Month: May 2018

Is Finding Balance Fiction?

by standinlovejen, posted in Essential Oils, Health & Wellness

Do you ever wonder if there is such a thing as achieving balance?   Do you ever feel pulled in so many different directions you doubt balance is possible?   Between family responsibilities, the kids, work deadlines, bills, friendships, exercise, eating right, cleaning, and shopping,  where on Earth is the time to find the elusive sense of balance we are encouraged to locate?

As I sit Indian-style in my office chair tapping away on my laptop, inhaling the gorgeous diffused aroma of patchouli, lime, and frankincense,  I wonder if my body  (physical, emotional, and spiritual) is appropriately balanced?  Yesterday at a luncheon with our local dōTERRA community we listened to Dr. Sarah Johnson, DC and cervical spine specialist,  share tips on the subject of achieving balance naturally.   Her words, and more importantly her questions, linger inside my head and heart today and have created a desire to share with a larger audience.  Do you listen to the silent words spoken by your body each day?

Let’s take a moment together to close our eyes and feel deeply inside of our bodies.  Do you sense pain or discomfort anywhere?  Are you carrying around repressed emotions? Stuffed feelings? Unconfronted numbness?  Is that tension in your neck and shoulders due to carrying around a heavy burden for years that you have just allowed to become the new norm?  How about that nagging discomfort in your lower back or hips?  Is that from lifting inattentively, or is it a conglomeration of unaddressed emotions pooling together in a little circle trying to grab your attention, begging for release?

Our bodies are masters of adaptation.  They are built to respond to stress, and habituate. The risk of this adaptation is that when we keep pushing a new normal on all three levels (mind, body, spirit), the body, out of self-preservation,  keeps going until it no longer can resulting in dis-ease and discomfort.

Feelings Buried Alive Never Die

This week, I have been digging feverishly into Kathy Truman’s insightful book, Feelings Buried Alive Never Die, and have come to some powerful realizations surrounding the  origins of feelings and emotions, as well as the unique space they take up in our bodies.

Put simply, feelings and thoughts are made of energy and energy is matter.   Physics teaches us that matter is never destroyed, but can be altered.  So what happens to our thoughts and feelings since they are virtually indestructible?

Feelings are born moment-to-moment and what we choose to do with them profoundly impacts our overall health and wellness.  Please re-read that sentence.  Let’s think of emotions like grains for a moment.  Is it your tendency to toss feelings into the storehouse of your mind or heart, unconsciously collecting them one-by-one and allowing them to accumulate unaddressed?  Every kernel of hurt, every ragged rejection, every bit of anguish, pain, confidence-snatching humiliation, breath-taking overwhelm, every slicing condescending comment thrown our way, and every grain of grief.  What happens when these storehouses get filled to the roof?  One of two things may happen; We start a second storehouse, or the lid bursts unexpectedly on the overfilled one.

I would like to suggest a third option:  Sift through the grains.  Sort the emotions, one by one.  Take away the prison-like power of negative emotions, break the stronghold by walking straight into them.   Wait, you may be thinking, “Well, that’s painful and will cause heartache Jen. ”  Yes, it will hurt.  Yes, it will sting, often unbearably.  Yes, you may shed oceans of tears.  Yes, you may have to go places (metaphorically speaking) you prefer not to, but what is the alternative?  Allow the undigested emotions to destroy the cells in your body causing symptoms of dis-ease?

Defining Positive and Negative Emotions

In Dr. Joan Borysenko’s book, Minding the Body, Minding the Mind, she describes feelings this way:

“Positive Emotions create bodily sensations of openness and expansiveness.  They invite the world in.  The body feels relaxed, even though some emotions such as joy are very energizing.  In contrast, negative emotions create a tight, contracted feeling.  Everything pulls inward.  The world is pushed away.  Positive feelings invite unity.  Negative feelings invite isolation.  Becoming a skilled observer of your own emotions allows you to make a conscious choice between love and unity, or fear and isolation. ” 

I want to choose love and unity every single time.   I believe we have the capacity to reject fear and isolation.   A line from one of my favorite songs goes like this:

“FEAR is a LIAR.   He will take your breath, stop you in your steps.  He will rob your rest, steal your happiness.   Cast your fear in the fire, cuz fear, he is a liar.” 

Essential Oils for Emotions

The fascinating thing about essential oils is that they have the capacity to support individuals on both a physical and emotional level.   The beauty of nature and creation is such that our bodies receive the chemistry of essential oils on the cellular level via cell receptors.   With a variety of Certified Pure, Therapeutic Grade essential oils to choose from, there are several solutions to meet your emotional needs.

A favorite for emotional support is the Emotional Aromatherapy Kit, containing essential oil blends specifically formulated with balanced chemistry to deliver the desired outcomes.  With names like Peace, Forgive, Cheer, Passion, Motivate, and Console, they are designed to touch right on the epicenter of our emotions.

What if all we had to fear was LOVE?  Would that bring us into balance?

Until next time my cherished friends,

Stand In Love,  Jen

 

To learn more, or to bring these natural treasures into your home today, please start here. 

Jennifer Miller is a Las Vegas-based dōTERRA Wellness Advocate, Speaker, and Marketing Consultant.  She volunteers as a Community Partner for global nonprofit BeadforLife, whose mission is to provide entrepreneurial training to 1 million impoverished people globally by 2027.   Click here for a listing of upcoming events, or Follow her on Instagram or Facebook @standinlovejen .  To begin your natural health and wellness journey today with essential oils, click here .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5 Essential Oils Every Woman Needs to Reduce Stress

by standinlovejen, posted in Essential Oils, Health & Wellness

According to recent American Psychology Association research, “women are more likely to report physical and emotional symptoms of stress than men, such as having had a headache (41 percent versus 30 percent), having felt as though they could cry (44 percent versus 15 percent), or having had an upset stomach or indigestion (32 percent versus 21 percent) in the past month. The same survey also reported that women are more likely than men to report that they eat as a way of managing stress (31 percent versus 21 percent).”

Whether you are a naturally high-energy individual, a professional in a high-stress environment, a mother juggling multiple to-do lists, or all of the above, this post is for you.

Turns out, there are two types of stress: positive and negative.  Positive stress, eustress, is produced during heightened states of arousal, and is commonly linked to a specific goal.  Negative stress, distress, is similar to free-floating anxiety, and unlike eustress, which stops cortisol production as soon as the desired goal is complete, sends our body into the proverbial fight-or-flight stress response.  The cortisol has no place to go, and wreaks havoc on our bodies.

If left unchecked, stress can and WILL disrupt the following:

  • memory/ learning
  • endocrine system – mood/ hormones
  • immune system
  • digestive system – gut health
  • cardiovascular system
  • circulatory system- high blood pressure
  • muscular/ skeletal system

Wow, that’s pretty much every inch of our physical bodies, not to mention spilling into  every millimeter of our neurosystem.

Stress Management Protocols

  • Diet
  • Exercise
  • Understand stress triggers
  • Social Connection
  •  Laughter/ levity
  • Music
  • Aromatherapy

Yes, eat your fruits and veggies, limit fat and sugar intake, and move your body.   Sounds familiar, right?

Well, what about time spent with friends and loved ones?  According to author and friendship expert Shasta Nelson, lacking intimate relationships with friends is equivalent to smoking several cigarettes a day!  If you are interested in learning more about building awesome friendships, check out this post.  Additionally, I highly recommend reading her book full of mind-blowing research Frientimacy:  How to Deepen Friendships for Lifelong Health and Happiness.    

So that brings us to my area of expertise- aromatherapy and using essential oils to boost mood and reduce stress and anxious feelings.   As a perpetual learner, this subject has been my central focus for the last 18 months and continues to impress upon me fresh insights that I simply MUST share with the world.  (Isn’t that what we do when we LOVE something so much? )

Why use essential oils? The short answer is this:  THEY WORK.

Which ones you ask?

Let’s start with Jen’s Top 5 Essential Oils for Stress Reduction

  1.  Clary Calm– every woman’s best friend.  This proprietary blend supports raging hormones, hot flashes, and extreme irritability.  (ps. Men benefit from this too!) I have a couple of roller-bottles of this blend and prefer to apply topically to my abdomen, wrists, or over the heart for emotional flare-ups.
  2. Balance–  or the “Grounding Blend” mixes peace, harmony, and tranquility all in one!  As the name suggests, this is a simple way to bring balance into each day.  Start with a drop or two on bottoms of feet each day before beginning the day, and use throughout day as needed on pulse points, and back of the neck.
  3. Elevation–  also known as the “Joyful Blend”, this essential oil blend artfully combines mood-boosting florals like Ylang Ylang, Melissa Leaf, Lavender and Osmanthus with deeply calming oils like Hawaiian Sandalwood and Lemon Myrtle. This essential oil is heavenly diffused in the home!  Try diffusing in the kids’ rooms in the morning to promote positive feelings for the start of each day, or diffuse after a long stressful day to help relax and unwind.    I like to proactively use Elevation in situations that would typically activate a stress response by applying a few drops behind my ears and on my wrists.
  4. Neroli–  this prized essential oil sourced from the blossoms of the bitter orange trees of Egypt is a surefire way to reduce anxious feelings and instantly lift mood.  This essential oil has been extensively researched for its ability to provide users with a calming and positive experience.  Bonus benefit, it is great for the skin and blemishes.   Personally, I wear this beauty as fragrance and often mix with Jasmine.  YUM!
  5. Peace–  called the “Reassuring Blend” for its inherent ability to reassure even the most overwhelmed individual.   As someone who struggled for years with anxious feelings, Peace was like discovering that long-lost friend you have waited for your entire life!  This essential oil blend does exactly what the name suggests:  creates a state of inner peace, composure, and gives you a dose of reassurance in each drop.

For all the times we feel overwhelmed, burdened, burned out, or simply at our wit’s end, there are natural solutions to support you.    Think of essential oils as partners in your wellness journey.  Full of chemistry, completely diverse, and always there when you need them!

Jennifer Miller is a Las Vegas-based dōTERRA Wellness Advocate, Speaker, and Marketing Consultant.  She volunteers as a Community Partner for global nonprofit BeadforLife, whose mission is to provide entrepreneurial training to 1 million impoverished people globally by 2027.   Click here for a listing of upcoming events, or Follow her on instagram or Facebook @standinlovejen .  To begin your natural health and wellness journey today with essential oils, click here .