As a parent, we understand that providing the best care for our children is our top priority. If you have a child on the autism spectrum, we know that you are always looking for innovative and gentle ways to support their well-being. That's why we want to share how Young Living Essential Oils can be a valuable addition to your holistic approach.
🌟 Gentle and Natural Support for Your Child
Young Living offers a wide range of pure and therapeutic-grade essential oils that can be incorporated into your child's daily routine. These oils are derived from plants and have been used for centuries to support emotional well-being, promote calmness, and provide a sense of balance.
🌈 Essential Oils for Emotional Support
Calming essential oils like Lavender, Roman Chamomile, and Vetiver have been known to help reduce occasional restlessness and support a peaceful environment. Diffusing these oils in your child's bedroom or play area can create a soothing atmosphere and encourage relaxation. Plus, you can dilute them with a carrier oil and apply topically to the bottoms of their feet.
🌿 Essential Oils for Focus and Concentration
To support your child's ability to focus and concentrate, essential oils like Cedarwood, Frankincense, and Vetiver can be powerful allies. These oils can be carefully added to a diffuser necklace or diluted and applied to their wrists or temples before tasks that require concentration.
🌟 Tips for Incorporating Essential Oils into Daily Life
It's important to remember that every child is unique, and what may work for one might not work the same for another. Here are some tips to help you integrate essential oils into your child's routine:
1️⃣ Start Slowly: Begin by introducing one oil at a time to observe the effects and how your child responds.
2️⃣ Dilution is Key: Always dilute essential oils with a carrier oil when applying topically to ensure safety and minimize the risk of skin sensitivity.
3️⃣ Consistency Matters: Consistently using oils within a daily routine can maximize their benefits over time.
4️⃣ Observe and Adjust: Everyone's response to essential oils can vary, so closely observe how your child reacts to different blends. Adjust the types of oils and quantities accordingly.
💌 Get Personalized Guidance and Support
Remember, we're here to support you on this journey. As Young Living Brand Partners, we have extensive knowledge and experience with essential oils. Feel free to reach out to us directly for personalized guidance and recommendations tailored to your child's specific needs.
Young Living offers a tremendous opportunity for your child to experience the power of nature in a gentle and supportive way. Together, let's unlock their full potential and create a nurturing environment where they can thrive.
#YoungLiving #EssentialOils #AutismSupport #NaturalHealing #SupportForFamilies #HolisticWellness
Some people seem to be more naturally organized than others. I would say I’m the queen of organization. There is a motto that I love: A place for everything and everything in its place. Yes, I do like my things in place, so I know where they are when I want them. Who has time to search for things when you need them? Not me. I put things away so fast – I have been known to put an empty glass in the dishwasher while my husband, with his back turned, was getting something out of the fridge to put in that empty glass! I am also notorious for putting everything in drawers. I just want stuff out of my sight! Can anyone else relate?
If being organized doesn't come naturally for you, don't stress about it. You can, however, take control of your workday and your environment if you wish to. It's just a matter of creating a system. Being organized is about behavior and how you take control of your surroundings — or don't. Below are a few tips for getting (and staying) organized when the going gets tough.
Plan Ahead
Being prepared is the key to everything. It doesn't happen by accident though. Being prepared requires thinking ahead and anticipating obstacles.
I’m a planner. That’s how I can function. Knowing what is happening day to day helps me keep my head on straight. I typically plan trips and events way ahead and mark them on my calendar.
I also love to plan my meals. Meal planning may sound boring, but it will save you time, stress, and money. Even if you feel tired, you will appreciate the effort at the grocery store and when trying to figure out what to make for dinner after a long day. There are may meal apps that you can download. Many will make meal suggestions based on your preferences, and even provide a grocery list based on those meals. I don’t enjoy thinking of my own meals, so by having a meal app, the part of cooking that I don’t enjoy is removed. If you are interested in knowing which apps I use, please message me.
Turn off extra technology
Studies show that you lose focus and productivity if you try to multitask. If you've got a long list of things to do, turn off your email and set designated times when you will check it. Do the same with Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. Avoid TV and give 100% of your time and attention to the project at hand. You will wind up completing the project more efficiently and faster.
Studies show that you lose focus and productivity if you try to multitask. If you've got a long list of things to do, turn off your email and set designated times when you will check it. Do the same with Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. Avoid TV and give 100% of your time and attention to the project at hand. You will wind up completing the project more efficiently and faster.
Once you've completed everything, you can go back to technology and enjoy your time on the phone or computer without guilt.
Prioritize
Don't try to be a superhero. Instead, look at your to-do list and rank each item. Cross off or move to another day anything that isn't essential. Check off anything that you've already completed. Delegate whatever you can. Only do the things that need to be done, and you'll feel more in control.
If it's not essential, ignore it.
De-clutter
Clutter is easy to create but it can be challenging to remove. Don't let it become a problem.
Take a few minutes each day to put things away and throw out junk. Put the dishes in the dishwasher. Deal with the mail immediately instead of letting it pile up on the counter. Throw out things you aren't going to use. Clean drawers and closets periodically. Toss, give away or sell (have a yard sale) items that you haven't used for a year or more.
Some people find a certain comfort in collecting things. There is a fine line, however, between collecting and hoarding. If you haven't used it in a year, you don't need it.
If you need help, get help. Use online storage tools like Dropbox and Google Drive to keep your computer desktop organized. For paperwork you don't want to discard, like receipts, use file folders and keep them in a filing cabinet. Hang on to things you need for your taxes. Mark and organize items in such a way that make it easy to find later. Organize your things for your relatives’ sakes, too, in case something happens to you and you can't deal with your own affairs.
Get up a little earlier
While getting up earlier may seem pointless, it can help you get a head start on your day if you use the extra time wisely. Create a morning routine. Practice healthy habits. Exercise, meditate, eat a healthy breakfast. Take a few moments to run through the calendar for the day, so you feel more in control.
By getting up earlier, you can start your day feeling both energized and organized. By completing essential tasks, you make sure that you and your family are ready for the day ahead.
Take care of you
Take care of your mental, physical and emotional health. Exercise regularly, eat healthy meals and practice meditation or mindfulness. This will help you feel more able to cope when things don't go as planned or when life seems to spiral out of control. And don't forget to get enough sleep.
No matter how organized and well-planned you are, there will be times when life gets busy. You may start to worry that you can't get everything done. But following these tips will help you stay in control.
Happy organizing!
This week on my Facebook page “Freedom-n-Joy Essentials” page, I am talking about oils for every bag. This is just another way to keep your life organized. If you fill a little bag with key oils, you don’t have to decide which oil you need when you leave the house. It’s that simple!!
Are you a dreamer? What are your dreams? Are they small and simple, or are they large and more complex? Do you feel they have value? I will admit, I am a dreamer. There are so many things that I want to do. Not all my dreams have become realities, but that doesn’t stop me from dreaming. Let’s talk about steps you can take to help make your dream a reality.
Sometimes I have trouble seeing the potential of my dreams; I give up on them because I don’t see how they will ever come true. Sometimes I just can’t see how taking the time to discover and to plan will have any impact on the dreams coming true. I’m learning to have patience. There are dreams that have not yet come to pass yet but they can still be realized.
While I can’t force dreams to happen, I can take steps toward actualizing them. Do you have a dream? Maybe you want to travel to a specific place. Do you know anything about the culture and language there? Are you saving money each week or month toward your trip? You won’t magically arrive there. You must plan and work toward what you want. Start with a trip to the library to find some books on the culture. Next look into a class to learn the language, make sure you have a savings account with an automatic deposit feature.
The same is true if you want to have a family, write a successful book, help others, move to another state, or anything else that interests you. Even if you try and fail, keep trying, take small simple steps forward. Your dreams have value; keep moving toward them even if you face setbacks and challenges. Moving forward with your dreams means starting with the first step.
Visualizing and Planning for Your Dreams
In addition to physically working to make your dreams a reality, mental preparation is important. That means you need to keep visualizing and dreaming.
Hold on to what you believe in and what you want to see happen in your life. Use the power of positive thinking in order to see your dream coming to life. Here are a few techniques that help to keep moving in a positive direction:
- Make a vision board where you can pin or glue pictures and symbols of what you want to see realized (so much fun!). I still have my vision board from a few years ago, there are a few things on there that did come true and a few things that I want to add.
- Write down your dreams to keep them fresh in your mind. I have a dream journal that I have specifically created, and I journal my thoughts and emotions.
- Keep a journal of what you’ve done toward realizing your dreams each day or each week. Whenever I do something to try and accomplish that dream, I write it down. When that dreams actually becomes a reality, I will look back and see what I’ve done to make it happen.
- Remember to enjoy and respect the present moment. Then you’ll be well practiced when your dreams do come to pass!
- Talk with others who share your goals and dreams to stay encouraged and excited. Every time I share my dreams, people get excited and want to join in. Keep that level of passion for your dreams.
Many successful people focus on positive affirmations and meditation to help make their dreams a reality. By meditating on what I really want and how I’m going to get it, I may come up with solutions that I would otherwise not have thought about. Meditation gives my mind some quiet, peaceful time to work behind the scenes. You can create a recording for yourself that walks you through your vision of your completed dream so that you can really focus on the positive outcome.
Positive affirmations also help keep my spirits up and keep me moving toward my goal, even when I don’t really see a way. Just because the way to your dream doesn’t seem obvious to you just now, that doesn’t mean there isn’t a way. Something could change in the blink of an eye. Suddenly, you’ll be able to see how and when your dream will be realized. Create your affirmations around the positive amazing feelings that surround your dreams, so that you can keep your vibes high, and you can let the “how’s” go and allow God to take care of that for you.
If you hold tight to your goals, you’ll find it easier to stay on the right track. Training yourself to observe progress can be important, too. This will help keep you motivated. Regardless of what your dreams are, however big or small they may be, you can usher them in to your life! Take simple small steps every day, move toward your dreams, and one day you will find that the dream has indeed come true.
Enjoy the journey!
This week on my “Freedom-n-Joy Essentials” page, we are talking about Oils for teachers. If you are a teacher or you know of someone that is, please feel free to click on the link. Enjoy this day, follow your dreams, and turn them into realities!
Raising a family isn’t easy. You are busy, and so are your children. There is a lot to do and not a lot of time to do it. Staying active and healthy is important but sometimes health takes a back seat to the busyness of life. But the stakes are high. Today, many kids are overweight or obese. A healthy, active lifestyle can help maintain weight. It also can prevent health issues, such as diabetes, heart disease, asthma, and high blood pressure.
It is important to create healthy habits early on. These will help you make smart choices for your family. Children imitate their parents, so it’s important to set a good example. The tips below can help your family be healthy and happy.
Tips for Keeping Kids Active
Keeping kids active can be a real challenge. Exercise for children is critical for their health and well-being, both in the short term and in the years to come.
Lead by Example
One of the biggest contributions you can make to keeping kids active is to make a conscious effort to incorporate more physical activity into your own life as well. The American heart association recommends 30 minutes of activity at least five times per week. Remember that anything that gets you moving is good so try to sneak extra physical activity into your normal routine if you can’t find the time for a formal exercise regimen: Take the stairs instead of an elevator, pick a parking spot that is further from the grocery store entrance or opt to hand wash your car instead of pulling through an automatic one. Over time, your kids will likely take your lead and absorb those types of good habits.
Exercise is NOT a Punishment
The surest way to ruin exercise for children is by turning it into a punishment rather than something to look forward to and to enjoy. Rather than demanding a kid drop and start doing push-ups, consider rewarding him/her the next time they do well on a test or complete their chores by allowing extra time in the pool, a bike ride through the neighborhood as a family or a special trip to a rock-climbing gym. This approach is more likely to encourage your child to make physical activity a habit and to stay active into adulthood.
Sports Are Not for Everyone …
And that’s okay…If your child is not excited at the prospect of trying out for the basketball or soccer team, do not try to force it on them. In the same vein as using exercise as a punishment, making a kid participate in a sport that they do not enjoy will only make them associate that physical activity with a negative experience. There are plenty of ways to incorporate exercise for children that do not involve organized sports (or the expensive equipment that can go along with them). Whether running around in the yard as part of a water balloon fight or even something as simple as walking the dog, the key to keeping kids active is to find an option that appeals to innate talents and interests.
Make Chores Fun
From working out in the yard to cleaning the house, there are tons of ways you can gamify chores to encourage exercise for children. Most kids love the opportunity to pick out their own flowers or vegetables to go into the garden. You could even give them their own section of the garden to give them a reason to go outside and be physically active every day (watering) with longer periods of activity on the weekends when it is time to do things like weeding the garden. Don’t forget the sunscreen! Then, when it is time to go inside, see who can clean faster or time your child on a regular basis to see if he can beat his record for vacuuming or cleaning his room.
Bring a Friend
Everything’s more fun when you have a buddy. The next time your child is acting hesitant about the prospect of going to the park, for a hike or for a walk, enlist some extra help by seeing if a friend can tag along. Keeping kids active is easier when there are multiples of them who can motivate each other.
Limit Screen Time
In this day and age, the biggest obstacle to regular exercise for children is probably the ready availability of multiple screens for them to entertain themselves instead. By setting strict limits and rules for the amount of time your kid can watch TV, play on their tablet or use their mobile phones, you eliminate a major challenge to keeping kids physically active. Forcing them to find alternative modes of entertainment naturally leads to more exercise.
Try Something New
It may be that your kid just has not found the activity that is right for them yet. That is okay. Trying out a ton of new activities until you find “the one”—even if you never find a specific activity to stick with on its own—is a fun way to encourage exercise for children. Make a list with your child of new things they (and maybe even you) have not tried yet. Has the family ever gone kayaking? Tried tennis? What about croquet? That can be your summer bucket list! And now you have a ready answer for the next time the kids complain that they are bored.
Most people know that keeping kids physically active is important to their health. Unfortunately, many people do not realize all the activities that can constitute exercise and that many times, exercise does not look like an exercise in the traditional sense at all.
Some people have asked about my journey of ridding my home of all toxins and harmful chemicals. The process was not an overnight fix, but it was well worth the time and energy.
Why I Made My Home Toxic Free
Let me get real with you for a moment. Why does chemical free-living matter so much to me? I have seen the harmful effects of a chemical-filled lifestyle and I want everyone to know that what they are putting in and on their bodies is vital for a healthy life.
Both of my daughters were diagnosed on the Autism spectrum at a very young age. They are both very sensitive to strong smells. Fragrances full of toxins and synthetic chemicals would trigger adverse behaviors. This is only one of the reasons I made my home toxic free. I can’t control what they smell outside of the home, but I am doing all that I can inside our home for them to live a life full of wellness.
The number of cases of cancer, autism, Alzheimer’s, heart disease, etc. are higher than ever. Why? In no small way this is due to the amount of toxins in our food, our products, and in our environment. The number two cause of death in the United States is cancer. 1,620 people a day die of cancer. One in three cases in the US are directly linked to poor diet, physical inactivity, weight, or chemical exposure. The American cancer society says only 5% to 10% of all cancer cases are gene defects. That means 90%-95% of cancer cases may be a result of poor choices, or environmental exposure. What we allow into our homes and into our bodies is crucial.
There are 100,000 chemicals on the market today. The Toxic Substance Control Act of 1976 grandfathered them in. What does that mean to you? Simply put: these chemicals have not had any safety testing, and we know very little information about their side effects.
What happens when your body is chemically overloaded? You may see it in something as catastrophic as cancer. But most of us feel it in other ways. Lethargy, inability to focus, sleep trouble, chronic inflammation, unexplained pain, skin issues, adult acne, hot flashes, stress, anxiety, and fear. If you face any of these issues, it’s time to kick chemicals to the curb. You can control what you allow within the walls of your home.
Along with eating clean and putting the purest food in my body, I want to make sure I’m using non-toxic products in my home and on my body products in my home and ON my body. Our skin is our largest organ, and it absorbs everything we put on it. Right now, there are thousands of chemicals in things people use daily that are not well regulated. Many of them are used in our cookware, our cleaning products, our body products and our cosmetics. By reducing your exposure to these chemicals, you are reducing your risk to these diseases, and helping the planet. It’s a win win!
What Toxins Should You Avoid?
The major toxic chemicals you definitely want to avoid are:
- Teflon, or any nonstick cookware (on your pans, bakeware, etc). The coating chips, you ingest it, and it disrupts your hormones and your health.
- Parabens are a synthetic (manmade, not from nature) chemical that are used to preserve the shelf life of body and makeup products. It is a known endocrine disrupter and damages your health
- Sulfates are a synthetic (manmade, not from nature) chemical that are used to make things foam up and lather. You find it in soap, body wash, shampoo, etc. It has a ton of different names, but always has the word sulfate in there somewhere.
- Aluminum is found in most deodorants and in a lot of cookware. Your body absorbs the aluminum, and research shows it can elevate your risk to cancer, Alzheimer’s, and more.
- Fragrance is found in almost all bath, body, perfumes, household cleaners and cosmetics. The FDA does not require companies to disclose what they use in their “fragrance” so it can be protected as trade secret. To avoid listing out harmful chemicals used in a product on the ingredients label, a company will instead add it to their “fragrance” and not have to disclose it. If there is a reason a company wants to keep something a secret, it’s usually a sign they are hiding something. I only use products that use pure essential oils to add a scent to it.
- Pesticides are harmful chemicals we spray on plants to kill weeds, prevent bugs from eating our food, and prevent rot and infection on our food crops. If it’s killing bugs and plants, what do you think it’s doing to our body when we eat it? This is why you want to always eat organic.
- GMO food is Genetically Modified Organisms are plants and food that have been scientifically altered. Usually this is to help it grow faster, have a longer shelf life, or resist disease. Much of our food is engineered to have the pesticide within it as it grows. Imagine how harmful this is to our body when we ingest it.
More Resources about Living About Toxic Free
Here are a few resources to inform yourself on harmful toxins in our environment:
- The documentary Stink on Netflix – This covers the dangers of fragrance and other synthetic chemicals in our home and body products, and their link to an elevated risk of cancer and disease.
- The website EWG is a huge wealth of knowledge of the best practices for choosing safer food, home and body products. They even have a skin deep and home section where they rate the chemicals in body, home and beauty products! Great resource if you want to look up the toxicity in your favorite products. They even have an app for your phone so you can scan the barcodes of your favorite products and use it while in stores!
It can feel overwhelming to purge your home and go toxic free, especially when you realize there are toxic chemicals in basically EVERYTHING!
First, it’s best not to get scared and panic. Don’t let this cause you anxiety and fear, because that is another form of toxicity to your mood and mental health. Instead, spin it in your mind and tell yourself you are grateful for this knowledge and will find joy in making better choices moving forward.
Second, set a budget. Set money aside each month and make it gradual.
Third, be ok that it will take a bit of time to make all the swaps to toxic free. I started gradually and the first thing I threw away was all the cleaners in my home. At first it felt weird to do that, but once I did it, I felt so good and knew that I was doing a great thing for my family. If you can afford switching a lot of products at once, don’t wait until you use up all your bleach, or laundry detergent. Throw it away now and start living a life full of life and wellness.
I have wished many times that I would have known all of this when my kids were younger. But, it’s never too late to start.
