Hippie Tip of the Day

ALOE VERA PLANTS
















Aloe plants are miraculous. Do you know what aloe does for your skin?

The aloe plant has been dubbed the "First Aid Plant" because of its numerous medical remedies. It is most commonly used to treat wounds and burns. The leaf is primarily made of water, creating a gel-like anesthetic salve to alleviate itching, swelling and pain. The gel is both antibacterial and antifungal, and it can even stimulate skin cells to speed the healing process. Internally, aloe juice effectively reduces blood sugar levels for diabetics and can help relieve gastric ulcers while neutralizing stomach acid.

-- Aloe Plant Facts | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/about_5079211_aloe-plant.html#ixzz1vkSLjOwi

I'm definitely an advocate for the use of aloe gel. So here's my Hippie Tip of the Day:

In our culture where immediate gratification has been ingrained into our everyday lives, most of us will run to the store and just pick up a bottle of this stuff if we stayed a few minutes too long in the sun while we mowed the lawn or went for an afternoon swim.



<---- Commercial aloe. Bad.










I encourage everyone who loves their skin and who loves to feel connected with nature to invest in an aloe plant. They require very little water to survive (meaning those of us who always forget to water our plants will not have to throw out six of these babies before we hammer out a watering routine), and they can thrive in almost all conditions of weather, indoor and out. The photo at the top of this post is a picture of the aloe plant we keep at our house.

Once your aloe plant has grown sizable enough to use, all you need to do is snap off one of the leaves as close to the root as you can manage. Using your thumbnail, split open the leaf from the base to the tip and use your thumb as a wedge, sliding it down the slit in the leaf, to fully expose the juices inside.
To apply the gel, you can either collect the aloe juice on the tips of your fingers and spread it onto your skin, or you can flatten the leaf and apply directly. Both forms of application feel exquisite on your skin as you use the very fruit of nature to heal your body. Using store-bought aloe should provide the same medical advantages, but cannot compare to the feeling of purpose and connectivity you receive as a result of growing your own aloe vera plant and feeling its smooth, cool gel against your skin. The juice can be applied anywhere on your body, and I recommend using it everywhere for smoother, healthier skin.
Also, when using an aloe plant rather than a bottle of aloe gel, you only spend money once and then the plant will keep producing the medicinal gel you need rather than you having to make a trip to the store when your bottle runs out. The leaves grow back quickly and just as full as the first fruits it produced.

Advocate aloe vera!