Plants: Green allies in the quest for peace and quiet

Stress and sleep

Esther Fafard Moreno-Lacalle
Esther Fafard Moreno-Lacalle
@AVogel_ca


15 May 2020

Seeking balance

You're constantly being bombarded by ads, mobile phone and social network notifications, email newsletters filled with health tips, unidentified telemarketing calls and much more. So there comes a time when something snaps and you say "Enough! I'm switching it all off! "I'm turning everything off! Time to power down before I lose it... or worse."

As soon as you adopt healthy lifestyle habits, the burden you carry around with you will finally lift off your shoulders like a huge mountain of ice sublimating into water vapour.

As Frédéric Lenoir writes in Le Bonheur : un voyage philosophique : "the keys to happiness and serenity are not as mysterious as we might think; in fact, they're all simple and completely accessible".

The first is to make sure to have a healthy and varied diet full of colourful, vitamin- and antioxidant-rich fruits and vegetables, dark green veggies rich in fibre and minerals, high-quality complete proteins, "good" fats such as polyunsaturated Omega-3, and of course, plenty of water.

And remember, weekly physical activity is vital to managing your daily stress: keeping active helps restore balance in your neurotransmitters and better prepares your body to react to the anxiety-producing situations you face every day. The invaluable hormone "messengers" in your brain control everything on several levels:

  • your day-to-day decisions
  • your adaptability
  • your resilience and mental strength
  • your ability to keep your cool in challenging situations
  • the time it takes you to fall asleep at night
  • your ability to concentrate while carrying out complex tasks, and much more

When your neurotransmitters are derailed by suboptimal lifestyle habits (junk food, lack of exercise, dehydration, lack of sleep, poorly managed stress, etc.), you are more prone to suffering from insomnia, anxiety, depression, anxiety disorders and burnout.

Two or three sessions of yoga a week and meditating at home can help a lot. A little jog around the block before starting your day can help give clarity to your thoughts all day long, not to mention giving your body some fresh air and a good dose of the sunshine vitamin—your body synthesizes vitamin D even on cloudy days!

Plants to the rescue!

Of course, it may well be that despite living a healthy lifestyle and adopting all the right habits, your body still needs a natural boost to support and optimize your body and bring it into a state of homeostasis, or balance.

Fortunately, nature is full of allies: just immerse yourself in the wonderful world of medicinal plants and flowers.

There's one real gem in the natural supplements market that's an absolute must-have: the Stress and Sleep line by Alfred Vogel, a pioneer in naturopathy since 1923. It features mother tinctures from four wonderful medicinal plants: passionflower, flowering oats (Avenaforce), valerian on its own and a hops and valerian complex (Deep Sleep). These mother tinctures are made entirely from fresh, organic plants hand-picked with care, and are bottled within 24 hours to maximize the therapeutic potential of the medicinal plants.

A.Vogel's fresh organic Passionflower: a marvellous purplish-pink flower discovered by the Spanish explorers who learned of its use from the Aztecs. This flower is useful for relieving physical anxiety. It is known for its ability to relieve nervousness, irritability, muscle spasms, nerve pain, as well as nervousness-related digestive and sleep imbalances. It is known to be safe for use by both adults and children.

Avenaforce is made from fresh flowering oats and is traditionally used to strengthen the nervous system in cases of mental exhaustion (which often leads to physical exhaustion) thanks to its balancing and nourishing action.

Because of valerian's volatile nature, A.Vogel makes its Valerian mother tincture exclusively using fresh plants, thereby yielding superior therapeutic effectiveness compared to tinctures made from dried plants. This sedative plant helps you achieve a deep state of calm and relaxation, especially in cases of persistent insomnia. In rare cases it can have the opposite effect, like a stimulant, but when taken in small, gradually increasing doses, this stimulating effect can usually be avoided.

Combining hops and valerian in a fresh, organic and symbiotic complex, A.Vogel's Deep Sleep is highly appreciated for its ability to improve sleep quality. Furthermore, its ability to enhance deep sleep by 25% by supporting the sleep cycles has been clinically proven. Deep Sleep also reduces the time it takes to fall asleep and is not addictive.

To further foster restful sleep, you can also create a peaceful and relaxing environment by diffusing some calming essential oils, such as lavender and bergamot, in the air before bedtime. You can do this in a variety of ways: by using a diffuser, by placing a few drops on your pillow, or by blending the essential oils into a neutral base oil to provide an additional soothing effect, whether during a massage or a relaxing bath with Epsom salts, which contain magnesium, a powerful muscle relaxant.

Don't wait until you're already burning the candle at both ends. Instead, retake control of your life and your mind so that instead of just living for the day-to-day, you're taking a huge bite out of life every chance you get!
Carpe Diem!

 

A.Vogel Deep Sleep - Fresh organic natural sleep aid

A.Vogel Deep Sleep herbal sleep aid

50mL

A.Vogel Deep Sleep is clinically proven natural sleep aid which improves sound sleep up to 25%. It …
More info

Aromaforce® Organic Lavender Essential Oil

Aromaforce® Lavender Essential Oil

15mL

Lavender Essential Oil (Lavendula officinalis) is steam distilled from flowering tops. Sweet, …
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Alfred Vogel's guide to leading a healthy and happy life

Nature is just about the best thing we’ve got!

Watch the video

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