June 2023 Newsletter

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“Far up in the deep blue sky, Great white clouds are floating by; All the world is dressed in green; many happy birds are seen, Roses bright and sunshine clear show that lovely June is here.”
— F. G. Sanders

Even in Florida, where we are blessed with sunshine for so many days, it seems that June becomes a time to come out of your cave and hibernation.

A time where we work a little less, play a little more. Enjoy the planet and the gifts of the Earth.

As a child, June always meant freedom. School was out, vacation was set to begin and in my childhood home, my mothers birthday month.

My father used to celebrate my mother the whole month of June. Buying her presents of fresh seafood, flowers to plant, pool floats to lay on, new backyard furniture. It was the month of family vacations and early morning boat rides. It was the month of fishing trips, sunset cruises. All of my best childhood memories were in June.

While this sounds very idyllic, there is a part missing. Although it was my mothers birthday month it was also the month that my father would misbehave the most. If he wasn’t in the proverbial dog house at least 12 times during the month of June then life and summer would not be as fun. It was like they had a mutual understanding…my father would celebrate my mother all month while getting himself in all sorts of trouble. She would look away to 50% of it, and he would get her more presents. This arrangement made for deep belly laughs, shaking of heads and hours of fun.

I lost my dad when I was 27, my mom when I was 31. This is the month I always miss them the most. I miss that freedom, those days of protecting my father from the trouble he was about to get in with my mom, or being the tattle tale just to watch the hilariousness of them being themselves.

Those times are long gone and I miss them. This is when I would bring my kids to Long Island and sit on their bench over the bay. To hear the water crash against the docks and remember the times of fishing and my dad pushing someone in the water, or the time he told me it was fine to pet a swan (almost bit my finger off, he got in big trouble for that one). The mornings I would wake up to my mother making a 8 inch sandwich with a phone book on it, knowing that we were heading to the ocean for the day.

Every June, I wake up to remind myself to keep that laughter, lightness and sense of play in my heart. I hope you do too.

Meredith

Let’s talk about Aromatherapy and the Autonomic Nervous System

The Autonomic Nervous System is the part of our bodies that controls many of our processes and behaviors. Store Manager Rachel Jennings takes this topic into bite size pieces for our readers.

The nervous system is getting a lot of attention lately, especially with new scientific discoveries being made nearly every day. People are beginning to understand the connection between this incredible and complex body system and its relationship to the anxiety and stress that we feel as symptoms of living in an ever-evolving world.

This month, we discovered a research article that details the effects Fir essential oil has on middle-aged women’s autonomic nervous systems via short term inhalation.

To better understand, it helps to break down the nervous system into subsystems. The nervous system includes the central nervous system (CNS) and peripheral nervous system (PNS). The CNS is made up of the brain and spinal cord, whereas the PNS is made up of many, many nerves that connect the brain to your internal organs, and can be broken down into the somatic and autonomic nervous systems. The name of the Autonomic Nervous System is useful for remembering its function: it controls the automatic functions of your body that you need to survive. These are processes you don’t think about and that your brain manages while you’re awake or asleep, like digestion, breathing, heart rate, and blood pressure. On the other hand, the Somatic nervous system relates to the senses, and includes the muscles you can control, plus all the nerves throughout your body that carry information from your senses. That sensory information includes sound, smell, taste and touch. Vision doesn’t fall under this system because the parts of your eyes that manage your sight are a part of your brain, and therefore a part of your Central Nervous System.

Finally, the Autonomic Nervous System can be broken down into 2 divisions: the Sympathetic Nervous System, which is responsible for your body’s “fight-or-flight” response, and the Parasympathetic Nervous System, which is responsible for the “rest-and-digest” body processes. 

With this basis of understanding, the study went on to discuss the effects of Fir essential oil, also known as Needle Fir or Manchurian Fir (Abies Holophylla), on autonomic nerve activity in middle aged women. To be clear, they analyzed the data of chemical constituents naturally found in Fir essential oil - the main 3 compounds being alpha-pinene, followed by camphene, and limonene, which are commonly found in many medicinal plants and essential oils. They found that inhaling essential oils that have a high alpha-pinene content increased, or activated, parasympathetic nerve activity and decreased heart rate, contributing to physiological relaxation. When participants filled out their study’s clinical questionnaires, it was found that inhaling Fir essential oil (and Hinoki Cypress: another oil with similar chemical composition) increased feelings of “comfortable,” “natural,” and “relaxed,” as well as a correlated decrease of negative moods and an increase of positive moods.

These results emphasize the potential of aromatherapy as a complementary and alternative medicinal approach to stress management, especially given its relatively short duration of action for inducing physiological and psychological relaxation. The study suggested further research studies to be conducted on the various species such as pine, cypress, and oak, to investigate their efficacy as well. In summary, this study reported that the inhalation of fir essential oil for a short period (1) significantly enhanced parasympathetic nerve activity, (2) marginally decreased sympathetic nerve activity, and (3) improved mood, comfort, relaxation, and natural feeling.

In conclusion, inhalation of fir essential oil can help menopausal women in their physiological and psychological relaxation.

To read the study, click here

FREE ESSENTIAL OIL CLASS TODAY

There is a large difference between finding out what essential oils you need vs what you want. There is also a large difference in essential oils that an Aromatherapist prefers vs what is listed on social media. In this FREE class, Meredith goes over her Top 10 Essential Oils she thinks needs to be in every home and it’s not what you will find on Pinterest. She looks at the oils from a more functional standpoint, meaning that she looks at the chemistry of the oils and what they actually do for the body. This Top 10 then gives a list a little different because she thinks about common ailments at home: pain, insomnia and digestive issues plus more that can be taken care of with 10 oils vs 30. This saves you time and money.

The best part of this class is that it is free. The class is located on Zoom and scheduled for Tues June 13th at 7 pm.

If you register before then by clicking here, and you miss it, you will also get access to the recording which will give you the link to watch it at your leisure.

Don’t miss out on this Faeve Tuesday Tea Time! It’s bound to be enlightening and a blast!

To register click here.

‘Tis the Season

While here in Florida we have seen rain, this is also the seaon that we head to the beach and the mountains for some summer fun.

Minutes turn into hours, hours into days until you wake up and find out that you oops had to much Vitamin D. Your sunscreen faded, you swam it off and you are starting to feel that heat under your skin. On the surface it’s red and hopefully not, but possibly starting to blister. If you have been in the salt water, the combination may have left your skin brittle and dry as well.

Meredith grew up on the coast of Long Island and was constantly at the beach, on the boat or swimming her way through the summers. She was of the generation that baby oil and hot sun was a “yes please” not a “no way”.

When she moved to Florida she found this happened year round but more likely in the summer months when she was even just gardening. This was the start of the idea of Sun Butter. It came to fruition when her son got himself into a boogie board and sun incident at Indian Rocks a few years ago.

This product was made for after sun issues. Sun Butter was created with a base of over 4 butters (avocado, macadamia, aloe, olive), vitamin E and 9 essential oils for various healing purposes. The idea was to cool the burn, moisturize the dry and heal the skin from future damage.

This is always a summer favorite. Our VA, Andreea put a post on our social media about this product. Meredith got a text from her best friend that she will be going to the beach with in July: “DO NOT FORGET A FEW TUBS OF THIS PLEASE TY LOVE YOU”.

We love hearing the stories of this product. Skin peeling goes away, redness turns to pink. Like a fire extinguisher for the skin.

Due to the seasonality of this product we only make one to two batches a year. Each batch is good for 2 years. The most amazing thing to do is keep it in the fridge before you use it, soooo cooling. It smells delicious and works wonders. Get a tub today while you can to keep your skin healthy, wealthy and wise.

Pick up a tub today here.

HERBAL DEEP DIVE: Boneset

Native to North America, Boneset (Eupatorium perfoliatum) has been a staple in Herbs Books and Herbal Medicine doctors dating all the way back to 1887.

Indigenous people used this herb for fever and malaria. However, recent studies and clinical applications have taken this plant and brought it’s healing properties forward to a new area of healing. This herb has been gaining popularity on social media and we want to let you know the true characteristics of this beautiful plant.

This plant is known to be beneficial for:

Fevers: This is the most common and primary use for this herb. It is extremely effective with fever related bone and muscle pain.

Digestive Issues: This herb should NOT be used if you are having loose stool as it does act as a mild laxative. However, this is a great herb for times of digestive distress when you feel full or ill. This herb influences bile secretions, which then aids digestion of fats and oils.  It is important that if you are using this herb as a digestive aid, note that too much may cause the laxative activity to assimilate, so dosing is important.

Respiratory Conditions: Wonderful herb for upper respiratory issues as its activity includes clearing the mucosa and excess phlegm during times of trouble.

Muscle pain and tension: This herb works on the parasympathetic nervous system and helps relax those muscles that are in spam and tension, offering various degrees of relief. This herb is much more beneficial in long term chronic conditions compared to acute, as it works slowly on the musculoskeletal system.

Immunity: This herb has shown to “boost” the immune system even more than Echinacea. This herb has also been tested to show that it has direct antimicrobial actions, meaning that this could be a wonderful herb to use for bacterial infection. However, there are more studies ongoing before this can be considered a “fact”. If you are a big fan of Echinacea for immune issues, consider adding Boneset to your formulation.

Our Fall Class Schedule is now out! Please click here to see what’s going on!

Our June Monthly Winner is Rosemarie L.. with the last 4 of phone number 1507. Please call the store at 352-753-3787 or email info@myfaeve.com to get a $15 gift card or online code for purchase. Congratulations and thanks for your support!