Chamomile/Neem Hair Growth Oil

If you know nothing else about me at the very least you should know that I take hair care very seriously... 

            4-6 hours - removing hair extensions

45 minutes  - detangling

  15 minutes - bentonite clay hair mask treatment 

1 hour washing and detangling hair

2 hours - condition hair

     1 hr 30 mins - rewash hair, detangle and braid hair in plaits for a braidout 

Usually, I have no problem devoting an entire day to dealing with my hair. 

Not this time around. It was an effing pain to do all of this so I figured I might as well go hard and tack on a hot oil treatment to the schedule. 

 I mean, if an entire day is going to be spent on my hair I might as well go cray in the kitchen and start whipping up some homemade hair treatments.

After using bentonite clay hair mask and conditioning my hair I decided to switch some things up with a scalp treatment to improve the state of my hair.  I have been using Jamaican Black Castor Oil for almost 8 years but opted to be experimental this time around.

 I fished through the back of my pantry and found a new bottle of neem oil and infused chamomile oil. 

Neem oil is a well know staple in Ayurvedic medicine - known to stimulate hair growth and fight off dandruff. It is effective even in small doses and is complemented well with a light carrier oil (such as grapeseed or jojoba oil).  My bottle of neem oil had remained untouched for months since I never used it because the smell is well.. let's just say "strong".  For the recipe, I added ylang ylang and sandalwood to dilute the heavy scent of neem and replace it with a warm floral scent.  

Hair Growth Oil:

    1/2 cup chamomile oil (homemade)

4 tsp of organic neem oil

    10 drops ylang ylang essential oil 

    10 drops sandalwood essential oil 

I placed the contents in an applicator bottle and gave myself a hot oil treatment.

                                    This will definitely be a staple for my natural hair regimen.

An Interview with La Loba Loca - PART II

Photo Credits: lalobaloca.com

1. Can you speak a bit about what motivated you to start the online knowledge share entitled: Radically and Consciously Mooning.

I started making moon pads last year and started blogging about reusable menstrual stuff. People were responding to my posts and saying how the moon pads changed their lives. I was like, really? the moon pads changed your life? How? Then I started thinking about my journey of discovering and reclaiming my body and I realized how mxnsturation played such a big part of it. There is something powerful in understanding the connection you have with the universe, the connection your mxnsturation has to the power of the moon, the connection your blood has to your lineage. To understand this wholeness about you is so powerful. It really can push you to do the things you thought you could never do.

The online knowledge share came from the feedback I got from people, I thought that everybody knew about reusable moon products, or secretos de abuela for cramping or herbs that can aid us through the cycle. In my mind, we all knew about this but when I started getting word from folx, I started to realize that much of this info is not shared or it has been forgotten. I started googling and looking up other Brown Queer Tortillas doing similar work and I did not find much so I decided to start this project and then when I saw the response I was extremely surprised. The town where I am from in Peru used to be way smaller and rural. When I moved to Chile, I grew up with “small-town” values, my grandmother and mother were vegetarian cooks, my mom was super against pain killers and she had all this believes about moon time that I still carry. I did not understand how important, sacred and real this ‘believes’ and cultural practices were until a couple of years ago when I began to do that very important work of unlearning western education values and realizing that the knowledge that I get form stories, anecdotes  cuentos from my elders, aunts, mom, grandma, señoras is way more important and relevant than all this other shit that is pushed to us through ‘modern’ education.

Radically and Consciously Mooning also comes from this urgency that I feel around menstrual education. I have been involved in abortion access and abortion companionship since I was in my early teens, and I also think that menstrual health is another tool that we can use to make sure people learn how to relate to their bodies, sexuality and fertility.  The knowledge share will be mixing art, because I feel a lot of creative artistic energy in menstruation, as well as videos and writing. However, a good amount of the work will be assignments that will push  participants to be actively participating in the knowledge sharing. The goal of the knowledge share is for participants to research their own traditions, and encouraging people to think of the remedies their chosen or blood families and ethnic groups use for mxnstrual cramps. It is about reclaiming the medicine your family and community already knows.

When I started thinking about the knowledge share I wanted to create a curriculum not only for people who mxnsturate but also people that are friends or family members to folx that mxnsturate. Ultimately this information is not only for bleeders but also for everybody, we all come from the womb/creative center and for all of us to be here there had to be a cycle happening inside of that person sustaining the pregnancy. You can read more about the knowledge share in this interview, and also the main website.

2. What advice would you give to other QPOC healers and activists?

Keep doing your thing! When I started La Loba Loca, I wanted to have an outlet to say whatever I wanted and share whatever I wanted, honestly I was not expecting it to turn into this internet alter-ego… I think it is important for folx to take over online platforms and start using media to spread our messages and thoughts, we are so polluted with mainstream media the it is refreshing to see more blogs and (QT*)POC online media popping up.  I’ve thought about deleting La Loba Loca so many times because it is scary to put your life out there and have people look at it and read it, what has stopped me is people that have contacted me or reached out to me to say ‘hey, thanks for writing that’ or ‘that is exactly how I feel!’- I know there is a lot of power on seeing each other reflected on someone else. So keep doing your thing, keep it autobiographical, speak from your experience, value YOUR experience, document it and realize that you know SO much already that we all know SO much together!

An Interview with La Loba Loca!

La Loba Loca is a "queer, Brown South American, community organizer, artist, researcher, body-powered tattooist, full spectrum companion, midwife student, eco-feminista and life-long student. She has been part of several projects aiming to document and provide information on autonomous and community based health and healing."   

For more information on the work that she does visit LaLobaLoca.com

What motivated you to devote your life to activism and healing work?

I was born in Peru and I moved to Chile four years after the dictatorship ended. There was a good amount of migration from Peru to Chile because of the political climate. After the dictatorship “ended” (it never really ended, the political powers that are in place are not going to change unless everything burns down), Chile became very neo-liberal and Peru was going through hard economic times so there was a wave of migration from Peru to Chile. We were part of that wave, I think that experiencing migration and dealing with xenophobia and racism at a young age had a lot to do with initiating me into political work. I don’t know when I started identifying as an ‘activist’, I think I prefer the ‘community organizer’. I feel as if everyone should be a community organizer, we should always be engaged with what is happening on around us and find ways to (re)imagine new worlds.

When it comes to healing work, I think it happened naturally. I am blessed to come from a town and family that still values ancestral knowledge. I grew up with my mama feeding me human milk and then making me fruit juices and vegetarian home cooked meals and being super anti-trash food because she linked fast food to the city Chile culture. I have family members that study and practice Andean Medicine, cosmobiology, vegetarian/ancestral cooking, medicina casera, aromatherapy and more! For me healing work and political work go hand by hand, if we really want to dismantle the system and build new words where we can all fit and thrive it is important to learn how to support our wholeness and also our communities’ mental and physical health. The work that I do is called salud autogestiva - which means to take your health into your own hands- which does not mean that we completely disregard institutional medical services. Salud Autogestiva means that through studies, practices and research we are able to document and incorporate ancestral traditional and medicinal practices that are culturally relevant to each of us into our lives. Also, when we do go to the institutions and corporations that make up the modern medical system, we are actively engaged into what is happening, inquiring and making sure that we are informed clients.

Something that I often see when I talk to some people doing ‘healing’ or ‘spiritual work’ is that it tends to be very apolitical. I have had my cousin who is into cosmobiology tell me that non-heterosexual people have a hormonal imbalance and that their abnormal state was written on the stars the second they were born. I have also had people doing sacred sexuality work tell me that it is impossible to have two people of the same gender have sacred sex because their vibrations do not match according to Taoist teachings. Those are just some examples of the stuff people say sometimes, which are also extremely hilarious. I do think that the stars impact who we are, I also think there is a lot of power in sexual energy but I am not down to believe any of this cishetenormative healing stuff. Those are just two examples of the bulsshit I have encountered, that does not even go into cultural appropriation, fatphobia, ableism and other hellish things…

During the last Encuentro Feminista de Latinoamerica y el Caribe (EFLAC) in Lima, Peru I facilitated a knowledge-share called ‘Pariendo Nuevos Mundos: Utilizando la Medicina de las Abuelas como Herramienta de lucha’ which translates to Creating New Worlds: Using Grandmother Medicine as a Tool for Liberation. The folx that came and shared really vibed with the knowledge share, I see a lot of movement in South America and (what is now considered) the US spearheaded by young folx that are started to see the important connection between body, land and health. There is so much POWER and so much need to use word-of-mouth, storytelling and elder knowledge to dismantle this system from the bottom up.

The word ‘healer’ is thrown around so easily but I feel as if we are all healers. Of course some of us might have some skills and knowledge specific to our craft but I don’t consider myself a healer because ultimately... people heal themselves. I am my healer. We all have different medicine, there is people who sing that have voice medicine, others have touch medicine, other offer visual medicine, the list goes on. For me, we are all healers, we all have medicine, we all have something healing and positive to offer- the work is to tap into those abilities and gifts and use them.

What does it mean to be a person of color in the eco-feminist movement?

To tell you the truth I do not hang out with white eco-feminists or white sustainability people, in my mind the eco-feminists have always been Brown, Indigenous and other kinds of POC. It was not until a couple of months ago when I started looking at some websites and conferences on eco-feminism and it all just seemed so bland and white. To tell you the truth, I am  over spaces trying to be ‘inclusive’ of POC because we can easily create our own spaces and movements and we have been doing that for a while. I wrote an article a while back titled D.I.Y & LOCALLY MADE FOOD: What the hipsters din’t tell you  that kind of touches on mainstream white sustainability and veganism.

I’ve identified as a feminist for a while but I never liked how white,  heterocentric and ciscentric mainstream feminism can be. I still identify as a feminist because I have so many awesome, tortilla, down ass friends in South America that make me feel like I am part of this feminismo del Abya Yala in diaspora. I learned the term eco-feminist through Vandana Shiva and I think I gravitated towards it because she was an Indian women and her writing centered soil workers, mother earth and ancestral foods. It just resonated with me and it made so much sense! Yet again, I think that this term can be expanded to fit each of our values and struggles, to me eco-feminism is about intersectionalities and also looking at relations between peoples, land and ecosystems. I definitely see a lot of spirituality intermixed into eco-feminism, I mean just the idea of recognizing earth as a living organism, an entity that breathes and that has the right to survive and thrive is so damn deep and important. So I prefer to identifying as a eco-feminist because it feels more real, encompassing and old. We might have a name for it now but people have been practicing ‘eco-feminism’ for a long time. 

 Feminism is always expanding and molding into the different realities that affect people depending on the territories they embody. I see a lot of work in the Andean region talking about territories - territories - which is a concept that goes beyond physical territories and it includes social territories and also looks at our bodies as territories. Feminismo Comunitario is a feminism that was developed and is practiced by Brown/Red women in the Andean region and it focuses on doing feminism starting in our body- a political space. There are people that don’t even call themselves feminists but when I look at them all I can think is feminism!  

I also believe there is such powerful transnational eco-feminist potential, it is a framework that can encourage us to think global which is so refreshing because theory can be so US-centric sometimes. I think this framework pushes us to think about where our food comes from, where our trash goes, how does global warming affect people living in islands that are being covered by water, how do my actions in the ‘global north’ affect those living in impoverished countries, how does my menstrual hygiene products affect the ecosystem, how does my consumption of quinoa in the US impact Andean people’s ability to purchase quinoa at a fair price back home, and the list goes on!

In your opinion, what does it mean for POC to use technology as a means to reclaim their connection to indigenous medicine ? Do you believe it helps or hinders the role that storytelling and elder-based knowledge has been traditionally shared?

When I first started, I was more open about sharing myself and also information online but as time went by I started realizing how scary it is because you do not know who is reading you and also how people use the knowledge you share online. Cultural appropriation makes me incredibly uncomfortable, white people reading my stuff and using it for their classes and workshops makes me feel horrible. At the same time, I see the internet as a tool to (re)learn, (re)claim knowledge and connect with people doing awesome work across city, state and country limits. I do not have a concrete answer to this question, but I would never ever ever put up something in my social media that I considered to be a sacred and extremely important piece of information. 

For those out there doing cultural work and documenting old healing traditions, we know how hard it is to get this bits and pieces of practices from our family members and healers. So I am careful about what I share in social media that is why I love doing knowledge share in community centers, groups, universities and homie’s spaces because I get to see who is receiving the info and i get to choose what to talk about. I call them knowledge shares because I learn SO much through the gatherings, I might be the one presenting and facilitating but I am always so grateful to learn from folx that come and share through stories and experiences. I value story sharing, specially when it comes from groups of people that have traditionally been taught to share knowledge through stories. Having said that I encourage people to get together with other folx and tell stories and share knowledge that way! Sometimes I get messages and email form people asking me about ‘how can i learn about plants?’, ‘is there a book that I can learn from?’ and I always tell people that they might find something but ultimately you need to get some soil and seeds and start learning from the root up.

I am currently working on my first online knowledge share called Radically & Consciously Mooning and I have been asking myself questions about how to use the internet effectively when translating information that I feel so passionate about. After lots of thought I have decided to leave some of the knowledge I have gotten from abuelitas and healers out of it. On top of that, I will be having an application process and also making sure to talk about cultural appropriation in the knowledge share. The thing about the internet is that it gets to people all around the world that have internet access and it also reaches people that are unable to leave home from a variety of reasons.

For those available, I am facilitating a knowledge share on radical mooning in Los Angeles during May 9th and May 10th only for POC folx where I hope to include all this abuelita tips, recipes and story telling.

Menstrual Art: An Interview with Scarlett McIntosh PART TWO

 4. Do you have any specific technique that you use when you paint? What other types of mxnstrual art do you make?

I collect my blood in a menstrual cup. First time I did it I just pulled it right out and sat there half-naked and painted the first thing I could think of. I really like using the blood from the first day because it can be goopy and the red hue is really jarring before it dries brown. I mainly paint vulvas and bleeding vaginas or yonic things - like pears- that have vaginas. I think it just makes the most sense. A friend of mine who I discovered also does mxnstrual art- first thing they painted was a huge uterus.

It’s pretty cool painting with friends also on their period. I like to believe our bodies communicate without us knowing and then when we sync up and paint together it feels really badass. Though, every once in awhile, I will still catch myself having taboo feelings about blood and fluid mixture and be really grossed out but painting helps me get over those things. Other times, if I’m dealing with certain negative experiences I won’t even want to acknowledge that I have a vagina. I’ll sometimes take a break from erotic/mxnstrual art and just focus on other projects.

The other menstrual-”esque” art that I do are with my ceramics. I throw with porcelain and make bowls and cups. Then I glaze them with white or clear and paint them with iron oxide. After it comes out of the kiln it looks like a really white bowl with a dripping puddle of brownish-red period blood- reminds me of emptying my menstrual cup in the toilet.

In terms of new projects- since I’ve started painting with my blood I’ve always wanted to do a more collaborative series with a partner with a penis. It would be really fun to have them cum on some paper or fabric and sprinkle glitter on it. Eventually I would also want to mix mxnstrual blood in that. But this project hasn’t really presented itself yet.

5. I notice with alot of depictions of vaginas  there is this standard way in which they are depicted. They are often times show as pink when not everyone has pink vaginas. Or, it might be symmetrical or “aesthetically” pleasing. For a lot of folks who possess vaginas, how their vaginas looks can be something of great importance. What do you think about that? Do you bare that in mind when you paint?

I think about this a lot. With my mural, a guy walked past and asked in a really creepy way if it was a self portrait. This made me really uncomfortable and also pissed me off. For me, I am not that good at depicting the variety of labias out there and all of my paintings look basically the same.

Also, color- originally this mural was supposed to be in black and white but when I started it I didn’t have any black paint available. I started with whatever paint I could find in the basement and mixed colors as best I could. I stepped back and asked my guy friend “Does this look like just another white girl pink pussy?”. I wanted it to capture the complexity of lip color. I didn’t want it to be this pink labiaplasty pussy.

I want people to be able to identify with my work in some way but it’s also pretty wonderfully impossible because we all look different. Womxn should just go out and paint their own I guess. On a wall. In public. It’s a change of scenery from all the dick bombs taking up public space.

Follow Scarlett’s projects at AnthropoMammal

Follow her Instagram: xxgirlflu

Menstrual Art: An Interview with Scarlett McIntosh PART ONE

1.What got you into mxnstrual art?

Well, I don’t really remember what got me into blood before this but I took Female Sexuality during school and had an assignment that pushed me to do it. I was supposed to do something with a bodily fluid and I knew that people had painted with their blood in the past. I am not much of a painter usually but I really enjoyed painting with my blood- mainly, bleeding vulvas. After that first project I wanted to continue mxnstrual art with other mediums I was more familiar with.

2. Were you always this comfortable with displays of the body or moonstration?

Ha no. Growing up, I was super ashamed and embarrassed buying “feminine products” (which I think every pubing kid feels) and now thinking about it, even feminine products are very silly ideas. These pads & tampons to hide, prevent, unfeel, scent mxnstruation and uphold our ‘femininity.’ Like fuck that, just bleed. Sometimes I think it would be cool to collect stained underwear and sheets and make a bunch of patches.

Anyways, comfortability with my body is still something I am working on. Before I did this, everyone’s opinions around me regarding periods were really negative- that it was an inconvenience, painful, annoying, smelly. And yeah I get it. The first day of my flow I often repeat how badly I just want my uterus to fall out of me and leave it on the sidewalk. So turning it into art is really cathartic and helps me love it. This negativity is why I continue to do it-  it makes me feel connected to my body and appreciate what my body does. It is a sign of my fertility- not everyone has a period or a regular period- for me, it’s a reminder of rhythms of my body, my health, and some balance in my life.  

3. Are there other ways in which body positivity shows up in your life?

Being a birth doula and seeing a woman have a baby come out of her - with all of the fluids - not only does it work on my body positivity but I see it in them- it can leave me high for months. I think body literacy is extremely important for womxn’s empowerment. Getting acquainted with the way my mxnstrual blood feels, how much I let go of, what it smells like, how it fits in with my whole cycle, how to extract it when needed- it’s important to know.

FOLLOW SCARLETT's tumblr by CLICKING HEEERRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEE
Follow her Instagram: xxgirlflu

Cranberry Gingerbread Ice Cream

I've really been on a ginger kick lately. It is very stimulating and is a well-known cure for nausea, colds and digestive issues.

That's not why I made this ice cream tho...haha... I just wanted something tasty and unconventional. 

So here goes... <3

This recipe is an adaption from MyKitchenSink's recipe
It is enough for 6-8 scoops (roughly 2 people.. or 1 if you are greedy)

13.5 fl oz of coconut milk
1/4 cup of molasses
1 tbsp of cranberries
4 oz  of chopped skinless ginger root

• On low-medium fire, bring the coconut milk a light boil 
• Add the chopped ginger root. Allow for the ginger to steep for an hour
• Remove the ginger root from the coconut milk and stir in the cup of molasses until it dissolves
• Once the molasses have dissolved in the milk, put the coconut milk mixture into a cake pan and place it in the fridge at least 4 hours
• Before placing the refrigerated mixture in the freezer, add the cranberries

Tips to keep in mind (if you are not using an ice-cream maker):

• Freeze the mixture for at least 6 hours, stirring the mixture every 30 minutes to avoid frozen chunks from forming
• Another option is to leave it in for 6 hours and transfer the contents into a food processor or blender until it is a soft serve consistency
• Some folks claim the creamier the mixture the better. I personally have never tried ice cream with coconut cream (instead of milk) but it is definitely worth a try if you are curious

Menstrual Blood Fertilizer

Using menstrual blood is not only sustainable put pretty fucking empowering for those of us who don't give a damn about the stigma concerning using blood for rituals, witchcraft or sustainable practices.

I guess not everyone appreciates cunt magic... oh well. lol 

Blood contains tons of nutrients, including phosphorus and the grand"mammie" of plant nutrients - nitrogen.  Without nitrogen plant growth is impossible, and one of the best ways to receive organic supplies of nitrogen is via blood.

 I can not guarantee that all plants  like this but it is worth a shot if you are willing to take a risk and determine whether or not this method works for you. It may help to consider the fact that many organic fertilizers contain "blood meal" which is essentially dried animal blood collected from slaughterhouses. Yum. 

So if you are looking for a more "animal-friendly" option, you should try this method out. 

This method is easiest if you using a moon or diva cup, but also works well if you use reusable menstrual pads. Personally, I prefer reusable menstrual pads since I find them to be more comfortable. I just wash the reusable pads in water and allow them to soak. It is recommended that you dilute the solution to about 10:1 ratio (ex. 10 cups water to 1 cup of blood) since blood is very concentrated.

With the bloody water (or "blood tea") disperse it into the soil of your plants. If you feel comfortable, place a finger inside of the soil to ensure that the fertilizer goes beyond the top soil.

Bare in mind that trying this in extremely hot weather is not recommended since it will smell and could potentially attract some unwelcome visitors. I have found house plants to be a better option in sunny weather.

Be mindful that blood not only carries nutrients but also contains traces of substances that you ingest, so if you are on medication you may want to skip this.


Disclaimer:  It is advisable that you consult a knowledgeable and/or licensed professional before you engage in home remedies. All recipes and information listed on this site are for educational and entertainment purposes only. Experiment at your own risk.

Superbowl Vegan Treats

There is nothing more annoying then being at a social gathering and not having anything to snack on.

When thinking about Super bowl snacks, most people don't bother to care if their options are vegan or not. :(

So..  if you are interested in tasty vegan snacks to have alongside your tortilla ships and salsa dip, try these healthy and budget friendly treats.

Jalapeño boats are spicy, crunchy and extremely tasty! I made a uber-healthy version so if you are looking for something a bit more decadent feel free to add a vegan cheese or breadcrumbs to the recipe.

I paired the boats alongside a cilantro pesto.

Why cilantro?

Well.. pesto is notorious for being pricey when used with basil since you use such a massive amount in order to yield a decent amount of pesto. With this in mind, I substituted basil with cilantro in order to create a more affordable option.

Vegan Baked Jalapeño Boats
Inspired by: SimplyRecipes Baked Jalapeño Boats
Yields: 24 boats serving roughly 2-4 people.

12 jalapeños
1/4 cup of mixed veggies: corn and black beans (canned beans are most convenient)
1/4 bell pepper - cubed
1/2 teaspoon salt for taste
cilantro for garnish
optional: [vegan] cheese 

Preheat oven to 375 degrees
Wash jalapeños thoroughly and cut the jalapeños in half
Scrape out seeds and ribs of jalapeño for mildly spicy "boats" or leave them for the extra spice
Place corn, bell peppers, black beans and vegan cheese for the jalapeño boats. *
Salt to taste
Place jalapeños in an oven for 20 - 25 minutes until skin becomes slightly darkened and wrinkled (Bite it to ensure it is the texture you would like)
Allow for the boats to cool

*Any contents left over can be placed in a container and stored in the fridge.


Cilantro Pesto
2 bushels of cilantro
1/3rd cup of olive oil
2 cloves of garlic - minced
penne pasta
optional: pine nuts

Heat water to boil and add penne pasta - if using packaged penne pasta follow the instructions listed on the box
Add olive oil to a pan and place it on medium heat until you see bubbling*
Then add minced garlic to the pan and allow for the garlic to darken*
Allow the oil to cool for about 5-10 minutes
Add oil, cilantro and pine nuts to blender/food processor  until it reaches a creamy consistency.
Top it over cooked penne pasta and add salt, cayenne and black pepper for taste.

*I added modifications to conventional pesto recipes - since I like for my garlic to be very crispy and darkened.

Enjoy <3

Interview with Community Healer Berenice Dimas: Reflections on Self-care, Grounding and Protective Herbs and Elixirs!

 I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Berenice Dimas, a reiki practitioner, full-spectrum doula, medicine maker, body worker, workshop facilitator, and owner of Cantos De La Tierra. 

She is based in Bay-Area and Los Angeles and has worked extensively to provide healing justice to communities of color. We had a beautiful conversation about the role that healing arts plays in social justice movements and community care. 

Check out part two of our interview! 

What are some herbs you turn to for grounding and protection? When you are doing a lot of energy work, there is always this need to give yourself the care that you need to avoid burnout.

I grew up with canela -cinnamon-  so that has always been my go to for feeling grounding. I am an Air sign, gemini. I always like to feel warm and so I turn to cinnamon always. I really like it with honey and lemon

Another thing that I do is that I go to a tree trunk and put my forehead to the tree. I always like to be around earth and put my hands in the earth and do grounding exercises. Recently, I have been exploring more with burdock. Burdock has a really bitter taste so you have to use just a little bit of it. I actually made a bark tea with cinnamon, burdock, astragulus, and reishi. When I do energy work with folks, people often get a little spacy after the session so I make either a calming tea or some kind of bark/root tea to help them ground. I also use dandelion root and yellow dock and add more cinnamon and reishi too it since I like the taste better!   

For grounding, I also think about lemon balm. I love lemon balm! It is the one herb I like to use as a introductory herb in community workshops. I really love how it makes me feel and how it takes care of other people. I use it mostly for people who are not really listening to their body so I always like to use lemon balm for spiritual grounding. 

For protection, I use palo santo for smudging. I bought an essence of it and I am going to use a spray. I also like cedar for protection. Whenever I am doing healing work and I am setting up the altar, if I feel I need extra protection I bring cedar. Then, of course, copal and sage.. they have to be on the list! Yarrow is another one that I have been exploring a lot with. Yarrow is good for helping us set healthy boundaries with ourselves and with others. If I find it fresh, I pick it and let it dry and put it on my altars.

How does self-care manifest itself in your life. Any spells, remedies, elixirs or potions you would like to share?

[Image Source]

Yes! One of the last classes of I have had with Atava who mentioned that the flu virus keeps evolving. The flu shot is not working and people are still getting sick. She told us to use different medicines and explore instead of taking the same medicine over and over again. The virus is really smart! It’s a virus, it has been around longer than we have!

This time around, I’ve been using more roots and barks. I was really drawn to go back to oregano. For coughs or any funkiness in your throat, I started making a strong cinnamon tea and then add a handful of oregano and let it boil 5 minutes longer. Then, I squeeze half of a line into a cup, three tablespoons of honey, and then add the cinnamon-oregano tea. 

I recently made an elixir. I crushed pomegranate seeds for the juice, cut some red apple, hibiscus flower and cinnamon and let it boil. Then I added honey and goji berries. You can also add rum or brandy if you want to make a holiday drink! I’ve actually been thinking about starting an herbal elixir bar!

Any updates, upcoming projects or premonitions you would like to mention? 

[Image Source]

Definitely the herbal elixir bar, maybe we can do something together!  I’m down!

I will be co-teachign a class with Atava starting March through the Ancestral Apothercay school that she has started. I also want to travel more with my workshops outside of California. I have been going up and down LA and the Bay. I want to go to the East coast. Im already booked to be in Washington, Missouri, and Texas this Spring. I really want to take this type of knowledge and create a curriculum on herbal support for folks. I also want to support students more because I know how difficult it was for me to learn how to take care of myself with the demands of academic work. I’ve been there so I hope to be a resource to people and share how herbs can help them get through all that we experience in the academy. I was asked to do a workshop for pre-teens in Oakland Early february so I'm excited about it. 

As more of a long term yearly goal, I am in the process of writing a children’s book and a book about some of my journeys surrounding healing work.

This year, I specifically want to support people of color and share with people of color. The other dynamic is that I do not want to feel like the subject of someone’s study. So when I received your invitation I was like, "oh the Universe heard me! This is exactly the kind of way that I would like to share with folks the work that I am doing.

Be sure to follow Berenice:

http://www.berenicedimas.com 

                                                                    FB: Cantos De La Tierra 

                                                                    IG : @cantosdelatierra

                                                                    Twitter:@ _LaBere