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Introduction

0.1        Your quest for optimum wellness

Have you ever wondered what life would be like to be completely healthy?  You may have had times in your life when you have felt invincible and times when you have felt like the living dead (think zombies, but less animated).  Everything (absolutely anything) that people seek after has but one goal behind it: happiness.  Simply put, men and women exist to have joy.  So, why do we want to obtain wellness?  Because it is irrefutable that obtaining complete wellness will bring more joy.

Solid wellness is a desire we all have (like the holy grail or capturing a rare Pokémon).  Let’s define solid wellness: this means your body is operating at optimal ability.   It means that you have the energy, stamina, access to your intellect, and you are the master of your world.  Sounds good, huh?  But, how to get it there?  Hmmmm…  That’s the question, right?

We get so much advice from so many areas.  But wait… there’s more… and more… and more and… everyone is giving advice and sometimes they are saying things a little bit different.  It can seem confusing, right?  Well, I don’t want to add to the cacophony (a fancy word that means all the noise and information out there).  I merely want to give you context, principles, and a paradigm to sort out all that information available in the world into 10 Steps.

So, why does wellness matter, again?  It matters because your greatest treasure is your body and your mind.  Imagine with me, for a little bit, that society has progressed far beyond our wildest dreams: that everyone is able to obtain whatever he or she wished, that they could possess whatever they wanted.  What then, do you think, would be an individual’s greatest possession in that kind of society?  It would be that individual’s body and mind.  An individual in that perfect society will put a high priority on caring for, maintaining, beautifying, and glorifying his or her body.  He or she will likewise exalt his or her mind and intelligence to be superior and wondrous.  Physical possessions in that society would be essentially worthless because they could easily be obtained and discarded at will.

Optimum wellness, on the other hand, would be the object of every individual’s desire.  Wellness merely describes the state of your body, and your mind.  This, to a great part, determines your level of satisfaction and happiness in life and the extent that you fulfill your purpose.  Your wellness is paramount to any other possession.  That’s why.

0.2        Wellness Philosophies

We all agree with the irrefutable fundamentals of good health: eat right, exercise, get enough sleep.  Have you heard the three-pillar approach?  Eat right, exercise, and rest.  This basically covers these simple philosophies.  A philosophy, because I just can’t help to randomly define simple words, is the study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality, and existence.  So, in this sense, it is a way of thinking about how things actually are.  Therefore, eating right, exercising, and resting is a simple philosophy for obtaining wellness.

This is a great (and easy) way to view your health.  But like all simple concepts, it is not enough to capture the complexities of wellness.  And maybe what I present here also falls short of capturing it all, but I believe it is much more helpful and at least captures all the important things.

Not too long ago, I encountered another wellness philosophy represented by a pyramid.  And, of course, if you can represent your idea in pyramid form, it must have some truth to it, right?  Presenting the Wellness Pyramid of Truth![1]  Others agree with this general philosophy.  Mike Adams (the Health Ranger)[2] said, “Today, more than 95% of all chronic disease is caused by food choice, toxic food ingredients, nutritional deficiencies and lack of physical exercise.”  This philosophy purports that optimum wellness will be within your grasp by following these 6 principles:

• Eat Right means that you eat the right quantity (how much), quality (wholesome nourishing food), and at the right frequency (how often like three or six meals a day).
• Exercise means the frequency, duration, intensity, and variety of your movements.
• Rest & Manage Stress is about sleep, relaxing (including playing), and taking time to breathe or meditate.
• Reduce Toxic Load means you try to remove as much exposure to toxins as possible in your life, and to rid your body of toxins that may have already built up.
• Informed Self Care means taking care of ailments when they arise, being informed about possible side effects to different approaches and using natural remedies where effective and possible.
• Proactive Medical Care means you responsibly seek medical care when necessary, you own your responsibility for your health. For example, asking your medical professional for a second opinion when you should.

I love this philosophy, and use it as a base for a more in-depth approach below.  To this philosophy I add an emphasis and details to the six principles above as well as complete the philosophy by adding missing elements.  My 10 Steps to Guarantee Optimum Wellness includes… well, 10 Steps:

1. Eat Right > Obtain Nourishment
2. Exercise > Meaningfully Move & Exercise
3. Rest & Manage Stress > Rest and Play
4. Informed Self and Medical Care > Care for Yourself
5. Reduce Toxic Load > Return to Nature
6. Hold Only Good Energy and Emotions
7. Focus Your Thinking
8. Detect Your Purpose
9. Love and Connect
10. Follow You Moral Compass

I think these added elements and emphasis completes the picture of optimum wellness.  What do you think?

0.3        A More Complete Picture

This takes the above paradigms or concepts from a physical plain to one that incorporates body, mind, and spirit.  But, why?  Because, you are a dynamic soul.  Sunday school teachers teach us that your soul is made up of your body and your spirit.  Our mind is where our consciousness lives in our spirit and body.  There is much more we can say about this subject, but this is just a short eBook.  We will proceed with the premise that an individual’s wellness concerns not only his or her body, but also his or her spirit and/or mind.

Everything you have been taught about health and wellness up to now in your life is incomplete.  Yet many of the ideas below are not entirely new, either.  Your body is so connected to your spirit and your mind that imbalance in one can manifest as an ailment in the other.  Therefore, we cannot talk about complete Optimum Wellness without addressing the body together with the mind, and spirit.  For a more complete picture we approach wellness in the following 10 Steps.

A note on the word ‘spirit’:  Okay, I just said, ‘spirit’.  Some people may be tempted to shut down when anyone talks about, ‘spirit’.  Don’t worry, this isn’t a spiritual text.  Yes, for some of you, talk of ‘spirit’ feels like we are departing from accepted science.  Accepted science has not explored this area much, but I believe it will in the future.  There are two proper responses to this reaction: First, science is progressing in this area, just not popular science (not the magazine, Popular Science, which is a great read, but the generally accepted opinions of the scientific community).  But if it’s the truth, acceptance will come.  The idea that the Earth is round eventually caught on, didn’t it.  Second, there are actually many ways we build human knowledge other than the scientific method.  We are open to any reliable method of obtaining truth and knowledge.

Some of you might prefer the term ‘essence’ or ‘energy’ rather than ‘spirit’.  This is a philosophical piece, so feel free to replace or interpret the terms, as you need to do so to feel comfortable and align these ideas with your philosophies and beliefs.  The main purpose of this work is to construct a more complete philosophy of wellness.

0.4        Infused with Essential Oils

What are essential oils?  Essential oils are ①lipid soluble compounds, which are ②natural-occurring (extracted or distilled from plants), ③therapeutic (have a physical benefit to wellness), ④volatile (easily evaporates at room temperature), ⑤aromatic (having a pleasant and distinctive smell), and ⑥concentrated (a single drop can have profound affect).

You will notice that this document is infused with essential oils—that is to say I make an essential oil recommendation for nearly every category here.  Why? I am nuts about them (I can’t help but share these amazing things).

Firstly, when essential oils came into my life, things began to change.  Suddenly I was empowered to take care of my health in simple natural ways.  It was amazing.  It seemed like there was a solution for everything from a simple cough to helping your body overcome debilitating illnesses and handicaps.  My health changed dramatically: I had more energy, I lost weight, I got sick less, I didn’t need to turn to prescriptions or over-the-counter drugs or medical doctors because there was nothing to cure.

Secondly, I started to share with everyone, and before I knew it, we were involved in some kind of fantastic network marketing world where we earned money by bringing joy and empowerment to others.  It was unreal.  I envision a world where everyone on the planet is empowered to use things like essential oils to obtain ultimate wellness.  This is my life’s purpose.

Quality: Just a note on essential oil quality: the essential oils I use, recommend and talk about here are of a high purity and therapeutic grade.  Only use this highest grade essential oil to get the optimal results.  Don’t take shortcuts here.

So, having said that, here is your first essential oil recommendation (indicated by purple text).

Essential Oil Recommendation: If you have it, get out either your Focus Blend essential oil or a blend of Peppermint and Wild Orange essential oils to help open your mind and focus on the document in front of you.

…

Now for the first of our 10 steps:

1            Obtain Nourishment

You are what you eat.  Done.  Next section.

I wish it were that simple.  If you want to become a banana, for instance, eat one.  I’m not sure who would want to be a banana, though.  Our body is not simply unexplainable magic.  It works based on the limitations of the physical world.  It is a sophisticated system of chemical reactions, biological processes, and replicable compounds.

The food we eat not only gives us fuel to live and move with but also gives our body the building blocks to build and grow.  Our wellness is most affected by what food we eat.  So, step one is Obtain Nourishment.  We will use the words nutrition and nourishment interchangeably here.

Optimum nutrition has three components:

1. the right quality (what you eat),
2. the right quantity (how much you eat), and
3. the right frequency (how often you eat).

1.1        Complete Nourishment

Let us first address the quality of your diet.  Here is where all the advice about ‘what to eat’ goes.  You have likely heard much, much advice about what to eat and what not to eat.  So, I’ll be brief.  Wholesome food.  Whole food.  As natural and unadulterated as you can get it.

1.1.1 Natural and Wholesome Food

Natural and wholesome food means choosing fresh, whole foods from natural sources.  In our modern environment, it is also important what not to eat: processed foods or plant and animal products grown with toxins, herbicides, steroids, and other synthetic chemicals or possibly from genetically modified DNA.  Food from these sources contains unnatural nutrient ratios or foreign and toxic compounds which are harmful to our bodies.  In general, avoid sugars, harmful fats, and anything enhanced through unnatural mutation or chemical treatment.  Also, it is good advice to avoid enhanced food and use animal products sparingly.  Just say no to non-food.

Drinking enough water during the day is also an important component to nutrition.

1.1.2 Macronutrients

Balance your macronutrients, which are the structural component and energy-giving caloric components in our food.  These include carbohydrates, fats, and proteins.  You need all three of these macronutrients.  You also need a balance of them.

1.1.3 Micronutrients

Get a complete and optimum range or micronutrients.  Micronutrients are the essential vitamins, minerals, enzymes, trace elements, phytochemicals, and antioxidants your body needs to grow and function properly.  Often we need to supplement our modern-day diet to reach optimum levels of micronutrients.  This can be done with quality, bioavailable supplements.  In our modern day, supplements are a must for optimum health.  I repeat, you cannot obtain optimum health without supplementing your diet, you will not get enough micronutrients.

Essential Oil Recommendation: The Digestive Blend essential oil helps improve digestion.  Also, try the-Essential Oil-infused Omega Complex and Daily Food Supplements.

1.2        Fuel/Fire Balance and Healthy Weight

Let’s talk about Quantity, and Frequency—that means how much you eat and how often you eat it.

1.2.1 Quantity

Quantity means matching your caloric intake with your caloric burn rate.  Too much, and you may store energy in fat cells.  Too few and you lack fuel and feel fatigued, leaving your body to catabolize on muscle and other systems.  Maintaining a healthy physique is akin to maintaining wealth, only the reverse.  In one’s financial endeavors, wealth arises from spending less and saving more.  In one’s physical body health arises from spending more and saving less.

For some people, it is not easy to control the quantity they eat.  It’s a fuel/fire balance.  When we consume too little or too much, it can add to our weight.  There are other factors that contribute to an unhealthy weight, but it will always involve quantity of food consumed and how that balances with what is used.  How to do that is the subject of another discussion.

 

1.2.2 Frequency

Frequency and timing is a matter of metabolism.  Your metabolism is like a burning fire or in your core.  Your body is burning calories as long as the fire is going.  The idea here is to maintain a healthy metabolism, which usually means a higher metabolism.  One example of something we can do to maintain a higher metabolism is eating more often.  Eating 6 smaller meals, rather than eating 3 larger ones, keeps the fire going, your metabolism high, and the calories burning.  Nourishment and recovery is also part of frequency.  Before or after intense physical exertions such as in strength training, a higher intake of fuel and nourishment may be necessary.

Essential Oil Recommendation: Grapefruit or Metabolic Blend essential oils improve metabolism.  Also, try the other Metabolic blend line of products.

1.3        Maintain a Healthy Digestive Tract

So, we have spoken about what to eat.  Let’s talk a bit about eating.  Our body is amazing.  It is composed of zillions of tiny cells, and cells eat by absorbing.  We do, too.  The surface area of our body is not just dominated by our skin.  Our digestive tract (gut, our intestine, our stomach) has a massive surface area and its sole purpose is to absorb nutrients from the food we eat.  When it is clean and functioning well, we enjoy fuller wellness.  When it is not, we suffer from things like fatigue, soreness, mental fog, and a suppressed immune system.  The most common problem in an unhealthy gut is an imbalance in the symbiotic relationship between us and our gut bacteria.

We don’t often think of ourselves living in a symbiotic relationship with bacteria, but we do.  Millions of cells living in our gut, that don’t share our DNA, are critical to our health.  They are visitors.  Sometimes they get out of hand or they are the bad sort.  The advice and stuff you have heard about Candida and gut rot can go in this category.  These problems prevent us from absorbing the nutrients we need-regardless of what we eat.

To obtain optimum wellness, we need a clean gut, which includes removing bad bacteria and replacing it with good bacteria, and generally cleaning out our gut.

Essential Oil Recommendation: The GI Cleansing Essential Oil blend and the probiotic supplement are awesome at giving your gut a clean slate.

1.4        Wellness Conclusion

When we have the optimum nutrients in the right amount, we are on our way to optimum wellness.

A great majority of health concerns in our modern society are related to nutrition.  Symptoms of nutritional deficiency can be mistaken for or labeled as diseases.  Cleaning your gut and getting proper nutrition, including hydration, will restore you to a state of wellness and many of the so-called symptoms simply go away.

Dr. Bernard Jensen said, “Nutrition is the only remedy that can bring full recovery and can be used with any treatment.  Remember, food is our best medicine!”

2           Meaningfully Move & Exercise

This is always the second biggest area that will affect your wellness.  Presenting the second step toward wellness: Meaningful Movement and Exercise.  Exercising is training your muscles and heart to be strong and healthy; this practice vitalizes the rest of your body.  A healthy exercise habit consists of frequency, duration, intensity, and variety.  Improving movement and exercising will increase your wellness as your body becomes stronger and more fit.  It is not about losing weight.  It is about wellness and finding pleasure in having a fit, strong and healthy body.

2.1        Frequency

Frequency means how many days you exercise on a weekly basis.  Three to four times a week is ideal with rest or lower level activity on the days in between.  Of course, everyone is different, but too little is not good and too much can be just as detrimental.

2.2        Duration

Duration is about how long you exercise for every time you exercise.  Ideally, you want to raise your heart rate for 30 to 45 minutes a day.  Some exercise categories like aerobic exercise may raise your heart rate higher than others.

Essential Oil Recommendation: Using Peppermint to invigorate you and improve endurance.  Encouraging blend will motivate you to exercise consistently.

2.3        Intensity

Intensity means your exercise routine should alternate through levels of high intensity and low intensity, just like early-man hunting for food.  The higher the intensity, the higher the after-burn affect, the more effective the exercise can be—especially in raising your metabolism.  This is about timing, placing one exercise right after another or incrementally increasing your weight load.  Some activities, like weight training, require you to rest; shortening that rest time can increase the intensity.

2.4        Variety

Variety could include strength training, aerobic activity, and flexibility exercise.

Strength Training is the best kind of exercise for improved body mass and an effective after-burn effect.  After-burn means your body continues to burn calories for up to a day after you train.  This training involves weight lifting.

Aerobic Activity is exercise for your heart and body systems.  During these exercises, your heart rate should be elevated and intensified.  Running, swimming, and exercises like burpees, jumps, and high-intensity, whole-body, and body-weight movements.

Flexibility Exercises are activities that involve stretching, slow movement and posing.  An activity in this category would be yoga.  Yeah, fun.

Essential Oil Recommendation: Soothing blend to help sore muscles and joints recover, and Massage blend to improve circulation.

2.5        Actively Engaged

The key here is also to be actively engaged in something.  Get out and be useful.  When it comes to muscle mass, use it or lose it.  But merely being active and getting around will improve anyone’s vitality.  At the very least, start by taking a walk.

Essential Oil Recommendation: Patchouli essential oil helps you connect and relate to your body.

2.6       Wellness Conclusion

Being active, meaningfully moving, and regularly exercising improve your strength, vitality, fitness, and contribute to your optimum wellness.

3            Rest and Play

Resting and managing stress allows your body to recover, renew, and achieve harmony within and with its environment.  Your body needs rest and recovery on several levels: from physical challenges, from emotional and psychological strain, and from normal daily activities.  Lack of rest or overexposure to physical stress can lead to many health problems.

3.1        Sleep

Sleep allows the body to recover from normal daily activities.  Your body systems need to recharge and renew.  For example, your brain detoxes as you sleep.  A good night’s sleep will help improve many areas of your life.  Some say you should spend 1/3 of your day (8 hours) working, 1/3 of your day (8 hours) playing, and 1/3 of your day (8 hours) sleeping.  How much and how often depends on your situation in life.

A good sleep can help your body regain balance, rebuild metabolism, remove waste, renew organs, processing memories, and replacing energy reserves.

Essential Oil Recommendation: Lavender, Calming Blend, Vetiver, Petitgrain, or Juniper Berry are our favorite essential oils for good sleep.

3.2        Recovery

Recovery days help you recover from physical challenges like intensive exercising.  Days of intense exercising should be followed by days of recovery, which allow the body to build up and repair, a process that gains strength and muscle tone.  Likewise, if something stressful or traumatic has happened to you, make sure you take time to recover.  This may also mean taking a holiday of vacation every once in a while to renew or taking a day of rest on a weekly basis.

Essential Oil Recommendation: Invigorating Blend and Joyful Blend are great to elevate yourself above life’s struggles and escape for a moment of bliss.

3.3        Stress management

Okay there are two kinds of stress: physical and emotional.  Here, we are primarily talking about physical stress, but the same applies to emotional stress, which will be covered below with emotions.  Stress has been defined as your body’s reaction to needs not being met.  Stress to others is trying to squeeze more productivity out of the same inputs.

However you define it, it needs to be managed.  It doesn’t matter whether the stress is from something good or bad because the body perceives stress created by good experiences in the same way it perceives stress crested by bad experiences.  Too much stress can lead to a decline in your wellness.   Long-term stress maintains the body in a constant state of alarm and distress.  Stress can trigger hundreds of chemical and physical reactions and activates more than thirty hormones and neurotransmitters.

Essential Oil Recommendation: Grounding Blend, Wild Orange, Lemon or other citrus oils can help to both ground you and lift you up and renew your big picture.

3.4        Relaxing

Relaxing and unwinding is important to overall wellness and a counterbalance to stress.  Breathing or meditation helps rest from emotional and psychological strain.  Take a moment to breathe.  Take a nap.  This means taking time out of your day to unwind your mind, forget your worried, renew your canvas, see the bigger picture, and step back from work and worries.  Breathing exercises, aromatherapy, calm music all assist you center and rest your soul.

Essential Oil Recommendation: Respiratory Blend to help you breathe, clear your mind, and oxygenate.  Calming blend to help you relax.  I also like Vetiver, Cedarwood and Petitgrain.

Also consider an aromatherapy massage to help relax as well as build immunity, balance, inflammatory support and homeostasis.

3.5        Playing

The need for play in our life is often overlooked.  Yet there are many studies that show that people who take time to play perform better and feel better.  This could take the form of a hobby, a game, or anything else that is enjoyable to you, whether that is productive or not.

Essential Oil Recommendation: Ylang Ylang, Uplifting Blend, Invigorating Blend, and Joyful Blend are all great essential oils for play time.

4           Care for Yourself

You can’t expect to enjoy optimum wellness if you don’t take care of your simple health requirements.  Eating right, exercising, and getting enough sleep will only help bring you the wellness you desire if you succeed to do simple things like brush your teeth, treat a simple cut, clean your clothes, or even bathe. Clearly, the simple three-pillar paradigm assumes these practices would normally be followed.  However, details are important.  If you adhere to anything in this document, it is on the premise that you are responsible for physically caring for yourself.

4.1        Hygiene

This is going to be quick because if you are reading this, you likely already taking care of your hygiene.  However, composing a complete guide for Optimum Wellness requires us to include even the basics.  The basic idea is to clean yourself.  Brush your teeth.  Comb your hair.  Take regular (daily) baths.  Wipe your backside.  Take pride in yourself.   Take pride in the way you look and smell.  Doing so will improve your wellness on a number of levels.

Essential Oil Recommendation: Protective Blend toothpaste, Essential oil infused soap, shampoo, and conditioner, and essential oil perfumes and colognes

4.2        Beauty and Appearance

The way you feel is affected by the way you look and vice versa.  This is similar to the dress for success principle.  There are so many things you can do to make yourself look and feel beautiful.  First, love yourself.  Take care of your body (as above), and in addition to keeping clean, maintain your appearance, highlight what is already beautiful about you.  When you are well inside, your skin, hair, and appearance will be more radiant.

Essential Oil Recommendation: Anti-aging blend, Essential oil infused lotion, skin care products, and spa products.

4.3        Physical Maintenance and Repair

Despite our best efforts, we sometimes experience suboptimal health conditions.  Because, let’s face it, life happens.  You can have the ultimate immune system and sickness can still happen.  Optimum Wellness lowers the probability of illness, but does not eliminate it—nothing can.  Life happens.  Anyone who lives a substantial amount of time on Earth will experience coughs, paper cuts, bruises, and sore tummies.

So, it is up to us to choose how we will respond when sub-optimal health happens.  Some choices are better than others.  Being able to maintain our physical bodies and help in the repair or recovery process is key to wellness.  It is so simple and fundamental it is often just assumed.

Essential Oil Recommendation: Frankincense, Lemon, Lavender, Peppermint, Melaleuca, Oregano, Respiratory Blend, Digestive Blend, Soothing Blend, and Protective Blend are the basic essential oils that every family should have.

4.4        Address Root Causes

Take active steps to address the root cause of the ailment rather than just address the manifestations or symptoms.  Treating the symptoms is like covering up a ‘check engine’ light with a band aid.  It is just an unintelligent way of hiding the surface problem while at the same time irresponsibly making the actual problem worse.  Failing to address the root cause expands and extends the true problem.  By treating the root cause, you not only permanently alleviate the symptom, but you also achieve balance and true healing.  Many popular medical solutions are just covering up or silencing the symptoms.

If you can’t tell by now, I prefer natural solutions to popular chemical and invasive approaches.  Natural solutions help keep our body free of toxins while at the same time support the body’s natural ability to keep itself healthy. This is deeply empowering to be able to confidently care for our health at this level.

Essential Oil Recommendation: emotional aromatherapy blends, Protective blend, Detoxification blend, and Cleansing blend, just to name a few

4.5        Competent Medical Assistance When Advisable

Seek care when needed.  There are times when we suffer from disease or illness that it becomes important to seek out competent and qualified medical professionals for help.

Own your responsibility for your health.  During treatment, we can be responsible for our own health and recovery by taking a proactive role in our health.  We can choose what course of treatment we submit ourselves to, even if it means seeking second and third opinions from these professionals.

Inform yourself by purposefully questioning your assisting professional in the quest for truth and solutions.  Informed people question their health professionals, challenge diagnoses, understand prescriptions, and know all their treatment options.

Seek out medical professionals who will both inform you and will be open to your input and who desire to take a proactive role in your treatment.  Professionals that are open to natural solutions do exist, and it is both your responsibility and right to seek them out.

Essential Oil Recommendation: Comforting, Encouraging, Inspiring, Invigorating, and Reassuring Blends.

5           Return to Nature

We do not live in the same natural environment our ancestors did.  Our bodies function best in the absence of foreign or unfriendly chemicals or compounds.  We’ll call these toxins.  Nature has a few toxins, but most of the toxins we encounter in modern life are man-made.

Toxins are in our environment, in our air, in our water, and in our homes including our personal care and cleaning products.   Some examples of common household toxins include synthetically produced chemicals such as triclosan, bisphenol a (BPA), pesticides, SLES, and xenoestrogens, as well as heavy metals.

Exposure to toxins can deteriorate our health and sense of wellness, confuse our body systems, increase systemic stress, destroy nerve tissue, and also increase our body fat ratio.  For example, your body naturally wraps toxins in fat in an effort to protect the body.  This natural protection mechanism can frustrate efforts to maintain a healthy weight.  Some toxins are also endocrine disruptors that fool or disrupt our hormone response system throwing the body’s hormone levels off balance.

There are two ways to deal with toxins in our life: Reduce and Detox.

5.1        Purify Your Environment

Reduce toxins by avoiding exposure.  Since most of the products in our home potentially could have toxins in them, you can avoid a large amount of toxic exposure by using natural products.  Many of these products have essential oils as the active ingredient.  Essential oils are nature’s solution.  This includes cleaning products, skin care, hair care, detergents, and creams and lotions.

Essential Oil Recommendation: Protective blend infused cleaning products, laundry detergent, toothpaste, all-purpose cleaner, foaming hand wash, Lemon, Eucalyptus, Cleansing Blend, Melaleuca, essential oil infused soaps, lotions, hair-care products, skin care products—basically anything natural that can replace any household product with toxins in it.

5.2        Cleanse and Detox

Detox means removing the toxic buildup in your system.  Detox your gut, your organs, your body systems by using natural detoxifiers.  Again, essential oils can be a big asset here.

Essential Oil Recommendation: Detoxification Blend and herbal complex, GI Cleansing Blend softgels, Digestive Blend, Lemon (and any other essential oils), Lemongrass, Cilantro, Clove, to name a few

5.3        Inner-body Communications and Hormones

Your body is in balance, and you enjoy optimum wellness when this balance is maintained.

Our bodies are made up of systems such as the nervous system or the skeletal system.  These systems, and more specifically, the cells in these systems communicate with each other and with other systems through electrical or chemical signals.

5.3.1 Imbalanced Hormones = Communication Breakdown

Your cells have receptor sites that are always looking for specific chemical and electrical triggers to send and receive signals or instructions to the rest of the body.  This communication allows your body to scan and adjust properly in an effort to seek balance.  When your body reaches balance, it is healthy and better able to heal and repair.

An example of this balance in your body being thrown off would be the introduction of foreign, and mostly synthetic, toxins such as xenoestrogens.  These xenoestrogens bind to the cells’ receptor sites intended for estrogen.  This causes two possible communication breakdowns: it sends or receives unintended signals to your body or blocks the receptor sites from sending or receiving natural signals to and from the rest of the body.

5.3.2 Restoring Hormonal Balance

Cleansing our body from these toxins will help improve our hormone system and help to restore balance.  There are natural herbs and oils that can assist the body in balancing hormones and restoring the lines of communication in our bodies.

Essential Oil Recommendation: Monthly Blend, Feminine Blend, Clary Sage, and Phytoestrogen Complex.

5.4        Care at a Cellular Level

All life begins at the cellular level, and to a large extent, the proper function of cells will determine our health and overall wellness.  Individual, specialized cells make up tissues, tissues make up organs, and organs make up organisms that depend on proper cell function for life.

5.4.1 Cellular Function

Contained in each individual cell are the instructions for three main functions of a cell’s lifespan:

1. Duplication—Make copies of itself through a cellular duplication called mitosis,
2. Specialized Function—Perform a specialized function as instructed by a cell’s DNA, and
3. Self-destruct—Initiate a process of self-destruction called apoptosis.

Healthy cells carry out all three of these functions.

If cellular DNA or other structures are damaged and the cells continue to duplicate in this damaged or mutated way, we have disease, tumors, or cancers.  Many toxins and stressors can cause or trigger this damage in our cells.

5.4.2 Prevention and Repair on a Cellular Level

In healthy cells, when DNA or other cell function is comprised, cells are programmed to initiate a process of repair.  If a cell is unable to repair itself to its programmed function, it normally initiates a process of self-destruction (called apoptosis) making way for new, healthy cells to function in its place.

Protecting our cells, particularly the DNA in our cells, and supporting healthy cell biogenesis and turnover can help us avoid accelerated aging and premature onset of degenerative conditions associated with compromised cell function.

It’s amazing to think that you can improve your cellular health and that its improvement can lift your overall health.

Essential Oil Recommendation: Essential Oil Cellular Complex Blend—preventing DNA damage, supporting healthy cell turnover (apoptosis), support healthy cellular integrity, protect cells from oxidative stress, and promote overall cellular health.

5.5        Wellness Conclusion

Returning to nature is about ensuring that everything in your environment (as much as possible) is natural or free from toxins.  It is also about removing from your body toxins that have accumulated.  It is also about restoring hormonal balance to your system.  Finally restoring the normal cellular function is also part of returning your body to a natural state and remove the effects of environmental toxins.

6          Hold Only Good Energy and Emotions

As people reach out for more of an understanding of ourselves, there is an increasing conversation about energy.  You may hear people talk about their thoughts, feelings, moods, emotions, beliefs, vibrations, auras, or just energy in general.

These ‘energies’ can have a profound effect on your physical wellbeing.  Some go as far as to conclude that at the root of almost all physical problems is almost always an emotional issue.  Hippocrates said, “Natural forces within us are the true healers of disease.” Our scientific communities, however, are still far from even wanting to pursue something so difficult to put in numbers.

Yet, the underlying concept still rings true to all of us.  For example, we would expect someone who constantly dwells on anger, resentment, and chooses to wallow in self-pity to not be as physically well as someone who is always happy, laughing, and looking at the bright side of life.  Deep down we all sense there is a connection between emotional wellbeing and physical wellness.

Let’s attempt to put a definition to some of these terms:

• Thoughts—using your mind to actively deliberate or reason through an idea, concept, or judgment
• Feelings—an impression or perception where one is aware of, experiences sensations toward, or reacts to outward stimuli
• Moods—a temporary state of mind or general feeling or emotion
• Emotions—a strong surge of feeling manifested through outward expressions or bodily reactions
• Beliefs—acceptance of an idea as truth or actuality without certain proof

6.1       Managing Daily Moods and Emotions

Learning to manage your mood and your emotions can help sustain happiness and wellness.  The alternative is to let your moods and emotions manage you.  Fortunately, there are many natural solutions especially with aromatherapy and essential oils.  Aroma can have a very strong effect on the mind and has the ability to trigger certain feelings, moods, or emotions.

6.1.1 Moods

Our moods are a complex interplay of emotional and physical components.  On the emotional continuum, we can go from no peace to no passion.  On the physical continuum, we can go from very stressed to very fatigued.  The interplay of these continuums can leave us in a range of temporary states of mind: Angry, Impatient, Unmotivated, Discouraged, Tense, Worried, Hopeless, or Withdrawn.

Left unchecked, these states of mind may manifest in various physical ailments: Stomach Ache, Headache, Brain Fog, Chest Tightness, Digestive Upset, Neck Pain, Lower Back Pain, etc.

Essential Oil Recommendation:

To manage your temporary dips in mood, you can use essential oil blends: Calming, Invigorating, Grounding, and Joyful.  These essential oil blends bring balance to your mood giving you time and fortitude to deal with the root cause of your mood imbalance.

6.1.2 Emotions

As we defined above, emotions are strong surges of feelings that are marked by some physical sensation or bodily reaction.  Emotions become this complex interplay between body, mind, and spirit.  Generally speaking, our mind and body need to recognize and resolve emotions.  Sometimes this just means feeling, experiencing, or acknowledging the emotion.  Left unresolved, these emotions can lead to physical ailments.  Ignored over a long period of time this imbalance can potentially lead to chronic pain or illness.

Emotional aromatherapy is a good way to resolve emotions as they arise.  An example of this is using the essential oil Comforting Blend to deal with or console the emotion felt from the death or loss of a loved one.  Or using the Renewing Blend to forgive another or let go of past issues.

Essential Oil Recommendation: Emotional Aromatherapy Blends—Comforting, Renewing, Encouraging, Reassuring, Uplifting, and Inspiring.  These will help you with consoling, forgiving, motivating, and finding peace, cheer, and passion.

6.2       Releasing Feelings, Emotions, and Energies from past Traumas

Now we discuss ways of how we can deal with feelings and emotions that have been felt but not dealt with or released.  These can be trapped within us and can fester and may lead to physical or outward manifestations of the emotional pain we feel inside that we have buried unresolved.

There are several methods people use to recognize, identify the origin of, examine, and release the emotion or heavy negative feeling.  (Funny we don’t talk about releasing positive emotions).

Here are a few methods: psychiatric treatment, meditation, energy release, deep introspection, deep breathing, muscle testing, journaling, and many others.  The idea is that until these trapped emotions or energies are released, true healing cannot occur.

Resolving and releasing these energies or emotions can remove the need for physically healing when they symptoms or ailments simply disappear.  This follows from the school of thought that our physical ailments almost always have an emotional issue behind them.  This experience can be liberating and surprisingly easy to do.

Essential Oil Recommendation: Melissa essential oil is a great one.  Cypress is another one to help release emotions.  Actually, each essential oil has an emotional characteristic to it, which can help you deal with that specific emotion.  For example: Peppermint is the oil of a buoyant heart which can help free a heavy heart.  You can actually read more about this in the Emotions & Essential Oil book by Enlightened Healing.

7             Focus Your Thinking

Ah, the power of positive thinking.  Mind over matter.  Have you ever heard, “Change your Thinking Change your Life”?  The idea is that your mind is more powerful than you give it credit for.  That your very thoughts can bring about what you believe to be true.

Essential Oil Recommendation: Focus Blend is an excellent blend to improve thinking or focus.

7.1        Internal Scripts

Some gurus refer to this concept in terms of scripts or programming.  We all have ideas, beliefs, and ‘scripts’ in our mind that our mind reads over and over.  In some cases, these thoughts parade across our mind like broken records saying such things as, “I’m never good at anything.”  And our subconscious mind identifies patterns in the real world that match the constant internal chatter and we steer toward those matches.

These internal scripts (the way we think and the way we react to the world in which we live, can have a profound effect on our state of wellness.  “We don’t catch disease, we create them by breaking down our natural defenses according to the way we eat, drink, think, and live.”

7.2        Law of Attraction

This is the explanation behind the idea of the Law of Attraction, that is what we constantly think about, fear, or complain about will naturally occur more often in our world.

The solution is that we (1) discover what our internal scripts are, (2) analyze whether they serve or hinder us, (3) coconsciously determine what we want our scripts to say (or to attract), and (4) then to reprogram our minds with the new script through visualizations, prayer, and affirmations.

7.2.1 False Beliefs

For example, upon introspection many people discover they have been subconsciously acting on a false belief.  Examples of this are, “I never have money or time”, “I’m alone”, or “I’m a Klingon War Hero.”  Identifying these beliefs is the first step, then deep introspection to determine where the belief came from—for example a traumatic experience where a person deeply hurt you.  You can deal with that issue, and re-teach yourself the correct belief.  We re-teach ourselves by repeating to ourselves the truth we want to believe in.

Essential Oil Recommendation: Bergamot and Cassia essential oils give you confidence in your self to change your beliefs

7.2.2 Eliminating Fear, Worry, or Pain

You have probably heard what Franklin D. Roosevelt said about ‘fear’: “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself”.  I like Will Smith’s version in his hit movie After Earth (2013), “Fear is not real.  The only place that fear can exist is in our thoughts of the future.  It is a product of our imagination causing us to fear things that do not at present and may not ever exist.”  Whoa, did he just use ‘fear’ in the definition of ‘fear’?  Can you do that?  Well…  Anyhow, the point is that fear is NEVER necessary.  Neither is worry or the emotional pain that we sometimes inflict on ourselves.  The antidote is faith, hope, and love.  Apply generously, walk away and never return.  Fear is just one of those scripts in your head playing over and over again, but that script has never and will never benefit you.

Essential Oil Recommendation: Frankincense (faith), Sandalwood (faith) and Juniper Berry (releasing fear), Geranium (love and trust), and Renewal or Comforting Blend (to let it go, forgive yourself, and feel the consolation)

7.2.3 Gratitude

Expressing gratitude for everything is the best way to multiply your happiness.  Gratitude is a feeling of happiness for having something there.  So according to the Law of Attraction concept above, you will get more of… everything you are grateful for simply by being happy you have what you have.

Essential Oil Recommendation: Spikenard (The Oil of Gratitude)—instructions: inhale and look around and count your blessings.

7.2.4 Wellness Conclusion

If you clean up your thinking (especially about yourself), your wellness will improve, and some of your health concerns will disappear.

8           Detect Your Purpose

Having health but nothing to do with it is… depressing, and your health will suffer.  You may be physically well, but just not being fulfilled or … happy.  I have observed amongst the elderly, that wellness often begins to deteriorate rapidly when people can no longer contribute to the world around them in a meaningful way. In other words, without purpose in your life, you cannot have optimum wellness.  So for this step, we present the idea that having a purpose invigorates you and spurs you on and contributes to your wellness.

8.1       Personal Responsibility

The first step toward a purposeful life is acknowledging that you are responsible for your life, that you have the ability to choose to change, and that you will be proactive in exercising that ability.  Decide now that you can change.  Realizing that you have the ability to change your life will set you on the path to fulfilling your life’s purpose.  If you don’t take responsibility, the default is that you allow other peoples’ choices to determine your life.

Essential Oil Recommendation: Fennel (Oil of Responsibility)—rub on tummy—smells like licorice

8.2       Detect Your Purpose

Secondly, determine or detect your purpose in life (your mission, your wants, or your vision).  In other words, where do you want to end up?  I love the quote from author Stephen Covey, who was quoting Victor Frankl, who was inspired when he said… or wrote… that we detect our mission in life, in other words we are born unique, and our purpose will be as unique as is our specific opportunity to implement it.  Life asks us what the meaning of our life will be.  And each one of us must answer for our own life, and that answer will come from who we truly are.

We all have a common purpose in life: to serve humanity.  We just need to pick a vehicle.  Here are some simple steps to detect your life’s mission: (1) Know yourself, what are a few qualities that describe you? When do you experience the greatest joy? (2) What do you do or love doing that expresses those qualities? (3) Who do you do it for?  (4) What do those people want or need?  And (5) what do they get out of it, or what does a perfect world look like to you?

Essential Oil Recommendation: Tangerine or Wild Orange for creativity

8.3       Plan, Act, and Fulfill

Create your vision in your mind.  Next, set s.m.a.r.t. goals which are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound.  Come up with a plan.  If you don’t know what to plan, ask someone else who is doing what you want to do or something similar to what you want to do.  Put the plan into action.  Visualize yourself reaching goals and doing activities.  Your subconscious will begin to work with you to bring about your vision.  You will begin to receive inspired action thoughts.  Follow the inspirations that come.  Renew and review your purpose, goals, and plans regularly to make sure you are constantly growing.

Essential Oil Recommendation: Frankincense (Truth) and Clary Sage (Clarity & Vision)

8.4       Wellness Conclusion

So, why is all this important to wellness?  Studies have suggested that people who have a purpose in life are generally happier, and live longer.  They have a higher state of wellness.  Just like rolling stones that gather no moss, people with a purpose gather no problems, ailments, and bumps.  If someone has a specific purpose that drives them, those problems don’t seem to stick to them.  Sure, they have the same amount of issues that arise, but they don’t give those things more than the attention they deserve (which sometimes is none).

9          Love and Connect

Love seems to conquer all.  Love is how Harry Potter conquered Voldemort.  Luke Skywalker’s love for his father brought down the Empire (I won’t tell you who is father is, that would ruin the movie).  These fictional stories are proof that love conquers all.

Feeling, giving, and receiving love and connecting with others will contribute to your physical wellness.  Those who are able to love and connect to others live lives in an environment surrounded by the love they create.

Love is often thought of as a feeling, but first it was a verb.  Love, the verb, is manifested by serving and caring for others, so it naturally follows that something that is loved will be cared for and thus healthier.  Love gives people purpose—any true-life purpose has service at the core, and service is fueled by love.  Moreover, love propagates feelings of happiness, which scientists can demonstrate leads to happy ‘chemicals’ in our bodies, which will also physiologically promote wellness.

Essential Oil Recommendation: Rose (Love) and Geranium (Love and Trust)

The absence of love and connection can lead to physical degradation and even death.  The most popular example of this is the story of the orphans after the fall of socialist governments.  Those children received all the food they required for survival, but ultimately died.  Experts concluded the cause of death was lack of human affection and connection.

9.1       Connection

The opposite of being connected is being lonely.  Loneliness is the absence of connection and can lead to emotional and even physical ailments.  I don’t think anyone sincerely wants that.  After all, by definition, negative things are things we don’t want or desire or that won’t help us, and loneliness is a negative state of being.  Note: being alone (or solitude) is not the same as being lonely.

Essential Oil Recommendation: Cedarwood (community) and Marjoram (connection)

9.1.1 Love Yourself

Your first target on your mission to love and connect is yourself.  You will always win if you love yourself. Confidence (a universally sought after quality in yourself and others) is loving and accepting yourself for who you are and believing you can rely on that love.  Often people discover, when they really think about it, that they need to love themselves.

Sometimes people have this longing for connection to someone, like they had a long-lost twin who vanished at the same time they entered life, and they have been longing for that soul ever since.  That is your subconscious-self crying out for love from you.  Can you look at yourself in the mirror and say, “I really love you, you are such an awesome person, I accept you for who you are right now, I love you for who you were in the past, etc.”?

Just a note on the concept of self-love: this is not conceit or vanity.  Conceit and vanity are defined as excessive pride in oneself and considering oneself of more worth than others.  Self-love is a regard for one’s own well-being and happiness.  Where do I get these definitions?  I Googled them.

We have been taught to be selfless not selfish and that it is noble to care for others at the expense of oneself.  It is not mutually exclusive.  Rather you can see yourself as equal to others around you.  And you love everyone beginning with yourself.  It’s like what we are taught on the airplane safety demonstration: in an emergency, we must fix the oxygen mask on ourselves before helping those around us.  We are ultimately first responsible for ourselves.

So how does ‘connection’ lead to wellness?  Imagine you are in a group or a crowd like at a ball-game.  You are all connected in cheering or celebrating some common achievement, you feel energized and uplifted from the energy of everyone together.  This connection, whether between two people or many people, improves your sense of wellness.  I don’t really know how.  It just does.  Can you feel it now?

Essential Oil Recommendation: Bergamot, Grapefruit, Metabolic Blend, Jasmine, and Lemon

9.1.2 Relationships

Relationships are connections to others (including yourself).  Have you ever started thinking of someone and just then they call you, or you go to call someone who then tells you they were just about to call you?  Spooky, huh?  It’s happened to me, too.  I’m not going to even try to explain this.  It seems we connect with others in ways we don’t yet understand.  And connecting with others improves our wellness in ways we don’t yet understand.  What we all can generally relate with is a need to connect with others, be understood, and feel important.

Being understood by others brings feelings of relief, unity, and self-worth.  In his book, How to Win Friends & Influence People, Dale Carnegie observes that a feeling of importance is one of our greatest fundamental needs as humans.  Understanding that others also have this need is the key to making connections with others, as Stephen Covey says, “Seek first to understand and then to be understood.”  This is simply a reflex of the give-and-take programing within us all.  As you seek to understand more about the people around you, they will be interested in understanding more about you, so counter-intuitively to be fed, you feed others.

Make connections in more than just cognitive ways.  Physical touch is very important, and we as a society would do well to place the correct level on the importance on physical touch.  Physical touch can bring healing, strength, and energy (the soul kind).

Essential Oil Recommendation: Massage Blend and the Aromatherapy massage technique.

9.1.3 A Greater Sum

Connecting with others opens a new understanding of simple mathematical principles.  As we live and work with others in a sense of unity, on one level or another, we discover, “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts”—Aristotle said this, I think.

This is possible because we are unique and have strengths that can mitigate the weaknesses of others and others have strengths that can mitigate our weaknesses.  This math only works when you add up all the strengths.  Adding up the weaknesses is called compromising.  By adding up the strengths we can create win-win solutions and can synergize in a spirit of creative cooperation, teamwork, and open-mindedness.  A win-win solution is a solution that benefits everyone—they walk away with more than they brought.  Synergy is when people bring to the table their unique contributions and they work together to create something amazing.  Kind of like when the Transformers combine to make this big robot thing that is more powerful than all the single robots.

So what do Transformers have to do with connection, relationships, and wellness?  Nothing.  But building relationships with others, interacting with them will bring richness and purpose to your life, and make you happier and healthier.

Essential Oil Recommendation: Cedarwood (community)

9.2       Couple Relationships

The most important human relationship on Earth is the couple relationship.  This is the most intimate, the most perfecting, the most fulfilling, the most gratifying, the most therapeutic relationship known to humans.  It can also be the most destructive if it is not nurtured.  The love between a committed couple helps to smooth out the personality imperfections and improve an individual in almost every area of life.

When two people who think in different ways (like men and women do) and try to work toward a common goal, something magical happens.  Both partners in the relationship are refined.

At the peak of this relationship is physical intimacy.  When properly and mutually enjoyed, this can be the most therapeutic medicine for any ill.  Many studies have shown the physical benefits of a healthy intimate relationship.

Essential Oil Recommendation: Love Potion: 2 tsp coconut oil, 4 drops Ylang-Ylang, 2 drops Clary Sage, 1 drop Bergamot, 1 drop Sandalwood

9.3       Connection to the Divine

The final and most critical relationship for each of us is a connection to the Divine (note the capitol ‘D’).  Ancient theologians pined that God is Love.  It is my personal philosophy that we all come from a Divine source and it is our ultimate earthly mission to return to it.  You cannot have true Optimum Wellness without connecting some way to whatever you call Divine.

Essential Oil Recommendation: Sandalwood, Frankincense, and Melissa

 

10  Follow Your Moral Compass

“This above all: to thine own self be true” (Act I.  Scene III. Hamlet-William Shakespeare).

Being honest to yourself, sticking with your convictions, and following what you believe is right will always serve you.  You will be at peace with yourself when you honor you own moral compass.  When you violate it, you can make yourself sick.  Since we are basing the premise of this principle on something a fictional character said in a medieval play, we might as well continue the theme.  Remember how the characters in Macbeth became physically ill after having committed a crime against their conscience?  Me neither, it has been such a long time since I read that.  But you are familiar with the idea that someone can lose their sense of wellness by, “not being true to themselves.”

10.1Sense of What is Right

We all have a sense of what is wrong and what is right.  This is our moral compass or our conscience.  Regardless of what religion you belong to or whether you belong to a religion at all, you have a set of beliefs.  And you can’t have a set of beliefs without having some sort of belief about what is right and what is wrong.  Go ahead, try it.  I’ll wait… Failed, right?

Following what you believe is right will bring you peace because you will believe that you are in harmony with the universe.  If you are out of harmony, your body believes that something is imbalanced.  Imbalance unchecked will have a negative effect on your level of wellness.

Essential Oil Recommendation: Lemon, and Cardamom (clear minded)

10.2Spiritual Nourishment

Your spirit, soul, essence, or whatever you may call it also needs nourishment.  Nourishment comes in the form of anything uplifting.  This could be beautiful music or wondrous art.  It can come from a motivational speaker or an inspirational professor.  Having more of it makes us feel physically better.

We can also improve our wellness by removing toxic ideas and thoughts from our life.  Toxins to your spirit are degrading material, anything that conjures up unpleasant images or feelings.   This could be angry music, degrading language, or witnessing immoral or violent behavior. Most people have had the experience that when they are in the presence of constant bickering, negative comments, or degrading thoughts or ideas, they feel physically unwell.  Ultimate wellness can only be sustained in the absence of the obscene.

The solution is to get it out and replace it with something uplifting.  Rid your life of the debased and deplorable.  Turn off degrading movies or music.  Close distasteful books.  And fill that void with something uplifting and filling.  Seek out inspirational and intelligent conversation.  Watch enlightening movies, shows, or plays.  Listen to music that moves you and fills you with light and wonder.

You can find inspiration and spiritual nourishment in so many places.  We, my wife and I, gain a great deal of so-called spiritual nourishment from our religion.  We find connection, meaning, direction, motivation, and purpose.  It just makes us feel good.

Obtaining some source of spiritual nourishment (and eliminating spiritual toxins) will improve your overall sense of optimum wellness.

– THE END –

There you have it.

10.3A little about me

I am not a doctor, a nutritionist, a physical trainer, a yoga instructor, or a Jedi knight.  In fact, I am … normal.  Before I devoted my life to communicating principles of wellness to others, I was a teacher.  I have a wonderful supportive husband and four beautiful daughters and live in Florida in the USA.

My goal here is to share with you my insights and a more complete framework of understanding for you to put all that wellness advice and information into context.  I share with you what has worked for me and what I believe will work for anyone.  This document represents years of study, practice, teaching, and interacting with others.  These are my paradigms and philosophies.  I hope what I present here is a useful and accurate description of true principles and representations of how things truly are.

Just a little disclaimer here.  We are not talking about diagnosing, treating, or curing any diseases.  Take your diseases to the trained, competent, and finely groomed medical professionals.  What I am talking about is wellness (a component of health)—about getting your body to the best state of optimum wellness, so that it can possibly overcome any ailments that come its way.

 

Overall wellness conclusion

Wellness:

There are so many ways to get it wrong, but only simple few principles to get it right every time.

 

My Offer to You:

I would like to invite you to start using essential oils in your home.

To find out the best way to Buy Essential Oils, visit the following link:

https://jadebalden.com/buyoils/

 

 

 

[1] We are incredibly grateful for the gift of essential oils in our lives.  We owe our gratitude to an essential oil company named dōTERRA.  This company was the original source of this Wellness Pyramid.

[2] Naturalnews.com