10 Mar Items of Positivity | Monthly Favorites January & February 2016
It’s March already?! Where has time gone. The past few months, even extending further than the most previous two, have been filled with a lot of exciting and positive happenings. I documented most of what had happened on my Instagram and YouTube if you have been following along there, and also here and there on my blog as well 🙂 I decided to share a bit of what I have been loving lately, to hopefully inspire you all to try these out or to even simply reflect on your favorites, positive happenings, or just have a quick moment of gratitude for everything in your life at this moment!
Fresh Medjool Dates
Once I started ordering fresh (and juicy) medjool dates from a local farm, I realized just what I was missing out on and why there was always so much hype! If you live in Los Angeles or surrounding areas, you can buy fresh dates from the Bautista Family date stand at the farmer’s market, and if you are not, you can order online from their site 7 Hot Dates. They have 7 different varieties, hence the name, but my favorite is medjools! I did a little video of a taste test of 5 different date varieties if you want to hear more about them, check it out here 🙂 I have also recently ordered from MedjoolDates.com because they have a lot of deals/sales and ended up being slightly cheaper than 7 Hot Dates and similar quality 🙂 The reason why 7 Hot Dates is ideal for me, though, is because they are local!
Dates have been helping me get through my busy weeks and honestly they are just so good I am kind of addicted at the moment. I have had a packed schedule juggling school, blogging and my social life, and these have been a staple recently to help me get in enough calories as well as a boost of energy throughout the days…fill them with some nut butter and you will be hooked too 😉 
Love Struck Candle
Something to share with your significant other. Chris had gifted this to not only me, but us both as a couple this past Valentine’s Day. It was not just a candle, but a vehicle to set and live out positive intentions with him in our daily lives as well as in our relationship along with reigniting our feelings of love and devotion.
How it works? First you need to set your intention, or an outcome you desire. Chris and I did this through a meditation session 🙂 Then as a couple, we lit the candle in a special place in my room (A spot where I keep my diffuser, stones & crystals), and left it burning until it went out. You can place it in a bowl of water for safety 🙂 For the next 5-7 days, we left it burning, and you are supposed to pray over it, or visualize the intentions you set. Once the candle is finished, you will find stones or shells at the bottom, supercharged with your intentions. We keep our stones with us and they are a daily reminder of not only our desired outcome but each other.
Chris got this candle from House of Intuition LA.
+ an uplifting letter 🙂
Chris wrote me a letter and shared all of the positives of our relationship, friendship, and time spent together. It was a reminder to me of how grateful I am to have him in my life, to have been able to experience so many different things with him the past 6 months, and ignited excitement towards thoughts of the future.
Palo Santo
Incense that is energetically cleansing and has healing properties as well. On January 1st, Chris and I were on our way to the beach as it is a tradition of his to take a sunset stroll on the beach on New Year’s Day. We never made it to the beach, it was pretty packed that day, so we stopped by Real Food Daily in Santa Monica, and after stumbled across a quaint little shop called Thunderbolt Spiritual Books. We were originally planning to purchase sage to burn on our rooms to clear out negative energy to start our year off, so we thought this was the perfect spot to do so. Unfortunately, they did not have any sage, but the woman introduced us both to palo santo, another form of incense to clear out negative energy just the same. She lit it for us to smell, and we both immediately fell in love with the scent. It kind of reminds me of those pillow mints they give out at weddings if you know what I’m talking about. Since then we have both been burning palo santo almost daily in our own spaces, as it brings us a positive and uplifting scent and I always feel happy simply watching it burn and fill the room with itself. I enjoy the smell much more than sage, and it is also not as smoky so it is great for small spaces.
I have seen palo santo available on amazon, at my local farmer’s market, House of Intuition LA, or at any crystal and gem shop.
Lumi Cold Pressed Juices
I connected with Lumi back in January as one of their awesome team members, Steffi, reached out and shared of her journey into veganism and the help that my blog and YouTube channel was providing in regards to easy to follow recipes as well as focusing on allowing ourselves a plethora of nutrients everyday with the focus of HEALTH and SELF-LOVE 🙂 I was so flattered that she even took the time to write to me, and to be able to connect with a company that shares views and beliefs that I do. Their mantra is “Love U, Mean It”, while mine is “Love Yourself, Choose Health”, and I feel like these align quite beautifully. My main focus is to promote self love and intrinsic in that action is HEALTH, providing yourself the best possible nutrient dense plant-based foods 🙂 Tell yourself you love YOU and show yourself you really do mean it by actively living this out each day.
Lumi actually doesn’t even offer juice cleanses, which is not typical for a juice company of this sort, or I should say not expected in better terms. They believe that health is a lifestyle, not a fad (woot woot!). So they offer instead monthly juice subscriptions that allow you to incorporate healthy choices on the go. My cousin Claire who was pregnant (she just birthed a beautiful baby girl, congrats Claire!!) reached out to me asking if such a thing existed, and it was absolute perfect timing as it was just when I had learned of Lumi. It’s funny how things happen for a reason, right?
Chris and I enjoyed the juices together, and we would say our top favorite is the Piedmont Pineapple and the Miami Mango!
Each of these small bottles has over a pound of fruits and vegetables, which has been great for days where I am stuck at school or just busy busy! I think that this has been the busiest quarter so far in my college career. Back to back exams, presentations, papers, AH!! It is comforting to know that I am almost at the end of my college journey, but still at the same time it is a bit daunting. I am ready for the change, but will admit I am nervous of, well, growing up and adulting to say the least. Let’s just see where life takes me, right? There is so much that is ahead of me, time to take it head on!
Beautiful gems from Spirit Fox Crystals
I connected with Deanna via Instagram and we have been emailing regarding the start of my crystal collection and she has been such a huge inspiration and educator. Chris got me much more interested in crystals and Deanna coincidentally fell into my life at the perfect moment. She not only gifted me with such a beautiful collection, but also helped instill much more positive energy into my life through her help as well as the help of these beautiful gems themselves.
- Quartz: Master stone of enlightenment, gives off lots of energy.
- Amethyst: Calming, relaxing, spiritual
- Red Jasper: Grounding, confidence, back bone, wisdom
- Citrine: Happiness, joy, cleanses other energy
- Carnelian: Motivation, energy, creativity, sexual energy
- Sodalite: Peace, finding your voice, helps with writers block
- ShivaLingham: Balance, fertility
- Rose Quartz: Self love, beauty, romance
- Green Aventurine: Healthy new growth, abundance
- Kyanite: Cleaning, energy, magnifies the energy of other stones, finding your way
- Black Tourmaline: Shields from negative energy, grounding
- Tiger’s eye: Lucky, concentration, protection
- Unakite: Letting go of past hurt, stone for pregnant women and mothers
I only wish to grow what I have from here 🙂
I grew up drinking fresh lemon grass tea from our plant in our garden, and the smell and taste of lemon grass always brings me back to that time and brings a sense of comfort and a home-y feeling. I place a few drops in my diffuser and it not only refreshes the air in my room but also brightens up my mood. Lemon grass is actually a natural antidepressent, I had no idea until I began reading on it when creating this post, so it makes sense now to me and I will continue using it to help the positive energy flow <3
Design the Life You Love
The title speaks for itself, this is an inspirational guide to building the life you’ve always wanted. It shares different principles and tools of a creative process to help you think about/view life differently. Chris gifted me with this book for Valentine’s Day! I’m not sure where he purchased it, but I found it available on amazon 🙂
Chris and I were interested in starting gratitude journals, but when I came across this paperback, it was calling our names. A gratitude journal is simply one where you write all things that you are grateful for each day, along with any other positive thoughts or feelings of your choice. You fill it with good thoughts and intentions, and in the future you can reflect back on it. This book is an interactive journal of self-exploration and takes it to the next level. It is a reminder to take time to get to know ourselves, explore our dreams, and set positive intentions in our lives so that we can achieve what we desire. Each page has either thought provoking and inspiring quotes, prompts/exercises/activities to inspire us to think in different ways and reflect on different aspects of our lives and days. We found ours on amazon, but it may be available at your local book store as well.
xo
Disclaimer: This page may contain affiliate links, which simply means that I earn a commission if you purchase through those links, but your price remains the same. Thank you for supporting Sweet Simple Vegan! I was provided with juice by Lumi to try and review on my blog, but all of the opinions shared are my own. I would not share a product with you all unless I loved it!
Natalie | Feasting on Fruit
Posted at 10:32h, 15 MarchI love LOVE that the Lumi juice company doesn’t do a cleanse and instead focuses on incorporating juices into your everyday all month long. That is such a better method, props to them! And those flavors sounds wonderful. This is such a beautiful positive uplifting vibes kinda post, thank you for sharing!
Jasmine Briones
Posted at 13:13h, 26 MarchThank you for reading my post Natalie! A lot of time went into it so I really appreciate your positive feedback 🙂