 Hi there, my name is Dany and welcome back to a Soteric Moment. This week in Wisconsin we have had really frigid temperatures for the like third time this winter. And by frigid temperatures I mean like negative 15 with windshell far below that. So it's really hard to get outside and reconnect to the land and feel inspired that spring is technically on its way sometime. So I wanted to share just a couple of things that I find help me stay connected to the land and my practice even when I can't get outside because frostbite is a real possibility right now. One of the first things I love to do is I like to cook with fresh food and something that's hard to do in the winter in Wisconsin is to really have reliable fresh food. And we don't have a lot of sunlight although that's slowly increasing and of course temperature is always a concern. A great way to combat both of those issues or if you live in a small space like I do to grow food right in your kitchen is to have a fuff of sprouts or really any type of sprout. Sprouts are grown by putting the seeds in some water and in a mason jar, soaking that for about 8 to 10 hours, rinsing it. And then every day you fill the jar with water, dump the water out and kind of strain the seeds and then leave those seeds on a window sill so that they can grow in about a week or so depending on how much sunlight you're getting. You'll have fresh fuff of sprouts, so green little plants that are great on salads or in sandwiches or just as snacks. They're pretty awesome. But it's a nice kind of energy to tap into and really feel like spring is on its way. I have some kind of control over connecting to growing things. Another plant related item is of course growing indoor plants. I'm kind of rubbish at indoor plants. They sort of survive, sort of don't survive. When they're outdoors I do much better. But a really lovely thing to grow in the springtime are bulbs. So this is a hyacinth. It's a beautiful purple flower and it's usually pretty friendly for indoor plant growing. But you can also just start tulip bulbs or daffodils. You can find those easily at Walmart, Target, any seed or plant store. And it's a kind of low pressure indoor plant to do. You start it in the spring and you'll have flowers in a few weeks and you don't have any pressure to really like keep it going if you don't want to. Being able to see something growing and alive and touch that soil and earth inside where it's nice and warm is a really great way to kind of forget about the frigid temperatures outside and reconnect to that energy. Finally I like to make hydrosols. Hydrosols are a little like essential oils. You are taking plants and distilling them so that you get the essence of the plants, the oils, the scent, the properties in water and in a more usable form for beauty applications, changing the smell in a room, anything like that. Hydrosols are made by boiling water and putting herbs like flower petals, lemon balm, peppermint, any type of plant in that boiling water. And when the steam reaches the lid, you have ice on top of that lid and so it condenses quickly back into the pot. If you have a bowl inside of your pot to catch that condensed water, you're able to collect a really strong, potent, pure water or hydrosol of the plants. Hydrosols are easily one of my favorite way of kind of tapping into the properties of plants and earth. I use it to kind of just freshen up my face or to help my skin when it's healing. I use a colongela and lemon balm one on sunburns. It's really soothing and antibacterial. It's lovely. You can of course buy hydrosols yourself. They can be a little pricey depending on where you go, but I have a couple links in the descriptions of some really nice ones. And it's maybe a nice way to see if you want to go to the effort of creating your own hydrosol. Of course, the herbs that I'm using in the winter this time of year for hydrosols are not fresh, but I'm really lucky. Our community pharmacy co-op has a lot of herbs that are really well preserved, often from local sources, that I can just easily pick up a couple ounces any time of the year. Most cities or locations will have a natural food store or maybe another herb shop dedicated to that sort of thing, where you can purchase items for your own hydrosols. In the comments below, I would love to hear how you stay warm and connected when the weather is really frigid and difficult to get out into. And keep in mind, I love the winter, so it takes a lot for me to be like, hmm, I don't want to take a walk today. But sometimes you just gotta tap into the earth in a new way and keep your toes and fingers nice and safe and warm. Thanks for watching. I hope you guys have a great week and I will talk to you later.