Happy "Oily Days"

Ok ok, bad puns and all... The holidays are upon us!

And with the holidays come sniffles, sneezes, and generally vulnerable immune systems...

I’m going to give you a couple of quick tips to keep your home and workplaces feeling festive, and at the same time to safeguard your health during the busy, sometimes stressful days ahead.

Ready?

Number One: Bring Thieves Wherever You Go!

I always get a chuckle out of telling people this, but seriously- the combination of oils is a power-packed protector against a wide range of bacteria, molds, and viruses. Plus, the superantioxidant Clove has a smell that many folks associate with winter holidays anyway, so you get an “air-freshener” that is not only non-toxic, it is actually Good For You! I diffuse it, spritz it, and take it internally if I’m starting to feel depleted (a few drops in a capsule with v-6 oil, or the pre-made Inner Defense softgels).

When traveling I always rub Thieves oil on the bottoms of my feet, carry the hand sanitizer and lozenges with me, and spray my hotel room with the spritzer. I usually offer a bottle of the foaming handsoap as a gift to my hosts- they really love it, and it’s a great introduction to more natural things than most folks have in their guest bathrooms (and I have something I trust to use while I’m there).

Number Two: Diffuse, diffuse, diffuse!

Whether you are using the elegant Aria or the Efficient TheraPro, getting Young Living Oils in the air will benefit everyone. Unlike toxic air “fresheners”, our oils carry physical and emotional benefits along with fresh and lively scents. Balsam fir is reminiscent of cut trees, without the mess and with all the health benefits- for respiratory soothing and general uplifting of spirits, it’s a great winter companion. Frankincense is also a nice choice, as are any of the citrus oils. Experiment and discover your own holiday signature.

Number Three: Get it on you!

Consider Valor or Stress Away as your cologne of choice, or offer everyone a little dab of Joy... get creative and keep your favorites close at hand. One member in my group started offering bedtime foot rubs to the kids in her family. She made sure to apply Peace and Calming each time- not only did the kids quiet down and rest peacefully, they began looking forward to bedtime!

Number Four: Get it in you!

Keep a bottle of NingXia Red right alongside the other imbibements. An anti-oxidant boost with added essential oils will go a long way to making sure any indulgence is tempered with great self-care. Consider recipes that include Young Living oils. Maple-glazed nuts with cinnamon oil added at the end, a drop of tangerine while the cranberries cool, a drop of nutmeg in the eggnog... remember start small and add only add to heated foods once the cooling has begun.

Number Five: Give it Away!

For frugal gift giving, here’s one sure bet: you, a box of ziplock baggies, a few pounds of epsom salts and a bottle of your favorite oil. Combine salt and oil, shake well, give it a clever name and label it. Done!

Another trick~ Young Living’s unscented shower gel, empty bottles, your favorite oil. Combine, Shake, and Give. Don’t forget the clever name. My favorite? “A Wash With Gratitude”.

I also love to give mini bottles full of my favorite oils, and bunches of little things like lip balms, hand sanitizers, and for that one joker in my family with the huge stocking- NingXia Red!

You can always take the easy road and let Young Living ship it for you- their Holiday Gift Catalog even features a number of item already packaged up in holiday finery.

A great compliment to a gift of Young Living oils is a bit of support in using them, and understanding how vastly different they are from what many people think of when they hear “aromatherapy”. Consider inviting your gift recipients to a little get-together to explore the oils more in-depth, once the holiday bustle is over. They will welcome the chance to reconnect with you, and develop a deeper understanding of what a profound gift they have received. What better way to welcome the New Year than helping people discover natural ways to wellness?

Most important,

HAVE FUN! Love your people, be good to yourself, and stay in touch with your Young Living Family. We love you.

Trudy Shows us the New Essential Oils Desk Reference

Our friend Trudy was the first person we know to get the new “Legacy Edition” Essential Oils Desk Reference. She pre-ordered it when it was still in production, and when it finally arrived on her doorstep she was beside herself with excitement.

She came into the Co-Op where I work in the Wellness department and her enthusiasm was obvious. Her eyes were twinkling when she took hold of my arm and looked me straight in the eye. Then she told me, in no uncertain terms (if you know Trudy, you know there are no uncertain terms! - wink-) that she simply had to show it to me. So, we made an appointment.

Trudy is going through an exciting phase. She’s learning to combine her passion for toxin-free living with her special talent of teaching people how to live frugally. And one of her tools in that marriage of ideals is Young Living Essential Oils. She laughs as she tells me how some people say, “You show people how to live frugally, with some of the most expensive essential oils?”, to which her favorite response is, “Well, yeah. They’re the ones that work!”. Trudy has worked with the oils for years now, and she has a special knack for using them sparingly yet effectively for all kinds of household applications. She likes to show people what a tiny bit of Young Living oil can do!

So- when the doorbell rang on the appointed day, I was at least as excited as Trudy had been. She brought her daughter, as they were going to a reflexology class together after our little show-and-tell session. We all bustled in to the table where we hold our intro gatherings, and Trudy set the book down.

The first thing to strike you about this new EDR is that it’s in a 3-ring binder format. This strikes me as a stroke of genius. Young Living is always releasing new oils, especially since we’ve gone into Ecuador and Gary’s begun identifying and distilling new species. The binder format makes it possible to simply add new information as it becomes available.

I turned open the cover and saw the dedication: “To all those who seek yesterday’s wisdom and today’s discovery. After all, it is their hearts and minds that turn to the knowledge within these pages”.

I suddenly had the experience of having come on a very long journey: I had a flash, back to the days that some would call “the early days”.

I’ve been using Young Living since around 1997, when information about the oils came by fax from whomever in your group was fortunate enough to go to a session where Gary was speaking. I remember once going to hear him speak in New Jersey, and afterwards getting invited to a “Q&A for leaders”. Someone had rented a room, and about 60 of us crammed in there, sitting thigh-to-thigh on the floor and furniture, gathered around Gary as he spoke with us about how essential oils affect the amygdala (an almond-shaped area of the brain, just behind the middle of the eyebrows), which is associated with the limbic (or emotional) center of our mental system, by way of explaining how authentic oils influence our emotional wellness. People shared notes afterward, and I remember getting a sheet from someone that said something like, “Gary says there’s an almond in your brain and it makes you feel the smell”.
Right at this moment, Trudy turned to the page in the EDR where the Limbic System is discussed: what do you know? Pictures, diagrams, language that’s detailed while remaining accessible. I suddenly became very, very happy.

Trudy was insistent that I flip through the book on my own, patiently resisting the urge to show me all of her favorite parts. The pictures, for starters, are absolutely stunning. You get to see Gary’s first distiller, ancient frankincense burners, livers in a variety of conditions, breathtaking shots from each of the farms, and my favorite- seasonal harvests and distillations. The pictures put you right there in the scene; you can almost smell the balsam and feel the chill (and the very hard work) of the winter harvest! It gave me a sense of gratitude for all the dedication and effort that goes into these oils.

The binder is organized by sections, which are denoted by colored tabs with easy color reference on the edge of the pages. It still includes the extensive descriptions of each of the single oils and blends, a gorgeous chapter on NingXia wolfberries (and recipes from the NingXia Bar at Convention!), plus a beautifully illustrated section on application techniques, which included hand reflexology charts the size of real hands (in fact, we were able to remove these from the binder and put them in plastic protector sheets for Trudy to take to her reflexology class, so she could use them without risking damage to her book- clever, clever binder design!).

Also still included is the Personal Usage Guide, which now includes a “Quick Reference” section. This is always the part of my EDR that gets the most use, when I’m wondering what oils I may want to try in a particular situation. I find that when I bring out the EDR in an Introductory gathering, people like to look up their own list of concerns and see what products are suggested there.

I also tried the old, “flip through and see what catches your eye” approach. This is how I found very concise discussions of topics such as our “Seed to Seal” trademark, and easy-to-decipher graphics that discuss things like the chakra system, and different “grades” of essential oils (this discussion uses a new “pyramid of purity” graphic which I like a lot), along with a section called “Letting Go With Essential Oils”, which gives simple steps toward releasing emotional baggage that holds us back.

I have to admit it: I’ve seen dozens (maybe hundreds) of books on essential oils and their use. I thought it would be hard to impress me. But the truth is, I’m smitten. Trudy is my new hero for bringing the Legacy Edition’s fabulousness to my attention with her special brand of insistence and enthusiasm.

And you’d better believe it, mine is on the way. I got the bundle pack, which includes a special online edition, which is apparently even accessible by iPhone. I’ll keep you posted as I unlock that particular wonder!

Until we are set up to sell them to you, we suggest buying right from the publisher at www.lifesciencepublishers.com

Integrative Healing

The word integrate comes from the latin word meaning both “whole” and “holy”.
It implies the bringing together of different or disparate parts to form a cooperative, cohesive whole.

So when we use it in relation to healing, we are really saying two things. One is that the person is being brought into a state of wellness in which all the varied systems are unified. We are saying that, while the body is one important means of expressing health, that the mind and spirit (or heart) also play a role in authentic well-being and must be addressed as well.

The other thing “Integrative Healing” implies is that the methods being used to bring about healing are chosen from a broad range of disciplines and applications. Typically “Integrative” modalities have the aim of addressing the trio of body/mind/spirit as the single whole being that is the patient.

Integrative modalities include massage (in all its forms from cranio-sacral to rolfing, energy-muscle technique to zero balancing and polarity) or physical therapy, acupuncture, homeopathy, talk therapy, reiki, chiropractic, sound or color therapy, yoga (and its counterparts, chanting and meditation), movement therapy, emotional release work, kinesiology, art therapy, and more.

What is significant from the perspective of an essential oils user is that each of these modes of healing can be amplified and hastened by integrating oils into the treatment.

There are situations in which a physical complaint might respond best to an oil applied topically for physical benefit. For instance, if I strain my knee doing yoga I get PanAway on it right away. The wintergreen eases the pain, the helichrysum protects the nerves and I don’t have to manifest an actual injury because the healing’s already underway.

It’s pretty rare that any one aspect of body/mind/spirit requires healing independent of the others. Physical suffering weighs on the mind and spirit, mental suffering can manifest in the body and alienate the spirit, spiritual suffering can make us miserable through and through. The beauty of essential oils is that they travel along the pathway in the body that unifies these elements and encourages healing on a truly holistic (integrated) way.

Here’s the science bit:
When we encounter a scent, its message travels through the nose to the olfactory bulb, which is the bundle of sensory nerves that interprets it. This is tied into the amygdala, which is the part of the brain that takes care the processing of the scent.
Here’s where it gets interesting: the amygdala is part of the limbic (or emotional) system of the brain. It is thought to associate scent with memory. Catching on?
Ever notice how you can get a whiff of some scent from the past and be transported to that bygone time (think: patchouli and leather. Uh-huh. Were we at the same party?)?
Add to this that the limbic system, in its turn, influences the endocrine system (hormones, anyone?) as well as the immune system in the physical body... and you may come to the startling conclusion that how you feel actually does affect how you feel.

And here’s an insight from the desk of my inner geek:
Assuming you’re using Young Living, you are working with essential oils in which the integrity (wholeness) of the original plant has been kept intact. Because of their involvement at every step of the way and their insistence that nothing ever be added or taken away, the make-up of the plant’s compounds is unaltered. When I’m healing, that’s the stuff I want on my side!

Young Living has formulated dozens of oil blends with the goal of helping to facilitate emotional healing and overcome beliefs that limit us in achieving our full potential. There is even a collection of oils dubbed the “Feelings Kit” which includes a well-thought out protocol we can do with others or for ourselves. The names of the blends are so evocative that they often serve as contemplation exercises in themselves.
I like to select a few at random and consider their connections as I apply them. Today: Abundance, Forgiveness and Valor. Hmmm.

I often say that when you use the right oil the right way you will get results.
It’s often helpful to experiment with a variety of oils to choose the one(s) you want to work with at a certain time (of course, observe proper application and dilution methods)

Tweet

Share