Nature’s lap – herbal organic products


Looking for a safe and healthy alternative for your household cleaning.Nature’s Lap has come up with a solution that is safe, healthy, ecofriendly as well as effective.Now no more need of those harsh,chemical based cleaners.
Nature’s Lap Herbal Floor Cleaner is a concentrated formula that has powerful and effective cleaning ingredients. It is made of essential oils that makes it a completely natural, non-toxic, environmentally friendly alternative for cleaning floors and surfaces. It is anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, child-safe.Gives a smooth shine to floors and has a pleasant aroma of citronella.It is antibacterial,antifungal,repels mosquitoes and flies. It is cost effective compared to other cleaners – only a few drops required per liter of water. Ideal for use in homes as well as public places like hotels, hospitals and schools. Certified by CSIR CIMAP (Central Institute for Medicinal and Aromatic Plants: a Government Research Institute). does not contain any preservatives, chemicals, Artificial Colors and Fragrances.Usage: Mix 4-6 drops per medium sized bucket of water and mop floor. Can be used to clean surfaces as well. Safe for adults and children of all ages.

Nature’s lap also has other herbal products,
For details check http://www.natureslap.in/products.html
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acebook them – http://www.facebook.com/natureslap

Countless Uses for Coconut Oil


http://www.realfarmacy.com/countless-uses-for-coconut-oil-the-simple-the-strange-and-the-downright-odd/

This article gives and explains a huge list of uses of coconut oil.

UGERpads – CLOTH PADS FOR PERIODS !!


UGER, meaning “new beginnings” in Mewari, is a women’s group in Udaipur supported by Jatan Sansthan. Under the guidance of Lakshmi Murthy, they have begun an endeavor for menstrual health and awareness.
the UGER project aims to provide a healthy alternative to disposable pads, which contain chemicals and nonwoven polymers. The effects of long term usage of synthetic disposable sanitary napkins have not been determined, while cloth has been safely used by women in managing their menstruation for centuries. Traditionally women in India have used cloth, and many still do, so the concept of a cloth pad is not entirely foreign.
While creating a product that is helpful to the environment and to women’s bodies, the women of UGER are also engaged in enhancing their livelihoods and futures, as they earn income through the sale of the pads, and also learn valuable skills such as stitching, banking, and business management. Additionally, the project works to increase awareness about menstruation and end the silence and taboo surrounding the matter, through seminars in colleges and in discussions with different community groups, both rural and urban.

more information at – http://www.jatansansthan.org/uger/the-ugerpads/

prices list and contact – http://www.jatansansthan.org/price-list/

 

Natural dish wash powder from Krya


Most dishwashers contain chemicals, additives and odor fighters that are not at all pure. These chemicals can be harmful. Just look at the detergents in your cabinet now and note that they suggest immediate visits to doctors. This is not something that you want on your dishes. After all nothing comes prior to health of family.

Krya came out with complete natural and biodegradable solution to this along with being vegan and cruelty free product.
check out more and buy online at – http://krya.in/index.php/shop/krya-natural-dish-wash-powder.html

Krya Dish Wash Powder

About product –

  • Made from a researched and tested combination of the following certified organic ingredients – soapberries, neem, zedoary and lemongrass essential oil
  • Contains 2% natural calcium carbonate powder to keep the dishwash powder dry
  • Contains no artificial additives like colours, fragrances, enzymes, bleaches or anything else
  • Is made from plants and not petroleum
  • Designed for hand washing of dishes ; not yet tested in a dishwashing machine.

Natural detergent powder by Krya


If you are reading this chances are that you are interested in leading a more sustainable life.
Today even the small daily life products like detergents, soaps, shampoos and others are causing serious impact on environment and for obvious reasons on us too. It is true that plant based products if properly prepared and used, are not just good for the planet but also great for our skin, hair, clothes, dishes and the rest of our homes.

Read more and buy online this amazing natural detergent at – http://krya.in/index.php/shop/krya-natural-detergent-powder.html

  

About the product –

  • Made from sun-ripened certified organic soap berries
  • Contains 3% natural calcium carbonate powder to keep the soap berries dry
  • Contains no artificial additives like colors, fragrances, enzymes, bleaches or anything else
  • Made from a fruit and not petroleum ( the base for chemical detergents)
  • Works in both front-load and top-load washing machines and in a bucket wash.

Benefits

  • Washes clothes really well.
  • Gentle on Fabric and keeps it soft
  • Maintains Colour and Texture
  • Safe on skin
  • Naturally anti-bacterial and anti-fungal in action
  • Biodegradable and compostable residue
  • Cruelty free and Vegan (no animal derived ingredients)

 

Mosquitoes – A lifestyle problem


This post is not about telling you to cover your bodies, apply mosquitoes repellent creams and keep your surroundings clean, avoid mosquito habitats, and stuff like that to avoid mosquito bites, that all you already know. Also there are many plants which you can grow indoor, in your balconies or your garden to avoid mosquitoes, we can talk about them some other time.

Mosquitoes are themselves not the problem to us, but mosquito bite surly is. Imagine yourself sitting in a place with mosquitoes around but none of it is interested in biting you, just because they don’t like the taste of your blood. Amazing, right? They are no more attracted towards you, no more itching, no more red spots, no more malaria and dengue. Beautiful world that will be, isn’t it ? We will be in peaceful co- existence with mosquitoes.
By killing mosquitoes we are certainly not killing the problem, it is similar to killing pests using pesticides, it will only increase the problem, you solve one, another one pops out as a result, and next time you spray pests are resistant to it, and you keep on increasing the dose. What does common  sense  says ?? Which is better, trying to eradicate whole species from earth using chemicals resulting new types of problems or finding a solution of peaceful coexistence of all the species on earth.

Mosquito bites are not the primary cause of diseases, bites themselves are the result of unhealthy body. If you have ever observed the nature, pest attack or parasite attack is on weaker beings, a weak nutrient deficient plant is more prone to diseases and infestation. similar things are observed in animals too. Always weakest is attacked first in the herd.

So if you are getting mosquito bites, chances are there that something is wrong in your body and that weakness is the reason they are attracted towards and attacking you.

So this post is about some traditional natural methods which were incorporated in our daily routine and lifestyle to avoid bites of these blood sucking beautiful creatures.
Recent news headlines about spreading of dengue fever has caught many of ours attention, some blame it to unhygienic conditions, some on government, and some on disturbed ecological balance. Yes, mosquitoes have become the matter of concern these days with no. of diseases of which these are carriers, increasing. But equally important is the concern of methods used to control these pesky vampires. For obvious reasons with the increase in mosquito related problems, market related to deter these tiny blood sucking vampires has also increased, with many international players now in the field.
There is nothing new to tell about the harmful effects of the chemicals used to manufacture these insect repellent sprays and coils. Some of them are being banned in developed countries for over 20 years. Making India and other third world nations the dumping ground of these chemicals, corporations can’t sell anywhere else.
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With the 24 hours news channels booming and showing reports of dengu and malaria followed by the attractive advertisements of these products one might think that these are the must have products, after all nothing comes over the safety of your family. I will not go into the debate of these may be paid news to promote these products, similar to news headlines related to food adulteration and fake food in the making of traditional indian sweets at the time festivals followed by the advertisements of celebration chocolates.
(FOOD FOR THOUGHT)

A little flash back —
Growing up in a joint family, i learned a lot about various traditional techniques of personal care from my grand parents and elders of the family, and saving myself from mosquito and other insect bites was one of them.
what mosquitoes are attracted to ?

when i was a kid, i used to get lots of mosquito bites, where as my grand mother used to sit calmly with no bites at all, and upon asking the reason i used to get a logic that my blood is sweet, so mosquitoes are attracted to me more. Another one she used to tell was, breath deep to avoid mosquitos, another observation i made later was, she never used artificial soap or shampoo.
So when i was doing little search about what mosquitoes are attracted too , i was amazed to find how simple steps in traditional indian culture were so efficient to deal with the problems we face today in the name of life style related problems.

so what actually attracts mosquitos are —

1. Sweat is said to attract mosquitoes by its smell. Some people have problem of excessive sweating, Improper diet and lifestyle diseases are often source of stomach diseases, which are further related to excessive sweating, resulting foul smell of sweat, and attraction point of mosquitoes.
Deep breathing (pranayaam and yoga)and proper diet to keep your stomach good, does makes a lot of sense here.
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2. Another reason for being calm and deep breathing is, it keeps your blood high in oxygen content, and as mosquitoes are attracted to high carbon dioxide, they may not like your blood which is now high in oxygen content rather than CO2 rich after making deep breathing a habit.

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3. Mosquitoes are found to be attracted to fruity and other smells, thus if u use soaps and shampoos which are fruity in smell they will definitely be attracted towards you.
So not using any artificial soap and shampoos does makes a lot of sense here.

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4. Last one about your blood being sweet, i can not conform scientifically but she had a habit of eating daily 10-15 neem leaves, we were also advised to eat it, it was said that it makes your blood bitter (neem is bitter), which mosquitoes doesn’t like. Also neem is very good for your stomach. So at least it does makes sense to me. Eating lots of garlic is also said to produce similar effect. there was also a kind of tradition to eat bitter gourd twice a week to keep your blood clean.

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So if your body is healthy, you won’t get mosquito bites. Bad stomach is the origin of many diseases, resulting in impure blood, excessive sweating, foul body odour, bad mouth and many more. So mosquito bites are the themselves the result of something wrong going on with your body.
Apart from having a healthy lifestyle and disease free strong body, here are some more desi tips to keep mosquitoes away !!

1. Take a wide plate and pour some mustard oil in it, just a little so that all of the wide surface is covered by it, and then keep that plate in some dark corner of the room (and yes another thing mosquitoes are attracted to are dark colours) after few hours, you will definitely find lots of mosquitoes lying dead in the plate. i have seen it myself working. to make it more effective, increase the no. of plates.

2. Alternatives to coils would be “dhoop agarbattis” made of gobar, you could find them easily in gaushalas. Its better to promote local sustainable product than supporting corporations in making India a dumping ground.
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3. Another one is ,cut lemon slices and embed “cloves” into it, and keep them in the corners of the room.These are effective air fresheners also.

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4.Neem oil or neem seed oil is easily available in the garden and panchgavya shops these days as it is used as organic insect repellent. light a oil lamp, or kerosene lamp, and add 6-8 drops of neem oil into it. This has also been found to be effective. 6-8 drops is the measure for the lamp of size we use in diwali you can experiment with amount of drops.
(tip -try adding citronella, or eucalyptus  oil drops instead of neem oil, never tried though. )

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These were some eco-friendly and sustainable tips to avoid mosquito bites.

30 desi ways to go eco-friendly


Sustainability, eco friendly, go green may sound like new slogans of  India, but as far as an eco friendly lifestyle goes, most of the traditional Indian ways serve as a model example! Each region in India has its own set of eco-friendly habits. It is important to educate our younger generation about these habits.

Check out this wonderful article by RAMA COUSIK.

http://thealternative.in/environment/30-desi-ways-to-go-eco-friendly/

green shaving with aloe vera


How to shave with aloe vera in your home…

Sanitary pads


http://ecofemme.org/product/rural-india-pads/

Designed primarily for marginalised rural Indian communities, these cloth pads are inexpensive, quick drying during monsoon season and familiar to women who use traditional menstrual cloths.

International pads also available

Expiration Date of Medicines


Does the expiration date on a bottle of a medication mean anything?

If a bottle of Tylenol, for example, says something like “Do not use after June 1998,” and it is August 2002, should you take the Tylenol? Should you discard it? Can you get hurt if you take it? Will it simply have lost its potency and do you no good?

In other words, are drug manufacturers being honest with us when they put an expiration date on their medications, or is the practice of dating just another drug industry scam, to get us to buy new medications when the old ones that purportedly have “expired” are still perfectly good?

These are the pressing questions I investigated after my mother-in-law recently said to me, “It doesn’t mean anything,” when I pointed out that the Tylenol she was about to take had “expired” 4 years and a few months ago. I was a bit mocking in my pronouncement — feeling superior that I had noticed the chemical corpse in her cabinet — but she was equally adamant in her reply, and is generally very sage about medical issues.

So I gave her a glass of water with the purportedly “dead” drug, of which she took 2 capsules for a pain in the upper back. About a half hour later she reported the pain seemed to have eased up a bit. I said, “You could be having a placebo effect,” not wanting to simply concede she was right about the drug, and also not actually knowing what I was talking about.

I was just happy to hear that her pain had eased, even before we had our evening cocktails and hot tub dip. Read more of this post