Raindrop Messenger
Official Newsletter of CARE
The Center for Aromatherapy Research and Education
12835 BCR 800, Marble Hill, Missouri USA 63764
(573) 238-4846
NOTE: The information in this newsletter is intended for education purposes only. It is not provided in order to diagnose, prescribe, or treat any disease, illness, or injured condition of the body or mind. Anyone suffering from any disease, illness, or injury should consult with a physician or other appropriate licensed health care professional.
In this issue of the Raindrop Messenger:
- Evergreen Trees in Your Home
- Health Tip: The Most Wonderful Time of the Year for our Health?
- Featured Book: Gentle Babies
- Featured Instructor: Amy Pittman CCI, CRTS, LSHC
By Anthony Stewart, FCCI, Executive Director
Evergreen Trees in Your Home
Many people this time of year bring various types of evergreen trees inside their homes for the holidays. For me, I prefer a real tree as opposed to a fake one. This is partially because of the nostalgic feelings I have from our Christmas traditions growing up. We always went into the woods with my dad and cut down an eastern red cedar, as these are very common in Missouri, and we always had an ample supply on our family land.
Another reason I love having a real tree indoors is because of the wonderful smell that fills the house! As an aromatherapist, I take note that these tree fragrances can be healing to our bodies, minds, and emotions. Let’s look at a few of these trees that people bring indoors this time of year, and some of the benefits from breathing in these lovely fragrances.
Juniper
As mentioned above, growing up our family always cut down an eastern red cedar for a Christmas tree, which is something I still do today with my kids (usually a tree that is growing just a few hundred yards behind the CARE office). These Missouri natives are not actually true cedars, but junipers (Juniperus virginiana). They have a somewhat similar fragrance to Young Living’s Juniper Essential Oil (Juniperus osteosperma). As I brought my tree inside my house a couple weeks ago, the juniper fragrance filled the hallways and rooms of our home. It was like putting a 15-foot essential oil diffuser in my living room! And smelling the essential oils from plants is one of the most effective ways to utilize their numerous health benefits. Those tiny molecules of oil emanating from the branches go into the nose and benefit our bodies at the cellular level.
Until relatively recently, hospitals in France burned sprigs of juniper to protect patients and staff from infection. Juniper is a blood cleanser, it purifies the air and supports proper liver function. This tree’s fragrance can have a profound and positive effect on our emotional well-being. Juniper, in particular, helps to unlock suppressed emotions and evoke feelings of peace, harmony, connectedness and love.
Pine
I love the smell of a pine tree! Pine oil has been used for centuries to support the respiratory system. In addition to its respiratory properties, it is a natural insect repellent and can help refresh one from mental or emotional fatigue. Pine relieves anxiety, is emotionally grounding, and can reverse feelings of being unimportant or degraded. It’s worth mentioning that you can make a tea with pine needles very easily. Among its many benefits, this tea can help to protect us from sickness shed by others.
Imagine all of that just by having a pine tree in your living room! Young Living sells Pine Essential Oil (Pinus sylvestris), which is good to have on hand. It is also a very affordable oil, making it ideal for diffusing for greater lengths of time or to slather on before going into the public without worrying about the expense.
Grand Fir
The last two types of trees I’ll mention (Idaho grand fir and Idaho blue spruce) are both grown at Young Living’s Highland Flats Tree Farm and Distillery in Naples, Idaho. Part of this farmland used to be a Christmas tree farm! If you haven’t had a chance to visit, I highly recommend stopping by.
If you have a grand fir in your home for Christmas, you are breathing in molecules of essential oils that can support your sinuses, lungs, throat, and the body’s inflammatory response. This fragrance can be emotionally grounding and help the mind to focus. It helps with feelings of inadequacy and being unsupported. In short, grand fir makes you feel grand!
Blue Spruce
I think blue spruces are perhaps the prettiest Christmas trees, with their slightly blue colored evergreen branches. Idaho blue spruce was considered sacred by Native Americans and was used for purification rites. Smelling blue spruce can benefit the respiratory system and support the body’s inflammatory response. The sense of smell goes directly to the limbic system (the part of the brain that processes emotions and memories), and when inhaled blue spruce can release blocked emotions. I have personally seen people have huge breakthroughs during an emotional release session using Idaho Blue Spruce Essential Oil. Imagine how balanced and grounded we would be if we had one of these trees inside our home all year!
“What If I Don’t Have a Tree?”
There are so many trees I could mention, but this is just a short list of a few common Christmas trees and their fragrant benefits. If you don’t celebrate Christmas or typically refrain from putting evergreens in your home, not to worry. You can enjoy these same benefits with the essential oils from these and other trees. In addition to the oils that come from the trees mentioned above, Young Living also distills oils from northern lights black spruce, cedarwood, hong kuai, cypress, and they have a beautiful blend of evergreens called Evergreen Essence™. So fill up your diffuser with some evergreen oils, or put on a few drops topically and become a human diffuser. You will not only be enjoying the fragrance and health benefits for yourself, but you will be an uplifting presence to everyone you’re around. Be that one that spreads the fragrance of cheer, health, and emotional grounding this holiday season and into the New Year.
Health Tip:
from Lora Lee Stewart, FCCI
Christmas, The Most Wonderful Time of the Year for our Health?
Wow! Christmas is just around the corner! The holidays are so crazy, but they also are so wonderful. This is absolutely my favorite time of year! It’s a time of joy and wonder, of peace and giving, of family and traditions. It’s a time that we can reflect on the true meaning of life. It’s also a time when we feast at dinners and parties, eating all kinds of cookies, cakes, candies, turkey and who knows what! It’s an amazing time!
As I was pondering what to write for this issue, I thought, “What are some amazing things that might help us stay healthy during this feasting and festive holiday?” Here are some things to consider:
- Make sure you take time to exercise, stretch, go to your chiropractor or do your yoga. Do something every day or as regularly as you can to keep your body energized and active.
- I’ve found this next one to be a little difficult! Try NOT to overindulge in those wonderful sweet, delicious holiday goodies!
- Eat plenty of protein and drink LOTS of water! Just by doing this, if you do overindulge a little bit, the protein and water intake can help your body flush out some of those naughty sugar molecules!
- Take good supplements and vitamins daily! Young Living has many wonderful supplements infused with essential oils to help support various systems of our bodies. Be sure you are taking correct supplements and the proper amount of supplements.
- One supplemental drink that I find is an essential “every day” drink, is Ningxia Red. This juice drink is made from Wolfberries. Wolfberries are very high in antioxidants- even higher than blueberries! I’m going to take a moment to focus this article on the many great benefits of Ningxia Red.
Here are some fabulous benefits of drinking Ningxia Red every day:
Clinically shown to:
- Significantly increase physical energy levels while reducing physical limitations
- Improve sleep patterns, increasing overall sleep time
- Reduce daily stress significantly to improve mental well-being
Additional benefits:
- Supports healthy digestion
- Provides energy support without caffeine
- Supports whole-body health and wellness
- Helps prevent oxidative stress
- Provides a nutrient infusion for whole-body support
- Contains a synergistic blend of Orange, Tangerine, Lemon, and Yuzu premium essential oils
- Contains powerful ingredients that are involved in many antioxidant processes
- Supports normal eye health
There are two other Ningxia drinks: Ningxia Zyng and Ningxia Nitro. Zyng is like a soda…. It combines wolfberry, pear and blackberry juices, and essential oils with naturally occurring caffeine. Ningxia Nitro is like a natural version of Red Bull or Monster Drinks! Ningxia Nitro is an energizing wolfberry drink infused with essential oils, botanical extracts, D-ribose, Korean ginseng, and green tea extract to support alertness and cognitive and physical fitness.
Ningxia is like a natural “secret weapon” to combat all that ails the body! Go ahead and indulge a little bit, after all, it IS the holidays, and this time of year only comes by one time! But definitely drink your Ningxia AT LEAST 2-3 times a day. Give your body what it needs to support all of our holiday indulgences!
I really hope that this Christmas time and holiday season brings peace, great joy, happiness and wonder to your world. May many blessings be bestowed upon you and your family. Even when it may be a difficult time of year for some suffering great illness or loss, look to the light, because it is there; and the darkness you may be feeling WILL be filled with God’s light if you let it in. This time of year offers hope and love and understanding to those who need it most! May God Bless you and keep you during this most wonderful time of year!
Raindrop Messenger Featured Book
Gentle Babies – 10th Anniversary Edition
$21.95
Gentle Babies: Essential Oils and Natural Remedies for Pregnancy, Childbirth and Infant Care by Debra Raybern, ND, MH, CNC, ICA 10th Anniversary Edition! “The Original Essential Oil Baby Book” Combining two decades of professional knowledge with tried-and-true techniques and first-hand testimonials, Debra Raybern has compiled this insightful and easy to follow guide benefiting both experienced…
Featured Instructor: Amy Pittman CCI, CRTS, LSHC
Hello, I’m Amy Pittman. My journey to CARE began with me wanting to know how to heal my body on my own without using traditional Western Medicine methods. I left pharmaceuticals back in 2015 due to my beliefs not agreeing with their system. I physically could not hand another patient a pill for their ailment, whether the pill was placebo or not. With my clinical research experience, I began searching for alternative ways to maintain my health as well as my family’s health and wellness.
In 2017, my sister introduced me to Young Living, and this is how it all began. I had ordered the Premium Starter Kit with the Dewdrop Diffuser (because I liked the shape of it…LOL) and used the oils from the starter kit for quite some time and not really going any further with it. I remember looking through the Product Guide and seeing a kit called “Raindrop” and had no idea what that even meant or what it’s purpose was, so I called Young Living, and the Customer Service Representative was not able to answer any of my questions about it.
So, I turned to Google and typed in “Raindrop from Young Living”…this is how I discovered CARE. I found a phone number on their website and gave them a call, and a lady named Karen answered the phone. I began asking all sorts of questions about this particular kit and what it does and why did CARE pop up in my Google Search. She was able to answer all of my questions and even chatted with me about classes that are held to further my education with Raindrop and this technique she spoke about. She proceeded to ask me where I lived, and I told her I lived in NC. She helped me navigate on the website to find instructors in my area, and Kristi Smith happened to live in Troutman, NC, which is only thirty minutes from my house. I was so excited to find someone so close, and Karen helped me reach out to Kristi.
I registered for Kristi’s Full Intensive with NO INTENTION of taking this any further other than to learn what a Raindrop Technique was, but little did I know that God had other plans in mind for me. I attended her Intensive in April 2021 and the rest is history. I became hooked, and wanted to learn more, offer more, and educate more.
I totally believe that wellness is within reach for all of us and our bodies have an innate ability to heal, if we will only listen.
Over the last three years my credentials include the distinctions of Certified Care Instructor, Certified Raindrop Technique Specialist and Licensed Spiritual Health Coach. I am currently in the process of obtaining my Aromatherapy Coach Certification as well as a Certified Raindrop Harmonics Specialist.
Now that I am well versed in a variety of holistic healing modalities, I am super eager to share. I have always wanted to be in a field where, if I could help one individual in my lifetime, my life would be accomplished.
On the home front, you will find me with my family, friends and my two dogs, Lincoln and Kona. We live at High Rock Lake in NC, and we enjoy boating and going to social events. There is nothing more important to me than being with family, friends and my two dogs. God has blessed me immensely in all of these categories and now I have gained a CARE Family as an added blessing.
THE RAINDROP MESSENGER
Official Newsletter of CARE
The Center for Aromatherapy Research and Education
12835 BCR 800, Marble Hill, Missouri USA 63764
(573) 238-4846
Official Newsletter of CARE
The Center for Aromatherapy Research and Education
12835 BCR 800, Marble Hill, Missouri USA 63764
(573) 238-4846
