Kids' Blog: About Rosemary - By Bria

Hi I`m Chris`s friend`s daughter, Bria. I am 12 yrs old and i love to txt. thts y most of my stuff below will b in txt. It is 2010 and i am writing about Rosemary. we grow Rosemary in the front yard. Its easy to grow, u don't need to do much. water it, and give it sunlight, see not much. Basically its a small-ish plant that smells like lemony vick`s rub, like if u bustd open a freshly peeled lemon with vicks. smell it but b sure not to get it too close to yr eyes bc it hurts rlly bad. Rosemary rlly smells tht fresh, may b even a lil fresher. its small and green, and if u cook chances r u have cooked something with Rosemary. well tht concludes our blog for today. have a great friday.

<3 Bria :)

Salt, pepper, rosemary, ginger .. soothing muscles or seasoning chicken ?

I've been stretching a lot and practicing some new "stuff" in Kung Fu (I am training in Chen Style Tai Chi Chuan and Qigong). It has me rather sore in several places.

A few arnica tablets, a good soak in a rosemary and eucalyptus salt bath, followed by a rub made from an essential oil blend of black pepper, fresh ginger and rosemary diluted to 2% in a base of arnicated oil, and of course, proper rest, should do the trick.

Incidentally, that same EO blend, diluted to 2-5% in olive oil instead of arnicated oil (which is NOT edible) makes a great seasoning for chicken!

Rosemary can be a bit too stimulating for some at night, so that should be taken into consideration when making a muscle rub blend for evening use. For me, it is not usually an issue. I have no doubts that rosemary oil or not, I shall sleep well tonight and have dreams filled with symbols and insights :)

Sniffing the Rosemary

I've been suffering a "hay fever" attack since Saturday afternoon, which I spent outdoors at a kid's birthday party in the burbs. It was a breezy day, tree and grass pollen is particularly high right now and mold is doing its happy thing as well .. all of which is making me unhappy.

I'm currently sniffing Morroccan high cineol rosemary essential oil and its a wonderful thing. A little sniff helps clear and soothe my aching, stuffed sinuses and it restores my olfactory perception too. It is torture for me not having the ability to smell properly!

Another reason to love rosemary!

Scent and Studying

As I mentioned in my previous blog, I've recently taken up a new challenge and that is learning Mandarin Chinese. I have been using scent to help me study and recall what I have been studying.

It has been long known that our olfactory sense has powerful ties to memory. For example, I have a bottle of Guerlain's Samsara perfume that I purchased while on one of my trips to Turkey. Whenever I smell it I am immediately transported, very vividly, to a moment in time where I'm eating kesari and mezes while overlooking the Bosphorus. I can even recall what I was wearing and feel the warmth of the sunshine on my face.

I have found this works for studying as well with Rosemary being a particularly good scent, as it stimulates circulation, which brings oxygen to the brain, hence improving its function. But this isn't limited to Rosemary. The big part of the trick is less the scent chosen (Samsara is a far cry from Rosemary ;) , and more sniffing the scent not only when studying, but also when recalling!

'What if you can't carry it in a bottle to your tests?' you ask. Scent your pen or pencil, wear a dab on your shirt sleeve, scent your hair, wear it well diluted as a perfume, etc ...

The nose knows and can help us remember what we know!