Essential Oils and Massage Therapy

    When I was 18 years old, and fresh out of highschool, I decided that I would go to massage therapy school. I graduated massage school in 2005. I worked in spas for around 3 years before I go burnt out and decided to go to a four year college. Though I am glad I am about to graduate with my Bachelors in English, I do not regret attending massage school.  I learned many things about energy, the human body, and plant oils. Massage therapy and essential oils are some of my favorite things.



   Many people are not aware of the amazing physical benefits of massage therapy. So many people are on painkillers. Painkillers cover up pain, they do not fix the problem. The only way to fix your muscle tissue is through massage. When a muscle is fatigued or stressed it tends to tense up, and constrict blood flow to the muscle tissue. This creates tense muscles, and eventually trigger points. Massaging muscles brings new blood and oxygen to your muscles. With enough massage pain can be treated, and can eventually go way.


Essential oils are oils that are extracted from plants. I like to use my oils in a nebulizer diffuser. The diffuser breaks down the oils into such fine particles that it is easily inhaled and goes to the blood stream. There are a lot of essential oils distributors, but not all of them use pure oils. My favorite company to produce oils is Young Living. I love to diffuse Eucalyptus when I feel a cold coming on, and Lavender to relax.

The Future

 Another thing I love is science. I subscribe to Discover magazine, and read Science Daily. There have been some articles about very interesting things lately. I am going to share my favorite find of this year.

How would you like to be able to grow new teeth? That would be awesome right?! Well, researchers at the College of Dental Medicine at Nova Southeastern University( http://singularityhub.com/2012/05/10/toothless-no-more-researchers-using-stem-cells-to-grow-new-teeth/)  have been using stem cells to regenerate teeth in mice, and monkeys! And clinical trials for humans will be starting soon. This is exciting to me! I have always had dreams of losing teeth, and then growing them back in. It is pretty neat to think that in the near future that growing new teeth will be possible.


I am not sure how dentists will like this new science. If people could regrow teeth, it seems like a dentist would lose a lot of money.

Camp Music Festivals

 Another one of my favorite things is to go live music shows, and particularly camping music festivals. Woodstock is probably the best known camping music festival. I have heard many people say "I wish I was alive so I could have experienced Woodstock". Though the festivals I go to aren't called Woodstock, they are exactly the same. Though, unfortunately Jimmy Hendrix is no longer alive to wale on his guitar anymore, there are  many talented musicians that play at these festivals.

I believe that Bonnaroo is the largest populated camp music festival in the United States, but don't quote me on that. I attended Bonnaroo last year and it was too large of a festival for me. 156,000 people attended Bonnaroo last year.

I prefer smaller music festivals like ; Electric Forest, Wakarusa, Summer Camp, and All Good. Those festivals usually bring a crowd of anywhere from 15,000- 30,000 people.

There are a couple of bands that are known to frequent these festivals. My favorite are Sound Tribe Sector Nine, Galactic, String Cheese Incident, Big Gigantic, Pretty Lights, Wookiefoot, Keller Williams, and Bassnectar. I have seen all of these bands multiple times, and every time is a completely different experience.

I encourage everyone to go to at least one camp music festival in their lives. You will never be the same afterwards.

Yeah Mon!

    I have mentioned my favorite activity, and favorite artist. It seemed fit too name another of my favorites. My favorite place that I have been is Jamaica. I have been to Jamaica 2 times and traveled to all of the big cities. My favorite part of Jamaica is Negril. It is settled on the south east coast. There is a 7 mile long white sand beach, and its beauty surpasses any beach I have ever seen.

   Jamaica is a unique place. The official language of Jamaica is English. But I have observed that most people speak Patois. Patois is a local language that resembles a mix of French and English, and is considered Jamaican Creole by linguists. Most of the local dishes are spicy. A famous dish that hails from Jamaica is Jerk Chicken. It is, in my opinion, delicious!  A lot of Jamaicans eat curry goat, Ackee fish, Red Snapper, and Oxtail. I tried all of the above, and they were all amazing. I love Jamaican food.

   Jamaica is also known for it's population of a religion called Rastafarianism. The Rastafarian religion is most known for its practice of using Marijuana.

I have included a few of my pictures from Jamaica.

For the Love of Art

            Another one of my loves in life is art. Art is a general term which can encompass many mediums. My favorite art to create is blown glass. I trained for 2 semesters at the Multi Arts Center in Stillwater, Oklahoma. I learned to make paper weights, small vases, and small plates. When adding colored glass to the clear molten glass, the colored glass burns as different shades of oranges, yellows, and reds. It is amazing to see the liquid glass spinning on a metal rod being spun continuously. Below is a picture of me collecting the molten glass from the "Keeper".

       I also enjoy painting, but I feel I don't paint as well as I blow glass. My favorite artist is Alex Grey. He has done a lot of art work for the band Tool. A lot of his work deals with human anatomy, and the energy grids in the universe. Here are a couple of my favorite pieces by Alex Grey ;

right ; Gaia

bottom left ; Ayahuasca Visitation

Hoop Dance

    For my first blog entry I have decided to write about my favorite hobby, hoop dancing. Hoop dance is a type of dancing where you dance with a "hula hoop".  I was introduced to hoop dance at a String Cheese Incident concert in 2002.  I thought it looked fun, and freeing.

    I bought my first hoop online in 2005. It is a rather large hoop with a diameter of 48 inches. I believe the large hoops are easier for beginners because the large circumference creates a slower speed to practice, and the weight of a large hoop helps too build muscles needed for intricate tricks. Now I hoop with small diameter hoops that are 36 inches. Small hoops move quickly and are more difficult to control.

I have made most of my hoops myself from irrigation tubing at Home Depot. I also own an one hundred light LED hoop that has 90 different light modes! And recently I felt I was knowledgeable enough to purchase my first fire hoop.

I love hoop dancing! It is great exercise ( can burn up to 400 calories an hour!), and it is easy to lose time hooping because trying new tricks is a challenge! I have included a link to a video of me fire hooping for one of the first times!