Your Body's Not Meant to Run on That. . .

I recently listened to an online webinar as part of the Young Living Essential Oils Summit, which touched on a lot of topics around healthy eating and healthy living.  One metaphor that really stuck with me is when the speaker said the following (paraphrased): If your car was out of gas, you wouldn't fill it with diesel fuel would you?  Because your car is not built to run on diesel.  Just like your body is not meant to run on chemicals, synthetic and artificial additives, or genetically modified foods.  So why would you put that in your body?  Your body is meant to run on foods directly from nature - plants and animals that have not been altered, chemically treated, or taken out of their natural environments.  That's what we should be feeding our bodies!

Admittedly, I am far from fully clean in my eating habits, but every small change I make is another change in the right direction.  A lot of those changes have come from removing toxins from my home by replacing toxic cleaning products with natural, non-toxic ones,

I've also started making my own beauty/skincare products using all natural ingredients,

And some of it involves just a greater awareness of what I'm putting into my body and where it comes from.

In this season of increased gratitude, I am so grateful to have resources, information, and products available to make healthy changes in my life and in the lives of my husband and sons.

 If you have any questions or would like more information about anything I have discussed in a post, please send a message.  And if you are interested in a membership that allows you to purchase essential oils, supplements and beauty products of exceptionally high quality, at a 24% discount, click here to get started!

Reminder: I am not medically trained, and the information I write in these posts are based on my experiences with essential oils.  If you have questions about oils for medicinal purposes, please talk with a trained medical professional.

Back to School

My Fellow Teachers, School Administrators, Child Care Providers, or anyone else who spends their days around children:

I don't need to tell you that Fall and Winter are rough on our immune systems! It seems like every time we start a new school year, my husband and I (both of us teachers) immediately catch some kind of a cold or bug.  Not to mention that fall tends to mean lice season in the schools!!  This year I head into the school year with an ace up my sleeve - my oils!!  I have spent the last couple months stocking up on my favorite calming blends (Stress Away, Valor, Grounding), my cleaning oils (Lemon, Thieves, Tea Tree, and Eucalyptus), my "healthy body" support oils (Thieves, DiGize, Peppermint, Oregano), and my "beat the bug early" oils ( RC, Ravintsara, Basil, Raven).  I spent yesterday making new Lemon Oil All-Purpose Cleaner, Foaming Hand Wash, and a variety of roller ball blends for my kids and myself.  I feel ready to fight off the back-to-school germs.

My kids will be ready for school, too.  We have Sleepyize to diffuse at night to help them stay well rested, Thieves to rub on their backs and feet to help support their immune systems, and Geneyus to diffuse in the morning to help us all be focused and alert.  I have my Tea Tree to put in the laundry to make everyone's clothes smell wonderful, and again, my Lemon Oil Cleaner that they can use to help me clean up without any concern for exposing them to toxins or harmful ingredients.  I am so grateful to have my oils and to have information available to help me know how to use them to make this a great start to the school year.

If you're interested in learning more about the oils I've mentioned above or about the oils I have chosen to use for my family and myself, please feel free to send me a message!  And if you're interested in getting the same wholesale pricing discount that I get for my oils, you can use this link to order your starter kit!

Tea Tree Oil - Becoming a Believer

Most elementary school teachers have heard of tea tree oil - it's the one we all know to keep on hand if our schools have lice in the building (which we do every year!).  There are tea tree oil shampoos and conditioners, treatment recipes, and hair spritzes that are reported to help keep lice away and help treat existing cases.  I had no idea, though, that tea tree oil is dramatically different than tea tree hair products, nor did I know how many other uses there are for this cleansing, antiseptic oil.

Before I begin to convince you (as I have been convinced) that tea tree oil is another must have, let me reiterate that I have no medical training or background.  The statements I make in my posts have not been evaluated or approved by the FDA, I am merely sharing my experiences, both from reading I've done and what I've tried. With that being said, these are my thoughts on tea tree oil.

Here's the problem - I HATE the smell of tea tree oil!  I think it smells like mothballs.  But the more I read, the more I believe that it is worth the smell to get the benefits.  Below are some of the ways I've found tea tree useful so far, as well as some of the things I want to try with my tea tree oil next.

I live in the midwest, and at this time of the year, the basement is stale, damp, and musty. At least once every few days, I run the diffuser in the basement with tea tree for a few hours, followed by lemon for a few hours.  This makes the air feel and smell fresher and cleaner.  And studies have been conducted to show that it is actually cleaning the air of molds and fungi.  Now that I know more about the benefits, I will be adding a couple drops of tea tree oil to the homemade cleaner I made with lemon oil to add to its effectiveness.

On a whim, one day, I decided to try something.  (Sorry if this is too much information!!) I know that body odor is caused by bacteria under our arms.  After I got out of the shower, I swiped tea tree oil under my arms.  The smell was almost unbearable to me, so after about 10 minutes, I followed with a swipe of lemon oil.  This neutralized the smell a bit, and after about a half hour the smell was gone all together.  It worked way better than any deodorant I've ever used.  So experiencing this, and knowing what I know about why my running clothes retain odors, I think next I'm going to start adding a couple drops to my laundry when I have a load of my athletic clothes (and maybe my bath towels, too. . . hmmmm) to help kill the bacteria that they like to hold on to, being synthetic fabrics.  And a couple drops on cotton balls tucked into the toes of particularly stinky shoes. . . the possibilities for killing bacteria and eliminating odorsare endless!

I have used tea tree oil to disinfect minor cuts and scrapes, always with good results - I have read that it is great for nail infections, though I've yet to try that. It is also good for relieving itch from bug bites.  Anything that helps with that during summer in Wisconsin is great!!

So I'm just learning more about this incredibly useful oil.  As I read more, I have ideas of where I want to go next with this oil (once I get a new bottle in my next order, since my original one is now empty!).  I just read that it's recommended to soak your toothbrush in diluted tea tree oil once a week or so to kill the bacteria that is housed in the bristles.  I've also seen recipes for making toothpaste out of it, although I don't know how I'd do with that taste!  Check out this list of uses for tea tree oil.  And if you're not familiar with Dr. Axe, I highly recommend checking out his website!  What I love about his website and his EO recommendations is that he uses a lot of medical research and studies to back up his recommendations.  Can't argue with that!

If you have any questions about anything related to oils, uses, recommendations, information about why I chose Young Living as my oils supplier, or how to try oils without commitment, please email me..  And if you are interested in a membership with Young Living, you can join here.