closer to the nature

I’ve always been sensitive to smells and just the idea of cleaning a bathroom was a nightmare for me. I always ended up with a terrible headache caused by the commercial cleaning products and even though wearing gloves, my skin was irritated.
Yesterday I finally tested my new natural (plant based) household cleaner – Thieves from Young Living. After cleaning 2.5 bathrooms without gloves there was no skin issue nor a headache at all. And it smells amazing!

My daughter used it on wiping our kitchen counters yesterday as well so it’s safe for kids too and I am not afraid that she will be exposed to harsh chemicals.

I don’t think that I will ever be excited about cleaning the bathrooms or counter tops or anything in the house (hey, there are more fun things to do than cleaning, right?!) but at least I will do it the safer way without headaches or freaking out that my skin will crack once again.

This one is definitely a keeper!

for the love of aromatherapy | fighting colds

After a few cold and sunny days we are back in our rainy, winter weather. The gray cloudy skies brought unfortunately runny noses and cough into our household. Even though we eat a lot of veggies and fruits, use vitamins and multi probiotics as prevention, sometimes you just can’t avoid the winter blues.

This time was our little man’s turn with the cold. Most of the time, when he catches a cold or a virus, he ends up with a bad cough which always worsens at night. So I was on a quest to help him to ease this whole process the natural way this time. I’ve been using essential oils for a few months now but mostly I’ve used them only for the aromatherapy purpose (divine smell of the whole house) or to make my own household products for get rid of unnecessary chemicals. When he first started to sneeze, I turned the diffuser on and have been running it downstairs with thieves blend during the day. But I also put our second diffuser to work at night too. I did a little research and asked people what blend would be the best to diffuse at night and ended up with a mix of 2  drops each of Lemon and of R.C.  {R.C. is a blend of eucalyptus (E. globulus, E. radiata, E. citriodora), myrtle, spruce, peppermint, pine, lavender, marjoram, cypress}. I didn’t want to overdo it for the first time and also I don’t have too many oils at home so I just wanted to try it.

When he got to bed, he was coughing a lot. I was a little bit skeptical at first if the diffuser will work or not but to my surprise only after 10 minutes of running it, he stopped coughing and slept through the night.  He came downstairs in the morning saying that he slept well thanks to the diffuser. I absolutely love this thing. It uses mix of water and essential oils to create a cool mist but it also doubles as a humidifier, which is beneficial in winter. So I guess I can say that my first try was a success.

The little man is feeling a little bit better now so let’s hope that none of us will get it from him. Kids use vitamin C, multi probiotics and manuka honey and Ivo and I are adding oil of oregano to the mix as well to stay healthy through the winter months.

Please note that all the info above is just me sharing my own experience with aromatherapy. It is not meant to give you direction how to treat diseases. No matter what brand of oils you use or prefer, I strongly recommend for you to do your own research before you use any oils or natural products. That’s what I do all the time as well. There is a lot of info online but I personally check with books or multiple resources as well before I give it a go. I’ve been using this book above as a guide.

I hope this post has been helpful to you. If you have any question, tips or advice, please don’t hesitate to contact me through the comments or the contact me form.