featuring guest authors; crafting tips and projects; recipes from food editor and sleuthing sidekick Cloris McWerther; and decorating, travel, fashion, health, beauty, and finance tips from the rest of the American Woman editors.

Note: This site uses Amazon affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

HEALTHY LIVING WITH JANICE - AROMA THERAPY WITH GUEST AUTHOR CHRYSTLE FIEDLER


Joining us for another visit today is natural remedies expert and mystery author Chrystle Fiedler. Scent to Kill is the second book in her Natural Remedies Mystery series. Chrystle is also the author of several non-fiction books as well as magazine articles on natural health, home remedies, and diet. Learn more about her and her books at her website

For a chance to win a copy of Scent to Kill: A Natural Remedies Mystery, leave a comment about your favorite natural scents. Don’t forget to include your email address or check back on Sunday to learn if you’re the winner. We can’t get your book to you if we have no way of contacting you. -- AP

Scent to Kill, my latest natural remedies mystery features tips about aromatherapy which is the practice of using essential oils to improve health and well-being. Aromatherapy can ease stress, insomnia, anxiety, depression, aches and pains, and more. Three of my favorite scents are lavender, jasmine and roses, so I thought I’d share a few simple tips on how to use them today.

Lavender
Not only does Lavender (the Latin verb lavare means “to wash”) smell terrific, it’s calming and soothing and good for cuts and burns, insomnia, diaper rash, tension headache, PMS and cramps (use with clary sage and Roman chamomile). The phytochemicals (plant-based chemicals linalool and linalyl acetate) in lavender are absorbed in the skin and in the membranes inside your nose, slowing nerve impulses, and reducing stress. An easy way to start using lavender is to put five to ten drops of essential oil in your bath. Add the oil after you have filled the tub so you can enjoy the full benefits of this wonderful aroma.

Jasmine
The aroma of jasmine (Jasminum officinale v. grandiflorum) is intoxicatingly sweet, exotic, and floral. It’s also incredibly therapeutic for a variety of conditions. Jasmine essential oil eases mild depression, anxiety, and tension. It also balances energy and helps you feel more optimistic. It calms coughs and laryngitis, soothes sore muscles, stiffness, and sprains. You can apply it topically, use it on a warm or cool compress, put it in the bath, inhale it from your palm, or put it in your diffuser. It will make any room an oasis.

Roses
I love the rich, sweet floral bouquet of roses and the approximately 275 compounds have a myriad of therapeutic uses. For example, if you apply it topically, rose oil can help banish eczema, wrinkles, and acne. If you feel blue, rose essential oil will naturally lift your mood. If you have painful periods, it helps to balance hormones (just put the oil on a warm compress and apply to your lower abdomen). Rose oil also eases nervousness, anxiety, anger, sadness, and grief and can be helpful if you have respiratory problems such as allergies and hay fever. You also use rose oil to help you sleep better and feel happier. For all these conditions, simply put some on your palm and inhale it or put rose essential oil into a diffuser. Your bedroom will smell like an English garden.

Scent to Kill: A Natural Remedies Mystery

When naturopathic doctor and shop owner Willow McQuade’s ex-boyfriend Simon Lewis invites her to a party for the cast and crew of a new television show at Long Island’s scenic Bixby Estate, she’s most excited to visit the property’s exclusive lavender farm. But a whole field of her favorite stress-reducing herb can’t provide enough soothing support to calm the effects of a murder!

Even the show’s psychic star didn’t predict the demise of Roger Bixby, the estate’s owner and estranged husband of Simon’s new girlfriend. Now Simon, who’s been collared by police, needs Willow’s help to remedy the situation. As Willow snoops about the mansion, offering natural cures to ease the mounting tension, a strange energy—and the discovery of an eerily similar unsolved murder decades earlier—makes her wonder whether the alternative source of the crime might actually be . . . supernatural. Can she find harmony between mind, body, and possibly even spirits before somebody else goes up in smoke? 

As a bonus, you’ll find dozens of natural aromatherapy cures throughout the book that can improve your health. I think you’ll be surprised as how much they can help you feel better in mind, body and spirit!


Don't forget to leave a comment to enter the drawing for a copy of Scent to Kill. -- AP

19 comments:

Liz said...

Mine seems to change as new scents occur to me. Going with pine today.

NoraA said...

I own the first book in the series and enjoyed it very much.

Years ago I used various natural remedies for some mild hot flash problems (cohosh)and these days it's no longer a problem.

Anonymous said...

Peppermint is my favorite scent! Makes me happy, content and busy!
Lynn/MI

Rayne Golay said...

Am a firm believer in the calming, stress reducing effects of lavender. When I'm writing, I usually have on oil lamp diffusing this wonderful scent.
Rayne Golay

L. j. Charles said...

This sounds like a great series! I love cozy mysteries...and lavender. I have a spritz bottle by my bedside and spray my pillow with it. Makes for a peaceful night's sleep.

L. j.

Chrystle Fiedler said...

It's so wonderful to hear from all of you! I'm excited that you enjoy natural remedies like aromatherapy like I do.

My favorites are lavender and roses and I try to plant them in my garden too. The scents give me an instant lift.

As for peppermint, a study shows that sniffing the scent or even eating peppermints can help you stay more alert, especially when driving.

You are all entered in the giveaway! I'll be back later! Chrystle

Marsha said...

What a fun post and I think the book sounds intriguing with a lot going on. Lavender is my famorite scent.It makes me think of spas. There's not much more relaxing than that. Good luck with the sales.

Cindy Sample said...

Chrystle, your series sounds terrific. I can't wait to check it out. I love the smell of jasmine, roses, and citrus scents, but I can't abide lavender. My mother and my daughter are the same so we mus have an anti-lavender gene in our DNA. I understand we're not alone but I do wonder why. Happy book launch to you!

Gemma Juliana said...

What a fantastic book theme, Chrystle! Right up my alley too. I love lavender, rose and jasmine, and two of my other favorites are geranium and clary sage.

Wishing you the best of luck with your book sales, and thanks for weaving such useful information into your fiction!

Gemma Juliana
gemmajuliana@yahoo.com

Linda McLaughlin said...

The series sounds like loads of fun and what a beautiful cover. I'm fascinated by aromatherapy but have to be careful because of allergies, including to lavender. I think my favorite natural scents are pine, balsam and juniper. I do like honeysuckle and roses, too. Such a shame modern roses have no scent.

Will check out your first book since I like to start a series at the beginning. ;)

Judy Dee said...

Count me in. Roses, roses, roses with lavender as a second. I'm using lavender in my laundry these days. judydee22002@yahoo dot com

Kathy said...

I remember once I once given a gift of a kit to make your own perfumes that came with about ten essential oils. Lavender and jasmine were my favorite along with sandalwood. I just thought they smelled nice and never thought of using them for medicinal purposes. I know my daughter has a lavender pillow that helps her sleep. Now I'm interested in finding out more about aroma therapy.

pennyt said...

Sounds like a great series!! I was surprised at the many users and uses of lavender - I've never tried it and I guess I should.

pennyt at hotmail dot com

traveler said...

Your book sounds captivating and special. A favorite scent is citrus which gives me a good feeling for the day.

petite said...

Your series is fascinating. Lavender and citrus are my calming scents.

Judith Mehl said...

A whole lavender field. What a wonderful idea. The mystery sounds great, and interwoven with my favorite topic--aromatherapy, this book can't go wrong. I use essential oils frequently, and so does the protagonist in my handwriting analysis mystery series.

carol weston said...

right now night blooming jasmine is my favorite scent-I love the smell as I sit on my porch.

Chrystle Fiedler said...

Thanks so much to everyone for stopping by! It's wonderful to know that my writing has helped and inspired you!

The best thing about aromatherapy and many natural cures is you can try and use the ones that appeal to you the most.

The winner of the giveaway is: petite! Please send your mailing address to me at: chrystle@chrystlefiedler.com. Bye for now and again, many thanks! Chrystle

J K Maze said...

I've recently become interested in natural remedies and am using some of them to help my eye disease. My eye is now getting better (against the M.D.'s prediction) and while he isn't willing to say what I'm doing is what changed it, I believe it is.

Your series intrigues me and I'm going to see about getting both books.

Joan K. Maze