essential oils

The Well Village

Published on: by catballou24 Comment

Definition of “community” for this purpose –

• Self-organized network of people with common agenda, cause, or interest, who collaborate by sharing ideas, information, and other resources. Virtual communities consist of participants in online discussions on topics of mutual concern, or of those who frequent certain websites.

A community usually has a family feel to it. It is a village where everyone provides their strengths to accomplish what is needed. In business, this is a good thing because these are the people you will spend the majority of your time with if you go into an office. If you are online you want to have that community support as well. The word “community” is one of my favorite words. I have spent most of my life gathering my community of friends and now I have finally found that crossing over into my business.

On February 1, 2018, I co- founded the group, The Well Village with my partner in crime, Lisa Lopez. Over the last few months we have seen our share of growing pains and family “discussions” but we also have developed an amazing group of constant support and friendships. And our village continues to grow. In this business, a person can tend to feel lost and alone as there is no office, no real boss, no place you have to be unless you schedule something. Being a part of The Well Village gives us a place and a support system. We don’t have to do this business alone. We have resources at our fingertips, constant support for the days we celebrate and the days we are feeling frustrated. We help each other grow both professionally and personally. We have fun!

We are 6 months old as The Well Village, although have been doing this business for close to 4 years now, and I am so excited to see where this next year takes us! We are looking at retiring members, we are bringing dad’s and husbands home full time, people are paying off debt and taking stress off their plates. I am watching healthy lifestyle changes that are benefiting families and supporting their wellness. People are actually seeing their doctors less and feeling better than ever. We are continuing to grow strong and solid and we get to celebrate each other’s successes in all areas of life.

We have a thriving business community AND a very active wellness group – The Well Village Discussion. We would love to invite you to our community as well. The wellness group is absolutely FREE and we talk about all areas of wellness for all the stages of our lives. We have professional nurses, nutritionists, yoga instructors, massage therapists and physical therapists just to name a few! We have amazing online classes and support, all FREE!

To join the business community is something special. Where else can you invest $160 and start a full on business working with people who love to help others, and be investing in your own health and wellness??!! Starting today until September 1, you can invest and get $20 back in credit on your account as well! If you just want to make a couple hundred extra dollars a month or start a whole new career path, the choice is your’s! And you don’t have to be a salesperson or sign off on your first born. I promise!!! Our company has been around for almost 30 years and is going no where. And you see the amazing perks I post!

So let me know if you want to check out our Wellness group for free or if you want to dive in and invest in your health with a kit! And if you don’t want to do the business but just want the benefits, that’s fine too!!!!!

We welcome you to the village and would love to share our space with you!  Just leave me a comment or contact me through email (or form here under contact tab) with any questions!

❤️❤️

Getting A Good Night’s Sleep

Published on: by catballou24 Comment

Every living creature needs to sleep. It is the primary activity of the brain during early development. By the age of two, most children have spent more time asleep than awake and overall, a child will spend 40 percent of his or her childhood asleep. Sleep is especially important for children as it directly impacts mental and physical development. It keeps them healthy in both mind, spirit and body.

Sleep is just as important as nutrition and exercise. It’s when the body repackages neurotransmitters, chemicals that enable brain cells to communicate. And experts have recently been able to demonstrate that sleep allows brain cells to “take out the trash” each night, flushing out disease-causing toxins. How cool is that?!

In our home to help promote a good night’s sleep, we diffuse these 4 oils together regularly. My kids call it the “sleeping gas” and are not always happy when they see me filling the diffusers because they know they won’t be able to fight it for very long. LOL!

The 4 EO’s we use are: 4 drops each of Valor, Peace and Calming, Lavender and Cedarwood.

Valor’s smell is very soothing and calming and may be especially calming and comforting to young children after an overactive and stressful day.

Peace & Calming® is a gentle, fragrant blend. When diffused, it helps calm and uplift the spirit, promoting relaxation and a deep sense of peace. You will find that children are also very drawn to this oil. I believe it’s the orange and tangerine oils combined. Do you remember as a child loving anything with orange in it? I do – orange juice, soda, candy, sherbet!

The benefits of Lavender oil include relaxation, easing stress and more. It is a gentle oil so can be used on children and even animals (our dogs and cats sleep well when the sleeping gas comes on I might add).

Cedarwood Essential Oil has an earthy aroma that is soothing and grounding. It is a well documented oil, used by the Sumerians, Egyptians and Tibetans. And is mentioned over 40 times in the Bible. Cedarwood oil contains the highest amount of sesquiterpenes which are a hydrocarbon group that is found in essential oils. They stimulate the limbic system of the brain which helps to elevate our mood and helps us relax (overcome stress). This explains why Cedarwood is relaxing and may help with focus.

This is the sleeping gas mixture we discovered when our journey started with Young Living. It has continued to work so we continue to use it. We can tell a difference now when we forget to fill the diffusers at night or are out of one of the oils…yikes! Using this blend the kids sleep better and so do us grown ups!

Essential Oils and Emotions

Published on: by catballou24 Comment

Hello friends! I want to talk about EO’s and emotions, specifically negative emotions that can get stuck.

We all have things we have gone through, areas in our lives we have had to look at in order to move forward in business and in life. Emotions are big in all aspects of our lives and can make or break our day in a heartbeat. We carry the burden of this emotional baggage around sometimes for years! And my friends, it’s damaging your body as well as your mind and spirit.

I want to identify 10 of the most commonly suck emotions that we have all felt at some time or another:
1. Anxiety
2. Disgusted
3. Grief-stricken
4. Criticized
5. Unsupported
6. Unsafe
7. Overwhelmed
8. Worthless
9. Helpless
10. Conflicted

I am sure you can look back and check off events in your life where you felt each one of these emotions, sometimes together! Our society tells us we must act a certain way, don’t rock the boat, so many times our fear forces us to stuff these emotions down. We will deal with them later, is a common thought. We see ourselves as making much ado about nothing. How many times have you told yourself it is “ridiculous to get upset over this!” or “not worth upsetting dad” to bring up. Those types of situations cause you to be at risk for trapping emotions. Emotions want a “voice” and if they are not acknowledged, they won’t go away. But carrying around this excess emotional weight can have consequences to our health.

Negative emotional energy can not only keep us up at night, but it can make us really sick. Everything has a frequency, including our bodies. When we are working with less than optimum frequency levels we tend to start feeling worn out, achy, we get sick.

Disease loves a low frequency body! And unless we truly release these stuck emotions we will find ourselves operating less than optimum in all areas of our lives. Oils are a great place to help push the process along as we work on releasing these emotions. There are several amazing oils that can be diffused or worn that help us cope better. The other part of using our oils is they help us take the steps we need to shed these emotional overloads and finally unpack some of that emotional suitcase we lug around. They may help us feel better about asking for help, eating better, etc..

Releasing these stuck emotions can be a daunting task, but once we start looking at them for what they are we can learn to let them go. Life becomes easier and things tend to fall into place faster once we are no longer slaves to whatever stuck emotion we may have.

Instead of backing away from negative emotions, accept them. Acknowledge how you are feeling without rushing to change your emotional state. Many people find it helpful to breathe slowly and deeply while learning to tolerate strong feelings or to imagine the feelings as floating clouds, as a reminder that they will pass. I wear Valor for these moments. I put a drop on my diffuser bracelet and when I need that breath I can use my Valor to help my mind work through the situation.

There are many different oils that can help. Some of these are:
Valor
Peace and Calming
Bergamot
Orange

You may also try doing mindfulness exercises to help you become aware of your present experience without passing judgment on it. Using Present Time oil during this practice can have amazing effects at keeping you grounded in the moment. While diffusing your oil, one way to train yourself to adopt this state is to focus on your breathing while meditating and simply acknowledge any fleeting thoughts or feelings.

There are many healthy ways to work through emotions and feelings on our personal growth path. We are in the perfect position to utilize tools such as oils to help with this. So diffusing while working through things is one of the best things you can do on your path to accepting and releasing negative emotions, and then they can be viewed as a huge growth spurt rather than something to fear.

Some other oils to consider trying:
Release
Clarity
Inner Child
Frankincense
Peppermint

And don’t forget about raising that frequency! Some oils that can help with that are:

Idaho Blue Spruce (one of the highest frequencies!)
Rose
Helichrysum
Ravensara

Put a drop on top of your head every morning, use in linen sprays and spray your pillow before bed, diffuse…just some ideas on how you can use these to raise your frequency.

 

Here’s to getting unstuck and unpacking some of that baggage!

Thieves!

Published on: by catballou24 Comment

Thieves

Thieves Essential Oil is an excellent blend of essential oils that is specifically designed to support the body’s natural defenses. This proprietary essential oil blend was universally tested for its cleansing abilities. It includes Eucalyptus radiata essential oil, which may help maintain a healthy respiratory system.

Did you know that Thieves oil was developed based on the ingredients found in the “Four Thieves Vinegar” or “Marseilles Vinegar”?  The vinegar was first prepared by thieves that worked in the spice industry and robbed the dead and dying to generate income in the 15th century.  Some nasty things going around then.  Crazy time of history!

ThievesBeKillingIt3

The oils in Thieves are Clove, Lemon, Cinnamon Bark, Eucalyptus and Rosemary.  Remember last month talking about ORAC values?  If you need a refresher course, Lisa Greco Lopez wrote an excellent article about ORAC values and what they actually mean to us.  Check it out!

The ORAC value of these individual oils are as follows:

Clove – 1,078,700 µTE/100g (that is NOT a typo!  good stuff!)

Lemon – 660 µTE/100g

Cinnamon Bark – 10,340 µTE/100g

Eucalyptus – 2,400 µTE/100g

Rosemary – 330 µTE/100g

Also, Thieves is Kosher Certified.  Being kosher-certified means that a product is fit to use in any application in a manner that conforms to the kosher laws rooted in Biblical and Rabbinic traditions. These products and the facilities that produce them have been inspected and found to meet strict kosher requirements.

Cthieves

Thieves essential oil is definitely one of my favorite essential oil blends and I will not leave home without it! A day doesn’t go by that I don’t use Thieves for something.  And it’s found in so many YL products!  Might want to try it….just saying…

rrp-18   thieves-cleaner

Peace!

Turning Back Time

Published on: by catballou24 Comment

So back in August I had the opportunity to attend the 2015 Young Living Convention in Dallas.  What an amazing experience!  I learned so much more about this company, which I already loved, but now love even more!  Gary and Mary Young are two of the most sincere and passionate people I have ever had the privilege of hearing speak.  Seriously, Gary’s love of these oils is HUGE!  They described building their farms, coming up with blends, searching the world over for the perfect places to grow the plants needed for these gems.  Gary cried talking about the struggles and triumphs while building the Northern Lights Farm so they could distill the most amazing oil I have ever experienced, the Northern Lights Black Spruce.  What a powerful oil.  I will definitely be blogging about the properties of that one soon.

 

Face Blend

Today’s post is about a blend based on Mary’s miracle serum for our faces.  Gary described how she uses these oils every single day and seeing her in person, I can tell you that she doesn’t look even close to her actual age.  This woman has the most gorgeous skin I have ever seen.  The face serum I made, thanks to the recipe from my friend Bethany, utilizes some of these oils.  I am hoping to turn back time, or at least make it stand still for awhile!   The testimonies from fellow oil enthusiasts regarding this “blend” are well worth trying, and fortunately I had all the oils to do this.   Plus I could put to use an empty Lavender 15ml bottle!  Reduce, reuse, recycle!

 

Royal Hawaiian Sandlewood

The first oil in this blend is Royal Hawaiian Sandlewood.   It is from the botanical family, Santalaceae – or Sandlewood,  and is steam distilled from heartwood from Hawaii.  The S. paniculatum tree is native to and found only on the island of Hawaii, where Young Living has a partner farm that practices sustainable reforestation farming management principles.  Hawaiian Sandlewood has been historically used to aide in skin issues, support reproductive health, may support the cardiovascular system, among many other things.  The body systems associated with this oil are emotional balance, muscles and bones, nervous system and skin. Aromatically it can be helpful in calming, harmonizing and balancing of emotions.  It may also enhance meditation and was used as an incense for this purpose in religious rituals.  This specific sandlewood has many similar properties to most other sandlewoods.  The ORAC value of sandlewood is 160 µTE/100g.  ORAC stands for Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity. It tells you the antioxidant capacity of a food item. This was developed by the USDA researchers. For instance: Blueberries = 2,400; Clove = 1,078,700. Wow! The number for clove is NOT a typo!  Good stuff!

 

Myrrh

The next oil is Myrrh.  It is from the botanical family Burseraceae (resinous trees and shrubs), the genus species being Commiphora myrrh.    It is steam distilled from gum, or resin, from Somalia.  Before the biblical stories of Myrrh, well over 2,000 years before these accounts actually, it was one of the most desired and most expensive items in the world.  This resin goes all the way back to Greek mythology from the goddess Myrrha who was forced into a relationship with her father, Cinyras.  He avenged this by turning her into a tree and when it sprouted  its blooms, Adonis was born.  The resinous drops that come from cuts in the tree bark were said to be Myrrha’s tears.    Myrrh is very spiritual oil and has been used in religious ceremonies and rituals for over 5000 years!   Myrrh releases fears, difficult experiences as it relates to us or the world.   It asks us to be more accepting, trusting and non-judgmental of ourselves.  The benefits of myrrh include skin care.  Since the Egyptians it has been used to maintain healthy skin and sooth chapped or cracked skin.  Contains a high content of sesquiterpenes, a class of compounds that have a direct effect on the pituitary, hypothalamus, and amygdala, the seat of our emotions. It is purifying, restorative, revitalizing, and uplifting.  A powerful antioxidant with an ORAC value of 379,800 µTE/100g!

 

0925151616c_HDR~2

Next we have Lavender.  That beautiful oil.  Lavender is one of the most versatile oils in nature. The fragrance is very relaxing and calming to the body and mind.  It is from the botanical family Labiatae, which is actually a mint believe it or not.  The genus species used by Young Living is Lavandula angustifolia.  It is steam distilled from the flowers.   While Lavender has been used for centuries, especially during the medieval times, it was the French scientist René Gattefossé was among the first to re-discover lavender in the early 1900’s.  Since that time is has been widely used for it’s calming properties, and is believed to support healthy skin.  The ORAC value is 360 µTE/100g.

 

Frankincense

Finally we have Frankincense.  Oh what an oil!   The botanical family is Burseraceae, resinous trees and shrubs.  The genus species is Boswellia carterii.  It is steam distilled from the gum/resin of the Frankincense tree in Somalia, Oman and Yemen.  It is considered a holy oil in the Middle East and used as an ingredient in incense for religious ceremonies.  In ancient history it was said to improve communication with the gods.  The uses and benefits of Frankincense date way back to the Egyptians and Sumerians.  This ancient essential oil has been used for spiritual connection and to support a healthy immune system.  It is also a valuable ingredient in skin care products for healthy looking skin.  Frankincense contains 8% sesquiterpenes and is 78% monoterpenes.  Monoterpenes are known to be calming.  The ORAC value is 630 µTE/100g.  Seriously Google Frankincense…..you will be amazed!

 

Face Serum

The recipe I used is as follows:

*An empty 15ml Lavender bottle (about a half an ounce – 1 ounce equals 29.57353 ML)

*10 drops of each oil

*Fill the rest of the bottle with 4 drops Vitamin E and the rest with Grapeseed Oil, you can alo use jojoba oil.

I have been using this serum for a few weeks now and have noticed a huge difference.  People tell me I have a glow!  At 50, to be told I didn’t look close to my age is a huge compliment.  Plus I know I am putting good things on my skin without a bunch of nasty chemicals! I count this a success!  Here’s to turning back time, or at least helping it stand still!

Chicken and Wild Rice Soup

Published on: by catballou24 Comment

10291519152

I love this time of year when the weather is cold and soup is hot!  The other day I made the best soup! Chicken and Wild Rice using Young Living oils.  The flavors blended beautifully.  I have to say I even impressed myself.  The real test came with my youngest.  She is super picky, but loved it so much she went back for more!  I coupled it with Pamela’s brand gluten free bread mix for a homemade bread.  This is definitely a new staple in our home.

 

Here is the recipe.  I promise you will love it!

Ingredients

1 1/2 cup cooked wild rice blend
2 cup chopped yellow onion
2 cup diced carrots (from 4 medium)
2 cup diced celery (from 5 stalks)
14 Tbsp butter, diced, divided
2 clove garlic, minced
2 lbs shredded chicken
9 cups chicken broth
2-3 drops each thyme, marjoram, sage and rosemary oil
Salt and ground black pepper, to taste
2 lbs chicken, shredded
1 cup flour
3 cups milk (I used Milkman Instant Powdered milk according to package directions)
1 cup heavy cream (I didn’t have heavy cream, so to make soup richer I added 3/4 cup of Milkman milk with 1/3 cup melted butter)
2 tsp lemon zest

Directions

Prepare rice according to directions listed on package.

Halfway through the rice cooking, in a separate large pot, melt 2 Tbsp butter over medium heat. Add onion, carrots and celery and saute until slightly tender, about 4 minutes, adding in garlic during last 30 seconds of sauteing. Add chicken broth, thyme, marjoram, sage, rosemary and season with salt and black pepper to taste. Increase heat to medium-high, add chicken and bring mixture to a boil. If chicken is uncooked, cover pot with lid and allow mixture to boil 12 – 15 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through (rotating chicken to opposite side once during cooking for thicker chicken pieces – if they don’t fully immerse in broth). Remove chicken and set aside on cutting board to cool 5 minutes then shred into small bite size pieces. If chicken is cooked then just shred it and add it and continue from here… Reduce heat to low and add cooked rice.

In a separate medium saucepan (I just rinsed and wiped out the rice pan), melt remaining 12 Tbsp butter over medium heat. Add flour and cook 1 1/2 minutes, whisking constantly. Then, while whisking vigorously, slowly pour milk into butter/flour mixture. Cook mixture, stirring constantly until it thickens. Add milk mixture to soup mixture in pot and cook about 5 minutes longer, or until soup is thickened (at this point, you can simmer the soup for a longer period of time if you want the rice to soften more, just cover with lid first and stir occasionally. You can also add more chicken broth if desired). Stir in heavy cream and lemon zest and serve warm.

Original recipe can be found here.

I did modify it and double it for my large family.  I also boiled a whole chicken with onions, celery, carrots, rosemary and salt and pepper and then shredded the meat for the soup and continued boiling the bones for the broth.  Yum!!!

 

Perfect meal for even the skeptics in your house.  Enjoy!

~Peace and Love,

Cat

Self Care Before Health Care

Published on: by catballou24 Comment

bakeshop

Okay….let’s get real. You see me talk about oils, the health benefits are astounding, really.  My local friends come to me with questions and we all know how obsessed I am with my hippie voodoo conconctions…so why not just dive right in? You know you want to. You won’t be alone….I will give you tons of support and help with your new wonder bottles, I have a ton of testimonials on exactly what these beautiful bottles of elixirs can do for you, and I would love to help you find a happier, less stressed and healthier you!!! and to get you started, I am offering $20 credit for everyone who decides they want a healthier year this year! What are you waiting for? Self care before health care! 🙂  Check out your selections here and leave comments or questions!  UPDATE:  Oils are still amazing, offer is over but look for the next one!!!

 

Peace!