Vines of Wellness

Hello, aromatic friends!

You know, one of the perks that AIA members get to enjoy is receiving happy mails!

The AIA Journal Aromatics in Action™ Vol.6 Issue 2 is now available and arriving in member mailboxes soon.

For international members, you will receive a digital copy, so make sure you have us in your whitelist, or check your spam folder if you can't find it.

This issue boasts recently concluded AIA events, plus articles and case studies from aromatherapists around the globe.

Be in the know in the current aromatherapy scene and grab your copy now! You may also purchase the journal in the AIA store. https://buff.ly/43W4Rqd

Not an AIA member yet? Join our community now! >>> https://buff.ly/3XNncDD

Links in bio.

Organizing data into information.

Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: PA/NE Region Meeting. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the meeting. Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: PA/NE Region Meeting. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the meeting.

April is Autism (ASD) Awareness Month and May is Hypermobility Spectrum Disorder (HSD) & Ehlers-Danlos Syndromes (EDS) Awareness Month. There is a statistically significant overlap between ASD and HSD/hEDS.

Here are a few thoughts on the professional practice of aromatherapy and how we write and speak about disabilities:

- Invisible disabilities often go undiagnosed. When considering an aromatherapy protocol for a client, it is important to consider that there are things the client does not know about themselves.
- Hightened sensory experience is a major factor to be considered when formulating for this population. The threshold for a scent to be too strong for a client may be extremely low.
- As a correlary to the previous point, how a formulation feels on the skin may affect client compliance.
- HSD/hEDS often affects the hands and fingers, so a client may struggle with twisting open a nasal inhaler or opening a jar or using a spray bottle (regardless of the client's apparent age).
- Individuals with EDS frequently have very sensitive skin. Patch testing is highly recommended.
- Undiagnosed allergies or mast cell activation disorder (MCAD/MCAS) are more frequent for persons with HSD/EDS.
- Presume competence. If the client shares a known disability, they are trusting that the practitioner will continue to respect them as a whole person without bias.
- Presuming competence should be evident in writing or speaking. Be respectful and compassionate and avoid inspiration p**n.
- When writing or speaking about a person with a disability, consider whether it is even necessary to point out the disability. If it is, use the language provided by the individual. Note that many autistic individuals prefer identity-first language and many individuals who use mobility devices are not "bound" or "confined".

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7711487/

The Relationship between Autism and Ehlers-Danlos Syndromes/Hypermobility Spectrum Disorders Considerable interest has arisen concerning the relationship between hereditary connective tissue disorders such as the Ehlers-Danlos syndromes (EDS)/hypermobility spectrum disorders (HSD) and autism, both in terms of their comorbidity as well as co-occurrence ...

My ginger bug is thriving. The most recent batch included tart cherry juice in the second ferment. 😋

Do you make probiotic "pop"?

How to Make a Ginger Bug for Homemade Fermented Sodas A ginger bug is a wild-fermented starter culture made with sugar, ginger and water. It takes about a little less than a week of daily diligence to make one, and you can use it to make probiotic, naturally bubbly soft drinks, sodas, herbal beers and tonics.

Wildcrafters represent a truly unique—and incredibly small—category of essential oil supplier. Their investment in the health of wild plant communities, active relationship with natural habitats, and uncompromising commitment to supporting the ongoing thriving of wild plants take stewardship and reciprocity to a whole new level. As wildcrafter and Uncommon Scents participant Janina Sorensen suggested in a recent comment, wildcrafters cooperate and connect, protect and preserve. Motivated by reciprocal relationship, wildcrafters' movements in the wild habitats with which they are connected are balanced, harmonious, and reverent.

Done in keeping with its original definition, wildcrafting is a powerful testament to what an equitable, deeply respectful, relationship with wild plants can be. Wildcrafters are deeply tuned in. They know when the bees are collecting from the flowers, when plants in a given area are preparing to glide from flower into seed and fruit, what areas and plants are robust, which plants are prepared to offer their gifts, what time/day to harvest relative to the sun and weather. Passionate and outspoken advocates for wild plants and places, wildcrafters are often the first to recognize and respond to threats in the habitats they know, love, and work with.

There’s a disturbing trend—in the U.S. especially—of individuals calling their ingredients and products “wildcrafted” and calling themselves “wildcrafters” even though their methods and behavior are far afield of the real definition of wildcrafting. Wildcrafting isn’t about *taking* wild source materials and using them. It isn’t about stumbling upon an aromatic plant and taking it from where you find it. True wildcrafted herbs and flowers aren’t harvested from roadsides or random locations. Real wildcrafting is about relationship, stewardship, reciprocity, balance: the emphasis is on ensuring that wild plant and habitats thrive, not merely collecting materials from the wild for consumption or production.

📸 : wild lavender from the plateaus of Provence, Kristina Bauer

East Indian Sandalwood ('Santalum album') is a threatened essential oil-bearing flowering plant species (Arumkumar et al., 2019 IUCN).

22,477 flowering plant species were categorized as threatened on the IUCN Red List in 2021. Flowering plants, more colloquially known as flowers, are the most diverse group of land plants. They also represent the largest group of described species within the plant kingdom (Szmigiera, 2021)

Contact Airmid Institute to find out more about how to ethically source this commercially valuable essential oil. 🌿💚

[email protected]

As I strive to become a better editor, I am discovering a treasure-trove of wit and wisdom.

I admit it, I watch YouTube cleaning videos. One thing that makes me cringe is when they pour a new bottle of essential oils into their sinks to make them smell fresh. Why is this such a big deal?

SUSTAINABILITY

In order to produce essential oil, you need an extremely large amount of botanical matter. The yield is running low and many essential oils are endangered or are at risk for being endangered.

PLEASE RESPECT sustainability efforts and the power of essential oils. This applies to ALL essential oils, not just the endangered ones. If we continue to dilly dally around with essential oils and use them for silly purposes (like literally throwing them down a drain or in a toilet), they will become endangered.

I don’t know about you but I want to keep essential oils around for my future great-grandchildren to use. Don’t you? Use essential oils with purpose and intention. Respect this precious resource and support sustainability efforts to keep them around for generations to come.

Beauty abounds. Pollinators imbibe.

📣 Everyone has something to share!

📣 Submissions are currently being accepted for articles, case studies, book reviews, and more.

📣 Upcoming themes include woodland aromatics and business topics related to aromatherapy. Submissions do not have to be limited only to these themes.

📣 For more information, visit: https://www.alliance-aromatherapists.org/writing-and-advertising

Dahlias are now in the ground and I harvested some lemon balm, peppermint, and spearmint for the first "pinchings" tea of the season. Have you been in the garden today?