One of the first reasons I started using essential oils was to provide safer options for my family. Now with two little ones many of the oils that I purchased using a Premium Starter Kit from Young Living have become part of our everyday lives. They bring us healthier options from cleaning the home to helping us when we get sick heal faster and keep germs in the house away from others. Tonight I invite you to join me for a class using Essential oils for Kids live via FaceBook at 830pm Eastern. The information will be up for a few days after the event, so you do not need to log on right at that time if you are interested you can read more the next day. Here's just a few tips for how I'm using and loving essential oils for my family: 1. All-purpose Cleaner Use a few drops of Lemon essential oil in a small spray bottle with water and spray areas to clean toys, sports equipment and furniture naturally. I've seen crayon disappear from tables and walls when other cleaners couldn't do the trick! 2. Bedtime Massage Oil Apply 1 drop of Lavender 1:1 with a carrier oil and massage child’s back, tummy, legs, arms and feet to send them off to dreamland! 3. Deodorize a Room (or Diaper Pail) Add 2-3 drops of Purification essential oil blend to a diffuser to freshen and deodorize a room. Add a couple drops to a cotton ball and place in the bottom of a trash can or diaper pail. 4. Cold/Flu? Use a few drops of Purification and Thieves in the Diffuser to help keep germs away this fall. Apply DiGize or TummyGize (pre-diluted for kids) to help tummy aches feel better. 5. Freshen Laundry Sour laundry? Add a few drops of your favorite essential oil to the detergent container of your washing machine to freshen up laundry and eliminate odors. 6. Gunk Remover Gum: somewhere than in your kid's mouth? Walls decorated with permanent marker? Leftover bandaid stickies on their arms? A couple drops of lemon oil is all you need! Interested in getting added to the class? Email me at [email protected]. Want to try out oils? Purchase a Premium Starter Kit by going here. Not sure what to buy or want to discuss options first? Drop me a note to set up a call to place your order!
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![]() On August 27, we welcomed baby girl, Carly Elizabeth, into our lives! I felt very fortunate this time heading into labor and delivery that I had some expectation on the experience, so I was able to prepare a hospital bag with essential oils that I knew I could use to help with relaxation, pain, and postpartum care. I’ll admit that reading similar blogs from friends who are also Young Living distributors about their own labor and how they used essential oils greatly prepared me for my own delivery. I am very grateful for those women taking the time to share their recommendations, so I hope for those curious about using essential oils you can find some comfort with these during your labor and delivery. Diffusing/Aromatic: Gentle Baby There are only a handful of essential oils that you can use aromatically with new babies and Gentle Baby is a perfect blend for relaxation for mom during labor as well as after labor. Gentle Baby is by far one of my favorite blends. Every Dr and nurse that walked into my delivery room remarked at how nice, calming, and wonderful the room smelled. One of my concerns diffusing was having the hospital staff ask me to turn it off, but everyone said our room was so lovely they wish they had a diffuser for themselves. Topically: Lemon, Valor, Clary Sage, Geranium There are so many options for labor and delivery. I used the reference book by Debra Raybern, Gentle Babies Essential Oils and Natural Remedies for Pregnancy to navigate understanding more about how to use oils throughout my pregnancy and during the delivery. Lemon: I will not be shy about saying that I fully anticipated having an epidural at some point during labor. Having been through labor before, I knew this would be a part of the process for me. If you’ve ever had an IV or spent any time in a hospital you know that they tape parts of your arm, or back in the case of an epidural, and the tape takes FOREVER to come off. I read from a fellow Young Living distributor who went through labor to bring Lemon to help remove the sticky mess safely. It worked wonders after that first shower to help safely remove tape from the IV in particular. I ended up being very fortunate and got the epidural about 20-30 minutes before I had the baby, so I did not have much need to remove tape on my back. Valor: My main focus of using valor was for anxiety related to stress with labor. Even as a yoga teacher there really is only so much you can do to relieve and help train yourself for the unknown or as we offer in yoga, “Ishvara Pranidhana” –surrender to the unknown. This is one of the greatest teachings in the yoga sutras that helped me tremendously in my days leading up to labor. A combination of Valor on my big toes as well as reflecting on many of the readings and mediations that I took from a book by Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa, Beautiful Bountiful Blissful. This book is a true gift for any yogini who is preparing for labor. I’ve read it several times over the years, but really found great solitude in preparing for labor. In one passage she focuses on the medical portion of labor and how women in the West can truly allow themselves to have hospital staff take over for their delivery. This reminded me that labor and delivery is really about you and the baby working together to be welcomed into the world. It’s the process that you create for yourself through things like aromatherapy, mediation, movement learned in prenatal yoga, strength from your partner, and connection to the baby that can help create an aid and experience no matter what that may be during labor to relieve anxiety. You and the baby do the work – the Dr. is really there to just catch the baby. I was fortunate to practice yoga until the end of my pregnancy and used the mantra: Inhale- Joy Exhale: Fear to help release excess anxiety about the unknown of labor. I’ll also add that to help my labor along I did a series of acupuncture treatments to help induce labor during weeks 38 and 39, which I credit for having such a fast labor and quick delivery. I’ll be honest though, the treatments are not for the weak and took lots of yoga breathing to get through since they were not very relaxing or comfortable. Clary Sage: My husband and I joked throughout my labor that he was serving as an apprentice doula with all of the day before education he had to do learning what oils to use, where, and why to help me during labor. He did a great job. We applied Clary Sage every couple of hours to my ankles (Vitaflex points) to help with dilatation. I’m not sure if this did much, but I did dilate very quickly and I’m very much in the school of thought that anything helps!!! Geranium: I used this a lot in the hours after delivery and in the hospital to help with postpartum care. The oil can be used, according to the Gentle Babies book, to help the uterus as it recovers from labor and after birth. I also had a handful of other oils on hand just in case I wanted them. Peppermint for nausea, Lavender for sleep and relaxation, Thieves for an immunity boost for postpartum in the hospital, and Purification as an air cleanser. Ingesting: I did not need to ingest any essential oils during labor, but the acupuncturist did suggest to me a few days before I had the baby to ingest Eucalyptus for some lung congestion. I was cautious of this with the warning that women in their third trimester should not take it, but he said the only reason not to do so would be that it has been known to induce labor and since I was 39 weeks that was no longer a concern. One of the Young Living products that I have been using postpartum is Ningxia Red. Ningxia is a wolfberry superfruit with pure Orange, Yuzu, Lemon, and Tangerine essential oils, along with blueberry, aronia, cherry, pomegranate, and plum juices to deliver a whole-body nutrient infusion. This powerful formula includes wolfberry, which is touted for its health-supporting benefits, while ongoing research continues to reveal exciting new properties on this ingredient. I read one of my friend’s blogs that said it helped her tremendously with energy after she gave birth, so I ordered a case of it in my Essential Rewards (monthly buy program) to use. NingXia Red when taken daily can help energize, fortify, and revitalize the body and support overall health and wellness, from head to toe. When I feel a little morning or afternoon slump I’ll poor a packet of this over a glass of sparkling water. Nursing a little one requires you stay well hydrated when you are up around the clock, so this is a great alternative to water and to help keep you moving! Enjoy these resources! If you have any questions or want to connect on Young Living oils that I used throughout my pregnancy or learn more about how to purchase contact me at [email protected]. Be prepared to be totally grossed out by this post, but also impressed at the same time. I have traditionally had really nice feet. No problems, no fungus, etc. But last month I got a pedicure and I was horrified, disgusted, and frankly embarrassed by what was hiding under my perfectly polished feet --a total disaster. It took everything in my will power not to ask for polish when I got a pedicure to just hide what was going on, but I knew about the amazing benefits of Melaleuca alternifolia (tea tree essential oil) for nail health) and thought it was worth a try. I gave myself a very easy baseline to work with for this treatment. Commit to applying the oil directly to the nail 2x a day for about two weeks and see what happens. Well, it started to give me great results so I gave it another two weeks. Here we are a month later and the fungus is completely gone. Yes, I had to go all month during the summer without polished nails, but it was well worth the effort. I also went a step further and did an epsom salt bath 1x a week for about 10 minutes to see if I could get any other added benefits. The hardest part was really remembering to apply Mel A (tea tree) 2x a day, but the trick that I used was pretty easy. I placed it next to my facewash that I use in the morning and am. After I went through my daily routine of face washing I applied the essential oil to my toes and let them dry. There were definitely a few days that I skipped just because I simply forgot, but can't believe how using this essential oil can truly help build nail health. See the results for yourself. I warned you it's totally gross....As I look at feet constantly as a yoga teacher I know women in particular are almost always polished, so I can't be the only one hiding something! The pictures go from start of the four-five weeks to the end. It’s back to school time for many of us who teach and have kids! That means back to the classroom where we are exposed to germs, viruses, and pathogens. Since starting with essential oils my family has seen our own health greatly improved by using natural alternatives in our daily lives. Having a three year old who is in day care and being around lots of sweaty bodies myself as a yoga teacher we are constantly exposed to germs. I have seen how using essential oils like Thieves and Lemon can build a healthy immune system to help protect my family from germs. When we do get sick I find it helpful to have essential oils on hand to apply topically or diffuse. I've seen our own recovery time from being sick much faster than years when we didn't use oils. Building good hygiene habits is always a wise approach.Here are some tips to protect yourself and the ones you love with Thieves and Lemon (both come in the Premium Starter Kit):
To help sanitize and harbor germs found around the house and in the classroom grab a handheld Thieves Spray. This is a must have for any diaper bag or car! Place a drop or two of Lemon essential oil on your hands to sanitize when you aren't able to get to a sink to wash hands. Make your own soap at home with Thieves essential oil. Castile soap is made from olive oil, so it’s very gentle, but still cleans really well! Ingredients: 1 part Dr. Bonner’s Castile Soap 3 parts water Essential Oil Thieves 20 drops The Premium Starter Kit is still $10 off through August! Contact me for more information at [email protected] or check out more information on signing up here. |
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