Migraine (Be Gone) Surprise

Migraine surprise!
It has been a year and a half since I had a real migraine headache episode. I could almost no longer remember how debilitating the pain of a migraine headache is, and I really thought that I was already home free, but today I had a surprise visitor... a very familiar and bad ass visitor! Earlier today I was downed by a migraine headache! I really had to ask myself if it was my gut health going downhill again. (But, it's not that this time...)

You see, migraine headaches that debilitate most sufferers are likely linked to the gut's health, or lack thereof. A very unhealthy gut that is overpowered by Candida overgrowth leads to the development of many modern health issues, which include the very notorious migraine headaches.

Let me make this clear... I have been able to reshape my overall gut health with a powerful, specifically-targeting probiotic that's a part of my well trusted detox system. This has allowed me to become free of my used-to-be-regular monthly migraine headache problem. The brain fog that I used to have around that has also lifted, my severe allergies went poof!, and my entire health has really been reshaped. So, you can just imagine the surprise of mine when I started out with an unusual (and an all-too familiar aura) one-sided headache last night after doing a plyometric workout with the hubby. The trigger? I became so hungry after my workout!

Now I've transitioned into a totally DRUGLESS lifestyle and I no longer take anything synthetic for aches and pains. I do have some natural pain relief capsules available, so I popped two capsules before bed, hoping and praying it will all go away in the morning because I will be able to sleep it away. But the headache didn't go away this time and by 3 o'clock in the early morn, I woke up to a brain-busting-head-cracking-i-just-want-to-throw-up-full-blown migraine headache! 

Now, if you've never experienced a migraine headache before, you ought to be thankful. You are BLESSED to not have to go through a headache that will shut your entire day down. Here's what usually happens for those of us who suffer from it... (For those of you who know what it's like to have a migraine headache, I know you are familiar with the following)...

So my morning schedule was pretty much thrown outside the window today. Hubby and I didn't get to do our scheduled workout, and the kids' homeschooling was placed on hold because teacher mom couldn't make it!

I had to drag myself out of bed to fix some breakfast as my head was already throbbing and aching to the nth level! I felt like I could throw up if I made sudden movements that basically just makes things worse! I knew this could last a day or two as it was already a full-blown migraine headache! My initial plan was to take the fast relief pills round the clock for the next day or two and sleep the entire day or two away. That basically is what would help it go away for me in the past. Then, I remembered that I actually have another arsenal for this that I've never tried before.

Migraine-Be-Gone Surprise!!!
I then remember my box of Everyday Essential Oils that I recently got for our family. So I went to some trusted online resources (I searched online quickly with eyes squinted because I hated the glare of light), and I immediately grabbed five (5) of my everyday oils and used them as follows:

THIEVES OIL - 1 drop on the thumb placed on the roof of my mouth (CAUTION: use ONLY therapeutic-grade oils from here!!!) 

PEPPERMINT OIL - 1 drop spread over my forehead + 1 drop on three different locations on my throbbing head. Then, I placed 1 drop on my hand which I inhaled 5 times.

LAVENDER OIL -  1-2 drops massaged on both my ear auricles, and 2 drops massaged all over the back and front of my neck.

VALOR OIL -  1-2 drops massaged on both my ear auricles, and 2 drops massaged all over the back and front of my neck. 

 FRANKINCENSE OIL -  1 drop on top of my head (with a little prayer to God for His healing grace).

PEPPERMINT OIL -  1 drop in a glass of water. 

If you haven't read my post about essential oils, then I invite you to read about it here. You should NOT use any other essential oils other than the therapeutic-grade oils from Young Living! (Especially, that the above includes some ingesting of the essential oils.)

One full hour later and .......................................................OH MY GIDDIYAH!!! 

My migraine headache LIFTED!!! It TOTALLY, COMPLETELY lifted!!! If you've had migraine headaches and gone through the time when it lifts, the feeling is truly FREEING! It's like an entire Empire State building is lifted off from on top of your head!

My migraine headache was gone. I was able to move around without limitations, and the light didn't bother me anymore. This was around lunch time and I was able to eat under the bright light of the dining area and talk and laugh and move around okay! (Fortunately, hubby and the kids drove through Popeyes for our lunch.

I re-applied the above regimen one more time and gave myself a short nap. I woke up refreshed and without any trace of a migraine headache!

Hey, I felt so good that I was even able to complete an HOUR-LONG shoulders and arms exercise that I had scheduled for today!!! Can you believe how CrAzY that is?! Yeah, me neither! 

So, I just really want to let you know that there IS a way to heal by Design. Trusting in God's available resources for our lives is one huge leap of faith for many... but this leap of faith is oh-so-WORTH IT!!!!!!

If you want to learn more about the Basics of Essential Oils, then I invite you to this FREE 14-Day E-Course that will deliver content directly to your inbox! You won't regret the information you'll learn from this one! It may just change your life! ;)

Until next time...

The 'Oily' Path To Healing By Design

Not long ago we were a very conventionally-minded family. Synthetic medications were a normal part of our lives. We had health issues that sort of became somewhat like tradition in the family because we have to actually deal with them on a regular basis. My debilitating migraine headaches always visited me every month. Our son always had his seasonal allergies act up during Spring and Fall time. We usually spend the first few weeks of winter sick with some viral infection or a bacterial strep throat! Pills and inhalers were a part of our usual routine. Yet, all that changed for us.

Since I started my journey as a Health Coach with the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, I have become more intentional with living my life by God's Design. I've been looking more into consuming whole foods, supplementing our diet with natural supplements that helps with overall wellness & gut health, and using only natural ingredients in personal and household items as much as possible. Though we haven't really transitioned into a completely natural lifestyle, we are in the process of doing so.

One of the things that I learned in our transition to living and thriving by Design is the fact that I am able to put into action my faith in God's Design for the human body. That also actually included a chance to put my faith in action by developing a trust for the resources He's made available for us to utilize to thrive and heal.

Our overall wellness has tremendously improved when we trusted in God's Design for nutrition. Surprisingly, our willingness and determination to get to an optimum level of bio-individual functionality has also tremendously increased. I couldn't be more happier when hubby dropped inches and started wanting to work out again. I, myself, noticed an increased determination to build up my strength and functionality by getting on a high-intensity exercise program.

There's plenty of benefits to reap as we begin to trust in God's Design for living and thriving. And yet, the path doesn't end there. There is also still a part where healing is needed. 

We can't really deny the fact that we can still get exposed to so many bacteria and viruses in the environment today. We also can't help but deal with some minor cuts and bruises along the way as well. What about the occasional toothache, headache, sniffles, cough and fever? There has to be a way for us to heal by Design as well, right? Surely, God also has a Design for healing anything that's broken in the human body. Healing by Design is possible because God made available resources that He himself created for our physical, mental and emotional restoration.

I was recently brought to a very oily pathway in my search for the ways to heal by Design. This oily pathway has something to do with the use of available resources for restoring the body through the use of therapeutic-grade essential oils. This powerful resource is packed with God's healing and restorative powers and it amazes me every time how potent these oils can be.

If you know me, I always research and prefer to study about the modality that I will use for myself and my family, before I recommend the modality to my health coaching clients. So when I came to the oily path, I made sure to grow my knowledge on essential oils. As of today, the more I read and study about the use and benefits of essential oils, the more convinced I am that every family should utilize this resource in order to heal by Design.

Why essential oils?

Essential oils are basically the vital fluids found in plants. They are the life force of the plant just as the blood is for human beings. These oils are a mixture of hundreds of compounds and are so complex that, as yet, there hasn't been one that's completely analyzed for all of its ingredients.

Essential oils, as their name implies, are vital to the processes of living plants. They participate in the metabolism and nourishment of plants. They regulate plant functions and act like various types of hormones and ligands. They also afford various types of protection to plants and help them fight off viruses, bacteria, parasites, and fungi. Essential oils are considered adaptogens. They are smarter than pharmacological drugs and they attack only the harmful agents while nurturing the rest.

These oils perform many of the same functions in plants as they do for the human body. According to Dr. David Stewart, who is an internationally renowned teacher on both spiritual and scientific matters, these oils basically come as experienced and trained agents for health and healing.

I am very excited to share the powerful benefits of these essential oils with you. They are the resources I personally use for our family to restore and heal our bodies by Design. I honestly cannot say how amazing these oils are and the benefit of using them is endless!

Which essential oils to use?

There are various companies that offer lines of essential oils, but you need to understand that not all essential oils are the same. There are various different grades of oils out there in the market today and the only ones with restorative benefits for the human body are the therapeutic-grade oils. 

Perfume and Food-grade oils are only good for these specific properties they contain. Perfume-grade essential oils are useful only for the scent or fragrance property of the oil. Food-grade essential oils are only good for the flavors that they have. 

Therapeutic-grade essential oils are a very special kind of oils. They carry with them the therapeutic benefits of the plant's powerful volatile life force and can perform the many vital functions mentioned earlier in this post inside the human body. Not all oils are therapeutic. 

A therapeutic grade essential oil is defined as one that is specially distilled from plants that are cultivated organically or grown wild in a clean environment. These plants also must come from the proper botanical genus, species and cultivar, or they will not possess the specific therapeutic benefits. No chemicals are added during cultivation and the crops must be free of herbicides and pesticides. These oils must be extracted by steam distillation at minimum temperatures and using low-pressure at the proper length of time. Otherwise, significant loss or exclusion of components from the oils will happen. Everything in the process must be performed following the strictest standards for quality.

The company I Trust

As I've mentioned, there are many essential oils company in the market today. A lot of companies say that they are therapeutic-grade, but when it comes to quality and experience, there's one company that I trust for my therapeutic grade essential oils.

There are lots of information out there that one can find about essential oils company and the most common negative information you will get is that the (2) major companies in the U.S. that are selling therapeutic-grade essential oils are networking companies. But, these companies simply follow a multilevel marketing framework (which is actually the best business framework for the 21st century). Between the two companies, lots of information can be gathered about their competition and how one company is better that the other. I've done my own share of digging and reading into these two companies' backgrounds and all, and in the end, only one of them earned my full trust as an integrative health coach. 

Young Living Essential Oils (YLEO) has proven time and time again that their oils are far superior than others. The company has been in business for more than 20 years and has maintained the best standards for therapeutic essential oils all these years. Their oils have been the trusted therapeutic oils for the Raindrop Therapy, as well as well as the trusted oils for the therapies taught under CARE, the Center for Aromatherapy Research and Education.

This is the reason stated in CARE's website in relation to YLEO:

"Most oils sold in the United States are perfume or food grade and not suitable for therapeutic purposes. Furthermore, many brands purporting to be therapeutic grade are improperly distilled (and thus lack key constituents), were refined (certain components removed) or contain synthetics, dilutants, and other adulterants.  

According to Dr. Herve Casabianca (Ph.D.), Chairman of the International Standards Organization (ISO) Committee on Essential Oil Standards (a European agency whose acronym is AFNOR), there is only one company in North America who regularly sends samples to the AFNOR laboratory in France for testing to be measured against the international standards for therapeutic quality, and that is Young Living, Inc."

That is exactly the reason why I only trust the quality of the therapeutic essential oils that Young Living makes available worldwide. Their dedication for optimal quality of their products is evidenced by this very step of making sure their oils measure up against international standards for therapeutic quality.

If you want to learn more about Young Living's Essential Oils and how you can start transitioning your family into having a drugless medicine cabinet, then I invite you to visit the link below where you can find more specific information and grow your knowledge on the uses and benefits of therapeutic grade essential oils.

God's Healing Oils

I will soon be posting about the various benefits of these essential oils to your health journey. For now, you stay blessed!