Essential oils are the newest addition to my natural lifestyle. In some of my posts, I will be sharing uses, recipes, success stories, and basically anything that will be a good resource for you. After these posts about my initial successes in my own personal life (I can’t control my excitement and MUST share NOW), I will spend time focusing more on each of the oils that I currently use to give you a sense of how much you can do with these little bottles of magic.

Did you know it only takes 21 minutes for Young Living oils to reach every cell in your body? Talk about fast! This is serious competition for all the medications that you have in your house. One thing that I need to stress to you is that the essential oils that you choose must be 100% therapeutic grade in order to be effective and not cause any harm. The information I will be sharing on oils will only apply to Young Living Essential Oils as that is what I choose and know.

D. Gary Young started Young Living over 20 years ago. They are a world leader of essential oils. They own their own farms in Utah, Idaho, France, Ecuador, Peru and Oman. Their oils are exclusively used in over 50 hospitals in the US for treatments and complimentary care. The quality of these oils is above and beyond industry standards. The FDA classifies essential oils as a food additive, therefore, there are oils out in the market containing less than 3% essential oil, labeled as 100% pure. The Young Living Seed to Seal process ensures that the products you purchase from them are genuine oils, free of synthetic chemicals, and of unmatched purity. These oils are so pure that you can ingest them!

Enough about the reasons why I choose to use Young Living Essential Oils (YLEO), let’s move on to the good stuff! I had three MAJOR wins within a 4 hour period of time.

Snoring

The one I am most excited about is benefiting both the Russian and I. One of the YLEO blends is called Valor. It’s referred to as a chiropractor in a bottle, but that isn’t even the best use for it! For ten+ years, there has been a snoring issue in our bedroom (not it). I have never been a fantastic sleeper and if I wake up, it’s sometimes difficult for me to go right back to sleep. Especially if there is an incredibly loud rumbling coming from the body next to me. Sometimes I swear it’s like a train. So you can see how neither of us have been experiencing good quality, uninterrupted sleep (forget about the fact that we are parents)…me from the droning snore and him from my pushing him, rolling him over, waking him up to move, and just the waking up that occurs when you snore and have borderline apnoea.

Picture this: It’s 4:30 a.m. on July 5th. I had been drinking the night before (well it was the 4th of July), so I woke up at my usual time. 4:30 a.m. is when my liver and adrenals have dealt with the alcohol and I almost always have crappy sleep from that point on. And I never learn, but that’s not the point of this paragraph. So the Russian Express is running along side of me and it was among the loudest and worst that it had ever been. In his defense, he was still getting over a cold and was quite congested, but still! Oh. My. God it was loud!! I had been reading testimonials about putting Valor on the bottom of the feet, specifically the big toe area, and I knew one of my best friends, The Oil Girl, had used it on her husband with great success. I stumbled into the dining room where all my oils currently are, rummaged through the box to get the valor, and blindly applied it to the bottom of both of his big toes (and a little extra around the area for good measure) as I was still half asleep. Holy crap!! It WORKED! And I’m not talking in an hour. It was MINUTES!

Now, I’m half-crunchy so I believe in a lot of things that others don’t (and scoff at) and I embrace natural relief, therapies, medicine, etc., but even I had my doubts. Not anymore! And even the Russian believes this one! There was silence. It was better than silence. It was seriously the first time that I have ever heard him have peaceful sleep in more than ten years. I was so excited about it that I couldn’t fall back to sleep. There I was, just lying next to him, listening to him quietly breathe, taking the empty sound in. Then I thought of my dad and his girlfriend. I bet she is going to go buy a case of this stuff for my dad. This is magic in a bottle. For real. The Russian has used it every night since. I don’t even have to say anything.

Backache

Since I had been drinking the night before, my sciatica and hip were also keeping me up that morning. The pain was so bad that I could barely relax my leg, so there was little chance of me drifting back off (in addition to my excitement over the snoring cure). After about an hour, I remembered (still new to the oils) reading about Valor and the back. I decided it was worth a shot, especially after my huge win with the Russian snoring machine a short while ago. I got up and rubbed a few drops into my lower left side where my generally uncomfortable SI joint is, and by the time I got back into bed, I was feeling relief. What the Hell?!! Was this for real?!?! Why, yes; yes it was. I was not dreaming, although I wished I was since I was so tired, and the pain was decreasing by the minute. I fell back to sleep for the next hour and a half until I had to get up for work. Enter in my third win.

Hangover

Well, it was the morning after the 4th of July. And I never learn. You would think at my age that I would be past this behavior, but I’m pretty sure it’s a part of me for life. It is what it is. I awake from my final hour+ of sleep, thanks to some Valor on the back of my left hip, and I can tell it’s going to be a bit of a rough morning. Most people rejoice when the 4th falls on a Friday. For me, Saturdays are the only day of the week that I have to actually leave the house in a presentable manner. That is the day that I work my part-time job at a flight school. It’s the day I get to be me again; not mom, not wife, not maid, cook, accountant, dog keeper, etc., etc., etc. It’s just ME. So while I grumble some mornings that I have to get up, I do enjoy my Saturdays, even if they cramp my social life sometimes. What? Wait, I’m a mom. Whatever. I make my way to the bathroom and think, “Why did I do this. Again.”

I remembered reading something about using lemon and grapefruit to help with a hangover. I couldn’t remember and was in no shape to go do any research, so I went ahead and put about two drops of lemon on my fingers and rubbed the back of my neck. Then I took another two drops and rubbed it on my stomach over the general location of where my liver is. Then I repeated both steps with the grapefruit oil. In a matter of minutes, the brain fog cleared up and nearly all the things associated with a mild to moderate hangover were gone. I got ready for work, reapplied both oils a second time, and was on my merry way.

If you take baths, and have time for one, another option is to add a few drops of each oil to the bath and relax. Diffusing would also be a great idea and I was kind of inhaling them as I got ready since my hand still carried their scents. Where has this remedy been all my life? Ha! I don’t meant to imply that I’m hungover all the time, but things happen. Now that I’m a mom, it happens a lot less frequently, but I sure could have used this when I was in my 20s.

You could also use some lavender as it is a natural calmer for both the body and the mind. I didn’t try it, but maybe if there’s a next time.

 Two words of caution: You could/should probably dilute the oils or coat with the carrier oil of your choice. Direct application had no effect on me to cause concern, but if you have sensitive skin you may want to dilute. The other more important thing is that lemon and grapefruit can cause sensitivity to direct sunlight for 12 hours following application. I didn’t have any issues, but just be careful where and when you apply it to the skin.

When I started thinking about writing this section of the post, I decided to dig around and see what else might help with the morning flu. People have found that the high amount of antioxidants in Young Living’s Ningxia Red helps to ease symptoms. I woke up a little “slow” again yesterday and downed one of the 2-oz pouches of this stuff after applying only one round of oils and I was no longer operating in slow motion. I will definitely be bringing a bunch of these pouches on my trip to Charleston in two weeks for a bachelorette weekend (first trip away from my kid! eek!), along with the oils, of course.

There are many benefits from drinking this stuff, but here’s what I found out for this use. It’s recommended to drink 4-6 ounces of Ningxia Red before bed and 4-6 ounces upon waking to aid in recovery from abusing the body with alcohol. If it’s a really bad morning, continue to drink 2 ounces every two hours until you feel better. Again, where was this stuff when I was in college??

Bug bites

If you follow The Half Crunchy Mama on Facebook, then you already saw this one since I couldn’t wait to finish writing this post to share the news. These are before and after pictures from last Thursday. Bugs love my Sugar Bee and she has such a bad reaction to them. The site of the bite spreads out into strange shapes of puffiness. She actually started scratching them that day after getting bit. That was the first time that she has shown discomfort from a bite. Of course if I had sprayed her with the bug spray I made she wouldn’t have been bit up in the first place. My bad.

This first collage are the bites before nap. I applied Young Living lavender essential oil and topped it with a diluted allergy trio mixture that I made with their lemon, peppermint, and lavender mixed together in franctionated coconut oil. I keep this handy in a roller bottle as I’ve been applying it almost daily to her for her crazy seasonal allergies. You can barely see the bite sites in this collage of pictures taken after nap, just two hours later. This stuff is amazing! The pictures don’t really to the reaction justice, but the fact that I had to look back at the pictures from before nap to make sure I was looking at the right places shows how well and fast they healed. This is so incredible and I’m thrilled to have completely natural relief for her. If I can get better about remembering (and carrying) the bug spray, then I shouldn’t need to use this very often.

I have so much more to share with you. This is just a snippet of what these amazing little bottles of oils can do. I felt that it was best to start off with my own personal success stories instead of sharing some of the amazing things that others have experienced.  After I post Part 2 of this, I will get to writing individual posts about one oil at a time to discuss all the things it can be used for. For now, it’s all about what I have witnessed with my own eyes.

Until next time.

If you would like to purchase any of the oils that I mentioned above, visit my store and order directly from there.

If you’re interested in Young Living Essential Oils, whether to browse or sign up as a distributor yourself to get the 24% discount on products, visit here to get started (My Sponsor/Enroller ID  1876381). You won’t be disappointed and you’ve got me to help guide you through it!