An Idea to Reuse & Recycle

Previously, I introduced the use of herbs & tisanes as natural car air freshener. After doing a bit of thinking, I've come out with a reuse & recycle idea for herbs & tisanes. If you drink tea/tisane or use any herbs, you can actually reuse the same materials before recycling them!

Tea bags & herbs can be reused and then recycled!

First Use
This is when you use your tea bags or herbs in making tisanes.

Reuse
After you've enjoyed your glass of tisane, you can open up the tea bag and collect your herbs. Spread them on the floor of your car as of my previous post to use as car air freshener.

Note that tea leaves are very useful for absorbing odours. So, by leaving tea leaves in your car, you can ensure that your car doesn't smell funny.

Other herbs like roses, jasmines, rosemary and so on, on the other hand, will provide pleasant fragrances for your car.

Recycle
After the fragrance has faded from your herbs, you can collect the herbs from your car and throw them into your compost bin. They will then disintegrate into fertiliser for your plants and you can grow more herbs to enjoy!

Hope you enjoy my simple idea. Remember, recycle, reuse & reduce. We can make the world greener.

Fragrant Flowers & Herbs as Car Air Freshener

I've never loved commercial car air freshener as they give a sharp sting on my nose. So, in order to keep my car smelling fresh and pleasant, I've come out with a very simple solution!

All you need to do is just pick some flowers or herbs, fresh or dried, that you love and then scatter them on the floor of your car. As you drive, stepping back and forth between gas and brake, as well as clutch if you are driving manual, you will be stirring the herbs to release their aroma into the car.

They will provide fragrance for about 1-2 weeks and you can either change the herbs or add in more. It might make your car look a bit messy but the natural & pleasant fragrance will be well worth it.

These are some of the flowers & herbs that you can consider.

• Chempaka (Michelia alba [pic] & Michelia champaca)
• Gardenia
• Murraya paniculata

• Patchouli (said to be a great deodorant)

• Roses
• Jasmine
• Lavender
• Mints
• Basil
• Sage
• Thyme
• And many more!

If you are a gardener like myself, then you can get your plants fresh or dried from your own garden! Else, you can easily buy them from the market.

Have a fragrant car & drive safe!

A Quick Cure for Hiccups

A quick search in the internet will tell you all sorts of methods to get rid of hiccups. Some of the more popular ways proposed online are:

• Hold your breath
• Drink water
• Get tickled
• Get scared

Different methods work for different people, so I am going to propose a method of my own in addition to the myriad of online methods - Acupressure.

You don't need to be an acupressure expert to pull this one. When you are suffering from hiccups, all you have to do is to locate the solar plexus point and give it a long firm press.

There are many points corresponding to the solar plexus. I am going to give you the one that is most accessible. It is on your palm, below your middle finger and slightly below the balls of your palm. You can press on either left or right palm. It doesn't matter as long as you are pressing the right area.

Basically, by pressing the solar plexus point, you are sending in signal to centre yourself. This will help your body cope with changes as it relaxes and balances itself.

Hopefully this simple method can be useful for you all.

Curious Cases of Iridology

Iridology often gets the bashing from scientific community that it is pseudo-scientific. They argue that the irides rarely, almost never, change throughout a person's life time.

As a practicing iridology, I beg to differ. This argument is invalid simply because, if a person never made any major changes in his/her lifestyle and diet (as would be recommended by an iridologist), how can we expect the person's irides to change? What he/she had been doing all the while gave this patterns in the irides. And as long as this same lifestyle/diet persisted, the patterns will remain!

Although I am still quite new in my practice, I have already witnessed a case of changes in the irides. The subject was a young girl in her early 20s. Her irides display rosary pattern, signifying poor lymphatic movements and toxin accumulation. I advised her to go for more vegetables in her diet, do some exercises and use my aromatherapy oil to enhance the effect. A few months after that, I came back to observe her irides and the rosary pattern was no longer there. Though there was still signs of toxin accumulation and poor bowel movement, the improvement was definitely significant and observable.

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In addition to the above, I have observed a few very interesting cases in iridology. There were several individuals who displayed signs of weakness or stress in their adrenal glands and upon further interview, I found out that they suffer somewhat of a similar symptom. They are somewhat easily stressed up or go into panic mode. Nervousness and general sense of fear is common.

There is another case of consuming large amount of coffee. This man also demonstrated weakness in the adrenal glands. It is very likely that the coffee overstimulated his adrenal glands, hence they are constantly working in hyper drive.

Medically, this may not be seen as a symptom or an issue with the adrenal glands or health. However, this makes perfect sense in a holistic viewpoint. There is still much to share between conventional medicine and holistic therapies to achieve the perfect synergy for the best interest of the general public.

Home Made Rose Toner

Having been troubled by acne throughout my teenage years, a simple and effective solution was much wanted. After some searching, I found this cheap yet effective solution - home made rose toner.

To make this simple rose toner, all you need are a small container, filtered/distilled water and some dried/fresh roses. The ratio of rose to water is quite dependent on how strong you like it to be. Around 3-5 flowers to 50ml would be quite a good ratio. To cut on cost, you can even plant your own roses. I have my own rose plants, so I can dry my own roses and prepare them for making my own toner. If you don't have a rose plant, you can get those dried rose buds or petals from herb shops. Commercial fresh rose flowers are not recommended because they are laden with pesticides, which aren't the least bit good for your face.
Dried Rose
First step is to measure your water using the container. Fill the container to the brim with water. Then pour the water into a pot and bring to boil. When the water is boiling, put your roses into the water and boil for another 30 seconds. Then remove the pot from heat and allow it to cool, covered (you won't want the sweet fragrance of the rose to escape). Once cooled, pour into your container and you have your very own rose toner!
Rose Toner
Store the toner in the fridge and it can last 1 week. If you wish to extend the shelf life of the toner, you can consider adding a few drops of essential oil (recommended 2-4 drops per 50ml of toner) after the toner is cooled. If you add essential oil, make sure you shake well after adding the essential oil and also every time before you use.

Essential oils that you can consider adding are tea tree, lemongrass, niaouli, lavender, palma rosa, ylang ylang, pine, petitgrain, rosemary, frankincense, carrot seed and eucalyptus. These oils are generally considered antiseptic, good for acne, scar healing or regeneration of skin cells.

In addition to that, peppermint and spearmint can give your face the cooling effect of menthol. They are also antiseptic. However, only a small amount should be used as these 2 oils may be sensitising.

Rose oil can be added into the toner for even more pleasing fragrance but rose essential oil is very costly. And I won't use cheap fragrance oil for they may have no therapeutic effect and may cause more health complications if applied onto skin.

Although essential oils are fun and effective to use, there are situations where they may be contra indicated, such as pregnancy, epileptic and so on. There may also be risk of allergic reaction or sensitivity. It is important to find out more from a qualified aromatherapy practitioner before you use any of these oils.

With essential oils, the shelf life of the toner in the fridge can go up to 1 month. Oh, have I mentioned that by keeping the toner in the fridge, the cool temperature of the toner can give you extra toning effect? So, this is a fun, natural, green yet cheap way to make your own toner.

I've been using this toner and am very pleased with the result it delivers. I hope you all will find pleasure in this simple remedy too.