...when you buy a gift card for $500 of services to be used whenever you like, receive an additional $50 for free. Now's the time to take care of yourself and SAVE! Use it to try a new Ayurvedic service or for a consultation with Dr. Sherri or a series of acupuncture sessions with Zaachari and Tatianna.
Call us at 843.725.0217 to get your gift card now.
Seeking Indigo Launches In-Store Custom Blending Bar!
In honor of springtime and nature's rebirth, we have officially launched the Aromatherapy Custom Blending Bar! Come in any time, any day for a personal consultation to learn how essential oils can enhance your physical, emotional and mental well-being. Leave with a custom essential blend to meet your individual wellness needs.
From what do you seek relief?
What is it you seek to attract?
Our Aroma Artist, Heather A. Howell, has created 9 essential blends to meet your needs. Be it insomnia or stress that you're working through - be it depression, anxiety or hormonal imbalance - nature herself has a
cure. For $22, make your own Room/Body Spray, healing serum or on-the-spot treatment to add to a massage or take home for self-care.
Explore nature's medicine at its best!
Aromatherapy is a form of complementary medicine that uses 100% pure, concentrated plant materials known as essential oils for maintenance, enhancement and restoration of phsyical and psychological well-being. Essential oils are absorbed by the skin or lungs into the bloodstream to stimulate the brain and, within seconds, promote healing throughout the body.
Our passion for healthy living is contagious, and our expertise in nature's medicine will help you adopt a healthier lifestyle one drop or spritz at a time.
The Seeking Indigo medicine cabinet is inspired by the garden and imbued with intention. See you soon!
If there is any ONE reason for you to use essential oils every day, it can be summed up in one word...OXYGEN! Essential oils are loaded (concentrated) with it, at least 50 times more oxygen than what the plants give off from which they are derived.
While essential oils may contain hundreds of different elements, three primary elements common to all oils are hydrogen, carbon and OXYGEN. So each time you inhale essential oils or apply them to your body, you are enriching your body with needed oxygen to purge toxins and fight off disease causing pathogens. This is why the use of essential oils on a daily basis can help you develop a superior immune system, and why people who use the oils (several times daily) seldom experience illness and disease.
One of the incredible aspects of essential oils is their ability to penetrate and carry nutrients through the cell wall to the cell nucleolus. Dr. Radwan Farag, Ph.D., head of the bio- chemistry department at Cairo University is the man accredited for documenting the oxygenating and antioxidant activity essential oils afford.
When the viscosity of blood is reduced, its velocity increases. By increasing its velocity, our blood is able to deliver greater amounts of oxygen to tissues. When essential oils are introduced to the blood stream, they increase circulation, thereby increasing oxygenation.
As the blood delivers nutrients and oxygen to the cells for feeding, it is the oxygenating molecules that penetrate and carry nutrients through the cell wall to the cell nucleolus for feeding and oxidation.
As the body grows oxygen deficient, individual cells begin to suffer. Without adequate oxygen, cells become nutritionally starved and become a garbage pit for waste and toxins, Deprived of nutrition, the cell protects itself by thickening its outer wall...making nutrient delivery even more difficult. This in turn causes cell deterioration, which can lead to cell mutation. It is in this state that the body becomes a host for disease causing pathogens.
Due to their high oxygen content, essential oils are nature’s most effective catalyst and delivery agent for feeding cells. Rich in oxygen, they pass through the thickest cell walls with the greatest of ease (to maintain or begin a restorative process).
Oxygen
Disease cannot exist in an oxygen rich environment. Oxygen is needed for assimilation. Oxygen is the delivery agent which carries the nutrients in the blood. In order for cells to take on nutrients, the nutrients have to be able to pass through the cell wall in order to get to the nucleus where assimilation takes place, The cell wall begins to mutate (harden) with as little as 1% drop in oxygen in the serum around the cell. There are 5 stages of mutation leading to the development of degenerative diseases.
Heather A. Howell, Seeking Indigo's Essential Oil Mix Master and Aroma Alchemist, is now available for private consultations consultations to custom blend a remedy to assist you with all your needs. Call or stop in to schedule an appointment today and start benefiting from natures healing remedies.
Join our Aromatic Alchemist Saturday November 27, 1pm-3pm at Seeking Indigo for an afternoon of conscious gift making.
In this world where there is too much stuff, why not gift the one's you love or those who impact your life in a positive way with something that benefits their wellbeing. Give them self-care products that you customize especially for them with pure essential oils.
Make 6 Organic, Luxurious, Therapeutic gifts from over 20 Aromatic recipes.
You will be creating:
Cost: $75.
Call today to reserve your spot (843) 725-0217 as these classes fill up quickly!
In this world where there is too much stuff, why not gift the one's you love or those who impact your life in a positive way with something that benefits their wellbeing. Give them self-care products that you customize especially for them with pure essential oils. Make 6 Organic, Luxurious, Therapeutic gifts from over 20 Aromatic recipes.
Choose from:
You can mix and match products. Cost: $75.
Dates:
Saturday Nov 13 1-3pm
Saturday Nov 27 1-3pm
Saturday Dec 11 1-3pm
Call today to reserve your spot (843) 725-0217 as these classes fill up quickly!
As medical costs increase and people grow skeptical of traditional medical advice and pharmaceuticals, holistic medicine is playing a more significant role. Holistic medicine is known as treating the whole person with the goal of achieving a balance in mind, body and the spirit. At Seeking Indigo, the same approach is taken.
While Western medical practices focus on treating the physical symptoms and complaints of illness and disease, a holistic approach looks at a variety of factors that may be contributing to health problems and healing that, not masking the symptoms. Holistic therapies range from the use of herbs to yoga and meditation practices to massage and crystals. Holistic practitioners specialize in different modalities and treatments.
Although holistic medicine was once considered by many (especially in the West) to be illegitimate, these days even doctors who have studied traditional Western medicine are starting to recognize the benefits of many holistic medicine perspectives and treatments. Even medical doctors will suggest certain holistic treatments as a supplement to their methods.
The basic concept of holistic medicine is that each person has a physical, mental, emotional and spiritual component to his or her body. Each part has different and unique levels of consciousness and energy. When there is disharmony between the different parts, the body can become unhealthy, resulting in illness or disease. People who practice holistic medicine believe harmony must be recreated in order for healing and health to take place.
Common signs of unbalance in one's body are a compromised immune system, aches and pains, and emotional instability. The holistic practitioner's goal is to restore balance first, which results in the improvement and eventual disappearance of symptoms. The way to meet this objective varies greatly from doctor to doctor. Some chiropractors also specialize in holistic medicine, and they focus on creating balance through spinal alignment. On the other hand, an herbalist or nutritionist is going to focus on creating balance through foods and herbal concoctions, while an aromatherapist can bring balance back through essential oils that are applied directly to the body via lotions or carrier oils.
There are many different categories within holistic medicine. Here are five of the most popular therapies offered at Seeking Indigo:
Now, take a few moments and think about ways to keep yourself healthy naturally and let me know by adding your comments.
How do we get oils quickly into the system? Through the olfactory
nerve, to the pineal, pituitary, Amygdala. When you breathe an oil into the
system, and through the nasal cavity, it is first picked up by the neurons that
hang down from the olfactory, right between the eyes at the top of the sinus
cavity. Those oil molecules are carried within milliseconds into the center of
the brain. Now they have found that through the inhalation of Essential Oils
into the mid-brain system, they will cause a secretion of antibodies instantly,
endorphins and neurotransmitters. Now we're seeing a direct response on the
immune system from the inhalation, and topical application of Essential Oils
like none other that has ever been created.
When a smell enters the nasal cavity, it meets up with over 50,000,000 receptor neurons which are located in the upper part of the nose and nasal septum, and the receptors are specialized in such a way that certain react to certain smells. These receptors then convert the presence of a smell into a message which is sent to the olfactory bulb (which is seen as part of the forebrain and its main sensory input) where the processing of the smell is started and is then passed onto other areas of the brain which control emotions, behavior as well as basic thought processes. Enkephalin reduces pain and creates a feeling of well-being. Endorphins also reduce pain and induce sexual feelings. Serotonin helps relax and calm. Because the olfactory nerves are a direct extension of the brain's limbic system, reaction to smell is relayed immediately.
The Limbic System & Aromatherapy
In our brains there are several primitive structures that give us important abilities that are needed for the survival of the species. The “limbic system” is that group of brain structures devoted to the ability to fight or run away in an emergency. The limbic system also helps us to remember events that caused strong emotions. If someone were to be attacked, the limbic system would first produce fear and then perhaps rage. The fear would energize the body to help you to run away, if possible. If not, your limbic system might trigger a rage, which would prepare the body to fight in a ferocious manner, to protect yourself or your loved ones. Picture a mother bear protecting her cubs from a predator, and you will get the idea.
The Hypothalamus is the hormonal control center. It releases chemical messengers, produces growth hormones (for youth and longevity, sex hormones, thyroid hormones and neurotransmitters (i.e., serotonin), and is the "master gland".
The olfactory system actually begins in the roof of the nasal cavity. The olfactory receptors are ciliated epithelial cells with an array of receptors capable of detecting thousands of different odors like antennas into every part of the body. The moment you smell an oil, these hairs send a frequency to the receptor sites on the cells and change the energy so that transformation can take place. The benefits of aromatherapy from the application of essential oils to inhalation of the aromas are tremendous.
The Amygdala has two
parts, a posterior and anterior portion. The posterior portion ties into all of
your fears and traumas which is why when you have a feeling of negativity from
a smell, your body is remembering a prior incident which also contained the
same smell as part of the situation. If you witness an accident and store a
certain aroma, every time you encounter this smell you will be returned to that
memory and the trauma involved. The anterior portion of the Amygdala is the
gateway to the frontal lobes which is where the positive, peaceful emotions
live.
The olfactory epithelium lies within the nasal cavity. The nerve endings are sensitive to molecules floating about in the air that get stuck on the mucous surface. The contact of such molecules with the cilia of the olfactory receptors is transduced into neural messages (see diagram below).
There is little understanding of how transduction occurs and how various molecules are transduced differently. Most believe that the physical structure (shape) of a molecule plays a deciding role. It appears that the relevant sensory code for olfactory quality is probably a pattern of excitation across different receptor groups.
Olfaction tells us how our food tastes. It is also used in identification (e.g., a mother can identify her infant by smell alone almost immediately after birth).
Olfaction is also used in signaling across distances (e.g. pheromones from female moths attract male moths).
The most common ways that people lose their sense of smell are through the common cold (too much mucous), viral infection of olfactory epithelium, or a cracked cribriform plate caused by an accident.
Heather A. Howell is a Certified Clinical Aromatherapist serving as the Master Aromatherapist at Aroma Pharmica, an Organic Skincare Company and Seeking Indigo , a Holistic Wellness Oasis in Charleston, SC and serves as a Director and the National Representative of the Alliance of International Aromatherapists. Heather also teaches aromatherapy to health practitioners, professionals in the medical field, massage therapists and other healing modality practitioners throughout United States. In her private practice, Heather assists her clients’ issues and obtaining wellness through the natural medicine of essential oils. Life with 3 incredible children based on holistic living and nature is rewarding and fulfilling. Aroma Pharmica is located on James Island, SC.
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