less cook it from scratch. Most first world countries are indeed experiencing a longer life expectancy, but America is in fact, getting less healthy.

Consumption Beyond Food

These experiments have been on mind lately for a different reason than the connection between food and health though. I’ve been thinking about how fast it is to take a healthy body and make it unhealthy. It took less than a month for those two men to have serious consequences from their unhealthy diets. What about our minds? Can an intelligent person become less intelligent in a similar amount of short time due to what they consume?

For example, if we take a person with average intelligence, and give them books, time to process information, classes with instructors who mentor them, work that builds cognitive thinking skills, and discussions that encourage using them, won’t that person get smarter? If we take that same person of average intelligence and fill their days with social media, entertainment disguised as news, podcasts and articles that simplify issues and play on emotions and implicit bias, won’t that person lose intelligence? I’m just asking questions, but when I look around, these seem like reasonable questions.

Personal Responsibility

Some people might take issue with my saying that we gain or lose intelligence, and perhaps I should say cognitive thinking skills instead. I use the word intelligence though because it seems like the right word. We are not guaranteed health, just because we were born healthy. We have to support our health through what we eat, how we move our bodies, prioritizing sleep, hygiene, and more. I think it is the same with intelligence. We are not guaranteed to keep our intelligence just because we made decent grades in school or have a certain career. We have to support it, continue to be aware of what we are consuming, when our emotions are being played upon, and when we are goaded into thinking that aligns with our implicit biases.

I’m trying to stay hopeful about the state of the world. It seems to me that if we can collectively use less social media, respect the integrity of journalism, build communities in real life, and have a growth mindset, we might be able to survive, and perhaps even evolve.

Again, I’m just asking questions. I would love to hear what your thought and opinions are about the state of the world. So tell me, what do you think?

Wishing you days of fulfillment, and rejuvenating nights 🌱🍓🍜🫖💜

Boost Brain Health with Essential Oils: A New Study

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Plug in diffuser, candle diffuser, and essential oil

Want an easy, pleasing way to increase your health and longevity in the new year? Something that doesn’t feel like deprivation but is instead adding aesthetically pleasing components to your life? Or maybe you have a parent or loved one who is getting toward the 60+ range, who is starting to take brain health more seriously. This is for them, and YOU.

I heard about this study in the news a few times this year, and I intended to look further at the study but always got distracted when I sat down to do so. I finally looked into it and, wow, it’s a good one. It is rare to have a scientific standard study involving natural ingredients, but one was carried out recently involving ‘odorants’ and aging brains, and the results were statistically significant!

The Study

If you want to read the entire article on the study, here it is. I actually found it by way of another article which I will link to here also because it is a good one as well. I will try to give you the biggest takeaways here in a short summary:

There was a study involving adults ages 60-85 who were instructed to put essential oils into a diffuser for two hours at night when they went to bed. There was a control group that did the same actions, but the ‘essential oils’ were just a highly diluted, scant scent. The adults were given cognitive tests before and after the six month trial period, and the adults who used the essential oils had a significantly significant better outcome than the control group.

This study was undertaken because there has already been a recognized correlation between the sense of smell and brain health. The decline of the former foretells a decline in the latter. This has been shown not only related to dementia, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and other age-related decline, it has also been recognized in COVID patients who have lost their sense of smell. The article on this study says that even those with chronic sinus infections show declines in certain regions of the brain.

How to Use these Findings

If you want to emulate the study’s participants, you need a diffuser and seven unique essential oils. The diffuser needs to be the kind that can stay on for two hours, and then automatically shut off, such as this one from Mountain Rose Herbs. It is a plug in model that allows for 120 minutes of diffusing time, exactly what is needed. They used one essential oil per night, no blends, just one pure scent per evening. The novelty of a different scent each night was deemed important, as well as the fact that these were not blends. The essential oils used in the study were: eucalyptus, lavender, lemon, orange, peppermint, rose, and rosemary. The essential oils that they picked don’t seem to matter so please use whatever seven essential oils best suit you. Theirs were obtained from The Essential Oil Company, Portland, OR, but you can get essential oils from any natural foods store such as Whole Foods, or online at Mountain Rose Herbs, or Aura Cacia.

Recap

Each night, before you or your loved one goes to bed, put a few drops (the amount varies depending on the diffuser) of an essential oil in a diffuser. Turn it on its two hour setting, so it will automatically turn off after you are asleep. Then go to bed. That is it! Remember to use a different essential oil each night, and rest assured you are building up your brain while you sleep.

Other Takeaways

The original research article discusses other studies showing how using essential oils throughout the day benefits the brain. The larger truth found in that article is that we would all benefit from using more essential oils in our lives, whether it is at night, in the morning, or sometime in-between. Preferably multiple times in-between AND morning and night! There are so many factors that cause ill health, poor aging, diseases, and declines in all areas of our lives now, so it makes sense to counter some of those factors with what we know works. Essential oils have been proven to work.

If you need other ideas on how to incorporate more essential oils into your daily life, please use the search function on my website for ‘essential oils’, and take a look at my book, All Natural Perfume Making.

Personal Note

This post was written with my lovely, late friend, Lisa Garvey, in mind. This is exactly the kind of finding we would have excitedly talked about over drinks after a long day of working (and goofing off) together at Rainbow Blossom back in the late 90s. I miss you girl.

Happy New Year!

May 2025 be a year of exceptional health, growth, and peace.