Two of my kiddos are special needs. My son, Ryan, is autistic. My daughter, Lauren, well — we’re still trying to navigate what is going on there and it’s not all clear. But her disability creates a defcon five anxiety for her, mostly around (we believe) her visual acuity and depth perception. She also has hypotonia and some sensory things. She’s an enigma we’ve been slowly puzzling together over the last six years of her life.
Which is pretty much what led me to pull the trigger on a starter kit. Ryan’s diagnosis is pretty cut and dry — but his stimming had gotten out of control. And with Lauren. Whooo. We have covered the gamut of providers — pediatric opthamologists, developmental opthamologists, pediatric neuroopthamologists, pediatric neurologists, developmental pediatricians, PT, OT, TVI, chiropractic care. You name it, I’ve tried it for her. And nothing was changing her anxiety, increasing her learning, giving her balance. She wasn’t sleeping, or at least not restfully. Friends, watching your baby struggle is literally the most gut-wrenching experience ON THE PLANET.
I had no idea I was experiencing my own anxiety and sleeplessness that could be supported with oils, which is ironic, because in a fit of weeklong insomnia I was scrolling instagram when I encountered my friend Jessica’s beautiful oils education feed and thought to myself, huh, we haven’t tried this yet.
And so it goes, that at nearly 4 a.m. on October 12, 2018, I clicked a link taking me to a bunch of products I knew literally nothing about and clicked purchase. Then sent my friend Jess a text (yes, also at 4 a.m., which was really 2 a.m. her time — as though that’s excusable) saying. “I’m in. What do I do now?”
What I didn’t expect, is that the oils would work. I mean we had exhausted everything with no success, so why would this be different? I didn’t expect that a simple roller blend would allow my son to go from non-stop stim to sitting for 45 minutes of sustained homework without much of the excess self-soothing repetition that had plagued him all year. That my daughter would sleep peacefully through the night without waking up screaming or terrified, or without fearing the process of actually going to sleep.
I now use oils for so many things — sleep support, to boost my workouts, anxiety support, cleaning, emotional support, (ha) and, yes, just to make my house smell good.
Another part of this that I totally didn’t expect was the community that surrounds these products — it was more support than I could ever imagine. And having this group of women walk alongside me in our journey to wellness has made the process so much less intimidating.
I have never once for a second felt alone with my oils. And, to be honest, I had typecasted what oily people would be like, and these are everyday women — just like you and me. The ones dreaming of solo trips to target, reheating the same cup of coffee, juggling too many balls, and counting down the minutes to bedtime only to miss their kiddos an hour after they’re asleep. Yes. Just like us.
Through the process of “becoming oily”, I began to research why these products were working (as opposed to which products might work) and through that I discovered the connection between the chemicals in our everyday products and our health, and I was honestly shocked.
Slowly this went from a maybe this will help my kiddos to holy crap this is actually working to replacing products I had used all of my life with safer, cleaner options.
And as scary as that transition sounds, it wasn’t. It was slow. On my timeline. And this community (you guys, the. community.) taught me how to use this stuff and ways to stretch our household budget (and the products themselves!) to make this work. Because hello, it’s worth it. But also, hello! Single mom of four.
And I have been so grateful for programs like Essential Rewards which made it easy for me to order and fill my home with affordable, nontoxic, versatile products that were clean and promised transparency.
Let me be clear, I’m not perfect. But the difference in them AND in me since I’ve introduced this path has been a total mic drop.
If you’re curious, the premium starter kit is literally the best place to start. (It’s where I started.) I know you’ll have all of the support you need to put your oils to use, no matter your goal.