One Year Healthier

Deb and I just celebrated ONE YEAR as Independent Product Consultants with doTERRA!!!  We get amazing benefits as IPCs, also known as being a Wholesale Member.  I’d like to share some of these benefits with you, and give you an idea of why we are so enamored with these oils and this company.

The first and foremost benefit we get from our membership with doTERRA is that we have access to some of the best essential oils we have ever experienced.  doTERRA checks every bottle of oil with a mass spectrometer.  You may have seen this process on CSI or Bones, or another super high-tech forensics show.  In case you haven’t, the mass spectrometer is a thingy that checks the chemical composition of whatever is being tested.  doTERRA has rigorous standards of specific chemical compounds before they will put their label on it.  When someone asks me if they are organic, I happily tell them that it is BETTER THAN ORGANIC because this process of approving only the best oils assure that there are no contaminates such as GMOs, pesticides, herbicides or weeds.  Plant sources for doTERRA oils only come from the finest plants grown in the most ideal conditions for that particular type of plants.  doTERRA only distills the most potent plant parts in order to ensure that only the purest, strongest essential oils become doTERRA Oils.  Only the very best make it through their process to make sure each bottle of oil is CERTIFIED PURE THERAPEUTIC GRADE (CPTG).

Through these amazing oils as well as doTERRA’s Lifelong Vitality Pack (a daily regimen of vitamin, mineral & herbal supplements along with essential oil capsules that also include omega 3’s and antioxidant oils), our lives have radically improved.  Aimee has been able to better manage the Epstein-Barr virus that she carries, has been able to better manage mood fluctuations and menopause symptoms (including hot flashes).  Despite working with kids, she has not gotten half of the infections and crud that her coworkers and kids at work contract and spread to each other and back to themselves.  Deb has been able to work with her doctors to greatly reduce her prescription drugs and over the counter supplements.  Her pain levels are reduced, her moods are better, she is getting fewer migraines and illnesses even though she has an incurable immune disorder (common variable immune deficiency) and she cannot take the only treatment available through conventional medical means.  Her doctors are amazed and excited to see how well she is doing.  (Before using doTERRA, she was visiting the ER an average of once every 5-6 weeks needing treatment for chest pain, migraines, upper respiratory infections, etc.  We have gone once in the past year). Deb now has a vitality that she hasn’t had in years.  Woohoo!

Although there is absolutely no minimum monthly order (unlike most multi-level marketing programs), we get another series of benefits since we do place an automatic monthly LOYALTY REWARDS ORDER, which we can change at any time just by jumping online.  With each order that we place, we get a certain percentage of “Loyalty Rewards Points”.  These points can add up.  After being consistent with ordering for at least 3 months in a row, we can start using those points to get FREE PRODUCT (we pay $3.00 for $100pv worth of product per 100 points.  It may seem to take a while to accumulate points at first, but as the months go by, the percentage you get in points increases.  Next month, we will be up to the maximum of 30% free pv (personal volume) for every Loyalty Rewards Order (LRP) that we place.  If we place an LRP worth 125 pv before the 15th of the month, we get a free product-automatically!  This month, we got a 5ml bottle of On Guard, a product that we use every single day and order every month anyway.  In the past, we have gotten lemon, oregano, peppermint, Breathe blend, Balance blend, white fir, and other amazing gifts.  Every once in a while, they add other offers as well.  By increasing our December order, we even got a free bottle of Frankincense oil.  (We actually didn’t order more than we expected to for that one, because, being December, we were buying lots of great CPTG oils as gifts for our friends and family.)  We have also gotten fantastic sets of essential oils for cooking.  (see some of our recipes in an earlier blog post or check out these recipes highlighting doTERRA's summer sensations oils.)  

As WHOLESALE MEMBERS (IPC), we get 25% off the retail price of all doTERRA products.    That means that with a typical Loyalty Rewards Order for us, we save about $50 per month.  That’s not bad for paying an initial $35 sign up fee, which includes the $25 annual fee plus $10 for a start up kit.  With our $25 renewal fee, we also got a free bottle of peppermint!  So our membership has already pretty much paid for itself!  (See my earlier blog post about peppermint to learn why this is well worth the price!)  As IPCs, if someone wants to take advantage of these amazing products and signs up under us, we get a percentage of whatever they spend, as long as we maintain our Loyalty Rewards Orders at a minimum of $50 (which are keeping us healthier, happier and even flavors some of our food, so of course we maintain our LRP orders).  With all the products that we use and love from doTERRA, we easily spend at least that much. And, this month (August 2012), for the first time, we are getting a $50 bonus check because 3 people that signed up through us as IPCs placed qualifying LRP orders.  Adding theirs to ours gave us the 600pv our team needed for doTERRA to cut Deb, whose name the account is under, a check.  If we had been pressing it, we probably could have earned this earlier, but we just let the amazing products and company standards sell themselves for the most part. 

I must add here, that even with adding a Lifelong Vitality Pack each month for each of us, along with the oils that We are using to keep Deb healthy despite having a compromised immune system, we are still paying less than we were for all of her prescribed drugs and Dr ordered supplements.  (Do not alter your medications without consulting your doctor and going very slow with this process.  You may not be able to get the same results that Deb has.  She has some great doctors who are open minded about complementary modalities and who open more as they see her improve.)  She feels so much better than she did when dealing with all the negative side affects of multiple medications, and the expense of the supplements she was having to take-Ugh!  

We use doTERRA oils for so much more than massage or air freshener.  We use them as mood stabilizers, pain relief, cleaners, antibiotics, perfumes, cooking and diffusing into the air to clean and refresh the house.  Even the animals use them.  For example, Sky, one of our dogs, had a badly damaged nail, and we treated it with On Guard.  She didn’t get an infection or anything, even though she runs outside in dirt and who knows what germ-ridden stuff, every day.  You can read an earlier post about relieving Sky’s trauma with Balance Oil after we rescued her from being tied up outside in the cold and rain without food or water.  Like me, Balance is her favorite.

doTERRA is committed to using not just the best oils, they are also a company that supports its members with webinars, seminars, essential oil news, conventions and up to date information on the most recent and exciting scientific studies being conducted on essential oils.  They are committed to not just relying on ancient wisdom or anecdotal evidence, they also look for scientific studies to support their work and our education.  I never knew essential oils were so powerful until I started reading their educational materials.

We would love to help you get discounts and earn free products from an amazing company.  We have tried a lot of different essential oil brands, from very expensive, rare ones, to inexpensive off the shelf at the health food store.  By far, doTERRA is the best oil for the best value that we have found.  The superior quality makes us confident to use them in and on our bodies.  Their soaps, body wash, diffusers and educational tools are all exceptional.

There are a lot of links included in the text of this blog entry.  click on any of them to get more information on the subject highlighted.  Most of the links connect to our business website, www.mydoterra.com/livingmindfully

Blessings,

Aimee

Finding Cool Relief with Peppermint Oil

Candy canes.  Toothpaste.  Tea.  Patty.  These are a few of the things I used to think of when I heard the word "peppermint".  Since being introduced to doTERRA essential oils a year ago, I now think of words like:  cooling, pain relief, alertness, chocolate bark, headache and moles. (Moles?  Keep reading).

This summer in particular, we have been using peppermint oil every day. 

When I get too heated while working in the yard on these hot, dry days of 2012, and when I get hot flashes, or when the air conditioning at work isn't quite low enough, I take a cool damp rag or bandana, sprinkle a few drops of doTERRA's CPTG peppermint oil on it and drape the cloth over the back of my neck.  It feels like my own personal cooling system.  (Who'da thought a minty spicy oil would have a cooling effect?)  I am sitting on our deck right now, watching the dogs play in the 79 degree weather at 9:30am, with a damp, pepperminted purple bandana on my neck to cool off as I write this.

If I don't have Deep Blue or Past Tense oil blends with me, I pull out my peppermint to ease aching muscles or headaches.  Since being introduced to doTERRA oils, in the past year, I have only taken a dose anti inflammatory medicine twice.  I used to take them daily, often every 4 hours for chronic pain.  The only times I have taken them since joining doTERRA was this spring, during the first really heavy lifting and grunt work of the yard and garden. 

I must confess that sometimes, if I am getting ready to meet someone after work and I haven't gotten a chance to brush my teeth, or if my mouth tastes off from being too dry when I forget to stay hydrated, I'll put a drop of doTERRA peppermint oil right in my mouth, either on my tongue or under it.  I get an instant, powerful, WHOOSH feeling in my mouth and up through my sinuses.  I love to take a couple of open mouthed breaths to feel the coolness, run my (now minty) tongue around my gums or swish a swig of water around my mouth to spread the sensation throughout my palette.  Yum.

I work midnights, and some nights, no amount of daytime sleep or strong black coffee can clear my head.  At those times, I am so grateful to uncap my doTERRA Peppermint Oil and breathe deep.  It makes me more alert and energized than any amount of caffeine can do. The aroma goes up my nose, through my sinuses and straight into the limbic part of my brain, the seat of emotions.  The peppermint aroma in my brain makes me more alert, uplifts my mood, and sometimes, even transports me back in time to my kindergarden year while making peppermint cookies with my mom (I took them to school to share).

I read in a couple of different organic gardening articles, that moles don't like peppermint oil.  So, I took another reputable brand of peppermint oil outside with me one day, determined to put a couple drops in every mole hole that my dogs had dug up, before refilling them with dirt.  And, as I worked in the 90+ degree heat, even though I was drinking water, my mouth still had that stale taste you get from being dry.  So, I put a drop of that other reputable brand peppermint oil on my tongue, and I gagged and rushed into the house to brush my teeth with doTERRA's On Guard Toothpaste because the taste of that other oil was so horrible!   It had a rank, sour taste with barely a hint of mint flavor.  We had used this brand for years, but never cooked with it or took it internally.  DoTERRA oils were the first essential oils we had ever thought to take orally, they were the first essential oils we ever felt confident enough in to know they were safe and pure.  We had used that other peppermint oil for things like massage (never again because whatever goes on your skin goes into your bloodstream, and I no longer trust that brand), taking the stink out of latex paint when redecorating the house, and things like that.  Since I have been using doTERRA oils for a year now, inside and out, I guess I had a momentary lapse and figured this other oil would bring me at least a measure of relief from my skunky breath.  Although this other company advertises. "Purity tested/quality assured", their quality and purity are nothing like doTERRA's Certified Pure Therapeutic Grade Essential Oils.

I should have had my first clue the very first time I received an Aroma Touch session.  As soon as the peppermint and Wild Orange oils were applied to the bottoms of my feet, I tasted the flavors of both in my mouth and felt the refreshing coolness of the peppermint, as if I had brushed my teeth through my feet.  In all my years with using that other oil for massage and to cool my feet, I have never experienced that cooling sensation/taste when it touched my skin.  The fact that I taste the wonderful minty fruitiness of the oils on my feet are great evidence to me of how putting something on your skin goes directly into the blood and other permeable tissues throughout the body.  The skin is, after all, the largest organ of the body.

I should have had my second clue when the website of the other "pure peppermint oil" said that you can use it for aromatherapy in diffusers but to carefully mix with a carrier oil for any other use.  DoTERRA's CPTG Peppermint Oil can be diluted with Fractionated Coconut Oil, or another carrier oil for sensitive skin, or for children, or just to make it go further when used topically.  And, it can also be ingested as is, right from the bottle!  I have sensitive skin, yet I  use doTERRA Peppermint oil (and any other dTERRA oil or oil blend) directly on my skin without being diluted by a carrier oil, and I have never had an itch, rash, or any negative reaction.  (That is not to say you won't.  Everyone is different and allergies or other sensitivities may come in to play for you.  Click here for some basics on using essential oils safely.)  

Even though that other brand of peppermint oil is less expensive, it is pretty much useless to us now.  Deb and I now understand the wider range of amazing benefits we can get from Certified Pure Therapeutic Grade Peppermint Essential Oil, and now that we have experienced the difference, pretty much the only thing we will use that other peppermint oil for is to scare the moles.  I hope it doesn't make them sick if they accidentally ingest it.  I doubt if I could get them to brush their tiny teeth (do moles have teeth?) with doTERRA On Guard Whitening Toothpaste to get the taste out of their mouths either.

Some uses for doTERRA Peppermint Essential oil:
Use in cooking (see our recipes for peppermint bark, and peppermint "tea" that we posted this past winter)
Reduce Nausea
Relieve Diarrhea
Ease Sciatica/nerve pain
Minty fresh breath (I said that already, but I can't help it.  I love the phrase)
Increase alertness
And more

*these statements have not been approved by the FDA and are not intended to treat, diagnose or cure any of the above issues or illnesses (although there has been some research that supports many of these uses)

Lingering Scents of Peace

I promised to write a post about my first AromaTouch treatment, which I got on Tuesday.  I’m not sure whether to begin at the end or at the beginning.  I think, perhaps, the beginning.

Deb put on relaxing music.  Together, we chose the “zen” music channel on TV.  There were beautiful, yet soothing sounds made by unexpected instruments floating in the air, yet not so ethereal as to be distracting or intrusive.  Rather, the music seemed to ground and center me, getting me to focus on the moment.

Both dogs and the cat decided that this was a party for them as well.  As I lay face down on the massage table, wearing my pajama pants, I could see Biddy Kitty through the sheer headrest cover, looking up at me expectantly, waiting for a rub.       Indigo had positioned herself well out of the way, on the rug by the front door.         But Pippin laid right in Deb’s way and would not budge.  She had apparently decided she was a vital guest at this meditative party.        (If you ask Deb to do a treatment on you and you are at our house, rest assured that the animals will not be allowed to so freely invade-unless you choose to let them.  I did.)

Before beginning, Deb explained that she would be putting eight oils on me, one at a time, in a specific order.  The oils would be dripped along my spine and on my feet one at a time, and would be activated, also one at a time, through light touch- lighter than massage.  (I have to confess, I was hoping to get a massage out of this-but I think I actually got as much or more benefit from the Aroma Touch treatment, without the pain that comes from having muscles worked by firm hands, although I will always love getting a good massage.)  

Because my skin was so dry, in order to make the oil application go smoother, Deb began by preparing my back with a slick of fractionated coconut oil.  There is virtually no scent to this smooth oil.  She explained that depending upon the person and situation, the fractionated coconut oil is not always used.

Then, Deb got down to business and my complete sense of contentment in the moment rolled in as I relaxed into the smells and gentle, methodical movements incorporating the oils, one at a time.  With each layer, my groundedness, contentment and relaxation grew.  I realized, after the third or fourth oil, that all of my muscle soreness and chronic itchy back were resolved and dissolved.  I occasionally reached down to rub on Biddy Kitty purring below the headrest.  As I said, I was totally relaxed into the moment, and Biddy was part of that present moment, so her presence in the present seemed right.

With each layering of oil, I experienced new smells, but not overwhelming smells.  As each new drip drip drip splashed to my spine and each new scent wafted toward my nose, I felt a new layer of strain fall away, replaced by a sense of “settling”.  My breaths lengthened and slowed, but I maintained an alertness, aware of my surroundings (including Pippen on the floor at my feet and Biddy focusing those big yellow eyes on me).

Before the treatment, the bottoms of my feet had had been very tender and slightly swollen, making it painful for me to walk (I suspect plantar facetious, but I haven’t gotten them checked out).  As Deb moved to my feet with the combination of Wild Orange and Peppermint oils together,  she worked down toward each toe from the heel, along each of five lines, which stimulated various reflexology points to create a balance among my organs and bodily systems.  

As she methodically worked along those five lines, I pictured the plowing patterns made by the tractor in the field behind my childhood home, readying the spring Earth for sowing.  The plow went over the fields three times.  The first tractor pass was to break apart he compacted soil and to uproot the first growth of weeds.  The second pass was to break down the big, hard dirt clods and to uproot the second growth of weeds.  The third pass was to soften the Earth into a rich loam, perfect for a young girl to run in barefoot or for an old farmer to bring to life with seed.  Deb traced each row of my foot three times, like the tractor of my memory, gradually loosening the compacted pain buried there until it was broken up, perfect for a middle aged woman to stride barefoot without pain.

Once Deb had finished the final stage of the treatment, to create a state of homeostasis,   applying the final two layers of oil along my spine, she told me to take my time getting up.  I was aware of my surroundings, not tired, but very relaxed.  I began by rising up on my hands and knees, transitioning into a yoga position known as the child’s pose while still on the massage table.  I slowly sat up, dangling my feet over the edge before slowly and carefully making contact between my feet and the ground.  I felt relaxed, at peace, and pain free.

For the rest of the day, I kept getting different whiffs of scent at different moments.  Was it orange?  Was it peppermint?  Clove?  Lavender?  “Yes.”  Each time I experienced that aroma sensation throughout the day, I was again relaxed, alert and balanced.

The eight oils used in this treatment are available in an Aroma Touch Kit.  I highly recommend experiencing this treatment for yourself.  You can contact Deb if you have questions or want to schedule a treatment.  Allow yourself about an hour or so, about 35-40 minutes for the treatment and a bit of time to re-orient.

Blessings,

Aimee

A New Technique in the Tool Box

When Aimee told me she wanted me to blog, I said "what?  You know that's your thing.  I don't do that."

Well, as you can see, after gentle arm twisting, here I am, with my first portion of the blog.

I went to the Aroma Touch class held in Troy, MI on September 24.  When I left, I was certified in the technique, but more than that, I experienced the most fantastic "relaxed intensity" after the technique I gave and received.

This technique involves layering a series of oils on your spine from the waist up, then on your feet or hands.   You do this by dropping a specific pattern of a series of 8 oils on the spine, which ends by placing the body in a state of homeostasis [the natural balance of body systems and health].  This occurs by working with the meridian points on the back and reflexology points on the feet and/or hands.

There are four areas that Aroma Touch addresses, in order they are:

1. Stress Management
2. Immune Enhancement
3. Decreasing Inflammation
4. Homeostasis

The aroma layering is truly magnificent.  The person giving and receiving the treatment are both benefitted.  You are both left with a “sunshine face and spirit”, as seen on all that participated in the class.

Aroma Touch is a technique that can be shared with all of your friends, family, pets, etc.  Please feel free to leave a comment in the comment section if you want to learn more and I will get back with you.  Try it, you’ll like it!

Aimee gets her first treatment tomorrow.  She can fill you in on her experiences after that.


Deb