What is the true cost of cleaning in today's toxic world?

Each week I teach people about Essential oils and how to use them in their homes and for health.  Essential oils can be applied in many ways.  You can put a few drops of clary sage in your bath to help with cramps, put lavender on your band aid to assist your body in healing cuts and scrapes or by diffusing Eucalyptus into the air to help with a cold.   One of the most profound concepts that I teach is how Essentials get into our bodies and why we should start using less toxic chemicals all around. 

Take Essential oils for example, they get into your saliva within 30 seconds and can be in every cell of our bodies in about 30 minutes.  When we are speaking about the benefits of Essential Oils, we think “Great”!  However if this is true of EO’s, take it one step further.  This means that ammonia, bleach and other harmful chemicals are also entering our blood streams.  How would this effect our bodies after a lifetime of use?  So are there other alternatives to using harmful chemicals and if so, why are we not using them?

Luckily due to demand in certain areas of the country, the grocery stores are offering less toxic options and even at a premium price if you just substitute that with every other purchase you are decreasing the amount of toxins that get into your system by 1/2.  You can also make your own products that are equally effective.  Like for instance, I recently made a foot spray for my boys “stinky feet” with essential oils which works beautifully.  This cost was a little more up front but I can make this spray over and over with the ingredients that I purchased the first time and I can use those oils to make a ton of other things. Now a step further, imagine how great you will feel learning something new, making changes to keep your family safe & being creative.  This change alone in our psyche can increase overall happiness in our lives. 

Since harmful chemicals can also get into our bodies by inhalation, can you imagine how this could negatively affect someone who is fighting chronic illness, cancer or respiratory disease?   They are fighting to create clean healthy cells in a world where we are already in toxic overload.  We take for granted the air we breathe, don’t we?  There are studies about the effects of living in cities with clean air verses polluted air and we seem to understand that but most often feel that we can’t do a lot about it.  We love to light heavily scented candles, use glade plug-ins or other methods to clear the air but we don’t get the skinny on the side effects of these chemicals after long term use. 

Sulfates, propylene glycol, Deet to name a few lace our cleaning supplies, bugs sprays, lotions, perfumes, shampoo’s and makeup and as long as you do not ingest or splash them in your eyes then they are considered safe because they are not intended to be used internally and not toxic enough to cause harm on the first round.  But what is the effect of daily use of the combined chemicals?  To me this is like taking all sorts of prescription drugs but unaware of how those drugs will interact with each other.  Public education stops there because it effects the bottom line and lets face it as long as the public keeps buying, why would they change.  

Now I must interject and tell you that I know I don't live in a world where even I can be chemical free if that is my choice.  I do what I can and where I can.  

Last year, I took over a cleaning business and luckily the previous owner was conscious about the products that she was using.  This really got me thinking about our cleaning professionals and how it is my responsibility to keep them safe as a business owner.   Now we use Thieves Essential Oil multi-purpose cleaner and Shaklee products to clean our houses.  Not only are the products that we use environmentally friendly, but also they work really well and keep our cleaning professionals safe.  Thieves’ essential oil is antiviral, antimicrobial, anti fungal, and also cleans, disinfects and can help maintain a healthy respiratory system.    

What I am saying here today is that there are choices that we can make and educating ourselves won’t cost us a lot more money, it will actually keep us safer, healthier and increase our joy over our lifetimes.  

We hold weekly classes at Pathways Holistic Center and you can see a list of those classes on our website at Pathways Holistic Center.  If you are within 3.5 hours of Fort Collins and would like to hold a class on Essential oils and how to use them, I would be happy to facilitate.  Please contact me direct by email at onesourcelivewell@gmail.com if you have any questions about getting started on your road to better health and overall happiness. 

If you would like to start investing in some the products mentioned above, please go to our website Pathways Holistic Center and under shop you can sign up for Young Living Essential Oils or Shaklee and start improving your home and health today.