Natural Wellness Resources
Welcome to the fifth week in our 10 week series on Natural Living! I hope that you learn something that will help you on your journey to natural living. Wherever you are, just jump right in! Hopefully we can all inspire each other to live more mindfully, one step at a time.
This week’s focus is on natural wellness. The best way to keep sickness at bay is by keeping yourself healthy: the practice of intentional wellness. So many things in today’s world act against us, our immune systems bombarded with the toxins of modern living. It is our responsibility to try to protect ourselves and be proactive about our health. I Thought I Knew Mama offers some easy ways to create a healthy home environment to facilitate this goal. (Some links below are affiliate links.)
During Pregnancy
A time when it’s even more important to stay healthy is while pregnant. After all, you have another’s well being to look after, too! Nine Naturals has 7 tips to naturally boost your immune system while pregnant. Emotional health while pregnant is certainly another area to pay attention to as what we feel can be felt by the baby as well. Diary of a First Child has some natural remedies for the different feelings that may crop up during pregnancy. I took Juice Plus+ as my prenatal supplement while pregnant along with Calcium Magnesium Citrate (I liked the blueberry flavor best) right before bed. I was also taking chlorophyll and Blood Builder to boost my iron levels since I had a prior history of hemorrhage. It’s also a good idea to add a fish oil supplement, something I’ll be talking about later this week.
Feeling Sick?
If you find yourself coming down with something, Vitamin C is a great thing to try to take a lot of. I like Emergen-C for when I start to feel like I might be getting sick. The raspberry flavor is my favorite. I also enjoy drinking Red Wellness Tea from Earth Fare. I occasionally will add raw, local honey (although, to get all the health benefits from honey, you shouldn’t heat it.) Speaking of honey, it is also a great way to boost your immunity. Raw garlic works fantastically to beat a cold as well as many other ailments and apple cider vinegar is my go-to for sore throat pain and to ward off a sinus infection. Yarrow is a fever remedy and can be made into a tea or cooked. A fever is the body’s way of fighting infection so it’s not necessarily a bad thing, though. And if you have a cold, this nutritious nettle soup will feed your body the nutrients it needs to fight it off. Another handy thing to have on hand is Four Thieves Vinegar. You can put some on top of a salad and boost your immunity. I know I mentioned tea above. Some other tea you might want to look into is Sacred Rose Teas. Their tea is phenomenal and promotes good health. More natural ways to maintain or return to good health are pinned to my Crunchy Health and Beauty board, too.
Women’s Health
First and foremost, I always recommend the book Taking Charge of Your Fertility. Every women should know how her body works. Now that that is out of the way, let’s talk about that time of the month. I’m going to go ahead and suggest natural methods of feminine hygiene, of course! I wrote about my experience with pads for postpartum and include the brands I like and used. (I’m still waiting for the official return of my menses so I can’t yet tell you my thoughts on use for anything other than postpartum currently.) Their are other options (Sea Sponge Tampons, Softcup, the Diva Cup) as well that you may want to look into. I also think it’s important to learn about pelvic floor health, a topic covered in a guest post later this week.
A Biblical Perspective
My Journey to Learn comes at a definition of health from a biblical perspective that I liked. As spiritual beings, we can’t deny that our spiritual health is important. I’ve written about trusting God in hard times and know that with prayer and faith, peace can come.
This week we have a couple guest posts, some more giveaways of products that will help your family maintain health naturally and helping our daughters with a better approach to our monthly flow.
Natural Skincare (May 5 – May 11)
Natural Baby Care (May 12 – May 18)
Natural Haircare (May 19 – May 25)
Natural Cleaning (May 26 – June 1)
Eating Naturally (June 9 – June 15)
Eco friendly Clothing (June 16 – June 22)
Reducing, Reusing and Recyling (June 23 – June 29)
Natural Mouthcare (June 30 – July 6)
What Living Natural Means to Me (July 14 – July 20 )
Want to participate? Learn more in my Call for Submissions post.