BEAUTIFUL EVERYDAY OPTIONS for BOOSTING the IMMUNE SYSTEM:

1. Warm Water: Daily, drink a cup or two of warm water before eating or drinking anything else. To cleanse the liver add a squeeze of juice from a fresh lemon.

2. Wash Your Hands: Wash often with regular soap. Dry with clean towel. Beware of hand sanitizers and antibacterial soaps that have the compound triclosan. Scary stuff. http://www.care2.com/greenliving/the-trouble-with-triclosan-in-your-soap.html

3. Use Good Oils: Daily, use virgin/ cold pressed olive oil or ghee (clarified butter) in your cooking every day to lubricate your digestive system and coat your nerves. See below for ghee recipe.

4. Tulsi Tea: Drink daily. It’s full of antioxidants and is yummy by itself, or with milk and honey or sugar. Note: Put honey into glass AFTER the boiling water has been poured.

5. Salt Water Gargle: Daily, even twice daily, gargle with warm salt water. Natural sea salt, or pink himalayan salt preferable. http://www.himalayancrystalsalt.com/

6. Garlic Toast: Finely chop garlic and spread on buttered bread. Lightly salt. Toast in a toaster over or oven.

7. Vitamin D: Take Vitamin D daily. http://dietary-supplements.info.nih.gov/factsheets/vitamind.asp

8. Tumeric: Take 2 capsules of tumeric powder at lunch for 45 days straight 2 times a year. You can also get concentrated tumeric at the health food store. Take(amount needed) Tumeric is antifungal, antiseptic, and antinflamatory. Do not take if you have gallstones. http://www.vegetarian-nutrition.info/herbs/turmeric.php

9. Thieves Oil: If you want to disinfect your home, work and self. Thieves Oil comes from research about four thieves during the 15th-century plague who used cloves, rosemary, and other aromatics to protect themselves while robbing plague victims. How to use: Diffuse for short periods of time (1/2 hour or less) in the work or home environment. Apply to the bottom of the feet or dilute with a Massage Oil Base for a stimulating massage under the arms and on the chest at the base of the neck. Common Ingredients: Clove (Syzygium aromaticum), lemon (Citrus limon), cinnamon (Cinnamomum verum), Eucalyptus radiata, and rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis).

Thieves Oil recipes:

Equal amounts of eucalyptus, rosemary, cinnamon, clove and lemon. Mix with base of olive oil. I usually put a tablespoon of each in a 2 oz. bottle and then fill the rest with olive or jojoba oil. you can make a larger batch in a quart jar following the same proportion method. Same ingredients, but measured out in different strength's. Clove Bud Oil 200 drops, Lemon Oil 175 drops, Cinnamon Oil 100 drops, Eucalyptus Oil 75 drops, Rosemary 50 drops. Note: If you have fair skin use more base oil and use caution.

http://www.quantumbalancing.com/news/thieves_oil.htm

10. Stretch: Daily. Yoga sun salutations are great. Start with one or two rounds, building up slowly to 5 rounds a day. http://www.yogasite.com/sunsalute.htm

11. Skin Brushing (1-3 minutes- before your daily shower):

Acquire a soft, natural fiber brush or loofah. You can find them at health food stores in the

bath department. A long handle is helpful for reaching your back.

Gently brush with long stroke on your limbs and circular strokes on you joints. Start with the feet and work your way up. Please note your skin should not become red. Feet to abdomen, then hands and up your arms toward your heart. Brush across your upper back and down the front and back of your torso. Cover the entire body (except your face) once only. Your face needs a softer brush. Begin at the center of the face and gently stroke outward. Brush down the sides of your face and neck.

Your skin is an organ. Dry brushing assists it in ridding the body of toxins and impurities (a potential source of illness), while increasing blood circulation in all the underlying organs and tissues. It also helps the lymphatic system. Yea.

Pg. 198, The Seasonal Detox Diet, L’Esperance

12. Feed Your Skin: Daily Oil Massage (10-20 minutes- before your daily shower). Use cold pressed sesame or almond oil for dry skin, almond or coconut oil for medium skin and safflower oil for oily skin. See dreamy recipes below. Note if your skin is very oily, instead of oil use a silk glove or mit found at bath shops.

Warm the oil (1/8 -1/4 cup), you can place the oil in a small dish or container and set the bowl in hot water until it reaches room temperature. If the oil gets too hot it can scald your skin. Alternatively you can pour some oil into your palms and rub your hands together vigorously till warm. Note: As nuturing as this is to do by yourself it’s even better to do with someone else!

Starting at the top of your body and working down, apply a thin layer of oil over your entire body. Massage face, ears, back of the ears, using short vigorous strokes. If you have no hair (you lucky ducks) give yourself a vigorous scalp massage. For those with hair or who do not wash your hair everyday do a oil free dry scalp massage. Proceed to your neck and shoulders using your fingers and the palm of your hands. Then massage you upper arms and lower arms, using long back and forth strokes. Use a circular motion for your joints, including shoulders. Massage your chest and abdomen, using a clockwise motion. Next massage your hip joints, buttocks, legs (again using long strokes), and then your ankles and soles of your feet. Shower in warm water, too hot of water will take all the oil off. Pat dry.

For optimal restoration, do some light exercise, stretching or yoga with the oil on your skin before the shower. Don’t slip.

If you find you don’t have time to do your entire body focus on your feet.

Pg. 90 Effortless Beauty, Brunig, Thomas

Oil Recipes for Skin :

Dry Skin:

8 T cold pressed sesame or almond oil (1/2 cup)

16 drops geranium essential oil

16 drops neroli essential oil (expensive but so worth it)

8 drops lemon essential oil

Medium skin:

8 T cold pressedalmond or cocnut oil (1/2 cup)

20 drops rose essential oil(expensive but so worth it)

20 drops sandalwood essential oil

Oily Skin:

8 T cold pressed safflower oil

12 drops lavender essential oil

12 drops bergamot essential oil

12 drops clary sage oil

Very Oily or Blemished Skin:

8 T jojoba oil

20 drops lavender essential oil

20 drops tea tree essential oil

or

8 T jojoba oil

20 drops bergamot essential oil

20 drops lemon oil

Mature Skin:

5 T jojoba oil

4 T calendula oil

1 T wheatgerm oil

12 drops lavender essential oil

12 drops frankinsence essential oil

12 drops neroli essential oil

Pg. 125 Effortless Beauty, Brunig, Thomas