SO much has happened since I last blogged but I want to use this first post to let you in on a super important change we have made in our home. Over the past year I’ve read a lot of books and absorbed a lot of knowledge on ways to potentially help prevent illness by using toxic products. This isn’t a topic most people are interested in but I started to dabble with nontoxic living while Mike and I were going through our IFV journey. While I had never heard of young living in back 2013/2014 I was doing everything in my power to eat healthy foods and stay away from products that I felt were toxic. I had a sneaky suspicion that our infertility could be related to products we were using and the unhealthy food, we could afford and were eating. It was until this past year, that I really became interested in what I was using to clean my home and what exactly I was putting into the air we breathe.
Environmental toxins have been known to cause irritability and illness. Although I feel like I can not control all areas of our life and what toxins we come in contact with I can control some areas. This includes, but is not limited to, using cleaner body products, hair products, cleaning products, food storage, cookware, laundry detergent, car cleaning products, dry cleaning, and CANDLES. Like, did you know CANDLES ARE A TOXIN?! Per Weil, “scented candles can present risks in two ways- the fragrance and the wax. Paraffin, the wax used in most candles, can emit chemicals like benzene and toluene. These substances are known carcinogens. [Additionally], candles using artificial fragrance will lead to inhalation of a possible endocrine disrupter.” Great. No more pricey Anthro candles for me. Another shocker – products that may be advertised to be clean are not always clean?! While I thought I was making good decisions buying the trendy Mrs. Meyers products from my Grove subscription, they are actually what the industry calls green washed. This is when companies mislead consumers about the health, safety, and environmental impact of their products. I feel bamboozled by a lot of products lately. Do me a favor and download the app, Think Dirty. Scan some of your everyday products and see how they rate in the app. I’m almost certain you will be shocked by what you’re using in your household! I sure was.
While we can’t afford to trash all of the toxins in our life and replace them with clean products right away, I’m making a conscious effort to reduce the chemicals we come in contact with on a daily basis. After doing a TON of research on clean products and ways to “detox” our life, I kept circling back to Young Living. This is a company that sells 100% pure essential oils with a Seed to Seal promise committed to unmatched quality. Not only was I drawn to the thousands of ways we could replace toxic products with YL essential oils in our home, I was especially drawn to their Thieves cleaning product line. If you’re in any “Mom” Facebook Group, I’m sure you’ve seen people raving about it. It’s a super concentrated product you dilute to replace pretty much every cleaning product in your arsenal and it’s truly clean, non-toxic, and believe it or not, germ-killing!
This company is a win-win for us. While it obviously will help reduce environmental toxins, we can also diffuse certain oils to promote better sleep and reduce stress (two of the pillars!), promote immunity, ease anxiety, alleviate depression, improve digestion…the list goes on and on. There are oils and products safe for my 3 & 5 yr olds. There are oils that can be ingested, so we can add lemon or lime drops to our water or peppermint to our coffee! They also have CBD line that we may be interested in using down the road as well. They have anything and everything and while I’ve used oils sporadically in the past, I’m really excited to dive deeper into their endless benefits. Think room sprays, linen sprays, glow serums, scent rollers, laundry detergent, scented dryer balls, every cleaning product you need made of the things you combined. No hidden ingredients. No toxins. This is what we need!
I also want to note that no one reached out to me and said, “hey, I sell Young Living and want you to try our products!” I did my own research and ended up buying from someone I’ve never even met because I wanted to try them that badly. While, the main reason we are making so many of these changes is to reduce toxins, I also want to use this knowledge to keep our babies safe. By making these changes now, I truly believe we’re making a positive impact on our future.
If any of you have questions or want to chat about the Young Living product line or starter kit, leave a comment below or reach out to me on Facebook or Instagram! @essentialswithmama
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