Sunday, March 15, 2015

You’re Doing It Wrong: 4 Ways to Fix Your Shower Routine


Adults spend an average of 8–12 minutes showering every day. Think about that: that’s over an hour a week and 5 hours a month. Whether you like to wake up with a shower or wait until the evening to clean off the day’s grime, you might need to make a few changes to your routine.




 

When it comes to keeping clean, not just any old product will do, so make sure you’re packing the right products. Many commercial soaps and shampoos contain harsh surfactants like sulfates or concerning ingredients like parabens. Young Living’s personal care products not only avoid those ingredients, but they also give you the benefits of pure essential oils.

 
1. “Lather, Rinse, Repeat” Doesn’t Hold Water

We’ve all heard the old saying, but shampoo labels are merely telling us to wash our hair more than once. The phrase doesn’t necessarily mean you should “repeat” every day. In fact, unless your hair is oily, you probably only need to wash your hair 2–3 times per week. Gentler shampoos like Young Living’s Lavender Shampoo will get your hair clean without stripping away natural oils.

 
2. Don’t Overdo It with Conditioner

For most of us, natural oils keep the hair closest to our scalp sufficiently moisturized. Putting conditioner on your roots can over-moisturize, leaving your hair flat and undercutting your efforts at cultivating full-bodied hair volume. Instead, only apply conditioners like Young Living’s Lavender Conditioner from your hair’s mid-length through the ends. Leave in for 1–2 minutes to give the conditioner time to do its work, and voila! Balanced, more beautiful hair!

 
3. Toss Out Your Loofah

When it comes to exfoliating skin, loofahs are a favorite tool. However, since you keep your loofah in the shower, it never really dries out, making it prime real estate for a bacteria colony. Translation: every pass over your skin with the loofah leaves a trail of unwanted bacterial interlopers.
 
Instead, exfoliate with a homemade sugar scrub. In a small bowl, combine ¼ cup almond or coconut oil, 1 cup brown sugar, and 2 drops of your favorite essential oil, such as a combination of Cedarwood and Royal Hawaiian™ Sandalwood. For a gentle and effective facial exfoliator, try Satin Facial Scrub™, Mint. It will leave your complexion feeling and looking fresh, invigorated, and clean.

 
4. Clean Your Face Last

The majority of us are most concerned with the appearance of our face, so it’s understandable that this is a top priority. However, ingredients in other shower products might run onto your face and leave a residue, meaning you could be clogging your pores instead of getting clean! When the time is right, our top-of-the-line facial wash, ART® Gentle Cleanser, uses a mild foaming action that leaves your face feeling clean, soft, and supple.


Get started on your amazing essential oils journey here:





Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Why I ONLY Choose Young Living . . . .








You might be wondering what the difference is between Young Living Essential Oils and the oils found in your local health food stores, or online. I want to be very clear that whenever I discuss using essential oils, or oil-infused products, I am ONLY talking about Young Living Essential Oils. Many of the oils available for purchase in stores or online contain chemicals, or include synthetic additives. You also never know where the plant material comes from with those oils. I never want someone to hear me say that Lavender can help with irritated skin, then go buy a low-quality bottle of Lavender at the store, put it on their skin and end up with their skin being even more irritated due to the chemicals and / or adulteration. This can happen (and has happened), and that is why I only use 100% pure, therapeutic-grade Young Living Essential Oils!

If an oil bottle label says “Topical or External Use Only” or “Do Not Ingest” then there’s your red flag that it’s probably adulterated. Expiration dates are also a red flag. Young Living oils are a different grade if essential oils, as they are therapeutic-grade, NOT perfume grade or synthetic.

Just like with food, when it comes to what we put in or on our bodies, we want to be certain that is is clean, pure and of the best quality and we feel the same way about essential oils.

1. Young Living Essential Oils are 100% pure therapeutic-grade essential oils ~ which means they can be used for therapeutic use, not just for fragrance. Oils bought in the store or online are “perfume grade” or "floral waters" and can only be used for pretty smells, however be aware that they are adulterated. I did the research, which is why I only use Young Living Essential Oils for my own health and wellness, as well as for that of my pets. Young Living Essential Oils can also replace many of the toxic products you use in your home, such as personal care products, beauty products, air fresheners and household cleaners.

2. Young Living carefully monitors every step of the production of their oils from Seed to Seal ~ from the time the first seed is planted to the time the bottle is sealed.

3. Young Living is the ONLY Essential Oil company that owns their own organic farms to grow the plants that are used to make the oils.

4. Young Living has been in business for over 20 years. It uses its own internal labs, in addition to third-party audits, to verify that international purity and potency standards are met and surpassed. Young Living completes 8 different tests on EVERY BATCH OF OIL that is made!

5. Young Living oils are distilled at low temperature and pressure in stainless steel chambers to maintain the delicate therapeutic compounds of the essential oils. The key to producing therapeutic-grade essential oils is to preserve as many of the delicate therapeutic compounds within the EO as possible. These fragile constituents are easily destroyed by high temperature and pressure, as well as any contact with chemically reactive metals such as copper or aluminum. YL oils are steam-distilled in stainless steel chambers at low pressure and low temperature. YL only uses plant material free of agrichemicals and steam distillation to end up with a pure oil. Cheap adulterated oils will have leftover chemical solvents from distillations in them. Many store-bought oil companies use plant materials with pesticides (and the residue often ends up in the essential oil), they may distill their oils with chemical solvents like hexane, or use chemically reactive metals like aluminum in the distillation chambers which can also affect the oils.

Should you wish to get started with your own oils and products, we recommend that you enroll as a wholesale member in Young Living by purchasing the Premium Starter Kit, which gives you the Everyday Oils, a bonus oil called Citrus Fresh, a Home Diffuser, as well as NingXia Red and EO samples to try or share. This is an excellent investment in your health, as well as the health of your animals.



Monday, March 9, 2015

Sensitivities to Essential Oils by David Stewart, PhD, DNM





There are a couple of ways one can be sensitive to essential oils, but an allergic reaction is not one of them. Allergies are erroneous immune responses to proteins, peptides, and amino acids - all nitrogen compounds, none of which are found in essential oils.
You can have an allergic reaction to a vegetable oil such as olive, corn, peanut, walnut, almond, etc., since these are cold-pressed and can contain small amounts of proteins. For example, occasionally a person can develop an allergy to an oil blend such as Valor, which is sold by Young Living. The allergy is not due to the essential oils of spruce, frankincense, rosewood, and blue tansy in the blend. It is due to the almond oil in the blend. So read your labels. What may appear to be an allergic reaction to a blend of essential oils may be due to a carrier oil contained in the blend.
You can also have an allergic reaction to citrus oils which are cold-pressed from the rind. However, while we refer to citrus oils such as orange, lemon, lime, and grapefruit as "essential oils," strictly speaking they are not. By definition, a true essential oil must be steam distilled, not expressed.

There are also oils extracted by solvents such as onycha, jasmine, and neroli. Strictly speaking, they too are not true essential oils. Technically, they should be called absolutes, not essential oils. One can have a true allergic reaction to these because, like the citrus oils, they have not passed through a distillation process and can contain traces of proteins, peptides, or amino acids.

Because of the nature of distillation by heat, steam, and water, that true essential oils must undergo, they do not contain the necessary compounds to trigger allergies because these compounds do not pass through the distillation process.

Hence, sensitivities to essential oils, in the sense of allergic reactions, are not possible. Allergic sensitivities are due to the body developing antibodies in response to certain nitrogenous molecules. No one has ever found antibodies in humans from essential oils. So if one has a reaction to an essential oil, it is something else. Not an allergy.

Hot Oils

There are oils that are naturally hot, such as oregano, thyme, mountain savory, cinnamon, cassia, and a few others. This is because of their phenolic compound content which cleanses our cells and paves the way to healing. Such oils can be taken internally via capsules or applied to the skin directly with caution or diluted with a fatty oil.

If burning or irritation occurs to the skin from such oils, prompt application of a vegetable oil layered over the essential oil will take care of the problem in short order.

The same thing applies if you get an essential oil in your eyes or if you swallow a hot oil, like oregano, and it burns your mouth and throat. Don't use water, use a vegetable oil for immediate relief. Pour it directly in the eyes or take it orally if your mouth or throat are affected.


Detox Reactions

As for sensitivities to essential oils that produces a skin rash or other allergic-like symptoms such as headaches or nausea, this is always a detox reaction. While allergic reactions get worse and worse with each exposure to the offending substance (allergen), detox reactions eventually get less and less severe with each exposure to an essential oil until it disappears completely once the toxins are cleared from the system.

When one has a detox reaction from an essential oil (which is a good thing), they need to back off from using oils for awhile and increase their water intake and, perhaps, get into a cleansing routine for a month or so, going light on the use of essential oils for a while. What is happening in this kind of sensitivity is that the oils are detoxing too rapidly for the colon and kidneys to handle so the toxins come out through the skin as the third avenue for excretion. It is better to keep the rate of detox down to levels that are flushed out through the kidneys and colon, if possible.

Emotional Sensitivities

In rare cases, a person can react to a perfectly pure therapeutic grade essential oil as if it were an allergen or a toxin, but in reality the response is neither an allergy nor a detox. It is something else.

Another kind of sensitivity to essential oils has to do with emotions. In cases of extreme unresolved grief, which can be due to the loss of a loved one or other circumstances, one can become sensitive to anything, even the most harmless of things. In extreme cases, people can become universal responders, reacting to almost everything in what appears to be an allergic reaction. This malady is sometimes referred to as "Extreme Chemical Sensitivity" (ECS) or "Environmental Illness" (EI).

In such cases, some people have been known to react in an allergy-like fashion to even the purest of essential oils, such as those sold by Young Living. But healing from such an illness does not come by treating it as an allergy, because it is not an allergy in the classical sense. It is a spiritual-emotional disease and must be dealt with at that level.

The spiritual and symbolic message in this sort of reaction is that the individual is so depressed, unhappy, and unwilling to accept life as it has been given to them that they are rejecting all of creation and, thus, react negatively to everything. There is a scriptural reference to this in Proverbs 17:22, "A broken spirit dries the bones."

The basis of our immune system is in the marrow of the bones where the T-cells and other white corpuscles are formed. Allergies and other environmental or chemical sensitivities are due to malfunctions of the immune system at the level of the white corpuscles (leucocytes). Hence, this Bible verse is actually referring to a negative autoimmune response originating in the bones caused by an individual's rejection of the world around them stemming from extreme grief or a broken spirit.

The solution to this spiritually rooted illness is to recognize the source of the grief, accept it, and deal with it. When that is done, the sensitivities disappear, usually within a few days and sometimes overnight. Applying selected essential oils for emotional purposes can assist in revealing and releasing the buried feelings that underlie such a malady.

Adulterated Oils

There is one other source of sensitivity that may be blamed on essential oils and that has to do with perfume and food grade oils. True therapeutic grade essential oils are grown organically, harvested in proper ways and times, distilled gently at minimum temperatures and pressures, and bottled without any ingredients removed or added. All of the essential oils sold by Young Living are therapeutic grade oils. However, the vast majority of aromatic oils sold in retail stores and other places are perfume or food grade oils.

A true therapeutic grade essential oil contains hundreds of compounds, all of which are necessary in a proper balance for them to possess healing power. Since only a few of these compounds contribute significantly to aroma and/or taste, when essential oils are used for fragrances or flavors, the only compounds that matter to commercial users are the ones that have smell or taste. In some cases, this involves only 2 or 3 compounds in an oil, and the manufacturers and users don't care if these compounds are natural or synthetic so long as the smell and taste are there and the cost is cheap.

Hence, fragrance and food grade oils are always incomplete in their composition, containing only part of the chemical profile of a complete therapeutic grade oil. Furthermore, they are usually adulterated with synthetic compounds or diluted with petrochemicals to increase their volume and profitability.

One can have reactions to such oils, but these are not reactions to true essential oils. Such reactions are due to the adulterants in the oil. They are not caused by the natural essential oil components of the oil.

For More Information

So there you have it. As to what you should do in a given situation where sensitivities are encountered, you will have to decide. If you want a more detailed discussion on essential oils, reactions to them, and allergies, my book, "The Chemistry of Essential Oils Made Simple", has a lengthy discussion of the subject.  Order yours HERE.



To get started on your own amazing essential oils journey, log on here:

www.NaturalLivingEssentialOils.com



Need a Change of Pace? Reach for Young Living Roll-Ons!



With my crazy schedule, I occasionally find myself in need of a break. If the weather is cooperating, I'll get outside and take a walk around the building to get my blood flowing. Or, I’ll sit in my recliner, close my eyes, take a couple of deep breaths and meditate for a few minutes.  Then, when I get back to my desk, I will grab one of Young Living’s essential oil roll-ons.








YL's roll-ons offer quick and effective application of some of my favorite essential oils, making them perfect to take along with me wherever I go. I carry Tranquil™, with its balanced combination of Lavender, Cedarwood, and Roman Chamomile; I’m never without the soothing fragrance of Lime, Lavender, and Copaiba in our Stress Away™ roll-on; and I love the unique blend of Ruta, Valerian, and Lavender that is found only in RutaVaLa™! Having these blends in roll-on form means I always have access to their calming aromas.








As much as I rely on these blends to uplift my day, the fresh new design for the roll-on packaging gives me even more incentive to share! To me, it embodies Young Living’s Seed to Seal® process. Young Living is constantly on a mission to seek out and embrace the highest quality standards in everything they do!

Learn more about these wonderful products in our new Young Living for the Everywhere Lifestyle booklet. Get yours from your Virtual Office today!

How do you use Young Living’s roll-ons? Do you have any special blends that you’ve made into a roll-on? 


Get started on your amazing essential oils journey at:

www.NaturalLivingEssentialOils.com