“New Year, new you,” is a catchy catchphrase.
That said, do you really want a New You? Let’s polish up the Current You. No need to throw the baby out with the bathwater.
This handful of very fundamental basics keeps us feeling energised and positive. It’s not rocket science. We need plenty of these five things:
- Good quality sleep
- Good quality water
- Good quality food and nutrition
- Good quality exercise
- Good quality work and interests, fun and socialising with family and friends
And we need to avoid the toxic load from these things:
- Processed foods and harsh stimulants
- Synthetic fragrances
- Pollution
- Potentially-harmful and known-harmful ingredients in what we inhale, ingest and rub on our bodies
- Negative thoughts and actions by ourselves and others
Most of these items will elicit reactions of “Of course I know that!” And Young Living’s marvellous range of products can help you with tackling everything on this list, from sleep to nutrition to warding off negative energies and getting yourself motivated. If you aren’t sure where to start, you can use the Search function to find plenty of posts to dig into. Or please get in touch with us and we can steer you in the right direction.
There’s one huge item on the ‘things to avoid’ list that we’re really getting stuck into today: synthetic fragrances. These insidious nasties are currently ‘sleepers’ when it comes to potentially damaging presences in your life.
If you’re presently basking in a scent-infused home or workplace that hasn’t come about thanks to 100% authentically-pure essential oils, I’m about to rain on your synthetically-fragrant parade. You’ll thank me later, if not right now.
For a long time, the unique ability of fragrance to evoke memories and influence our mood has been intensively studied and documented. When you choose natural products to achieve this: all well and good.
But genuine essential oils come at a very high cost and scarcity that’s not in the ballpark for the mass-produced products out there. So how do you think they create the fragrances they use in those products? Synthetically.
Now, some argue that from a chemistry perspective, you can’t tell the difference between something created by nature and something created synthetically.
But what does your instinct tell you about it? Can something created synthetically have the same effect on your body, soul and mind as something that comes directly from nature? Extracting or distilling a natural substance takes a tremendous amount of care and science to capture it without damaging it or losing some of its special properties, but that kind of science is far removed from using synthetics to create or obtain it.
Three times in as many weeks, I’ve been in public venues – a shop, a hotel lobby and a restaurant – where there were fragrances wafting in the air. I admit that they all smelled somewhat appealing, though too strong. I asked each time if they were burning scented candles. And I was told that No, it’s a special ‘house fragrance’ they infuse their venue with.
To me, that’s like fluoridating my water. It’s out of my hands and I’m given no choice about it short of removing myself from the location (or in the case of water, paying for filtration that tackles it).
Now, it wasn’t that I recoiled in horror at the scent or passed out from toxic overload. And I like to think I have a pretty good nose after all these years of inhaling the very best quality of essential oil there is, being Young Living’s.
And that makes it all the more dangerous. Because we can think it smells OK therefore it is OK. If we were only exposed to trace amounts of synthetic fragrance occasionally and we’re in a healthy condition, our livers and system would be able to eliminate it to a large degree.
But we’re no longer talking about trace amounts and infrequent exposure. Even if you don’t use room sprays, scented candles, air fresheners and toilet deodorisers, pick up virtually any mainstream cleaning product and you’ll find Fragrance listed there. And it’s not just liquids.
Kitchen tidy bags, garbage bags, toilet paper, virtually anything you can think of that has something to do with cleaning or ‘freshening the air’ contains fragrance nowadays. I’d get on my soapbox and snort about that but even the soapbox would be synthetically scented!
Am I being over the top about it? Well, I’m not sure we’ll ever know for sure. The trouble with the world nowadays is that everywhere we turn, there are potentially harmful things, whether from pollution, ingredients or interference from electrical sources. Will it ever be clear-cut from here on in as to which particular substance a person was exposed to sufficiently over a long-enough time frame might have caused an illness?
But I ask myself this: do I need to wait for proof or would I rather do the obvious: there’s zero harm in eliminating synthetic fragrances from everything I have in my control. So why not join me?
Once you start looking, you’ll find great quality natural products produced by genuine companies that aren’t simply greenwashing. Just be sure to look them up and check their credentials. I always choose Young Living for essential oils and their oil-infused natural non-toxic Thieves® cleaning range, personal care, foods and supplements. I’d use their Savvy Minerals® make-up, too, but I’m a bloke and I draw the line. Please get in touch with me and my team directly before joining and placing your first order. We’d love to help.
Essential oils are potent, so as always, please follow directions on the bottle and the usual guidelines for safe use of authentic essential oils.
Please ensure you are choosing a brand with complete transparency from seed to seal, such as Young Living. You can learn in this short video why we only ever recommend and choose Young Living oils and love them so much!
Enjoy the good oil daily.
The information on this site does not constitute advice. Please consult with your health practitioner. When using any of the products mentioned throughout this site, please be sure to read the labels and follow their suggestions for safe use. We make commissions from sales via many of the products we recommend but we only suggest products we genuinely enjoy and want you to benefit from.
