Illness Prevention vs Treatment a Paradigm Shift
“Paradigm Shift: an important change that happens when the usual way of thinking about or doing something is replaced by a new and different way”
Without fail, at least once a week I have someone contact me and ask how to treat something with essential oils. And don’t get me wrong, I LOVE that they are thinking of oils as an option instead of traditional treatment. But I have to admit I’m also really sad when that happens because we have been taught to treat symptoms instead of causes and it’s so ingrained in us that many people come to me when it’s too late and then they think oils don’t work. But they do work, they just work differently than pain pills and I really feel the need to share the very, very big difference, because it requires us to think differently first to experience the incredible magic of essential oils.
Prevention vs Treatment
The first thing we need to understand when it comes to essential oils is that they are preventative medicine. Essential oils repair the body itself and strengthen it to fight off physical and environmental threats so they don’t take hold in the body. Essential oil users understand that oils are an aide to the body and we give our amazingly designed bodies the credit for wellness. We recognize that the body itself is designed to maintain a state of wellness and it fights continuously to uphold that state. We also recognize that the environment around us overloads the body with toxins, germs, bacteria and those things cause the body to become overloaded, and then overcome by illness so we don’t treat illness as much as work to prevent it.
Imagine a country surrounded by enemies that are attacking it from every side. If the country only had to fight one enemy at a time, its chances of prevailing are higher than if it is spread out fighting every border at once. When it comes to our bodies this is called toxic load. The more we are surrounded by toxins, the harder it becomes for our bodies to resist and eventually it will succumb to the threat.
Traditional medicine teaches us to treat symptoms once they arise, but does not teach us to keep our bodies well. If we get a cold we are taught to take cold medicine, but there is no healing in cold medicine, it’s simply designed to mask our pain until our body heals itself (or succumbs and something worse takes hold). Using essential oils when you have a cold does offer the same kind of relief, but if you used essential oils instead to clean your home, and strengthen your body first, you may not get that cold at all.
This is why I’m sad when someone says to me “hey xyz is happening, how can I use oils for that?” I’m sad because while essential oils aren’t miracles, if my friend would have been using them in advance they may never have experienced this painful situation to begin with.
Practical Application
So where is this big paradigm shift and how do you put it into action? There are three big ways you can start using essential oils today as prevention for illness and I strongly encourage you to start putting this into practice.
Cleaning
My husband has a medical background and he was taught that bleach is what you use to kill every nasty germ, bacteria, virus etc. on the planet. He’s not alone. But I’m here to tell you what the experts haven’t told you, and that’s that bleach also kills you. You know it’s caustic, and if you were to swallow it you would die. You also have likely heard that you need to open a window when you use it because the fumes and poisonous. Prolonged exposure to bleach even raises the risk of infection in the body, yet we associate the smell of bleach with something good, clean and safe because that’s what we’ve been taught. It’s wrong, very wrong.
Melaleuca (Tea Tree Oil) is an essential oil that is more effective at disinfecting than bleach and when it its pure form is safe to be ingested. I use melaleuca instead of bleach to clean my kitchen and bathrooms. I use it to kill mold, germs and it’s safe around my kids, grandbaby and my pets. This prevention helps make sure my environment stays free of threats to our health.
There are many oils that can be used in prevention to clean and disinfect. Grab my free downloadable pdf [HERE] for some easy cleaning recipes that you can make in minutes instead of using the store bought ones.
Personal Care
Our skin is our largest organ and everything we put on it is absorbed into our bloodstream. Toxins that we absorb are distributed by the blood throughout our entire body and this becomes one of the most prevalent ways we can effect our health (either positively or negatively). Most commercially made, household name brand personal care products are loaded with chemicals that overload our bodies with toxins. Every time you shower, brush your teeth, wash your hands, clothes, dishes, etc. you are introducing toxins into your body and those of your loved ones.
Changing from commercial products to natural, chemical free personal care products is one of the first thing that cancer patients are taught when their immune systems are compromised. But why are we not taught that before we develop cancer? Why are we not taught to work to prevent cancer by ensuring that the products we use for personal care are non-toxic?
Using essential oils on our skin is a way to introduce the healing power of oils into the body to help capture and kill harmful toxins in the body. Essential oils can not only kill harmful elements but they can strengthen our bodies to fight new ones when introduced.
It takes work to change the products we are used to using in our homes, and yes, natural products can be more expensive, but that is why memberships like doTERRAs are available to help lower the cost of doing what we can to keep our bodies healthy.
I use everything that doTERRA sells for personal care instead of what I would buy at the store. Find yourself quality, natural products and make the switch. It’s worth every penny you spend to live life with a healthy body instead of a sick one.
Nutrition
Years ago I bought a volvo and it required premium gas. I tried to cheap out and use regular in it and learned very quickly that my car ran like crap when i did. Your body is no different. Processed food, cheap food, fast food are all examples of regular “gas” in your body when it needs premium to function at high capacity.
I cover my nutritional bases with Lifelong Vitality. I take it every day and it’s my premium gas. I’ve said it again and again, we fill in our nutritional gaps with high, quality, whole food nutrition and we have the best chance of staying healthy and healing faster when we do get sick.
So again, don’t get me wrong - use oils when you have symptoms to offer relief - I do it too because depending on what I’m exposed to I do occasionally get sick, or drained and I need some help. But don’t rely on oils as magic potions only to treat our symptoms. Use them as preventative medicine to reduce your exposure and enjoy a much, much healthier and happier life in the long run.
Be Well!