About a year ago, a friend of mine suggested I teach a class on making Fire Cider. The name 'fire cider' has become a wee bit controversial these days, but I'm gonna use it anyway to pay homage to one of the best plant-medicine teachers and herbalists out there today, Rosemary Gladstar. Apparently, a company on the east coast has co-opted the name and make this old-timey folk remedy famous.

Those in the herbalist community know that Rosemary coined it first.  God love her.

So, my friend and I were creative brainstorming on plant classes and what would make for the most interesting one. At about the same time I received a post on Facebook from another friend who shared a beautiful image of a pint of homemade fire cider and her caption read, "This looks intriguing."

I agree. It took me a year to come around, but I finally made a huge batch of Courtney's Fire Cider (no trademarks intended) and filled all my orders promptly. Yes, I do make it easy with convenient delivery service or mail order. To learn how to make it, read on. The good news for those of you following a keto plan, Fire Cider is Keto Friendly!

As an Integrative Nutrition certified health coach and counselor I cringe at the title of my newest blog post, 12 Weeks of Keto. No, I'm not talking about Aikido either, although I really wish I was because that would be awesome. I'm talking about the low-carb, high fat, ketogenic craze. It was made famous in the nineties by Dr. Robert Atkins and has once again risen in popularity.

New research shows Atkins high protein, high fat, low-carbohydrate diet was beneficial. Well, sort of, after a fashion. Despite what the research shows dropping the carbs seems like an impossible order. I'd have to have a pretty good reason, right?

Feed the skin you're in. We pay a lot of money for designer products, but what kind of ingredients are these "designers" using?  In the last few blog posts we talked about how the skin is a window into health.

Our skin can be a predictor of internal illness or disease before it grows into something serious. Taking care of our skin can be a regular way of 'checking in' on our inner terrain.

Once we realize how important our skin is as a predictor of health, we learn to nourish it with the ingredients it's crying out for. That may be an anti-itch cream, anti-inflammatory, or anti-microbial cream.

Making your own cream might feel herculean, but the benefits are sure worth it when you need to customize particular ingredients to feed your skin what it needs. When I started writing my other post, Beauty is Only Skin Deep...Uh, Not I wanted to include a recipe for a simple beauty cream. It just got wayyyy too long, so I've included the recipe below. But, the original post is still very interesting. It gives several identifiers for learning to read the skin's health, how outer beauty can only be tended from the inside, and where to start in terms of nutrition in learning about managing health and beauty.

My daughter Maia, with Alaskan Fireweed. (2016)

Maia and I in Ashland, Oregon (March, 2015)

Achieving health and beauty from the outside-in is impossible. Here’s why.

The human body is made up a 50 trillion cells. Every second each cell in your body coordinates billions of chemical reactions. Every day your heart beats 100,000 times pumping 7,500 litres of blood through 59,520 miles (96,000 kms) of vessels if you're a child. 100,000 vessels if you're an adult through three different kinds: arteries, veins, and capillaries. Every month you completely regenerate your outer layer of skin.
 
Did you just catch that? Every month we completely regenerate our outer layer of skin. Once we start taking better care of our self and health we see an immediate difference in our skin.

What does that mean, self-care? And how can we start taking better care of our health, from the inside-out, to  see that beautiful reflection of health in our skin?

It is different for everyone.

Sometimes the hardest stories to share are the ones worth telling. It was 2013 in Homer, Alaska when I met Steve Johnson, the founder of Alaskan Flower Essences. For several years I had seen the training he offered, but lived in Seattle and then Livingston, Montana. So, I couldn't swing the long trip to Homer.

In a strange and bizarre twist of events, I found myself unexpectedly living in Anchorage, Alaska. In 2011, we were forced to move after a series of unfortunate events from our home in Montana.

But, that is a different story.

One of the easiest ways to prepare herbal  medicines is by making a strong tea. Medicinal teas are easy, affordable, and are a  great way to hydrate through out the day.

While herbalists use plant extracts such as tinctures, balms, flower essences, sprays, and syrups to help their patients recover from illness or injury, they also prescribe teas for maintenance of health as well.

Tea is a stalwart delivery method for every hardworking herbalist. While modern society becomes more and more interested in traditional forms of healing, teas makes herbal medicine delivery simple and tasty, always.

If you're anything like me, you hate feeling lost, hopeless, and frustrated. As a young child I was extremely sensitive. I would plaster myself up against walls upon entering a room, even if it was only my extended family. Exasperated relatives watched confused as I would crawl under a dinner table and stay there until it was time to go home. Over the years, mainly through my involvement in sports, mental health, and advocacy, I've learned how to cope with extreme sensitivity, but it took a long time to understand what sensitivity was and how to change my relationship with it from the inside, out.

People who suffer from extreme sensitivity experience their environment as overwhelming. How they experience their sensitivity depends on their upbringing, energetic body type, and defense mechanisms.

Some teachers are naturally gifted when it comes to spotting our trouble spots or as Dr. Wayne Dyer calls them, ‘Erroneous Zones.’ These zones are the negative thought patterns so ingrained in our daily consciousness that we can’t see them for ourselves. The greatest teachers pause, listen deeply, and identify our strengths and weaknesses. They aren’t afraid to hurt our feelings by telling us the naked truth. They disarm us with meaning, often times brutal, but always for our own betterment.
Sometimes these masters are unrecognizable to the masses. They work diligently in classrooms, trek quietly up mountainsides, or even serve drinks as our neighborhood bartender.