Are you ready to take back control?
My knowledge of natural health started way back in my late teens (I’m 55 now!). I loved natural health shops and their delicious goodies that I could snack on, vegetarian options in the chiller and Rye bread which I felt better eating it, instead of the over processed white flour and additives in white packaged loaves. I also loved using essential oils and skin products without toxins, or so I thought.
After a very challenging sixteen years; divorce, bankruptcy, loss, caught up in the benefit system, moving home seven times and a serious lack of money, 0h yes, and three children, I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia, stress and anxiety. Probably not a total surprise as I had been in considerable body pain and had endless sleepless nights for about ten of those sixteen years!
Having finally had a diagnosis for the pain, and being offered a variety of prescription drugs, I left the Rheumatologists office, with prescription notes in hand, sat in my car and cried! Was this how it is going to be now, a lifetime of tablets just to function in a ‘normal’ life?
I didn’t want to take pharmaceutical drugs all my life and needed to know what I could do for myself. Where to start, it’s a minefield of information out there? It can all get very overwhelming. But, start I did, determined to find options that wouldn’t involve popping pills, masking the REAL cause!
Firstly, I knew that nothing I had was dangerous, only frustrating, as the aches and pains affected pretty much every moment of every day, and a good night’s sleep was a very rare occurrence. It was hard to get going in the morning with the stiffness and the brain fog. It would have been so easy just to stay in bed, if it weren’t for my beautiful children, and the fact that I had made a decision quite some time ago, that no matter how bad I felt each day, I would still get up and get on with my day, no matter what. So here is what I did next.....
I made the decision that I really needed to do something to ease the pain as I still refused to take tablets, so I decided it was time to get walking. I always loved walking, but it’s so hard to ‘force’ yourself to do exercise, or anything for that matter, when you feel rubbish, literally. However, I knew that if I didn’t, nothing was going to change.
Every night as I went to bed, I would lay out my walking gear over a chair ready for the morning. As I was usually awake early anyway, I decided to get up and out before kids got up. I would walk for about an hour, blasting great uplifting, happy tunes in my ears as I went. It took about ten days of doing this before I felt the real benefit. I had less pain during the day and I was sleeping a little better, as the aching in my bones and muscles was less too. It was a great response for just simply walking. So that got me thinking, what else could I do? This is when things got even more interesting.
I love research, and we have the world at our fingertips, so I spent a great deal of time, months, years in fact, researching Fibromyalgia, sleep issues, natural pain relief, the list goes on and on. I even became a Certified Life Coach, mainly so I could coach myself back to health. This was really useful, as it helped me with goal setting and planning, as well as keeping me on track and very focused on my natural health and wellbeing journey, which is really important for healing.
I studied Reiki, becoming a Reiki Master, and then became a Reconnective Healing Practitioner so that I could understand how energy works and then use it on myself. What an amazing tool. A simple technique which worked really well for me, and continues to do so, is to rub my hands briskly together for about 30 seconds, then place my now ‘buzzing’ hands over any area of unease or pain. This felt very comforting, and is a natural instinct as a child with a pain, earache or tummy ache.
Then Transcendental Meditation found me via a really good friend who was an Advanced Clinical Hypnotherapist. We went together and did an intensive weekend course, which totally turned me around. I now have a wonderful tool to ground and centre me twice a day, so that I don’t get overly stressed.
By this time, I was beginning to fall in love with Me, the real Me, nurturing myself and caring about how I felt, spending time just ‘being’ without the continual thoughts coming through like a train, what a relief. I sat somewhere quiet and warm, closed my eyes and started taking very slow, deep breaths, whilst noticing any tension that was in my body, working down from my head to my toes. I started then relaxing that area. This was done within a few minutes and my body learnt to relax and be calm, which was important because of my feeling stressed, anxious or in fear.
This technique can also be done using a pure therapeutic grade essential oil, in order to anchor the feeling of calm with the aroma of the essential oil. This maximised the process, because the smell of the oil rekindles a sense of calm and the brain remembers. Perfect for anxiety attacks or panic attacks.
The next part of this journey was a complete game changer for me. I love essential oils, have done since I was a teenager, so it’s no surprise then that I still use them now. But what I found out totally changed my life, my aches and pains, my sleep, and well, just about everything. Like most people, I bought essential oils from the high street, I thought that all oils were the same, how wrong I was. And here’s where the research got really interesting. I discovered toxins in the essential oils, skin creams and make up that I had been using on my skin, as well as in the cleaning and washing products I used around my home and cleaned clothes with. Everything I used contained toxic ingredients.
That was it, what was I doing to my Liver, the hardest working organ in my body? It was working so hard to remove all those toxins from my blood because of the products I was using, it must be exhausted. The more I researched, the more I discovered how to have a toxin free lifestyle. I now use the safest essential oils to stop any pain in its tracks, I take one of the most natural safest and most effective supplements, use toxin free and Vegan skincare products, and I now make my own cleaning products around the house.
Today I am pain free, sleep like a baby, am a Natural Health and Wellbeing Coach and a Clinical Aromatherapist, helping others to learn the benefits of a natural, toxin free lifestyle.
On a side note, I am now in the middle of the glamorous world of the Menopause!! I now have very few, if any, hot flushes or night sweats by nourishing my body with mainly fruit, vegetables, legumes, nuts and seeds. I also fast once a week along with Time Restricted Eating, and I have taken as many toxins out of my life as I can. My Liver thanked me, and your Liver will thank you!