A special & personal holiday gift option

I like to share things with others that added something meaningful to my day. It’s not uncommon for me, in between posts about my kids’ shenanigans or my own mom fails, human fails, and random thoughts to post about a new favorite recipe or a restaurant I’ve just found, or a new podcast, a book that touched me, etc… you all know this, obviously. 
Sometimes I get to writing in my journal and decide that maybe what I’m working through could resonate with someone else who is fighting a similar battle, overanalyzing the same issue, finding their way through a not-so-different challenge, and then I put out some pretty vulnerable things about myself that I don’t do on a typical day. Such was this past year when I shared some things in two separate posts about a journey I’ve been on with my health caused most likely from decades of pushing through a level of stress and sleep deprivation that isn’t sustainable over time. In fact, it causes damage little by little that you continue to deal with until you… just can’t. Eventually your head isn’t above water anymore and all those days, months, and years of it creeping up to your shins, your knees, your hips, your belly, your chest, your neck… now you feel like you’re literally in a fight for your life… and you sort of are. You’re stopped in your tracks and are forced to face it head-on.
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The tricky thing here is that when you realize it - and that realization takes a lot of time to sort out - you’re already in a situation of no quick fixes. You didn’t get to this place overnight, and you’re not going to be fixed overnight.

Every evening this past year, as many shows and documentaries continued to sit in my Netflix cue waiting for me to finally watch, I researched. And researched. And researched some more. And I wasn’t just searching for one thing but really all things mind-body. Everything is connected… down to how our very thoughts and feelings settle into our organs and can cause everything from intense discomfort to straight up disease. Your liver, for one, takes on a lot of your s***. How? That unresolved issue that causes us to pull our shoulders up to our necks which hurts those muscles and pinches nerves, which now travels down our spine, constricting blood flow to other functions in our body that then suffer the consequences… Organs like our lungs and livers… If you have a persistent tummy issue, there’s a spot on your spine that knows why. Your back is hurting you? Oh, I bet your hips hurt too, right? And then when you do something physically taxing you see a lot of swelling in your calves, ankles, feet… yes? We are trained to go find an anti-inflammatory for it… before long we are also looking for an antacid for the heartburn we now have as a result. Then we need additional vitamins to replace what our blood is now not able to absorb as well from our food because of the reaction to the antacid and anti-inflammatories - but we probably don’t take those vitamins regularly and may not even have the combination our body needs… now we are tired and have a headache and we comfort ourselves with more coffee to stay awake, a quick snack or something with zero nutritional value, so on and so forth. Trace it back to the origin, the source… where did all this start? Ohhhh yeah, that thing that has been stressing me out so badly that kept my shoulders up to my ears… I finally put away the chemical-based medicines and started using plant based ones. If you haven’t heard of Arnica, considering looking it up, ordering some from Amazon or getting it next time you’re at CVS or Walgreens. People use this when recovering from surgery even, so it is effective. And it doesn’t interact with other medications you may be on and it doesn’t cause other problems in your body that then require another medication. I can attest to this personally and from friends who do the same. Are pharmaceutical companies or doctors who are handcuffed to them going to tell you about Arnica or are they going to write you a prescription? What has been your experience? Another thing you can do is to add Tumeric in veggie capsules to your daily regimen. Before long, you’ll notice less pain, and there are also lots of other benefits of tumeric and none of the side effects of Acetaminophen, Ibuprofen, Naproxen, etc, which damage your organs.

If you don’t buy into this, that’s ok, I’m not here to change your mind, just share something I wish I’d known about 20-30 years ago. But I would encourage you to think about it and do some of your own research if any of this peaks your interest. 

I say all of this to get to my actual point: I found things to comfort myself during my own recovery that have made a difference in my sleep and in my rest and have become my little happy places. When you feel awful a lot but have to power through in order to do life, moments like this are so very important to an individual. A lot of the things I do for myself - and for my family too, since sharing is caring - can be found by going no further than your local health store or Amazon and then just including them as part of your routine (i.e., Arnica, Tumeric, Omega 3 supplements - Barleans is great!, etc). 

But there’s one thing that has brought me so much comfort and isn’t quite as obvious or easy to pull together, and, one day while lying down for a bit, I had this moment of obsessing about how many people could find a few minutes or an entire night of some amount of benefit from something I had already been doing for myself and then for my kids. It’s not something that is going to cure all their ailments, but it’s something that could be a real warm and fuzzy addition to their lives either in a situation where they really need it or where they didn’t even know they needed it. It can prevent them from needing to reach over and grab that Tylenol PM or the daytime headache medicine. This is not just for the tired mom with a kink or her neck and a headache, but the dad who is tense and high strung, a pregnant lady checking into the birthing center or hospital to have her baby - or even one having the baby at home, a friend that travels a lot or is going on a long trip and also has a birthday coming up, a friend who is sick and recovering from a bug, another friend who is suffering a terrible, emotional loss of a loved one, kids these days that have a whole different sort of stress than we did as kids and who need help winding down for the input overload they get every single day, , etc etc ETC. Add to it the inundation we all experience with electronics plugged in all around us with the decrease in actually running around barefoot outside breathing in fresh air and feeling the sun on our faces, and you have very unbalanced people trying to do too much in a chaotic world whose neutrons need some serious grounding.

So this little thing that has helped me…

When I checked into the hospital 9 years ago to have the twins, I had my neck pillow in tow. It’s the one thing I need to be able to rest wherever I go, because otherwise I need 6 very specific pillows to support my head and neck in addition to my back, hips, and legs. But this neck pillow provides support to my head whether I’m lying on my back or on my side. What’s different now all these years later is that I’m a big user of essential oils. I slather them on me and my family all the time depending on our needs that day. Because I have a lot of neck, shoulder, back, and head pain, I put oils on my temples, back of my neck where my head and spine connect, and behind my ears. When I lie on the neck pillow, it creates a nice heat that almost feels like a spa treatment, and I can smell the oils constantly as I lie there. Depending on the oil(s) you choose, it can feel grounding, comforting, inspiring, pain relieving, calming, sensual, you name it. On laptops, cell phones, and iPads all day? Use a grounding oil from a tree. In need of something comforting? A flower oil can be just what you need. Dying to get rid of that headache? I can make some suggestions for that too, and then lie down with this oil and your neck pillow for whatever time you can spare - 20 minutes? 

How I have used this with the boys:

With Dominic, because he had two head and neck injuries very close together this year and that awful head injury at the pool a few years ago and also because he’s a funny and sensitive sort, I have been very intentional about the oils I use on him. Javi tends to be someone who is in his head a lot - similar to me - and has trouble getting to sleep at night - like his Dad, and I have a favorite oil for him. Santiago has scoliosis and he also scared the crap out of us this during the summer when we could have lost him to that nasty bacteria from the rat bite at summer camp; I have several oils for him. Adrian is a worry wart and has tummy problems… guess what? Yep… I have an oil regiment for him too. Once I had that lightbulb moment about my own neck pillow and how well it works with my own oils, I got each of the boys their own neck pillows too. They love them - but even if they didn’t let me put oils on their necks and feet - they do, fortunately, so it’s easy - I could put some right on the pillow itself. Now, since I put it on their necks, their pillows always have some residual oils in them anyway, which is great for moments that they get their pillows out to read or watch tv… I don’t have to constantly put oil on them, and it’s not going to waste on their pillows because they’re using them all the time. These are nice, hypo-allergenic, microfiber pillows, so they hold a nice shape, feel great on their skin, and are machine washable. Of all the ones I’ve tried, these are my favorite.

So this revelation I had when I was nursing a headache a couple weeks ago - I thought, hey, the holidays are coming up, and people search for meaningful gifts they can give people, something different from the whatever they found that seemed ok enough to get. Some people come to me to order an oil for them because they don’t order often enough to set up an account, but they can get the wholesale price by coming to me - since I’m a great friend that way 😉. Also, what about those people that have heard about oils but don’t know much about them and feel overwhelmed by them? Well, what if I put together sweet little gifts for people to give to their loved ones, their friends, their kids’ teachers, their spouses, dang it - THEMSELVES!!? And this gives them an opportunity to have a happy place when they use it, try out an oil and see how they feel about it, and maybe get curious enough to start researching ways to help themselves and their families without buying the traditional medicines that cause the other ailments that so many people don’t even connect because it’s just been our way of life for so long?

I decided to pull the trigger and put together some examples of some various gifting you can do. I have lots of colors, patterns, greeting options, accessories, and I can help you select an appropriate oil based on your budget, the person that’s getting the gift’s circumstances, and the theme itself. Got an anniversary coming up and hoping your wife will be in the mood for some sexy time? There’s an oil for that. Got an anniversary coming up and hoping your husband will be likable enough to WANT to have some sexy time (foreplay begins MUCH sooner than bedtime, gentlemen… ahem), got a friend with a baby coming up who might really be able to use a neck pillow and some Lavender or Gentle Baby blend? We can make it suitable for this occasion. Are you celebrating holidays other than Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, Día de Los Reyes, or Eid this year and want something in a beautiful Green, Red, Yellow, or Bright Blue, Patterns with certain decor or oils to fit that occasion? The New Year is coming too... I got you… even the greeting you want that I may not have shown examples of below. 

Bottom line is this: this gift is good for people, it’s personal without being imposing, it’s just for them, they’re going to use this and think about the thoughtfulness of it, and it’s one and done… let me know what you want, we’ll do it to your budget/needs (most of these will start at $30 and go up from there, but this includes a brand new, unopened bottle of Young Living oil, so it depends on which oil you decide to go with). But - boom - your shopping can be done for the season. 

If this sounds like anything you might want to do, send me a text, pm me, call me, email me… you all know how to reach me. Most of you will probably text or pm me, but for email purposes, you can also reach out to me via isawyournutsmommy@outlook.com. I do Paypal (gmrendon) and Venmo (@GinaRendon), so pick your preference.

Below is just an idea of what’s happening in my hobby room… it’s really nice to be down to one butt to wipe so I can actually have time to work on my personal hobbies again while enjoying each one of them in different ways now. Plus they’re great helpers when I need someone to “hand me one of those things over there, please”. :)

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