Tag: essential-oils

  • Finding Hope When You’re not Experiencing the Healing You Long For

    You’ve been implementing healing protocols in your life for some time now. You feel like you’re doing all the right things but you’ve hit a plateau and you can’t seem to pinpoint why.  

    I’ve been there, several times throughout my healing journey actually. Being in this place often felt hopeless and initially cause me great despair.

    Health Freedom Idaho is thrilled to hear from Jennifer, a Certified Essential Oil Coach and Health Coach with FeastingOnJoy.com as she shares healing journey overcoming the feelings of hopeless by providing practical encouragement and hope for each individual healing journey.

    The Dreaded Plateau

    When I first starting healing my Hashimoto’s, after my rock bottom I began to experience what it felt like to feel well again. I was on cloud nine! After feeling awful for years, this victory was extremely motivating. However, as some time went on, I started feeling like I was on a plateau or that I just wasn’t progressing in healing like I thought I should be. The frustrating thing was that I was doing all the right things to obtain optimal health, but I would still have bad days and not be able to pinpoint why. Sometimes these times became overwhelming and I would often feel like I was never going to heal.

    Have you been there? Are you there right now?

    Being a Certified Essential Oil Coach and (soon to be) a Nutritional Therapy Practitioner, I consider myself a hope-giver. 

    “As a hope-giver, we guide others to anticipating, embracing and living out the vision of God’s hope, love and beauty, creatively exploring ways to live fully alive, right where we are amidst life’s brokenness.” Dr. Catherine Hart Weber.

    If you need some encouragement and hope on your healing journey, I wanted to share 3 steps to move through the plateau and persist for the healing you’re longing for.

    3 Steps to Embrace the Plateau

    1. The “P” Word

    The healing journey can be rigorous. You may be learning a new protocol, spending time at the doctors, coordinating appointments, ordering supplements among many other things. Just those tasks can be exhausting and stressful for the body. 

    Sometimes the mind can’t rest because of all the “to-do’s” when it comes to healing. That’s where my first step comes into play.

    As counterintuitive as it may sound, it’s beneficial for you to PAUSE where you’re at. Pausing will look different to everyone but it could include:

    • Not making any new doctor’s appointments

    • Refusing to read or learn any more on healing your condition

    • Purpose to think about other things 

    • Spend time on a hobby, or going outside into nature

    • Set aside time to dig into God’s Word and write some scripture 

    Of course, this is only a temporary pause but it will allow your mind to reset and refocus on the task at hand.

    “In taking a step back, you are awaiting your step forward.” Jennifer | Feasting On Joy

    2. The Right Path

    Once you have given your soul, mind and body the pause it needs to refocus you will inevitably have clarity on what the next step is to get yourself off that plateau. You may need to get on a different path.

    For example, as important is whole, unadulterated food is for healing, I learned that food is not the only area I needed to focus on to heal. It was during one of those plateaus in my healing journey that I stepped onto a different path of parasite cleansing and dealing with silent infections {like the Epstein Barr Virus}.

    In veering off the path I was on, and heading a different direction for a time, I was able to get off my plateau and help my body get rid of some nasty bugs {a-hem, we all have them}, conquer an infection and continue deeply healing my body.

    If I hadn’t paused and taken a step back, I never would have known I needed to get on a different path for a time to get off my plateau.

    3. A Caring Someone

    Journeying through healing chronic illness is not for the faint of heart. Additionally, it’s not meant to be done alone. Creating a support system is crucial for healing not only your body but your soul.

    Throughout my healing journey, I have been privileged to have a very supportive husband and parents. They’ve helped me through many discouraging times where I was in deep despair. More importantly though, for me personally, one of my biggest supporters is Jesus. He is the ONE I have leaned on and trusted in daily {and sometimes hourly} to help me through the day. He is the ONE that has given me the strength to fight this battle and He is the ONE who I surrendered my healing too. His plan is perfect.

    Not only do I dialogue with my family about what I am struggling with but I write Scripture every single day. It’s so therapeutic.

    I use this system called QUEST {Quiet Unmatched Enjoyable Scripture Writing Time} which allows me to choose the topic I am struggling with and write the Word specifically about that. It could be the topic of fear or Healing, or even anger and getting wisdom. It’s been a perfect tool to help me be content with the plateau and eventually move off the plateau and continue healing. 

    Don’t walk this journey alone. 

    As Helen Keller says, “Alone we can do so little; together, we can do so much.”

    Finding Hope When You’re Not Experiencing the Healing You’ve Been Longing For

    It is so hard when you have such strong desires and visions of what life could be like if you felt better, or if you completely healed. However, by pausing and taking a step back, potentially taking a different path and creating a support system you can lean on, you can learn to find contentment on the plateau and gain strength for when you move past it.

  • Essential Oils Health Benefits

    After a failed spine surgery at 26, my liver and kidneys were damaged from prescription arthritis medication for managing chronic pain. I was able to stop taking my prescription medications and detox my body with safe, pure, beyond organic essential oils. In this presentation, I’ll share the basics of essential oils; where they come from, safety and purity, and the three ways to use them.

    You don’t have to rely on conventional methods to reduce or even eliminate your pain! I have been exclusively using essential oils to manage the persistent pain from my spine surgery and active lifestyle. And unlike most conventional methods, these high quality essential oils won’t pollute your liver, and they don’t wreck the lining of your stomach or your gut microbiome!

    Lisa shares her experience and expertise in essential oil use at home in an effective and safe manner. 

    PURCHASE TICKETS

  • The Healing Journey: Essential Oils

    Hi, Friend! My name is Amy, and I am a wife and mama to four beautiful children. I am here to share with you my story and how I became passionate about people and wellness. 

    About eight years ago my husband and I were forced into a position where we no longer had health insurance. With a new baby and being first-time parents in our early twenties, I found myself panicked and overwhelmed. All I had ever known was standard health care. Get sick, go to the doctor, get meds, get better. And so the cycle went. 

    The crisis

    Now we were in a whole new ballpark. I was discovering what it meant to be a mom, while reexamining all that I knew to be true. I began learning that our bodies were beautifully created and designed to heal themselves, and that God had given us all the tools we needed within food and nature, to live above the wellness line. Turns out our grandparents’ generation had it right – there truly are amazing healing powers in rest, hydration, sunshine, and real food.

    The research

    For the last eight years I have devoted myself to learning all I can about the various ways to assist the body holistically. I was up to my ears in research. I discovered there was a great deal of information on health that I had never learned while visiting the doctor’s office. From the occasional glance at naturally-minded mom blogs to deeper research into scholarly papers and medical journals, I found all of this new information fascinating, and it truly felt as if a million neurons were firing at once.  

    The Culprit

    As I researched, I found that many of the health issues we face today result from a clogged liver and a destroyed gut flora. My family was struggling to function and I felt powerless to help.

    The change

    I slowly started moving towards a holistic approach. We changed our diets, began filtering our water, utilizing Epsom salt baths – anything I could do to help our bodies detox and teach our immune systems to fight properly. Over the course of this journey, we added more children to our family and became even more natural-minded.

    Essential Oils: Helpers In Our Healing

    That’s when I was introduced to essential oils.  I love telling my children that essential oils are our helpers. They “teach and encourage” our body to do what it is designed to: heal. The oils alone do not heal us. They are a piece to the puzzle. Their molecular structure is similar to ours, and therefore our bodies view them as allies, rather than harmful antagonists. Our bodies welcome the help and support essential oils offer. 

    I was fascinated to learn that essential oils are adaptogenic, meaning they never push the body beyond what it needs. Unlike what we are used to in the “over the counter” and pharmaceutical world, where medicines can help prevent symptoms through working against the body, at the terrible cost of causing greater harm – essential oils are different. They work with the body. 

    Integrity and Purity: My Young Living Story

    About four years into our journey we were introduced to Young Living. Previously, I was buying essential oils from our local health food store. I was stunned to find out that the labeling of these oils was not regulated, and that manufacturers could put “100% essential oil” on their bottles but in reality only needed to legally have 5% of the oil in the actual finished product. They also did not need to disclose the other 95% of the ingredients contained within. Because of this, I made the decision to try Young Living, as they are the only essential oil company that actually has certified therapeutic essential oils through the ISO (International Organization for Standardization).  I am passionate about integrity and purity, and because of that I decided to work alongside Young Living. I chose to take the time to personally visit their farms and have been a part of the distillation process. Young Living owns, co-ops, and partners with farms to bring the highest quality essential oils to homes of families all over the world. The plants we harvest have never encountered herbicides, pesticides, or other harmful contaminants.

    One Drop Can Actually Make An Impact

     As for our personal experience with the switch from store-bought to Young Living oils, my husband and I noticed immediate benefits. We no longer needed to use oils constantly to accomplish our wellness goals. With Young Living, we typically use one drop or even just a touch of the reservoir to support us and keep us above the wellness line.  As our family has journeyed through this life and come to experience various common health ailments, we have been amazed at how essential oils support our body systems. In our home we use essential oils daily (primarily aromatically to support our respiratory and endocrine systems). 

    Empowered to heal

    Lavender, affectionately known as the “swiss army knife” of essential oils, brings greater clarity and focus, and makes for a peaceful and calm environment. We also use it along with tea tree to support healthy skin. As a mom, I find great pleasure in my littles and their antics along with lots and lots of chaos – can any other parent relate? Therefore, I love supporting our limbic systems with blends like Stress Away which bring about feelings of peace and tranquility, and Joy, which is uplifting and grounding – all at the same time. 

    One of our very favorites is Peppermint. Historically, it was a valuable herb. We have found that using Peppermint Vitality helps our digestive systems and promotes healthy bowel function. 

    My personal favorite essential oil is Frankincense. I encourage everyone to have one bottle on hand, as it supports every single body system from the immune system to the endocrine system. These oils have been such a vital addition to our health routine and we feel so empowered by the knowledge of how these oils work with our bodies we no longer fear a lot of things we normally would in the realm of health, because of our confidence in plant based materials supporting our bodies! 

    Recently I had a bout with strep throat and was so blessed to use Thieves Cough Drops, which has a powerful menthol agent derived from peppermint. I loved that I could use a product free from dyes, artificial flavors, and sweeteners, to bring comfort to my throat. It was truly the only thing that eased the pain enough for me to swallow at all!

    Of course, every individual is unique, and what works for my family may not work for yours. That being said, my heart in all of this is to empower and equip people to take their health back. 

    We must get away from the fear and doubt in our ability to heal, and replace it with a confident hope that we are fearfully and wonderfully made. My most fervent prayer is that you are moved in a way that you feel confident and empowered. My hope is that you can come away having learned that essential oils can be a radical blessing in your health arsenal. And, with an open mind to accept these benefits, they will make an undeniable impact in your life, as you continue seeking health freedom.

    This post was sponsored by Amy DeBois, a Young Living Distributor and health passionista. You can learn more about her story, the power of essential oils and purchase options at her website