Using Essential Oils Daily

I've slowly been adding oils to our collection of Essential Oils, as well as books on how to use them.  There is SO much to learn!  I am truly amazed that the things Essential Oils can heal.

First of all, let me share a few basics.  If you are going to use Essential Oils, be sure to take the time to learn about them.  Some oils are "hot" and must be reduced using a carrier oil, such as Fractionated Coconut Oil.  Cinnamon is a hot oil and will actually burn the skin.  There are also "cold" oils.  To some it just tingles, but to others it also feels like it's burning.  Peppermint is an example of a cold oil.  It's a good idea to test it on a small spot to see how your body reacts before using much oil at a time.

There are other oils that cannot be ingested as they are poisonous.  I do not understand how they can be used topically but not internally, but it's important to know.  Other oils should not be used by pregnant women.  All oils should be reduced with a carrier for children, as they don't need to use as much.  Oils can also be used on animals!

In other words, whatever oil you are using, know what cautions there about that oil.  Honestly, compared to the number of oils available for us to use, there are very few cautions that would keep you from using that oil.  If there is a caution that concerns you, there is always another oil that does the same thing.

The best part of using oils for medical treatment is there are no side effects!  A lot of people use oils hand in hand with their current medical treatment.  Modern medicine for the most part cannot go past the blood stream.  Oils can!  Essential Oils can go through the nervous system and actually penetrates the cells!  If you have a chronic disease or something that doctors have not been able to treat, oils can be a great option for you to heal your body!  Yes, oils can heal you, though don't expect it to happen overnight.  It will take time.

One of the most exciting things about Essential Oils is that you can stop a virus!  Seriously!  This is amazing to me.  BUT...you need to treat it at first signs and you need to treat everyone around as well.  For example, you get a sniffly nose and sore throat.  You pull out your Immune Strength (by Rocky Mountain Oils) and rub it onto the bottom of your feet as well as everyone else's that comes in contact with you.  Doing your own feet two or three times a day will kill the virus before it settles into your cells.  Treating everyone else with the oils once a day for a couple days will prevent them from getting it.  This really works!

With all that in mind, I made a list of things I wanted to try to treat using Essential Oils.  Here's a few things on my list of family concerns:  eczema, boils, food allergies, hay fever allergies, depression, bones going out too easily, warts, muscle pain, and viruses.

First we blended German Chamomile with fractionated coconut oil for Matt and Sara's eczema.  We recently learned that it works well to use it with a basic lotion, so Sara is using it on her bad spots and then rubbing it in with Vit. E lotion.  Her eczema has shrunk significantly!  Now if only I could get Matt to remember to use it.

Sara started complaining about her knee and should hurting, so we found that Sandalwood and German Chamomile are supposed to be great for joints.  She is also using that in combination with the Vit. E lotion and her joints haven't hurt as much.  Sara is also using Aligning, which is a blend for bones and helps keep your bones aligned, which I think is also helping the joints.

When I went to Idaho, I bit my cheek so hard I nearly took a chunk off.  Gross, I know, so I won't give you any more details.  That night I was putting lavender on my dad's bug bites to help stop the itching and reduce the swelling (which worked) and decided to put it on my cheek.  So, I put my tongue on the sore spot in my mouth and I rubbed the lavender on the outside of my cheek where my tongue was.  Please remember that oils are soaked into the body, so within a couple minutes I could taste the lavender.  Not the best taste, but it could be worse.  Anyway, the next morning the bite in my cheek was completely healed.  It was smooth.  The spot was still tender, but it was healed!  HOLY COW!  Lavender is an anti-inflammatory, and it regenerates skin cells very quickly, so it can be used on any skin issues such as burns, open cuts, bug bites, acne problems, etc.  And it works!  I was so excited.

A friend of mine told me she is using frankincense for her depression, so I looked it up.  Sure enough, it is one of the best oils for fighting depression. I started using it once a day in the little dent behind my ear lobes.  After about a week I noticed I wasn't so tired, I didn't need a long nap to feel well rested, it is easier to wake up in the morning and I feel better emotionally.  Yahoo!  Spread the word because this is so much better than being medicated.  I will warn that frankincense doesn't smell very good, but the scent fades after about half an hour.  For someone with major depression, I would recommend starting out using it three times a day for the first couple weeks, then going down to twice a day.  There are many other oils that help with depression so if the smell scares you away, try another oil!

Sara has been using Myrrh on her vocal chords to treat vocal nodes.  She just rubs a little into her neck twice a day.  Her vocal nodes are not gone, but I believe it is helping since she hasn't complained as much as she was.  Only time will tell.

Matt dropped a T-bar on his foot a couple weeks ago and it left him in major pain.  I pulled out the Relieve Me blend which is a pain killer.  He said his pain went from an 8 to a 3 within a couple minutes.  We've used the Relieve Me a lot for different aches and pains.

We've experienced a lot of sports pains and so I bought the Tension Release blend, which helps relax the muscle.  I have found that it needs to be used several times for it to completely relax the tense muscle, but after several uses, it makes a big difference.

We have used Immune Strength blend to ward off viruses.  Josh brought home a stomach bug from when we were in Idaho, right before we were to leave on vacation to CO.  I used the Immune Strength on him to help kill the bug and it took about two days.  I used it on the rest of the family as well to prevent us from catching it.  If any of us did get the virus, the strength was greatly reduced.  No one complained about not feeling well while we were on vacation!  We've also used it for sore throats and we have avoided colds that way!

This spring my allergies have been through the roof and even with double meds my allergies are not completely under control.  Breathe Ease blend is amazing!  I can rub it on my sinuses and within a minute or two I can feel relief.  Now when my meds aren't doing a good enough job (especially days that hay is being harvested) the Breathe Ease helps keep me functioning.

Peppermint has helped fight off a couple headaches.  Sara and I have rubbed it on our forehead to reduce a headache and it works.  I didn't feel like it worked when I was fighting a migraine, but it was good for a regular old headache.  I will warn you, it affects the eyes, so unless you use it with a carrier oil, your eyes will water for a couple minutes.

Lavender is also good for fighting insomnia or relaxing someone that is hyper or seriously anxious about something.  I've used it on both my teenagers to help them calm down and sleep and I was amazed that it actually worked!

Zack almost got his nose broken last Saturday night.  His lip was quite swollen with a pool of blood on the inside like a seriously bad bruise.  We used Lavender as an anti-inflammatory and Geranium which helps reduce bruises.  Within a day it had gone down significantly.  Within two days it was hugely better.  I didn't continue use with them as I probably should have, but you know it takes forever for huge bruises to heal and the blood pool to go away.  I was amazed at how fast the Geranium worked.  It's good for breaking up the blood so the body can move it through.

Is that enough?  Are you bored yet?  Is all that TMI?  I'm sure you really didn't want to know so much about the Barnson's health problems.  So make a list of your own and either get on the Rocky Mountain Oils website and see what their oils treat, or find a book where you can look up specific ailments and see what they recommend!  If you need help finding information or want a second opinion (I often look something up in several places), I will share with you any information I have.  I'm no expert and I have a lot to learn still, but I'm really excited about the amazing things Essential Oils can do for our bodies!

(Almost) A Broken Nose

Saturday night I dropped Zack, 14, off at the Stake Dance.  We noticed our neighbor had just pulled in and decided to ask Zack to get a ride home with him.  I then headed to Walmart to pick up a few groceries.  I added bananas and bread to my cart when my cell phone rang.  Oddly, it was Zack.  When I answered the phone I could hardly understand him.  I managed to hear that he got hit and his nose might be broken.  Zack's girlfriend, Annie had arrived at the dance right after the accident so I called her mom, a nurse practitioner, to turn around and come back to look at his nose for me.  I don't trust doctors much and she is better than most doctors I've met!

It wasn't 'til after I got there that I got the story of what happened.  The neighbor asked Zack to help him do a back flip.  Zack was willing, but I'm betting he'd never helped with this before and was obviously in the way, as the neighbor's knee hit Zack smack in the face, nose and mouth to be specific. Nose bleeding, they headed out to the restrooms and then decided to call me.

Marcy, Annie's mom, told me to take Zack to the ER to have Zack's nose x-rayed.  It looked quite broken.  She told me what normal treatment would be and what to expect.  We headed to the ER at the local hospital.  Surprisingly, they took us right in and got the process started.  I was honestly amazed at what good service they provided and how many people came in to see what they could do to help.  Luckily I thought to give Zack ibuprofen for the pain before we went into the hospital, as they wouldn't give him anything to eat or drink in case they had to do surgery.  Nice precaution, but what an awful thought.

X-rays went well and after sitting there for two and a half hours, it was decided Zack doesn't have a broken nose, it's just the swelling that is making it looks so very broken, and they finally offered him a drink.  They also gave us the number of a plastic surgeon in case we weren't pleased with the diagnosis.  How odd is that?  Anyway, they did give us a prescription for an antibiotic to prevent an infection from the bones having been so rattled.  They don't expect an infection since the nose was not broken; however, it is a precautionary measure.

Our neighbor friend whose knee hit Zack's nose while doing a backflip felt so very bad about hurting Zack so badly that we called him in the middle of the night as we left the hospital to let him know it was not broken.  This young man was very sweet and stopped by to visit Zack before church the next day.

So, in hindsight, the doctor pointed out that helping friends only gets us hurt, so no more helping people.  *heavy sigh*  Luckily we don't do everything doctors say.  That would be a sad day that we quit serving each other.

Besides the antibiotics, I have been treating Zack with essential oils and I am amazed at how quickly he is healing.  Zack's lip was badly hit and quite swollen as well as a huge bruise inside his mouth.  The essential oils have helped reduce the swelling and the bruise is going down quickly!

Somehow after nearly seventeen years of child rearing, we haven't had any broken bones, knock on wood.  I honestly don't know how we've managed that, but this sure was a close call.

Next time you're at a Stake Dance, be very careful.  It's not those gorgeous girls to be careful of or even all those handsome young men.  Watch out for flying knees!