Rosemary as a Healing and Culinary Herb

I love rosemary. I grew up in Los Angeles, CA and rosemary was always damgloing down walls and pushing through fences. I loved to brush my hand over the plant and smell the rosemary on my fingers as I walked on. When I grew older, I began to get curious about the healing properties of plants, I was thrilled to learn about the benefits of rosemary.

Rosemary, native to Southern Europe and parts of Asia, can be found in sunny, warm climates and although it does not tolerate heavy winters, I have no problem growing Rosemary in the Pacific Northwest. Rosemary has “antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant, anti-apoptotic, anti-tumorigenic, antinociceptive, and neuroprotective properties (1). In some studies it has shown “clinical effects on mood, learning, memory, pain, anxiety, and sleep.” (2)

Rosemary is, a good source of vitamin B, iron, and calcium (3), is super versatile and can be eaten, steeped into a tea, used as a facial steam, or boiled for a hair rinse.

Here are my favorite uses of Rosemary:

1) Flavor and Digestion — Rosemary is delicious! I love to add it to my foods as a spice. It is great on potatoes, chicken, rice, and in soups. AND rosemary is believed to be great for aiding digestion.

I dry branches of rosemary and use the dry needles in my cooking. They can be left whole or crushed.

2) Hair Rinse (brunettes only): I love to use a rosemary rinse on my hair after shampooing. I have super oily hair and find that this helps reduce build-up on my scalp. Plus, the antifungal properities help with dandruff. I don’t know if it true but some say Rosemary helps with hair growth.

To make a Rosemary Hair Rinse: Take a bunch of rosemary (at least 5-10 sprigs) and cover with distilled water and bring to a boil. Let simmer for 30-40 minutes. The darker the color, the stronger the water. Let cool. When cool, strain the water to remove the rosemary. I like to add the water to a spray bottle and spray my hair after I shower. I know some people will pour water directly over their hair.

3) Tea — As a tea, rosemary is said to help improve eye health, has antioxidatve properties, reduce bloating, and aid in gut health (4, 5).

To Make Rosemary Tea - seep fresh or dried leaves in hot water and drink. In my experience it is a light taste.

I would love to hear more about how you use rosemary.

My Time with The Elephants

I am emotional to write this.

I have always loved animals and never even considered seeing an elephant outside of a zoo. To be honest, I rarely go to a zoo because it breaks my heart to watch an elephants pace or rock. Intuitively, I knew riding or bathing with elephants was not a good practice (more on that in a sec), so that was not an option. So standing in the jungle, watching these magnificent creatures eat, walk, play together, I was reminded that life, in all it’s messy beauty, bestows some truly unexpected gifts.

I marketed my Elephant Yoga Retreat with daily activities that included hiking in the the jungle to observe elephants. Little did I know (and much to the glee of my adventurous spirit) hiking on the jungle DOES NOT involve planned trails or any pre-made order. What hiking in the jungle DOES MEAN is trampling, scurrying, slipping, unsure footing, and finding your way through the brush in whatever available space you can find. IT WAS GREAT and challenged my deep-rooted conditioning to “Stay on the Trail.”

As we scrambled down a slope. I saw a banana tree come down and my friend exclaimed “Its an elephant!”

Although, I was looking directly at two large gray humps about 100 feet away, my brain, never having to make out and recognize an elephant in the jungle before, took a moment to catch up and register the two beautiful, young ladies knocking down banana trees, stripping leaves, and making their own jungle salad. For a moment, my breath stopped.. One lovely lady saw me and walked right up to me. In true human form, I was busy trying to get my phone to snap a picture rather than basking in the miracle of being seen by her

.

In the tourist industry, especially in Chiang Mai, many tourist places label themselves as a “sanctuary” or “ethical” place for elephants and allow tourist to come ride elephants, bathe with them, and take selfies with babies (often with mama chained in the back unable to be with her young calf).

What I learned from the Never Forget Elephant Foundation is these “ethical” places are forcing elephants to bathe with humans six times a day and humans can feed the elephant bananas. This is very unnatural and often the elephants get skin diseases, blindness due to infections, physical injuries, foot infections from standing on concrete all day, and mental anguish. When the tourists leave at the end of the day, the elephants are put into chains.

In the wild, female elephants can chose who they want to breed with and when. In these “sanctuaries,” the females are forced to breed — which means they are chained up while a male elephant comes in to do his business (we can call it “forced breeding” or label it for what it really is…). Many of the females miscarriage in captivity and those who do have babies, the calves are chained up while moms spend their days working for tourists and/or sold. Or more heartbreaking, the moms are chained up away from their babies who are used for tourist selfies (because who doesn’t want to see a baby elephant!).

I got the honor to spend time with two mamas and their babies, Mo MO Lo and her 1 month old, Ban Mi Pa (Thai for “Home in the Jungle”). and Mo Pau Na and her baby, Freedom (6 months old) and they loved to nurse. Freedom reminded me of my son: he didn’t want to be far his mom and spent most of his time hiding under her head. While the sweet newborn, Ban Mi Pa loved to play and tackle his mahout and Yo, our guide and heart of NFEF..

The Asian elephant is a fairly domesticated animal and a mainstay in Thai Culture.

The Karen Hilll people I stayed with have a long history of owning elephants. The elephant mahaut stays with their elephant in the jungles just like a sheepherder with their flock. Due to the encroaching western world and need for money (the logging industy was banned in 1989 and so started the elephant tourist industy), the mahauts lease their elephants to these sanctuaries in the city where the elephants are exploited, forced breed, have their babies sold, forced to perform tricks (one place had the elephants paintinga man stood beside the elephant with a nail pressed behind it’s ear to make sure it painted. Elephants don’t paint!), forced to bath all day long (imagine having to take a bath six times a day every day), used for human rides, etc. This creates mental and physical damage to the elephants.

The Karen Hill people want their elephants back home. The NFEF works to bring the elephant back home by providing the families with the income they get from leasing their elephants out and allowing the elephants to be back in their habitat, wandering, eating a variety of plants, breeding as they chose with the elephant of their choice (there are wild male elephants in the area), raising their babies free of shackles.

There I was, with my yoga group, deep in the jungle, watching these elephants, having them smell me, and ignore me, and the fact that I was still part of the tourist industry was not lost on me. However, if I am going to give my money, my time, and my energy to seeing an elephant — I want the elephant foraging in it’s natural environment. free to ignore me (one sweet lady who worked in the circus DOES NOT want anything do with humans and leaves whenever humans come around), meander away (even lunge at us when annoyed), and raise their babies.

Mission of NFEF

Last night I returned home from Thailand where I lead the Elephant Yoga Retreat at the Never Forget Elephant Foundation in the jungles of Northern Thailand. I didn’t know much about the Never Forget Elephant Foundation when I agreed to lead a retreat there. Honestly, I didn’t look into it, I didn’t spend hours on the internet reading about it, I didn’t glance through their social media. None of that. I trusted the person who told me of the work she was doing and I trusted my intuition. And, my life is forever altered because of it.

The Never Forget Elephant Foundation is committed to sustainability, living from the land, and providing for animals and humans alike because the two are interlinked.

The goals of the foundation are very simple and create a win-win-win environment:

1. Return endangered captive elephants home to their natural jungle habitat

2. Provide service to the local Karen Hill Tribe population to inspire sustainable solutions toward elephant and environmental health

3. Cultivate a passionate global community of support to facilitate positive changes for captive Asian elephants throughout Thailand

   Yo, the foundation;s project director, and link between the global community and the lical Karen Hill tribe members is PASSIONATE about sustainability and respecting the earth and what she provide for us. When we were about an hour away from the village I saw an impeccably designed house made of ornately carved wood. I commented on the beauty of it and he replied “no, not beautiful. We need trees to breath.” Bamboo grows so readily out there and he believes that the people should be using bamboo resources that don’t deplete the earth and in effect, result in disaster for us such as poor air quality. sickness, disease, hunger, displacing humans and animals alike, etc).

   And he is right.

   Bamboo is the fastest growing plant ob the planet and having a stronger structure that steel is used in construction homes and furniture as well as in foods and household items such as clothes. In addition, it produces 30% more oxygen and absorbs more carbon dioxide than many plants. No wonder Yo advocates people use bamboo and keep the trees planted in the earth!

   From the earth back to the earth.

   .

Day 12 of 30 Days To Healthy Living: Short and Sweet

I was up at 5a to get quiet time and work done before #lilyogi woke up. I'm tired now and want to simply log off and drop inward. All in all today was a great day (no urges) but I was reminded to stay on top of grocery shopping when I discovered the fridge was empty except for off-limit food (like a handful of chocolate chips). 

Day 8 of 30 Day Cleanse: Sober and Fine

I went to a fun & fabulous Wild Woman Dinner where (I heard!) the wine was delicious. I fought the urge to join the crowd and partake in wine and polenta and am glad I stuck to my cleanse...the water was clean, the food was SUPERB, the company was fantastic, AND I'll have no hangover or buzzed regrets in the morning.