REPOWER YOURSELF IN
Your Inner Garden
SPRING & SUMMER 2023 EDITION
ALMANAC
Power of Summer
There's something in the air. The vibrant spring and burgeoning summer bring a feeling of anticipation and renewal. Everything is sprouting and bursting with vitality. Nature is an endless source of life forces – or etheric forces, as they are called in anthroposophic medicine. Right now, these forces are at their peak.
Nature is unparalleled in its ability to create balance and harmony, and medicinal herbs are a part of this balance. The plants we use in Lucia Care's skincare line are one of the most remarkable manifestations of life forces. For centuries, they have been known for their healing properties.
In this edition of ’Your Inner Garden,’ you can harvest knowledge about what life forces are and where they can be found. When we are surrounded by these life-giving forces, we can recharge and feel alive.
Happy reading!
Self-care
Outdoor meditation
When we spend time outdoors and experience nature through our senses, we feel connected to ourselves. Nature is like a mirror where we see our own reflection and remember who we are. Spending time in nature tunes us into our own life forces and helps us feel more alive.
“Meditation is an effective tool for living a balanced life and being grounded in yourself. Feel free to spend 10 minutes daily on meditation.“
Nanna Kirkebjerg – Doctor and founder of Lucia Care
Dandelion meditation
Human development in life forces – from baby to old age – is symbolized in the dandelion's cycle. This meditation exercise will give you an understanding and insight into what life forces encompass.
🌼 Make yourself comfortable. Gladly outdoors in nature, where you also have the opportunity to observe a dandelion.
🌼 Take 10 deep, calming breaths, where you can feel your belly expand on the inhale. Feel free to hold a short pause between the inhale and exhale and feel a saturated stillness around your heart.
🌼 Imagine all the details on a dandelion – right from when it comes up from the ground to the hard, sap-filled bud that unfolds and stands in full bloom.
🌼 Take your time to observe the different stages of the dandelion in great detail.
🌼 See now with your inner eye The dandelion transforms into a dry ball, where life forces dry up and gather in seeds. Now they can take root and start anew.
If you get distracted along the way, that's okay. Just lovingly return to the exercise.
INTEGRATIVE MEDICINE
Holistic approach to life forces
Watch the video and listen along as Nanna Kirkebjerg, a general practitioner and founder of Lucia Care, shares her knowledge about life forces.
What are life forces?
When studying the body in medical school, you gain an understanding of the physical body by studying deceased individuals. You learn about anatomy and biochemical processes. However, you don't learn much about the vital forces that are responsible for the life process itself. In short, what is it that makes us live? What is it that gives all living organisms energy, power, and vitality?
Life forces are the power that permeates and sustains the physical body. They can refer to a physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual energy present in the body and mind that affects our health, well-being, and quality of life. Life forces help keep an organism alive. However, they cannot be explained by physical or chemical factors.
Life forces are also known as etheric forces within anthroposophical medicine. You may also have encountered concepts like prana in Indian health wisdom Ayurveda or as Qi in Chinese medicine.
Where are the life forces found?
Nature is rich in life forces: Water, light, and all living things contain life forces and nutrients that are prerequisites for growing and developing. Life forces are not only found in nature, however. All living humans, animals, and plants possess inherent life forces.
Children have the most life force. A 9-month-old baby, drooling and with rubber bands here and there, is full of life force. As we grow and get old, our life force diminishes. As humans age, our ability to heal declines. Our skin becomes thinner and drier, partly because the body's hyaluronic acid levels drop.
What affects our life forces?
When we humans are sick, stressed, or experience hardships in life, our life force levels decrease. In the body, the liver is particularly affected, as it is the body's stronghold for life force. The liver is a very watery organ, and the only organ in the body that can regenerate itself. Therefore, it is always good to strengthen your liver when you are sick, stressed, or undergoing treatment with strong medication, which is often broken down in the liver, thereby putting it to hard work.
We also know that our excretory organs such as the liver and kidneys are connected to the skin. If the liver is strained, one can experience skin symptoms such as rashes, dry and flaky skin, and a tendency towards blemishes. If a pregnant woman has elevated liver enzymes, she will experience skin itching that is most often unbearable. Therefore, it is important to strengthen the liver by building it up with life force.
How to recharge your life force
🌱 Sleep well
We are filled with life energy during sleep. Many regenerative processes begin here.
Children have a great need for sleep, as they grow a lot.
Read more about good sleep Her.
🌱 Strengthen your liver:
Liver wrap - strengthen the liver with a warm wrap of yarrow tea. Get the recipe Her – just replace horsetail with yarrow.
Drink herbal tea with bitter plants that strengthen the liver: e.g. Rosemary and yarrow.
🌱 Cost
Eat green, coarse, and varied.
Choose organic and biodynamic ingredients, as these contain the most life forces.
🌱 Water and heat
Warmth is relaxing and creates space to recharge with life forces.
Take a nourishing Fobad.
Use good oils in your body baths. Try adding Lucia Care Revitalising Oil to your bathwater. The oil is rich in siliceous medicinal herbs like rosemary and horsetail.
Create rituals with sauna and bath therapy.
🌱 Rhythmic massage
Rhythmic massage can give a feeling of being reborn and free in the body. This manifests as a lightness, freed from stiffness and tension.
Read more about rhythmic massage Her.
🌱 Warm herbal tea
Drink plenty of tea that is rich in herbs like yarrow, horsetail, or rosemary.
The combination of water, heat, and herbs strengthens life forces.
🌱 Rest and meditation:
Make time to seek peace and presence in nature.
Merely being present in nature fills us with life force. Especially in early summer, when nature is full of sap and strength.
Print listen and hang it up somewhere as a loving reminder.
How can skincare strengthen life forces?
Since ancient times, we have known that nature's plants, flowers, leaves, roots, and stems possess inherent powers that can soothe and heal. At Lucia Care, we bring this wisdom and empiricism to light, where ancient medicinal herbs meet modern research and are transformed into creams, oils, and soaps by the skilled hands of a biochemist. Lucia Care's skincare line is based on specially selected medicinal herbs that stimulate the skin's and body's own life forces.
Characteristics of plants with indomitable life force
Dandelions, horsetail, rosemary, arnica, and calendula are bursting with growth forces. With their juicy stems, they break through the soil and reach for the sun. They are difficult to suppress and spread like weeds. They often have a bitter taste and a stem full of leaves. Just think of rosemary and horsetail. In general, plants with chlorophyll are extra rich in life forces. For example, evergreens like thuja and cedar are particularly robust and resistant to wind and weather.
Imagine a poppy. It is thin and without leaves on its stem. Put it in water and a moment later it has lost its petals. A dandelion, on the other hand, can stand in a vase of water for almost a month without wilting.
Life forces after harvest
In plants, vital minerals and essential oils help to preserve their life force after harvesting. Take, for example, a medicinal herb like horsetail, which is so rich in silicon and sulfur that its life force lasts a long time. It's different for berries and herbs like basil and parsley. They must be eaten fresh to benefit from their vitamins and minerals. As soon as you pick a berry from the bush, life leaves the berry, and a rotting process begins.
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In the medicinal herb garden with Lucia Care
At ’Your Inner Garden,’ we cultivate an interest in nature's medicinal herbs and their riches. Here, we share tips on how these strengthening plants can also become part of your daily routines.
I Herbarium Can you read about the characteristics of different medicinal herbs.
Aloe Vera
Aloe vera
Aloe vera is known as the silent healer. It's a powerhouse and a workhorse that makes everything run better. The plant is a hydrating source of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants.
Aloe vera is a succulent, which is a natural talent for handling hot climates. It can survive in the desert. Aloe vera is a hardy plant that is full of sap and vigor, as it has an excellent ability to store water in its thick leaves. It is resistant and does not rot easily. These are all characteristic properties of a plant full of life force.
Understanding Aloe Vera – Perhaps the Best-Known Medicinal Plant
Aloe vera consists of approximately 99% water. The solid part of the plant contains more than 75 different bioactive compounds, including:
💧Vitamins. Among them are A, C, and E, which are strong antioxidants, as well as several B vitamins, B12, and folic acid.
💧Enzymes. Build new proteins and perform important functions in cells.
💧Amino acids. Aloe vera contains between 18 and 20 of the 22 essential amino acids, which are the building blocks of proteins.
💧Minerals. Including magnesium, manganese, zinc, copper, chromium, calcium, sodium, potassium, iron, and selenium. Minerals play an essential role in various enzyme systems, and several are antioxidants.
💧 Phenols. Important antioxidants that neutralize damaging free radicals.
💧 Sugars. For example, polysaccharides, which have moisturizing, regenerating, and cell-renewing effects.
💧Salicylic acid. Has anti-inflammatory and antibacterial properties and promotes wound healing.
💧Saponins. Natural soap-like substances that make up about 31% of aloe vera gel and have cleansing and antiseptic properties.
Moisturizes and rejuvenates in skincare
Aloe vera stimulates fibroblasts, which are the cells that produce collagen and elastin fibers in connective tissue. This makes the skin softer, more elastic, and counteracts wrinkles. Aloe vera's regenerating properties rebuild both the skin and hair. Aloe vera also has a good effect on the scalp and can reduce the formation of dandruff.
Aloe vera's active leaf gel effectively regulates the skin's moisture balance by both hydrating the skin and acting as a moisturizer. The plant has a calming effect and soothes both redness and irritated skin.
See which products contain Aloe vera her.
⚕️Did you know?⚕️
Aloe vera is an essential part of Lucia Care's skincare infrastructure. At Lucia Care, aloe vera comes before water on ingredient lists. The foundation of all our creams, lotions, and mists is based on this nutrient-rich power plant. Despite the aloe vera plant's high water content, there is a huge difference between using water and aloe vera as a carrier.
Nature's Incredible Water Carrier
Nature uses water as a means of transport to move things from A to B. That is why the human body consists of approximately 60% water. Aloe vera’s high water content of 99% is essential for the plant to move its nutrients around and survive during droughts. The plant’s survival depends on the bioactive compounds that are transported via the water.
Aloe vera forms a moisturizing and soothing base for rosemary, calendula, chamomile, and horsetail, among others. When aloe vera is mixed with the essential oils of medicinal herbs, aloe vera increases the transfer of vital energies from the oils to the living cell.
Aloe Vera in your everyday life
- Aloe vera can be used both internally and externally. It has a cooling, soothing, and regenerating effect on damaged skin.
- You can break off a leaf from an aloe vera plant and apply the clear leaf gel directly to, for example, sunburned skin, insect bites, or small cuts.
- Aloe vera is also available as a drink and juice and can be added to smoothies.
Read more about aloe vera her.
EXCLUSIVE
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Product Portrait
Morning Bliss
DeStress Day Lotion
For face and body
The skin is the body's largest organ and deserves the best from nature. With our multi-functional products, Lucia Care pampers the body with active and natural ingredients that have always strengthened the skin.
Face lotion for the whole body
Lucia Care DeStress Day Lotion is a fast-absorbing and long-lasting luxurious lotion designed for both face and body. Its densely packed formula of fine ingredients contains seven potent organic medicinal herbs that strengthen and stimulate your skin's own regenerating powers. With this lotion, you will reduce natural breakdown and minimize wrinkles.
”DeStress Day Lotion is a facial lotion with nature's finest ingredients that revitalizes, destresses, and deeply moisturizes. It is created as a tribute to the entire body..”
Nanna Kirkebjerg, doctor and founder of Lucia Care
A range of skin-strengthening properties
The revitalizing effects of medicinal herbs are a synergy of their wide range of skin-strengthening properties:
- Anti-inflammatory properties, as well as the ability to strengthen the skin's immune system, protect the skin.
- Regenerating properties naturally stimulate collagen formation and boost cell renewal.
- At the same time, the medicinal herbs provide a multitude of vitamins, essential minerals, and deeply acting plant-based antioxidants, which protect the skin from stressors and premature aging.
Spreadable well-being
Destress Day Lotion keeps skin ultra-soft, well-nourished, and moisturized all day long. The cream contains organic cold-pressed fats and provides your skin with a unique combination of almond oil, which is rich in vitamin E, and shea butter, which has a particularly high content of unsaturated fatty acids.
Hyaluronic acid - the body's moisture master
DeStress Day Lotion contains the clinically well-documented star ingredient hyaluronic acid. Hyaluronic acid is a natural component of the body's connective tissue in the skin, joints, and eyes, among other places, but the body's hyaluronic acid levels decrease with age. As a natural moisture magnet, hyaluronic acid binds moisture within the skin's intracellular structure, providing fuller, smoother, and softer skin with increased elasticity and a reduction in wrinkles.
Nature's own anti-aging
Hyaluronic acid binds moisture in the skin up to 1,000 times its own weight in water. Its unparalleled ability to attract moisture helps the skin retain its vitality. Hyaluronic acid is an intelligent ingredient that attracts moisture to the areas where the skin needs it most. It then helps to distribute the moisture evenly in the skin's water channels, known as aquaporins. It regulates the skin's moisture balance, giving the skin a glow and a fresh, smooth appearance.
You can also find hyaluronic acid in Rich Rescue Cream, Rich Regenerative Face Cream "og" Deep Hydrating Mist & Light Serum.
Made for after-sun
DeStress Day Lotion has a light and fresh consistency. With its high content of moisturizing and regenerating ingredients, it is perfect for after-sun care. Store it in the fridge during the hottest weather and enjoy its soothing effect on warm, dehydrated, and sun-kissed skin.
Read more about MORNING BLISS DeStress Day Lotion her.