Learning Curve

Slump. It is 8 o'clock in the evening and I am exhausted, too tired to get up and do what is necessary to get to bed. The kids don't feel quite as ready as I am to hit the hay. They want to play, watch television or any number of other things besides sleep. It called for a bit of power struggle and I was out of pizzaz. What is a mother to do?

That is where my foray into the world of vitamins and supplements began. The difference between being too bushed to go on at 8 and having the umph to do what had to be done without another cup of coffee before 11 PM triggered the change. That late cuppa joe made sleep impossible once I found my way to the mattress, so we parted company but feeling better fell a far cry short of feeling great. At first, a cheap bottle of vitamins from the drug store filled in the gap.

Illusions of youthful immortality soon began to erode almost like clockwork at the age of 30. The energy boost certainly helped, but my body sent continual warning signs that things must change. As a nurse, the hospital provided me with extremely graphic illustration of the fact that lifestyle and the associated consequences are largely passed on from generation to generation. At the same time, I saw my co-workers retire only to join the endless stream of patients who were in and out a few times and then departed for good. "There has to be a better way," the thought haunted me daily.

A first encounter with the essential oils led to search for information. At the time, all of it carried a "new age" tenor that pushed my religious bias buttons, but the invitation to feeling better goaded me on. Generational lifestyle issues were rife in our family, particularly with feminine maladies. The literature pointed to cypress oil as a corrective, so I bought my first over the counter bottle and made it part of my regular bath routine. Soon after that oregano widely promoted for anti-viral and anti-bacterial properties revealed a very real need for literacy on the topic, that stuff is strong and can create problems for the uninitiated!

It was over 10 years before I thought about the oils again. During that time, popularity grew With it the availability of books from people with credentials exploded alongside the internet. Even so, it took a dear Chinese friend who could boast a pharmacology degree to push me to my second look. Her ethnicity provided her with understanding of eastern natural medicine practices while the education produced solid grounding in western medical perspectives, a powerful combo.

Before she came on the scene, another friend came into my life through an undeniably miraculous event. She also had an interesting background in natural health care from an exploration in the late 60s down the Yucatan peninsula to learn about the Maya. Not long after a brutal encounter with some unsavory artifact robbers, malaria left her comatose in need of long term care. Hospitals there, at that time were places where people went to die. She was not quite ready for that when she came out of the coma, so thankfully a kindly native worker there opened her home for the recuperative period. Trained both in nursing and traditional Mayan intervention she impressed my friend with the power and value of the gifts God provided us within nature.

Forty or more years later we crossed paths in 2003. Her husband, in the early stages of Alzheimer's Disease needed the diligent efforts she engaged in to stay on top of the latest research. The most advanced findings failed to convince her that modern medicine had anything better to offer than the God given gifts of nature. She stubbornly refused to give him anything other than natural supplements. My own experiences led from the hospital into nursing homes where the devastating extent of the epidemic and tragedy of Alzheimer's Disease could not be escaped. The phenomenal success she demonstrated with her care for him until he went home at the age of 85 left an indelible impression.

Her observation of my own health led her to press strongly for the lifestyle changes she knew I desperately needed. Kefir was the first introduction to probiotics which led to our first cold and flu free winter since I was in my 20s. It caused the connection between a weakened immune system and lifestyle to become clear. Serious problems with memory developed as well as I crossed the big 50 threshold resulting in her push for me to use turmeric on an ongoing basis. Positive results were soon evident and lasting. While his needs became more demanding on her, she became less available, but not without setting me on a pathway of permanent and continual study and change.

Both of those women remained friends but their own struggles left me with fewer and fewer opportunities to connect, sending me into near constant research on the ever expanding internet. In 2008, doTERRA opened its doors. Their growth and popularity was unknown to me as I devoured information, slowly and painstakingly step by step building a lifestyle of wellness for myself and family with a growing love for the essential oils. It was quite a challenge with a huge learning curve. I struggled to find balance and compatibility between the familiar modern medicine format and this natural approach to health care that seemed so foreign, so I met doTERRA with gratitude and amazement in 2021.

They saw the need to step into the divide between the two very different approaches to health care and found a way to blend different varieties of the same species of plants so that a standardized level of constituents could be created with essential oils. That allowed for them to communicate with the medical community in the language they understand which is standardization. I soon learned they also melded the bewildering worlds of essential oils, supplements and natural lifestyle into not just a package, but they wrapped it up with coaches and support to ensure my ability to succeed.

I am now also one of those coaches with lots of others to support me as I reach out with the message of lifestyle building by tuning into that Divine Design that is uniquely your own.