Happy Earth Month, wonderful readers! What better time to celebrate Mother Earth than springtime, when the planet is awakening and bursting with activity? This month, we’re delighted to share with you our annual Healthy Living Directory, which contains local resources to use all year long when you need information about products and services for living a healthier and more balanced lifestyle.

      It also includes an A-to-Z glossary with information about the benefits of different natural healing modalities. Please use it as a stepping stone to research the topics we present in the magazine—it’s filled with tips and great ideas. The more we learn, the more we can do to improve the quality of our lives; that’s real power!

            As spring unfolds, we witness nature transform itself into an exquisite, untamed beauty, inspiring a sense of excitement and optimism called “spring fever”. Earth Day is a powerful reminder that we must never take the miracle of life for granted. The urge to “spring clean” our bodies arises naturally after the sluggishness of winter, but the wisest use for a detox program is as a pathway to new lifestyle habits, not just a short-term fix; learn more in “Spring Cleaning the Body: Simple Ways to Detox Naturally.”

            With many of us spending much more time at home, it is critical to ensure our nest is as healthy as possible. “Healthy Home: How to Detoxify a Living Space” offers smart tips like increasing ventilation, swearing off chemical air fresheners, ridding the house of the PFAS chemicals found in non-stick cookware and clearing out toxin-laden cleaning products. A new app also makes it easy to check on unwanted ingredients in cosmetics and food.

            One in five Americans is afflicted with the misery of sniffles, coughs or allergic rhinitis, not just in spring but year-round, from exposure to mold, dust mites and pet dander. Instead of over-the-counter antihistamines and decongestants that cause nasty side effects, relief can be found using natural approaches that use probiotics, quercetin, stinging nettles, omega-3s, nasal rinsing, acupuncture or homeopathy and doing a thorough anti-allergen house cleaning.

            Increasingly indoors and tethered to screens, children are more prone to clumsiness and muscle weakness than previous generations, and the remedy is getting them out into nature, which offers proven physical, emotional and mental payoffs. Parents are responding to the need by taking kids to nature trails with binoculars, bug jars and scavenger lists in hand, as well as finding ways to open their senses to the great outdoors, like open-air art and foraging for edibles.

            We hope that like us, you will be eager to put the practical insights from this issue into motion and be on your way to creating a truly beautiful world that blesses you, your family and loved ones at every turn. We all create our future with the baby steps we take today.

            It may sound corny, but get outside and hug a tree, or when you put your toes in the lake, tell Mother Earth how much you love her this Earth Day—April 22— and every day. She sustains and nurtures us, and it is time for us to give back. We need each other.