My 3 Favorite Herbs for Colds and the Flu

This cold season is really trying to get to me! Remember when I was sick last week? Well, I finally began feeling better this weekend and then today, can you believe I woke up with a cough, congestion, and a weird headache? Talk about annoyed, lol.

Truth talking here though, I actually love what’s happening. I love that my body is giving me all of this information about what’s going on with me. Let me explain :-). Theoretically, if my immune system was in good working order, it would be able to fight off the cold virus effectively enough for it not to come back, and definitely not so soon. Even if I was exposed to another viral strain, my body should be able to keep that one from taking hold as well.

However, that’s not what’s happening. Instead, I’m feeling a little weak, a little feverish, congested and sniffly again. No Bueno. So what this tells me is that 1. My immune system is obviously not in tip top shape and 2. I’m going to need to help it along again and address the bigger issue of an immune system in need.

So last week, I told you that I’d be talking about my favorite remedies for fighting off a cold or flu virus and apparently the timing is still perfect – I still need the advice myself :-).

My 3 favorite Herbs for Cold/Flu Viruses

Echinacea.

You may have heard of this herb before, as it’s become very popular in the last ten years; it truly deserves the esteem that it has. If used within the first day of the onset of a cold or flu, in most cases, that cold won’t stick around. The general consensus is that the best way to take it is as a tincture. Tinctures are alcohol based liquid extractions of the herb’s active ingredients. (Glycerin based tinctures are available as well for those that don’t consume alcohol.) Most health food stores will have tinctures available for purchase and it is possible to make your own – I will be showing you how one day soon ;-).

Echinacea helps fight the cold and flu viruses by stimulating the immune system. In particular, it encourages the production of more white blood cells. White blood cells are the immune system ‘warrior’ cells that swarm to a virus and break it down equaling shorter colds and flus.  
 

Elderberry.

Elderberry is another herb used for many years as a remedy for colds and flus. It works best if used when you first feel yourself getting sick and can cut the duration of a cold to less than 3 days!

 Elderberry is actually a tree and the part used most often medicinally for colds and flus are the flowers. They have antiviral, anti-catarrhic (decreases inflammation of mucous membranes), and general anti-inflammatory properties. Elderberry also promotes sweating, which helps to kill viruses as well as eliminates immune system waste from the body after the virus has been killed. Elderberry flowers can be taken as a tea (2-4grams per 8oz of water) 3 times a day. It’s also possible to find syrups made from Elderberry at health food stores and yes, you can make your own of this also ;-).

Pau d’arco.

Last but not least, Pau d’arco, also known as lepacho or taheebo, is a tree found in South and Central America that has great healing properties. The inner bark of the tree is used to fight all types of viruses because of its strong immune-stimulating capabilities. This is my personal favorite and when I have it, I can almost always stop a cold before it settles in. I make a tea with 2 grams of the plant to 8 oz of water, let it steep covered for 20 minutes, and drink this 3 times a day. 

So now you have my favorites. All of these are simple and safe to use. All of them will help stop a cold or flu before it develops so it’s a good idea to have at least one of them readily available in your medicine cabinet or kitchen just in case. You’ll be so happy that you do ;-).

In a later article/exercise, we’ll be talking about making an herbal first aid kit and medicine cabinet. Looking forward to sharing that with you all!  

***Important! As always, be sure you run any herbs you are planning to take by your healthcare provider if you are under one’s care. Just make sure they are open to the natural way!

Photo Recap: Naturally Hurd Hair Event in Little Rock

Hey dears! 

So a few weeks ago, here in Little Rock, we had an awesome event. It was the Naturally Hurd Hair Event sponsored by UnHurd Conversations, a new Little Rock company run by Merica Profit. 

Merica reached out to me about 4 or so months ago about participating as a vendor with my makeup line MOVE Makeup and I have to admit - I was skeptical. I have been involved with so many events as a small business owner. I've vended, I've been a guest speaker, I've paid for my booth, I've had my booth donated, and I've even been paid to have a booth and vend. And my local experience had typically been disappointing. Often times, events ended up being more about exposure than actual sales. If I measured success based on people talked to and brochures picked up - they were definite successes; measured by products sold, not so much. 

So needless to say, I wasn't exactly gung-ho about participating in another local event, especially with so much else on my plate. But Merica also asked me to speak as one of her guest makeup artists and she also seemed to have a good idea of what she was doing, what return she expected, and how exactly she was going to go about pulling it off. 

And so I decided to go for it and participate and am I ever so glad I did! 

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Merica pulled off a truly incredible event. I had not seen so many African American natural haired women in one place in Little Rock until then. The sense of anticipation, fun, and camaraderie was electrifying and could be felt throughout the afternoon. Merica chose a great 'celebrity' guest, vlogger Chime Edwards and kept the overall program flowing with interesting and engaging content.  

And as for MOVE Makeup, we had a record sales night! 

So you can imagine, the entire experience was loads of fun and I am looking forward to participating again. Above are a few of the pictures we took - hopefully you can view them and get a sense for how awesome of an event it was!

As always, I'd love for you to keep in touch. I don't only share about awesome events in town, I also share my favorite DIY hair and skin recipes plus my keys to living a naturally vibrant and fulfilled life. You don't want to miss out! Join the email list!

Cold and Flu Symptoms - what are they good for?

So it only seems appropriate this week for me to talk about cold and flu remedies, since I’m currently getting over a bad cold and spent most of last week sick in bed :-D. Yes, I could have stopped it BUT being a bad herbalist, I didn’t have the right herbs on hand and I had a LOT going on this week and so, um yeah..sick in bed it is :-D.

BUT I have been taking really good care of myself and for that I am grateful. I’ll tell you all about how you can avoid being in my situation this season in just a bit, but first I must share my beautiful news :-).

Aalayah Ramel - my beautiful new niece :-).

The big event of last week was the birth of my beautiful niece Aalayah Ramel! Crazily enough, I was actually there the exact second she was born. OMG my friends, talk about a magical moment. I’m sure many, or at least some of you, have shared similar moments. Looking past the obvious pass out factors, it’s a beautiful beautiful beautiful moment. I feel so blessed to have been lucky enough to be there for my sister and to see Aalayah enter our world. WOW doesn’t even describe it!

So that was a big part of my week – helping her get settled, getting to know the new baby, and keeping tabs on my other niece and nephew as well.

Needless to say by the time, Thursday, came around – my body revolted like – 'yeah, you need to spend a lot more time in bed. Lot more chickee. Try all day.'

And so I did. A good mix of guilt and gladness there, I must admit, lol. Who else feels guilty when they stop and make time for themselves. Crazy of us right?!

In any case, I finally have gotten back around to taking care of myself the right way – so let’s get back to that.

 

 

Knocking out that cold, the natural way.

I’m actually going to talk about cold and flu remedies over a couple of posts. This is going to be one of many series that I do when there is a lot of information to share. I know how hard it is to carve out even 15 solid minutes to read these days, so I’ll try to always keep my posts to a 5 minute read or so.

Coughing, sniffling, sneezing. UGH!

Otherwise known as symptoms, these typical signs of a cold/flu are more than just inconvenient. They sap you of energy and are downright irritating to say the least. If you can get rid of them, why not right?

Wrong dears! Let me tell you why. The reason is because symptoms have a point. They don’t happen just to make you miserable. They are actually immune system responses engineered by your body to get rid of the virus that is causing your cold/flu.

Here are three common symptoms and what they are actually designed to do.

Fever: When a virus is present, your body temperature will rise in an attempt to kill the virus. We are familiar with this concept in our everyday lives. We wash our hands with hot water. We boil things to sterilize them. Your body is doing this same thing by “heating itself up” in an attempt to kill as much of the virus as possible and “sterilize” your system. 

Chills: Chills are a sign that your body is in the process of killing off the virus with heat. As your temperature rises, you naturally perspire. As this perspiration evaporates, you lose a bit of heat as well, leaving your skin feeling cold and this is what gives you chills. It’s just an indication that your body is in combat mode!

Coughs and Sneezes: Coughs and sneezes are one of the ways your body expels the virus out of your system. Cold and flu viruses enter your body through your nasal cavities in most cases. As they begin to cause irritation, your body responds by trying to push them out, hence coughs and sneezes. This very same thing is what accounts for runny noses as well. Your body is attempting to rid itself of the invading virus. 

Makes you think a little differently about symptoms right?

Symptoms are NOT a bad thing at all and as much as you can, your focus is better spent on helping your body defend itself and NOT on suppressing symptoms. The symptoms will naturally subside once the virus has been effectively fought off (think about it – we don’t have a cold forever do we? Why does it eventually go away?).

So instead of using our go-to over the counter medicines that suppress symptoms – why not use medicines that help your immune system rock out its job better??

I thought you’d agree on the wisdom of that  and in the next post, I’ll give my top 5 natural remedies for cold and flu season. You definitely don't want to miss out on that one because in the Midwest, it's already snowing and here down south our breezy 48 degree days aren't feeling too warm either! 

Be on the lookout for it and it you want to make sure you don't miss it, be sure to join my email list. I always send out notices when I post something new. 

Until then,

Keep living it up the natural way!

Productivity Hack and Beauty Tip

So It looks like Tuesday is going to be my blogging day :). Even though it is technically a MOVE Makeup day in my work schedule – I guess a little check in on my daily holistic life with you lovelies isn’t a bad thing!

So what was the theme of last week? STRUCTURE! I have to admit, I was a beast last week. I mean, I was so organized. And organization my friends – it’s key. Even for a multi-passionate, free-spirit like myself. When I put it all together, plan it out, and then execute that plan, magical things happen! Whoop Whoop!

One of the things that really got me on task was a complimentary coaching session with a powerhouse biz coach Carmen Tseng. Carmen ‘gets’ multi-passionate folk like me. What multi-passionate means is you have a bazillion ideas and are working on at least a handful at the same time. Um yeah – slowly raises hand – that’s so very much me, lol. How about you?

Anywho, one of the suggestions that Carmen had for me was to give each of my current businesses a day. That means on that day, all I do is work on that business. If ideas come up for my other businesses, write them down, say “thank you brilliant mind!” – and get back to work on what’s in front of me.

Can we say SIMPLE but AWESOME! Sheesh! I mean, why had I not thought of that before? Instead, I was cluttering up my mind and revving up my anxiety trying to do a little of this and a little of that all in the same day. Yes, I made progress but at the risk of my sanity – not really a good trade off right?

So that’s my little productivity hack for you guys today – if you find yourself with a great big to-do list, as simple and DUH inspiring as it sounds – make sure you are categorizing and prioritizing it. And if you can, break it down to days so that your mind gets to use its full mental power in just one area at a time.

I promise you, it’s been KEY to beast-mode Leah this week ;-).

Let me share with you my rocked out list:

1.       Completed a Video Challenge offered by Mimika Cooney to get myself less 'clammy' about doing videos! (Just get out there girl!)

2.       Made a video for a FB Ad campaign to bring in new students at the Leah’s School of Latin Dance.

3.       Revise the web copy on this lovely site of mine so that I’m not making anyone feel like they aren’t a part of this party.

4.       Planned out all my Instagram Posts for @mymovemakeup

5.       Participated in a BLAB for Bribes conference with my biz brethren Bridal Tribe, JfoBeauty, and SemekaPro

6.       Taught a ton of dance classes

Jamberry awesomeness!

7.       Practiced on my own dance work

8.       Painted my nails with Jamberry awesomeness

9.       FELT GOOD!

10.   And probably some more that I just can’t remember ;-).

Yep, pretty freakin’ stellar if I do say so myself, lol :).

TIP of the WEEK!

I can’t leave you without a tip for this week because you know – beauty and wellness – that’s my thang.

Double Duty LOVE for Your Eyes

So we know that as we get older, the sensitive skin around our lovely eyes needs more and more love right? Right. And if you wear mascara, eyeliner, and/or eyeshadow getting it off at night (like you all should be doing – I’m looking knowingly at you ;-)) can be a chore. So I have a double duty tip for you.

Start using Almond oil! Almond oil is wonderfully nurturing for the delicate skin around the eye and it can help reduce the appearance of dark circles over time. And it is crazy simple to use. I have a small squeeze jar on my counter and I apply a few drops to both eyes, over the lids and massaging lightly under my eye as well. Then I wet a cotton ball and wipe gently towards the inside of my eye until all of the eye makeup is gone. I also wipe down the lashes and underneath my eyes at the end to make sure I’ve removed all of the mascara. The excess oil left on your skin allows you to give your eyes a little bit of skin therapy without having to try hard at all. How sweet is that?

Almond oil is getting easier and easier to find – I’d check your local health foods store and even explore ordering online. Ebay and Amazon have some great vendors. And who knows, soon I might create a curated shop on Amazon just for you all ;-).

Give it a try and let me know how you like it!

An Impossibly frustrating situation - what to do?!

Random picture :-). Always a reason to smile and be silly!

Whew, what a week! It was such a doozy, that I’m recapping on Monday night and posting Tuesday night! Still catching up, lol. But it was sparkled with quite a few little lesson gems and cool experiences, some that I'll share in pictures and one that I'm going to talk about in detail :-).

Like for instance, learning to suck it up and think your highest thought instead of your lowest one. That gem came by way of having to replace a customer’s MOVE Makeup order when it disappeared. I often will deliver makeup in the city to customers and sometimes I have to leave it for them in a mailbox. Well this time, I was delivering to a customer’s workplace and I put her package in the wrong business’ box (aghast!).

Now you’d think all was not lost right, because that neighbor would just hand over the package that clearly didn’t belong to them, especially when asked about it.

My Halloween Salsa Party at Cilantros Grill was GREAT! This is me and my awesome friend Keenan - can you guess what her costume is?

However, this was not the case. The employees denied anything had been there. Even the owner claimed he didn’t see anything. So what do you do when you KNOW you did something? I KNOW I left that package there lol.

The only right thing to do was to take responsibility and replace the makeup, which I did. But do you know how livid I was! And how helpless I felt. There was nothing that could be done. It was their word against mine. In that moment I lost just a little bit of faith in humanity thinking about how people could lie so easily and blatantly.

Yet finally though, I hit my eureka moment. I realized that this was an excellent test. How can I turn this negative into a positive? How can I rise above this? What’s the truth here? The truth here was that I was replacing $20 worth of makeup – big deal! You can spend $20 on a good meal. Heck, you might even spend $20 at the local fast food restaurant for you plus one. $20 is nothing to cry over and definitely nothing to allow myself to feel any real angst over. Why let something so small shake up your entire day? And isn’t that saying something subconsciously to myself – if I’m worried and distraught over replacing $20 worth of makeup?

Yes it does.

So in that instant, I decided to “not cry over spilled milk” and better yet, to celebrate the fact that I *could* replace the makeup so easily. That right there is a blessing :-). And I decided to not assume anything about where the makeup ended up. No reason to create bad vibes in my mind about things I can only guess about right?

So ladies (and gents because I welcome all here!), my little bit of wisdom sharing for you today – when you find yourself in one of those seemingly impossible situations, pay attention to the truth of the situation – the *real* truth and not the drama in your mind. Often times it’s not nearly as bad as you think AND there’s probably even something to be glad about in there too!

TIP TIP TIP time

As I was getting myself to this eureka moment, I definitely had some calm-inducing help. Have you heard of chamomile tea my friends? Chamomile has actually become one of my favorite herbs. I’ve just started to appreciate it more in the past year or so. When I combine it with other herbs like peppermint and lemongrass, it calms my nerves and helps me center my thoughts with an extra bit of focus. If you are busy bees like myself, give it a try. It’s very easy these days to find chamomile in your local grocery store. I’d suggest getting a brand that packages it for therapeutic purposes and not just for the flavor, reason being the amount that will be in each tea bag and the hopeful lack of additives. Traditional Medicinals has always been a good choice for me. Combine it with a chamomile and a peppermint tea bag and give yourself a few moments of heavenly pause :).​ 

Yep, one more event last weekend - presenting and vending at the Naturally Hurd Hair Event on Sunday. It was an outstanding event - sold a lot of makeup and made a ton of connections and got good and exhausted :-D!

What I learned from news of Choco Knight's Passing

Today's post is a lot somber. You all may or may not have heard of John "Choco" Knight's passing.  If you are not sure who he is, you can Google him to see what a huge impact he has had on the salsa community. 

I remember him from the days when I was very active in the professional salsa circuit. I considered him a good dude - always happy to see people. Always supportive of other innovators in the salsa community. But more so than anything else - always on the grind. 

That's actually what I remember most about Choco. He seemed to always be moving and shaking - hustling. He had that drive to keep doing the next thing and yes to keep making money hand over fist. (Which is not a bad thing ladies - I'm learning every day that money can not be a dirty word!)

What I learned though from the way that Choco's passing came to me was that it's ok to slow down and that it's ok to choose self sometimes. 

Let me explain. 

Last night, I was feeling pretty guilty about not attending a local event. It started REALLY LATE, lol.  My intent was to catch some rest and then head out to it to support another local DJ and party promoter. But as life can be, the whole rest thing didn't work out AND I sustained a football player level injury hours before thanks to my beautiful niece and her frantic attempt to run away from a scary monster at a haunted house. (Ok, it wasn't that bad but she had me bear hugging her which resulted in me landing flat on my back and her landing on top of me - OW!)

So needless to say, I wasn't really feeling going out. BUT I felt this major sense of obligation and this major dead weight of guilt about being so selfish and un-supportive. "I mean gosh Leah - you are just a little sore, it's not like you broke something. You are just a little tired. Drink some coffee lazy girl. Man, how do you ever expect people to support you if you don't support them. Dang Leah, you are your own problem. Ugh, I'm so done with you."

Anybody else have a track like that running through their mind? 

Luckily I have some good friends that encouraged me to chill, ice my back, and be easy on myself. But you know those voices don't let up easy. They like to cause a little thing called insomnia. They can really mess with that whole rest thing. I know I'm not the only one ;-). 

So I was still negotiating with not feeling bad about choosing myself last night when I woke up this morning. 

And then here comes news of Choco's passing. And after the shock, the first thing I thought was - man Choco was always hustling. I wonder how many times he chose himself. 

What I mean is this. How many times did Choco feel tired, sick, just plain not up to it - but went to the event anyway to support. How may times might he have wanted to take a weekend off - but instead worked through it because "you know, you gotta always be on the grind no matter what."  

My point is this. You have to choose you sometimes and I'm even going to step out on a limb here and say all of the time. We all know what they say about trying to give when your tank is on empty. And trying to give from a place of guilt is just not ever going to work out long term. It's just the smart thing to do to listen to yourself above all other voices. Pushing yourself for the sake of anything outside of yourself (save someone's life or death) is a dangerous gamble to play, especially long term. Mentally it drains, emotionally it depletes, and physically it dials back your years with us.  

A beautiful person told me "Leah there are always going to be people that judge and hate you. And there are always going to be people that appreciate and love you. You can't worry about and tally up either. You have to operate from your own sense of completeness and what's right and wrong for YOU alone." 

So ladies, if you are finding yourself feeling guilt and practicing self-loathing because you just can't keep up with those demands that are coming from outside of you - resolve to choose YOU from today on. Make a pact with yourself that you are going to listen to your inner wisdom, that you are going to respect that intuitive, guiding voice in your head that says I'm just too dang tired, and you are going to preserve YOU so that YOU are here as long as you can be. And further that pact with affirming that you are NOT going to feel guilty and that instead you are going to feel THANKFUL for the opportunity to pour a little bit more into your own cup. 

I really don't know what caused Choco's passing. I don't want you to think that I do. But I do know that the Universe sent me my message loud and clear through Choco's passing. I'm making the pact too :). And I am grateful. 

Life Lessons Learned from Missing Both Tricks

Hey salsa sistas! I have a story to tell. It's going to end up as a story of empowerment but it's going to start off as one of embarrassment :-/. Stay with me! 

As you all may know, I don't just own a dance studio in my town and relegate myself to teaching. I still love to and do  perform. Yep, I still got it, lol ;-). 

BUT, running a dance studio, running a makeup/skincare business, teaching in the dance studio, and still living some version of a normal life can be a little time consuming. So that means time to practice on my own stuff can be a little hard to come by. I'm sure you can relate when you think about your own whirlwind of responsibilities. 

But my dance partner is pretty awesome, crazy dedicated, and truly a blessing (we'll talk about how the universe drops stuff in your lap and then tells you NOW it's time - even when you'd let go of that dream a while ago in a later post). All that to say I could not let him down. 

So I practiced my arse off. I was sore. I was tired. But I was gonna do one more time no matter what. As many times as he hit play, I was gonna hang. 

And so I thought I was ready! There was NO way I was gonna mess up this show. I knew all of my cues. My timing was impeccable. I was poised, calm, in performance mode and ready to rock it. 

And you know what. I totally bombed, like crashed and burned both tricks. BOTH TRICKS my people. Both tricks. Aghast! Sink into the floor. Stop the music and just slink off stage right?! At the very least, spend the rest of the night sulking. Go hide in the corner. Refuse to dance with anyone. Better yet, just go on back to the hotel and wallow in bed - with wine. 

Oh how easy that would have been! So many times, I've done some version of that! I've let my whole entire mojo be knocked off kilter by - what shall we call it - LIFE! And that's all it really is - it's just life - things happen. Just that simple! 

I mean let's be real - what in the world could I have done to change that outcome. I'd already put my best foot forward. No one could have made me believe I should have worked harder to prepare because I was working my hardest. On the night of, I made sure I was rested. I went over the routine in my head. I was in game mode. I was ready. And it still happened. I still flopped the big moments.

And it struck me as I walked off stage, half smiling/half laughing at myself that 'oh well, I flopped but you know what, I still had fun!' AND I still rocked out that show. There was like at least 2 minutes of that show that were OFF THE CHAIN (if I do say so myself). Both of those tricks - 5 seconds tops :-P. Why waste mental energy on  5 seconds? 

And that's a lot like life my salsa sistas. That struck me a few days later. Things are going to flop. We are not going to do 100% like we want to all the time. We are going to try our absolute best - and it's still going to fall short.

My question for you is this - why focus on the 3 or 4 inches you missed instead of focusing on the freaking football field of progress you made? Yes, I like to exaggerate sometimes, but you get what I'm saying right? Which part is really worth your time? Which focus makes you stand up and be happy and proud of yourself. Which focus makes you shrink and try to hide in the shadows. 

You are too awesome to hide deary so as of today, new challenge! For everything that doesn't quite go your way, make yourself pick out the things that were actually pretty cool about it. They are there - you just might have to work a little on that perspective of yours to see it :).

But when you do, I promise you'll be sitting a little higher and feeling a little sassier ;-).

And life won't seem like such a mean punk after all ;-).  

Sunday Rejuvenation

What is your favorite way to rejuvenate? Mine is with a warm cup of tea and This time of year, my patio is the most perfect place to be to drink it :).

Remember my dearest friends, if you don't renew yourself, you'll have nothing to give. It's really that important ;-).

If you missed your refresh this Sunday, promise yourself one for next Sunday!

xo,

Leah