Each month, we bring our readers tools and information to assist them on their path to personal wellness and healthy living...naturally! We feature articles by national authors as well as from local leaders in the fields of health, nutrition, fitness, organics, personal growth, sustainability and natural pet. Have something you'd like to read about? Contact us directly!
Horses as Healers
Equine Therapy has Physical and Emotional Benefits
Horses are being increasingly used to help people work through emotional and physical challenges, and for good reason: Numerous studies have shown that equine-assisted therapy helps with anger, anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and dissociative or other...
The Power of the Written Note
Birthdays, weddings, holidays and other momentous occasions have long been celebrated with cards and letters. The rise of emailing, texting and social media has made writing letters a forgotten treasure as many of us have instead come to...
Healthy Cookware
How to Choose Non-Toxic Pots and Pans
Organic and locally sourced foods are eco-friendly and contribute to better health, a greener world and thriving communities. However, once the food is cooked, it may no longer be...
Shedding Light on Lightbulbs
Don’t be left in the dark when choosing lightbulbs. Lighting accounts for up to 20 percent of a household’s energy bill, and untold numbers of bulbs end up in landfills. Let’s illuminate some bulb options to increase savings and...
Creative Kids
How to Nurture Imagination
Young children are naturally curious and inventive, yet research shows that their creative thinking skills peak at around age 6 and start to decline once they start formal schooling—a trend that’s...
Preserving the Harvest
Classic Ways to Store Garden Bounty All Year
Whether gardening, purchasing at farmers’ markets or ordering from a community supported agriculture farm, preservation techniques capture the bounty of the harvest and ensure availability of fresh flavors year-round...
Upsetting Your Natural Balance
How Medications Can Impact Your Digestive Health
While all medications are created to perform a specific function, they can also have moderate to severe side effects, which can vary depending on how they are taken; the interaction with other medications, foods or supplements; the general health of the patient; the state of a patient's illness or disease; age; weight or even as...
Pollinator-Friendly Yards
Gardening for Wildlife with Native Plants
For some people, perfectly mowed lawns without a trace of a weed or an insect makes them proud, but they may not realize that this method of gardening and landscaping could be harming the local ecosystem and the important pollinators that we rely on to keep...
Water Sports for a Total Body Workout
Cool Ways to Stay Fit this Summer
Whether it’s adrenaline-fueled kiteboarding or peaceful paddle boarding, getting active in the water helps to improve bone density, elevates mood and engages major muscle groups without stressing the joints. The highlight of a vacation might be rafting down a river, surfing at sunset or waterskiing on a mountain lake. Whether done regularly or occasionally, water sports offer...
Think Yourself Happy
Seven Ways to Change Your Mind and Be Happier
What is happiness? Aristotle pondered it, our country’s founders encouraged its pursuit, but only now—thanks to the thriving field of Positive Psychology—have we learned more precisely how to attain and sustain it. In thousands of studies in the last two decades, researchers have watched babies share crackers, put Tibetan monks in brain scanners, asked college students to do kind deeds and explored...
Smiling Can Make Us Happier
A smile makes the brain happy. As it turns out, it doesn’t matter if we smile at first because we’re genuinely happy or if we simply fake a smile. The brain doesn’t know...
Back-to-School Wellness
Tips to Keep Kids Healthy
After a year dealing with the ups and downs of pandemic-era schooling, many parents are anticipating their children’s return to school with mixed emotions. “Families indeed have had a rough time in the pandemic, resulting in increased food insecurity, weakened social skills, splintered attention spans due to constant multitasking and arguments over...
Power Up Fido
Five Ways to Strengthen Your Dog’s Immune System
A long, healthy life for our animal companions depends on them having resilient immune systems that can resist disease. While supporting a dog’s immunity during illness is vital, it’s also important to help it maintain natural defenses when well to help...
Food as Medicine
The Healing Power of Nutrition
Eating is a basic need, but many Americans are not filling this need with healthful choices. Among the more than 700,000 Americans that die each year from heart disease, stroke or Type 2 diabetes, about 45 percent...
Sizzling on the Grill
Healthy, Sustainable Summer Fare
For most Americans, summer smells like fresh-cut grass and barbecue sizzling in the backyard. Approximately 64 percent of U.S. adults own a grill or smoker, but common practices are bad for the environment. Fortunately, many great chefs have the problem covered with delicious alternatives to...
Sweet Slumber
Natural Tips for Deep Sleep
A good night’s sleep is a challenge for a growing number of Americans. Even before the pandemic, 35 percent of adults reported sleeping less than the recommended seven hours a night, and in a new survey by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, 56 percent said they were...
Growing Food Security
The Benefits of Urban Gardening
For a lot of Americans, healthy food is scarce. According to FeedingAmerica.org, more than 35 million Americans faced food insecurity in 2019. That number is expected to increase substantially due to the pandemic, which disrupted the food supply chain in ways that...