emotional shifts Archives - Integrated Mama Wellness

10 Essential Oils to Improve Your Mood

By integratedmama on July 8, 2020

Who here feels the weight of negative emotions on them at some point every day? We all do, I know that for a fact and I also know that the current situation is triggering us all in ways that we are not used to.

I’m going to share with you how essential oils can help you bust through 10 common negative emotions and move on to the other side.

You don’t always have to feel this way.

Did you know emotions and our emotional patterning can become an ADDICTION? Every emotion we experience penetrates deep into our cellular structure. We all have our own stories, experiences, beliefs, and emotional turmoil.

No matter the source of our traumas, we all tend to have similar physiological responses. Each trauma we experience causes us to release chemicals (hormones, enzymes, etc) that imprint on cells. Of course, no two people are the same. So I may end up with a tension headache and you may feel it in your stomach.

What this means is that how we internalize our emotions, and how we feel DIS-EASE can also manifest as DISEASE. The good news is, we do not have to accept our negative emotions and can shift our emotions so they do not manifest as illness. I like to think of emotions as “energy-in-motion”, so we can release the negative energy.

How can oils help?

The limbic region (emotional center) of the brain dictates how we interpret intense experiences. This is the “emotional processing center” of the brain. It dictates how we store and release emotional trauma.

The limbic region of the brain is less than an inch from our olfactory nerve. When an essential oil is inhaled the molecules are trapped by the olfactory membranes. Essential oils support all of our body systems and the molecules fit like a puzzle piece into specific receptor sites that trigger the olfactory bulb.

Data is transmitted to the limbic system and messages are sent to all parts of the brain to regulate stress responses. The sense of smell causes our body to REACT before we recognize why. So if we walk into a room and lavender is diffusing we will FEEL calm before we PROCESS why we are calm. Our other senses cause us to recognize first before reacting.

Essential Oils To Shift Occasional Negative Emotions

As a rule, the compounds in essential oils bring balance to the body. Releasing with oils isn’t dramatic. The emotions release step-by-step over time so some emotions release quickly and others may more time. The longer, the older, the more damaging traumas sometimes take 30-60 days. A full red-blood-cell regeneration cycle is somewhere between 100-120 days. I’ve seen/felt dramatic emotional shifts after committing to 60 days of daily use.

I am going to share a few common negative emotions and good oils to help release them and where to apply (although you can apply or just inhale the oils and still receive the benefit).

10 Common Negative Emotions

Anger— Purification oil blend applied over the liver (under right rib-cage). I have been having my teenager diffuse this one in his room to help keep his emotions balanced.
Grief— Joy oil blend over the heart. The opposite emotion of grief is happiness.
Resentment— Lemongrass applied over hepatic duct (under right rib cage again). Resentment is a very toxic emotion and is typically directed at someone else, however ultimately hurting only the person carrying the resentment.
Fear— My favorite oil blend for fear is Valor. Valor is a great oil to provide emotional balance and feelings of courage. I mention a book below that even shares essential oils for specific fears.
Failure— Peppermint is great applied over the collarbone to release feelings of failure.
Overwhelm— Envision essential oil blend is a great oil for giving you clear vision and releasing feelings of overwhelm. A confused mind is usually unable to make clear decisions and generally stops in its tracks which can prevent you from making positive steps forward.
Guilt— I know all of us sometimes feel guilty. Humans tend to take on guilt when setting boundaries or saying no to others and some of us hold on to guilt over our past. The oil blend Clarity works wonders to release guilt. I like to apply this one on the left lower ribs.
Exhaustion— Have you ever felt emotionally exhausted? Do you feel all the feelings? The essential oil blend PanAway works wonders to release occasional emotional exhaustion and I love applying it over my lower back/sacral area.
Sadness— Lemon essential oil can quickly change a sad mood. The sinus body alarm point is a great place to apply and that is located in the middle of the forehead between the eyes.
Occasional Depression— The oil blend Peace & Calming is wonderful for shifting occasional depression, it is nice to apply it on the occipital bone (the bone on the back of your head behind ears).

Affirmations

When applying an essential oil to release occasional negative emotions, using an affirmation can help. I often use the book Releasing Emotional Patterns with Essential Oils by Carolyn Mein and the book is a very comprehensive guide. It shares oils to use for certain emotions, specific emotional points, a how-to guide for muscle testing, and affirmations for quickly shifting emotional patterns.

Want to learn more?

I am not a medical professional and I want to reiterate that if any of your emotional difficulties are chronic, please see a professional. If learning more about this fascinates you the book is a wonderful tool. If you haven’t started with essential oils, understand how to get them for 24% off retail.

The Household Healer

By integratedmama on June 26, 2020

“Our children are our garden. They absorb our stress, just as they absorb our peace. They absorb our negativity, just as they absorb our joy. We have the power to control what they absorb, but first, we must tend to ourselves.”⁠⠀
—Rachel Macy Stafford

My blogging has taken the back burner. The climate of the world has been tough for me to address in writing so I have been educating myself and truly examining and strengthening my core.

I just want to share a little bit about my parenting philosophy and why I share the things I share. In our home, we lean away from mainstream thought when it comes to healing and I value my role in our family as our healer. So, we do lots of things like essential oils, tinctures, foods, supplements, lotions, and potions, and emotional wellness.

A family touchpoint for wellness is to make sure we are tending to our physical, spiritual and emotional bodies. This keeps us strong as we are faced with challenges, triumphs. We have to adjust, adapt, and acclimatize as life comes at us.

My most important work as a mother is to stay emotionally strong and balanced. Yes, I have weak moments and yes, I make mistakes. So I try really damn hard to own it and make a change as quickly as possible so that I am one of the peaceful leaders of our pack.

On the broader scale, I have really internalized how important family wellness is for all of humanity. For a while, I felt helpless, and like our society is crumbling (and it may be) but what can I control? I can control myself (thoughts) and what I allow to infiltrate my kids. I think the healing of the world begins at home and I am ready to take those steps every day.

Practicing Gratitude

By integratedmama on November 20, 2019

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The Thanksgiving holiday is right around the corner and in my MOP’s Facebook group we have been answering certain thankfulness questions. This has caused me to remember when I thought gratitude was just an expression of thanks in a mannerly way. Gratitude is something I recognized as powerful several years ago, so it is fun to participate and recognize gratitude in many different aspects of life. Gratitude is actually the opposite emotion of fear.

When I married Gus, my friend and wedding officiant told me to thank Gus for being him. Be grateful for who he is and what he brings to my life and our family (I’m paraphrasing, however that was the gist). At the same time, I also started keeping a small gratitude journal in my bedside table. Each night for about a year, I wrote down 3 things I was grateful for in my day.

It wasn’t a “quick fix”. Over time, I started feeling better in my body. An anxious feeling I carried a lot in my chest, a questioning of sorts was lifted. The desire to be more, to do more (in a hardcore, unpleasant way) shifted and I started feeling more secure in my life and my decisions.

What is gratitude?

dictionary.com defines it as “the quality of being thankful; readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness”.

How does gratitude change things?

When we feel grateful, we feel full. We feel full of love, inspiration, ideas, and creativity. This is actually quite powerful. We are born to create, we have the ability to create a life of our own design. Sometimes it is difficult to find the light in life when things look or feel bleak, but taking just a moment to recognize and feel gratitude can start to shift our perspective, and even what crosses our path. And there’s actual research that feeling gratitude can literally reduce the risk of heart disease.

I hope I can gift my children with the knowledge of the power of gratitude. I know as an adult, feeling the true sense of gratitude took practice, especially when “getting over” any sort of trauma or emotional pain. I hope I can model gratitude as more than just saying “thank you”.

Here are a few ways to recognize gratitude and practice it for yourself or with your family and begin to shift and fill your cup.

A Gratitude Journal: a simple tool, nothing fancy– just recognizing 3 things each evening before bed and writing them down.

Thank You Cards: in our digital age texting a thank you may be the simplest way to communicate. I have always valued thank you cards and write them myself. My oldest is good about doing it too, and I want him to truly appreciate others and what they do. Instant gratification and expectation is a tough habit to break and writing things out in a personal note can open up a stronger awareness.

Gratitude Alphabet: This is fun and something I read in a book when my oldest was a little guy. Write down the letters of the alphabet and write down something we are grateful for that begins with each corresponding letter. We will do this right before Thanksgiving and display them on our dining room wall just for a tangible reminder.

These are 3 simple things that can be incorporated in daily life or family rhythm and can foster an open heart so that kindness comes naturally. In my world, I am now grateful every evening. It hits me after I put the kids to bed, do the final clean up and take a moment to look around my house. I truly feel grateful for my home and who’s in it and for the process it took to achieve this kind of peace. It is a good feeling and something I want to maintain and expand on. How do you express gratitude and what have you noticed from it?

Reset and Rebound

By integratedmama on April 16, 2018

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Last week was a week for the books. Our family has a rhythm, a routine, as I’m sure most families do. The spring time hustle has begun, so our “normal” rhythm is starting to adjust to longer daytime hours and spring activities. Last week, we barely had time to eat together as a family, so the mindfulness we were using at mealtimes was pushed aside for quick, throw together meals. Having this ability is a necessity when your days are full.

Revamping habits and taking hold of a new lifestyle requires discipline and adaptability. This goes for physical, mental, or emotional “weeding”. Since beginning the Plant Paradox, I have really become aware of my relationship with food. I have an anxiety with the thought of being without, or not knowing where my food will come from next. I also have a fear of boredom, or not liking my choices. After 6 weeks of following the lectin-free dietary suggestions, I realized my habits were starting to detour toward the familiar. Even though I was still following the “compliant” foods, my cravings were moving toward sweet, or “comfort” type meals. Heavy meats/protein meals, cheeses, and yogurt were what I would reach for, rather than the vegetables that should lead the show.

We gradually moved toward our old habits unconsciously, which is how most old habits resurface. In our family, we are working on changing our lifestyle, not just “dieting” to lose a few pounds. We are focusing on the insides of our bodies, not the outsides. Over the weekend, we realized how we were feeling and our habitual patterns. My husband and I decided to realign our bodies and our minds and jump-start our gut health by following a 3-day cleanse which helps feed the good guys, not the bad. Looking at our digestive health and our cravings point to the fact that our bad bacteria were asking to be “fed”, so we need to let that go and move toward feeding our bodies not our minds. When we feel stress or pressure from having busy days, that can lead to wanting convenience and comfort, which often is relational to food.

When cleansing, and following a strict plan you realize how little your body actually requires and how much time is often consumed by food. Whether it is thinking about it, planning for it, shopping for it, cooking it, cleaning it up, or going out to eat, and starting the cycle all over each day. It is also easier to see what emotions arise when the atmosphere changes around eating habits. I can use this metaphor around any type of “weeding” I am doing in my life. Good habits take work and repetition, even when it feels easier to “slip” for a day or two, old habits die-hard.