The Practice Life!

The practice life is rich in opportunity!

The Practice Life is taking action on an idea, and an exercise repeated regularly in order to improve or maintain one’s proficiency.

Tiffany Eckhardt, owner of Flown The Coop takes a look at life as a practice.

People practice patience, hospitality, yoga, wellness, gratitude and their business.  Here are a few practices I’m currently working on.

Patience

Let’s just say that I am cultivating patience in tandem with all the other fruits of the spirit (Galations 5:22-23). This is a necessary gift from God!  I don’t come by it naturally.  Our guest house project is testing my patience.  The struggle is real.  I’ve been dreaming of this project for three years.  I do not claim to be long suffering.  It takes practice to accept the things I can not control.

Hospitality

I love to practice hospitality.  I was fortunate to hear a speaker on hospitality as a young mother.  The speaker set me free from imperfect entertaining.  Entertaining is preforming to impress your guest.  Hospitality is welcoming friends in your home with the intention of blessing them.  The focus is on the guests, not on me.

One of my biggest joys is to have fun events and classes at Creative At The Coop.  It is a gift to be able to offer what I’ve learned from years of practice.  I enjoy learning new skills for my practice!  Recently I discovered the ease of creating a charcuterie board.  Charcuterie boards have been a fun creative outlet for my Scout & Cellar wine tastings.

Yoga

My wellness practice began over a year ago.  Jeff and I first embraced a paleo diet and Young Living essential oils!  My home and health became less toxic as I transferred my buying habits to plant based items.  Most importantly, I learned how to listen to my body for clues on what it needs.

I’ve noticed a need to be more active.  Jeff and I joined ​​gen·e·sis yog​a​​​ in Brenham.  Yoga is a patience patient practice, supporting mobility and mindfulness.  I discovered a love for restorative yoga!  It feels like a yoga massage!  I love the challenge of the strength building poses.  I need a lot of practice at this stage of the game!

Business

I am not a doctor or a lawyer.  I am a serial entrepreneur that has spent my life practicing business.  This is one area of my life that feels like an endless climb upward.  I had to learn to embrace the mystery and create a pro mindset.

Podcasts have become a staple in my development this past year.  Some of my favorite podcasters feel like friends.  Truly, at this point in my life I need mentors.  I long to surround myself with people who are in spaces I want to occupy.  Check out my latest blog to learn about 5 podcasts to finish 2018 strong!

Grace

Flown The Coop Guest HouseFinally, I’d like to offer a bit of grace by imagining all areas of life is a practice.  I am grateful to God for grace!  It is an open gate to excepting life in it’s fullest.  I will repeatedly, on a regular basis, move toward my goals allowing myself to makes mistakes along the way.  No one is perfect right out of the gate.  The important thing to remember is keep on practicing.  Right?

Are you giving yourself grace to view life as a practice?  Let’s encourage each other to finish 2018 strong!  Please feel free to share your stories in the comments below!

 

~Tiffany

And the birds fluttered around her writing “YES” in the sky!

Essentials Oils for Travel – Five Essential Oils I never leave home without

Flown The Coop Travel Essentials, 5 Essential Oils that I never leave home without

The road warrior lives on!

I officially retired Miss Dixie (my pickup truck) from hunting for junque across the United States.  I have moved to the right side of wellness and embraced the mystery of new chapter.  The open road calls to me for entirely different reasons.  I love my new Gadabout Gals gig that allows me to hit the road spreading love for destinations, excursions and flavors (favorite restaurants).  To ensure a “well” trip, I focus on travel essentials.  I never leave home without the following five essential oils.

Flown The Coop Travel Essentials - 5 Essential Oils I never leave home without

Digize Essential Oil

I learned my lesson the hard way.  We were on our annual trip to New Orleans.  It is a fact that we will eat meals that are not apart of our daily diet.  Who can pass up bread pudding, poboys, gumpo, fancy cocktails, etc.?  My husband and I literally ate our way through the Big Easy!

Normal digestion can not be expected!  Unfortunately, I forgot my Digize at home.  BIG mistake!  Now I will never leave home without it!

Flown The Coop Travel Essentials - 5 Essential Oils I never leave home without

Thieves Essential Oil Blend

Thieves is the foundation of most Young Living products and the gateway oil into a wellness routine.

I place a drop of Thieves on my tongue or in a drink before I board a flight.  Thieves supports a healthy immune sytem.  Have you ever thought about all the germs being spread inside an aircraft during flight?  Supporting my immune system with Thieves allows me to sit in a stranger’s personal space with confidence.

I diffuse Thieves in my hotel room to nuetralize any unfamilar odors.

Lavender Essential Oil

Lavender is the swiss army knife of essential oils.  There are numerous reasons to pack lavender!

  • Lavender supports a good night sleep at the end of a fun filled day of travel.
  • Relief from the stress of travel can be found in an episom salt bath with lavender.
  • Diffusing lavender is like bringing the comforts of home into a hotel room
  • Reach for lavender to support and soothe skin
  • Putting a dab of lavender under your nose will help with stinky situations

Flown The Coop Travel Essentials - 5 essential oils I never leave home without

Peppermint Essential Oil

Bad breath happens anytime I feel nervous!  Peppermint essential oil has come to my resuce many times!  I whip it out, add a drop to my fist and then lick it.

Becareful with peppermint… it is strong and can be considered “hot.”

There are several good reasons to pack your peppermint!

  • Peppermint supports a natural digestion and curbs appetitie.
  • Diffuse peppermint for mental clarity.
  • Rubbing peppermint on the temples can relieve stressful situations.
  • Diffuse peppermint to kick start your day.

Flown The Coop Travel Essentials - 5 essential oils I never leave home without

Lemon Essential Oil

Lemon Vitality essential oil is my favorite oil to put in water.  In fact, it helps me drink more water and prevent dihydration.

Lemon is also known to support the circulatory system.  I’m not sure which is worse dihydration or swollen legs from extended travel.

Lemon is an excellent choice to diffuse!  It makes any space feel fresh and clean.  Add peppermint to it and the room will feel invigorating!  Clarity of thought is an added bonus to diffusing lemon essential oil.

Wait… There’s more

That’s 5 essentail oils that I never leave home without.  In all honesty, I pack a whole arsenol of essential oils, like Frankincense, Cedarwood, Cypress, Valor, Tea Tree, Patchouli, Copaiba, Stress Away, Peace & Calming, etc.  The 5 that I included will be a good start on a travel kit.  The good news is that all five essential oils I shared are found in a Young Living premium starter kit.  Buying a premium starter kit is an affordable way to get the oils that will support any travel adventure!

Stayed tuned to my blog for future stories from the road…. take a second to check out the Travel Diary over on the Gadabout Gals site!  We are having a blast!!!!

~Tiffany

And the birds fluttered around her writing “YES” in the sky!

 

Zest For Life

Flown The Coop is dedicated to those who can’t be caged.  Our mission is to aspire to inspire creativity and a zest for life.

I can honestly say that I have stayed true to creating a lifestyle on my terms.  Jeff likes to remind me that I created my job (especially when I find anything to complain about).  I love my little shop, that provides an outlet for creative energy, and all the lovely people who have crossed my path since opening my doors.  Flown The Coop is not just a place to buy unique finds and gifts, but a developing lifestyle brand.  The kind of lifestyle that questions conventional wisdom, looks for alternatives uses for the discarded, and continually promotes the makers, creatives, entrepreneurs, and anyone who believes in pursuing a fulfilling life on their terms.

Flown The Coop is an unique mixture of Industrial, Vintage and Homestead Goods.  Curating industrial and vintage pieces for The Coop is my original passion.  I also enjoy finding fun gift items, like the Blue Q socks and oven mitts.  Our Homestead Line has naturally developed as I discovered local products that support Burton’s entrepreneurs.  I am excited to now introduce Young Living essential oils to the Homestead Line.  I am impressed with the Young Living seed to seal guarantee, that insures a pristine final product.  These products promote my new passion, WELLNESS.

Photo cred Who is Leading Photography & Garnished Events

My journey toward wellness began at the beginning of the year with a bundle of unfortunate health issues.  What started as a year to be Fierce, turned into the year of Resilience.  As a result, I dove into learning about wellness.

First Jeff and I focused on our diet, changing to a (more or less) Paleo diet.  I then created a wellness room for stretching and an inverted table for Jeff’s back (this was inspired by my friend Pamela Hutchins, author extraordinaire).  I discovered Lynsey Kramer’s Five Chicks Wellness Facebook Page and Instagram.  If you aren’t following The Yonder Way Farm, along with their various social media platforms, you are missing out!  They are the most adorable family with an impressive devotion to providing local and healthful food to the surrounding area.  I became intrigued by essential oils as I saw Lynsey share how her family was using them in their daily lives.

Convinced essential oils were worth trying in my pursuit of wellness, I purchased a starter kit.  It arrived just in time for a buying trip to Ohio.  Stress Relief became my friend on the way to Ohio as I drove through some hellacious storms.  I discovered Frankincense helped some skin issues.  A mixture of coconut oil and Panway helped ease lingering discomfort in my arm that I broke in February.  I used that same mixture, adding Copaiba, to help in healing my new tattoo.  Lavender helped me relax.  I picked up a car diffuser that made a HUGE difference in my truck (lets just say junking is a dirty job).  When I returned, I fell in love with Thieves.  I washed all my new pieces and the whole store, including windows, with a mixture of water, vinegar, dash of blue dish soap and Thieves.  I have enjoyed dropping Tangerine and Lemon into my water.  Honestly, I am a little surprised by how often I grab an essential oil during the day.  Check this info graph out for a few ideas:

There is so much to learn!  So… Flown The Coop is offering an Essential Oils 101 Class Thursday, June 15th at 6:30PM.   Lynsey Kramer will be teaching us the basics about essential oils and how you can incorporate them into your daily lives.

Come for light snacks and drinks. Weather permitting, we’ll hold the class in the back yard. If weather is not coroporating, we’ll move the class inside The Coop.

Check out our Facebook Event for more details and to let me know if you plan on attending.

 

I invite you to join my wellness journey.  I plan on sharing more as I continue to explore various aspects of living on purpose.  Cheers to a zest for life ~ let’s live with a lot of flavor and gusto!  What have you recently discovered in your pursuit of creating a lifestyle on your terms?  I’d love to hear from you!

~Tiffany

And the birds fluttered around her writing “YES” in the sky!