It may be hard to believe but I was once addicted to all things that smell good. Candles, plug-ins, wax warmers, perfume, lotion, deodorant, cleaning supplies, shampoos, you name it. I purchased items specifically based on smell and I did not use lightly. You could walk into my home and it smelled like a candle shop (you know the ones, in the malls) it was wonderful. I frequented the bath and body stores EVERY sale and had a LARGE supply on hand. I remember saying “I will never stop using……” Little did I know just how wrong I was and how I wouldn't even miss those things.
When I started out using Essential Oils I decided to give them a fair shake. The only way to do that would be to use the oils and not use my perfume; use the oils and not use my candles, plugins and such. No big deal, I could do that. Well… it wasn't quite that simple, it was hard for me. I felt unscented which in my world meant unclean. It took me a couple of months to break some bad habits and really focus on the oils. I did manage to not purchase any more of the items of my addiction (and I still haven’t since 2017!)
One of the first items I learned how to make was perfume. How to make the scents last longer when I applied them. I found oils that I loved the scent of and began filling my life with those. Citrus Bliss was my first real “love” and I used it in everything.
I purchased diffusers, I made perfume, lotions and cleaning supplies. I kept the hair products and deodorant. There was NO WAY I was going to smell bad and every natural deodorant I ever tried FAILED.
When doTERRA released the Balance deodorant I gave it a try and found that I loved it! It works well and smells amazing. I began making my own shampoos, conditioners and body wash. I have since purchased the doTERRA hair products and LOVE them! My hair feels amazing and smells amazing too. I have focused my purchasing on natural products from doTERRA and other companies.
Wow was I ever sick! The detox from all the chemicals was real and it was really awful. Once I realized what I had been putting my body through let alone my young family, I was never doing that again. Until we were out of power for 30 hours this past winter. We used my left over candles for light and we were all sick for days afterward. Coincidence? Absolutely not.
Since then I have been on a quest to find out why those great smelling items are so very bad for us. And it’s not just the chemicals that are used to make the products. Turns out that the byproducts left over from making plastic can be chemically altered to smell like anything. It is a cheap alternative to natural scents and it can be made to keep the scent longer. For instance, when you find rose oils or rose perfumes in stores that are super affordable, they are more than likely made with those byproducts. doTERRAs Rose oil is super expensive because it is made from actual roses, and it takes THOUSANDS of roses to make a 5ml bottle. But why does this really matter? Think back to science class when you learned about the human body. What is the largest organ in our body? Our skin, the same skin we slather, lather, spray, and cover with products each and every day. Where does that skin connect to? Everything else in our body. It carries those chemicals throughout our entire system, affecting everything. You can choose to have that be a good thing by using safer products or a bad thing by continuing to use those mainstream products. I was most definitely choosing a bad thing before essential oils. Not only does it absorb through your skin but have you ever noticed that some people are sensitive to smells? Well, the olfactory system in your body is what processes the sense of smell and it is connected directly to your brain. So when you smell something it is going through your body very quickly because the trip from your nose to your brain is very short. Essential oils like Balance that help manage your emotions, work quickly through smell. That quick pathway will help to bring a sense of ease and calm in high stress situations. Essential oils that help to ease pain, such as Lemongrass, go straight to the brain and affect the pain signals that are being sent from your body. Pretty crazy to think about right!?
My house still smells good, it is clean, and I don’t think any of us stink. It was a mindset that I had to work through. It was a true addiction, and if you can’t believe it, ask someone who has known me all my life. I can not smell bad, smell is everything to me, it always has been. My sense of smell is very powerful and sometimes it is mentally overwhelming to me when things smell bad. As hard of a transition as I thought this would be it really wasn’t. Once I was through the detox stage I knew there was no going back down that road. Now if I could just kick Dr. Pepper.
Comments