Self Care Practices

This ceremony can be done in solitude or with a partner.

• Light a candle. Place 3 small bowls each filled with a symbol of what you'd like to offer. The best offerings are emotional states, aspirations and fears. You can choose your own symbolic offerings or use the following as a guide.
• Fill a bowl with water and a drop of perfume or flower essential oil to symbolize sweetness. Fill another with red wine to offer up your passion. The third bowl can be filled with a grain to symbolize nourishment.
• Take a comfortable cross-legged seat in a quiet place where you will be uninterrupted.
• Speak these words silently ~ I make this offering so that life may burn more brightly in me.
• Offer up your dreams, fears, and wishes of all kinds now. See it. Be specific. Offer up who you are, what you want, and what you have. See what happens.
  Do you notice a change? What happens when you offer?
• Continue with this mantra for ten minutes. Rest in the space for another ten minutes.
• In this way, you are connecting to the unseen, the unknown, and the abandoned. Your offerings are received with love. Remain open throughout the day to see how your relationships unfold.

Wintertime is generally when the body is most vulnerable ~ the season is cold, dark, and heavy. As you reach for comfort in those quick sugar fixes or caffeine highs, you may throw your body off its natural ebb and flow. But we can prepare the ground and help banish those winter blues with proper diet, lifestyle, and clear intention.

One of the best ways of keeping your immune system resilient is with a balanced healthy diet. Food can be a cure or a poison. Packaged foods filled with caffeine, sugar, and preservatives rob the body of real nutrition. Your system’s defense is to fight against these toxins, which then draws your body’s attention away from your core. It’s a cheap diversion. The good news is we have total control.

Fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and lean proteins nourish our bodies. Real food makes us feel alive. If it’s freshly prepared and organic, then you’re eating a meal full of prana, a.k.a. life force.

So what are some simple ways to steer clear of the flu?

• Eat a variety of fresh fruit and vegetables.
• Make each meal colorful ~ it’s an easy way to know you’re getting a blend of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants.
• Choose foods that are seasonal, such as carrots, parsnips, kale, cranberries and yams.
• Cook with herbs that are full of healing properties to strengthen your immunity, like onion, garlic, ginger, horseradish, rosemary, oregano, thyme, sage, pepper, and basil.
• Eat superfoods like goji berries, spirulina, and turmeric. These babies are particularly rich in nutrients and germ-fighting defenses. Add them to smoothies or sprinkle them into your vegetable stir-fries.
• Exercise! Sweat it out a couple of times a week to detoxify the body of unwanted guests.
• Soak in the sun for your fair share of vitamin D, an essential for good health during the dark months.

With just a little bit of mindfulness you can really impact your health this winter. If you’d like a more in-depth, personalized assessment and plan for your wellbeing, schedule a Lifestyle & Wellness Consultation with Denmo. You can learn more here~

Radiant skin is the fruition of daily self love. Morning and night, use our simple three-step system to heal and nourish your gorgeous face. Once a week, engage in a deeper regimen by exfoliating and using a nutrient-rich mask to get you glowing from the inside out.

Step One ~ CLEANSE
These loose miracle grains soothe redness, balance moisture, and lightly exfoliate. This classic face wash unclogs pores, tightens skin, and brightens the complexion. Bring your own bowl and just add water!

Step Two ~ TONE
Our pure single hydrosols use steam distillation of whole blossoms, roots, and petals to extract the total healing matrix of the plant. The result is a gorgeous mist to balance and restore skin’s pH. Apply liberally after cleansing and throughout the day. Excellent for all types, but the following matches are ideal:

• rose hydrosol ~ dry or sensitive skin
• neroli hydrosol ~ normal to oily skin
• cucumber ~ combination skin

Step Three ~ HYDRATE
Bathe in radiance with this lightweight facial oil, rich in essential fatty acids. Hydrate facial deeply penetrates with thirst-quenching nourishment. The absolute oils of jasmine and rose repair fine lines and leave your skin feeling light and fresh. Press seven drops into skin.

*Weekly Ritual
Go deeper and include a weekly facemask. Try our Nourish mask, packed with vitamin A to feed the skin, or our Purify mask to draw out toxins skin deep.

It's a fresh new year and there's so much to look forward to. We’ve made our resolutions just days ago. We are full of momentum, good cheer, positive motivation and inspiration. So, why is it that most of us will have forgotten we even made a resolution by the end of January? These precious days of newness so quickly get swallowed up into the sweeping chaos of life, and it’s not long before the brief vacation of the holiday season blurs into last year’s half forgotten promises. Even the most sincere efforts can seem silly and unrealistic just a few days after the pace of daily life resumes.

Maybe we tell ourselves we didn’t really mean it. Or we make an excuse, this year is just too busy to make room for my yoga practice. And it’s true. When we look at things from that perspective, it is always easier to just not make a change. The momentum of how life already is will inevitably trump whatever motivation we’ve gathered to make a change and, come February, we sheepishly resign the whole idea of a resolution as a silly holiday whim.

Fair enough. But what if we could really make a change this year? If we are ready for our lives to be different, it starts with accountability. Say it out loud. Be brave. Write down your intention, tell your friends, your spouse, your mom. Tell someone who can listen, who can help you hear yourself, and lovingly remind you of your capabilities to evolve.  Write it on your bathroom mirror, or your facebook profile. Be brave and own it. Only by embodying our best self, can we step into our own possibility for greatness.

The holidays are rich with tradition. New Year’s Eve rolls in each year with silly hats, lots of drinks, the ceremonial Times Square Ball Drop, a weird song no one really knows the meaning of and often a headache by morning. While that’s all fine and good, we are inviting you to take back your New Year’s Eve celebration this year. Find a time, before or after (or instead of) the party to really mark the passage of this year. Maybe take a walk with the intention of reviewing your year and looking forward with fresh perspective, or spend some time in meditation or with a revitalizing yoga practice. Other ideas: Spend the day or part of the day in silence, create community with friends and family by discussing the past year’s successes and intentions for the future, do some special journaling, or write a letter to yourself for next year.

Here is a simple ceremony that you can do alone or with a group to commemorate the passing of the year.

Write down everything you need to leave behind this year: events, people, drama, heartache, hardship, or transitions—anything that no longer serves you. Write each item on a small strip of paper. Spend time in quiet reflection as you do this.

Go somewhere special in nature. The beach is a great place, or your favorite peak or lookout. Your backyard would work fine, too. Bring some sage or charcoal and a fire-safe bowl.

Give yourself time and space to spend in reflection and letting go. When you are ready, burn each strip of paper in your bowl as an offering to your own fantastic future.