Rosemary is one of my favourite herbs and is a great addition to roast potatoes or hearty winter stews.
Rosemary also has many useful medicinal properties - antibacterial, circulatory tonic, anti-depressant and is used to treat conditions from digestive disorders to circulatory issues. The active constituents of the herb are volatile oils (which produces its distinctive aroma) and flavonoids (improve the quality of blood vessel walls).
Rosemary is a popular ingredient in many hair products as it helps to stimulate circulation to the scalp and thereby helps hair growth. This rosemary hair oil is a simple infused oil that can be used as a deep conditioner, or daily hair or beard oil.
Ingredients
Coconut oil - traditionally used to treat hair loss and has high moisture retaining properties. You can use any oil that suits your hair type.
Dried rosemary - (you can also use fresh rosemary)
Strain the herbs using a mesh strainer or cheese cloth
Method
Place 3 tablespoons of coconut oil and 2-3 sprigs of rosemary into a bain-marie (double boiler).
Allow to infuse on a gentle heat for 15-20 minutes.
Strain the herbs using a mesh strainer or cheese cloth.
Bottle the oil in a dark glass bottle and use as needed.
In my youth, while working in retail administration on Oxford Street, I was asked or coerced into doing a stock take once the store had closed one evening. For reasons that, to this day, baffle me, the stock take took all night. The manager gave our small team cash to get a cab home. I emerged onto an eerily quiet Oxford Street, with the sun peeking over the buildings.
I managed to raise my tired arm to hail a black cab. The driver pulled over. I told him where I wanted to go and I slumped into the seat ready to be whisked off to my warm, comfortable bed. Before I could properly settle in, I saw the cab driver hesitate. Then he turned around to me and said, “You’ll need to pay up front.” I beg your pardon?!
A few months ago, in a digital cleansing moment of clarity, I decided that I wanted to have a zero-email inbox. Scanning through the emails that were cluttering my inbox, I began to notice a clear pattern. Many of them represented procrastination and indecision.
Every day I was opening my inbox and entering a space where progress and action had come to die. Apart from the few emails that were genuinely awaiting responses, the rest were things I could probably action in five minutes but avoided. Some things were labelled with various beautiful colours but they still served no purpose beyond taking up space in my inbox and mind.
As a strategist and practitioner who helps people streamline their personal and professional lives, my own inbox was an embarrassing affront to productivity. Interestingly, despite the many social media tools that exist today, emails are still an invaluable method of communication - either for receiving information or sharing information with clients.
However, I had disconnected my inbox from the tools I use to organise information, consolidate tasks and interact with clients. More importantly, it was no longer supporting how I understand and manage my business.
Most days, I log in to Spotify and dive into my Chill playlist. It is a collection of over 1300 songs built up over almost ten years. As the name suggests, the Chill playlist contains songs that have quite a slow, mellow tempo: Neo-Soul, R&B, soft rock, soul, reggae, jazz, classical, and indie. It is the type of music I can have in the background when I am doing light work.
Rest has become my word of the year. In a culture that glorifies constant doing, many of us are tired yet struggle to stop. This piece explores what happens when productivity starts to cost us our health, clarity and connection, and why rest is not indulgence but essential maintenance.
The more time I spend on this planet, the more I have come to really appreciate communication. I have also come to realise that good, clear communication is an underrated ability and underused skill. What causes us to miscommunicate and how do we improve our interactions?