Roller Ball Recipes

Once someone really gets excited about oils, they usually like to try to make their own roller ball blends using 10 ml roller bottles, various oils, and topping it off with fractionated coconut oil (FCO).  I found different recipes and put them into this arrangement to share.  

Happy Thanksgiving 2014!

Dry Brushing & Essential Oils

Dry brushing is an amazing way to rejuvenate your skin. I found this great demonstration video online and thought I'd share it with you.  She even ends it with an oil blend to apply to your skin.

Invite to Cinco Ranch Ladies Club Craft Fair

Guess where several of us will be tonight.... The Cinco Ranch Ladies Club Craft Fair.  We'll have our oils there along with lots of neck wraps.  If you are around, stop by to ask questions, pick up a few sample oils, or just say "Hi!"  

Ginger Root and Ginger Essential Oil

When I was a child, if my grandmother heard that we had a scratchy throat, she would go to the kitchen and cut a piece off of her fresh ginger.  She would make us chew it up until we felt better.  I can tell you that I thought this was torturous.  Yuck!  It helped though.  

For decades, I have heard that people drink ginger ale or eat ginger snaps when they have motion or sea sickness.  According to Wikipedia, "Ginger or ginger root is the rhizome of the plant zingiber officinale, consumed as a delicacy, medicine, or spice."  

It should be no surprise that ginger oil is great too.  The best ginger essential oils come from Sri Lanka.  It known for being warming, accelerating, and stimulating. It is a wonderful oil to have in your collection.  

I found this info graphic from Fit Life TV that has even more suggestions for ginger root:

Sourcing Lemongrass Oil

When buying essential oils, I prefer ones that are from the indigenous area. Part of my reasoning has to do with quality and the other has to do with the world economy. This means that I am helping to build an economy often in areas that are struggling. Lemongrass Oil is a great example of this. It comes from Southern India.

Not surprisingly, lemongrass oil has a lemony scent, but you can also detect grass and a slightly bitter essence. Historically, the plant has been used for infectious illnesses, fevers, and as an insecticide. It is very cleansing/detoxifying. I like to add 2 or 3 drops to my bathwater when I want to take a soak.  

Love Your Body

Learning to love your body is definitely not an easy thing. I certainly have a LONG way to go. I can't tell you how many times I think about the things I'd like to change about me. This definitely happens several times a day. I know that I am a lot harder on myself than I would ever be on anyone else. When I watch videos likes the one above, I realize how sad this way of thinking makes me. I am sure that a lot of it has to do with gaining a better perspective.

Have you seen this picture below from a magazine?  Apparently, the average weight of women in Australia is 150 lbs. Every woman in the picture weighs 150. I look at them and think they look cute/fine. Life is amazing because we are all so different and we need to learn to love ourselves for who we are and for whatever stage of life we are in.

One of my new year's resolutions will be to work on loving my body. My health and my looks are definitely something that I take for granted. These things could change at any time. You never know how great you have it until you lose it and then you just wish for what you once criticized. I want to learn to love my body now. It will never be "perfect," but it is perfect for me.

If you are wondering if oils will be part of this post, I'll just add a quick tip about grapefruit. Grapefruit essential oil can help with anxiety over appearance, hate for the body, and eating disorders. It can aid someone in their goal of changing the way they feel about themselves. I like to add a drop or two to my water because it simply makes it taste so much better. It is also a good oil to diffuse when you are feeling self-conscious. Taking care of your body is a great way to start proving your love. Hopefully, that will lead to more acceptance and love.

Article on ADHD

The NY Times published an interesting article about ADHD a few days ago.  It starts off like this:

ATTENTION deficit hyperactivity disorder is now the most prevalent psychiatric illness of young people in America, affecting 11 percent of them at some point between the ages of 4 and 17. The rates of both diagnosis and treatment have increased so much in the past decade that you may wonder whether something that affects so many people can really be a disease.

LINK:  A Natural Fix for ADHD

The main point of the article is that "people with A.D.H.D. are actually hard-wired for novelty-seeking."  It says that life style changes, strategic career planning, and other things can help them function or excel in life, especially as adults.  I truly believe that there are advantages to having these behaviors that are considered difficult, but I also understand that not everyone can afford to send their children to a school with small classrooms that focus mainly on hands-on-experience and allows for movement.  

The Puzzle of Wellness - Lyme Disease

I was diagnosed with Lyme Disease (chronic) four years ago.  In all of the reading I have done in books, on websites, and with others' personal experiences of this misunderstood and complex immune system dysfunction, it can be rather disheartening fighting it.  It isn't just one thing or a few things that will result in any significant amount of change.  I have found this to be true for myself, as well.  My own efforts to improve my immune system make me feel like I am putting the pieces together in a very challenging puzzle.  When I first began my efforts to strengthen my broken immune system, I was discouraged.  My mom (my biggest cheerleader) encouraged me not to just make one effort...but to look at and incorporate multiple immune system building practices into my efforts (not such a good thing if you are a scientist and trying to test variables, but a very good thing if you are interested in being proactive, taking control of your own health, and wanting to just plain feel better). So, I have done just this.  My health and wellness is like a beautiful picture that I want to reclaim.  Some of the pieces are out of place, so I make an effort each day to put them back in place and keep others from getting displaced.  It doesn't happen overnight.  I am perfectly fine with that, because I feel encouragement and enthusiasm in the tremendous progress I have made so far.  My list of immune system efforts has grown since the time I begun working at it.  But, I have picked one thing at a time to incorporate into my health until it has become habitual and a part of my daily life.

Before I had a diagnosis, I learned from micro-nutrient testing I had completed, that I had a very deficient level of glutathione.  Glutathione is produced by the body to fight the free radicals roaming our bodies, which cause oxidative stress.  However, a body burdened with too much of a toxic load cannot produce the necessary glutathione to "keep up", thus resulting in chronic illness or disease. To boost glutathione, certain foods are encouraged as building blocks to the body making the necessary components of this master antioxidant.  I also learned I needed to avoid chemicals...to use natural cleaning products for home and body, natural make-up, etc., and to reduce exposure to harmful environmental chemicals.  So, the first piece in my puzzle led me to research essential oils, as these gifts of the earth are a very beneficial solution for toxicity, for restoring health, or for maintaining continued wellness. At this time, I also met with a doctor who planted the first seeds of essential oil usage.  Thus began my family's connection and relationship with essential oils.

Out of a very significant trial in my life has come a tremendous blessing for myself and my family...and those I have the courage to share with.  While I work on my own puzzle of wellness, I daily try to teach my own children and extended family members how to preserve or improve their own picture of health.  It is my long term goal to reach out to all I can and to share what I have learned in putting our "puzzles of wellness" back together.                                                      

Frankincense, A Biblical Oil

We are all familiar with the story in the Bible of the wise men bringing a gift of Frankincense and Myrrh to the baby Jesus, but we may not understand the real value of their gift until we begin to understand the power of essential oils. Perhaps the most precious of the ancient oils was Frankincense. Frankincense, Sandalwood, Myrrh, and Cinnamon were considered very valuable cargo along caravan trade routes and were often valued more than gold. The natural aromatic compounds found in the seeds, bark, stems, roots, flowers and other parts of plants are fifty to seventy times more potent than herbs. For instance one drop of Peppermint essential oil is more powerful than twenty-eight cups of peppermint tea. Throughout history essential oils have been known for their medicinal and therapeutic benefits.

Frankincense has been proven to be effective when used topically, internally, and aromatically.

1.  Some ways to use it:

• Combine frankincense with Soothing Blend or Marjoram to help reduce muscle, joint, and bone pain. Massage two drops of each with fractionated coconut oil into the large joints like the knee and the shoulder. Half the dose for smaller joints. Reapply as needed.

• Place one to two drops of Frankincense under the tongue 1 to 2x daily for overall health.

• Oil pulling with Frankincense will help reduce gum disease and slow gum recession. Add one drop each of Frankincense and Protective Blend or Melaleuca to 1 to 2 tablespoons of fractionated coconut oil. Swish for 20 minutes, spit into garbage, and brush teeth!

• Minimize the pain of headaches by placing one drop of Frankincense on the pad of the thumb, pressing the oil on the roof of the mouth for several seconds.

• For restless legs, apply two drops of Frankincense with carrier oil to the bottom of each foot and massage.

2.  Frankincense is beneficial for various skin conditions including the lessening of wrinkles and the reduction of age spots.

• Apply Frankincense neat (undiluted) to help uneven skin tone.

• Add a drop of Frankincense to your moisturizer.

• Apply undiluted to acne or breakouts.

• Apply with a little fractionated coconut oil to wounds to reduce scarring.  It is also great for stretch marks while pregnant!

3.  Frankincense helps on a daily basis.

• Apply to the temples for stress relief.

• Apply to the brain stem and neck 2x daily to help lift your mood.

• Add Frankincense along with the respiratory blend and massage on chest and throat respiratory support.

Add Frankincense to any essential oil to enhance that oil's properties.  Think of it as "the kicking it up a notch" essential oil.