Does quarantine have you itching to take your spring cleaning to the next level?
Mind, body, and house…we’ve got you covered the Witchy Gypsy way.
If you’ve been here before, you know that we lean heavily toward natural wellness. The beginning of this post focuses on natural, essential oil infused products. Further down you’ll find book recommendations for helping kids deal with the current uncertain atmosphere as well as the mask patterns that we have used for our family.
Now is probably a great time to let you know that I use Amazon affiliate links throughout this and other blog posts. They add absolutely no cost to you but do provide compensation for my family. The other links will take you to my Witchy Gypsy Oils website. I am an independent distributor for Young Living Essential Oils, and you can find all of my distributor information as well as information on purchasing products or joining my team by following any of those links.
Y’all already know I have a love affair going on with my Thieves. The great pandemic has done nothing to damper that relationship. If anything it has only made it stronger. As we’re paying closer attention to cleanliness and sanitizing on a more regular basis, it is more important than ever to know that they products you are using are safe. Especially since the kids are sharing in the responsibility.
It isn’t just our household cleaner that gets a plant powered boost. There’s also soap (Now available in lemon as well!), dish soap, laundry detergent, and hand sanitizer and spray.
Sometimes our bodies need a little extra help during times of stress. I don’t know about you, but times seem a little stressful to me.
It doesn’t matter if you’re sheltering in place or an essential worker, there’s plenty of new stressors to go around.
Personally, my family has upped our Ninja Juice intake as well as making sure that we are getting proper nutrition (Make sure to wash that produce!), daily vitamins, probiotics, and enzymes. We also have Inner Defense on standby and a roller of Thieves for our feet any time we need to go in town.
Speaking of rollers…they are a super easy way to have oils at the ready. The kids especially love being able to help themselves at a time when things are feeling a bit out of control.
Working backwards we’ve covered house and body. It’s time to get emotional.
It’s okay to be feeling whatever you are feeling right now. We cycle through from fear to confidence, frustration to acceptance, and every emotion in between. I think that’s normal when normal takes a vacation.
Stay with me a minute because this is where things get really interesting.
Apart from providing a pleasant smell, aromatherapy oils can provide respiratory disinfection, decongestant, and psychological benefits.
Inhaling essential oils stimulates the olfactory system, the part of the brain connected to smell, including the nose and the brain.
Molecules that enter the nose or mouth pass to the lungs, and from there, to other parts of the body.
As the molecules reach the brain, they affect limbic system, which is linked to the emotions, the heart rate, blood pressure, breathing, memory, stress, and hormone balance. In this way, essential oils can have a subtle, yet holistic effect on the body.
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/10884#using_aromatherapy
Did you catch that? Just sniffing essential oils can have a direct effect on your body and emotions. You can learn more about how certain oils affect your body in our Digging Deeper series, but for now let’s focus on emotions.
We diffuse Peace & Calming on a nightly basis. During the day we’ll diffuse Stress Away if needed. Hope and Acceptance are two other oils making regular rotations right now.
Our family also uses focused breathing exercises and story book yoga poses to maintain emotional balance as well. Here’s another weird tip: Get some sunshine. We make it a point to “cat” at least once a day, finding a warm sunny spot and curling up for a few minutes of solar recharge. Vitamin D is a wonderful thing.
Some of our favorite mindfulness and yoga books are:
(Click on the picture to find them on Amazon)
I think the biggest thing for us has been trying to keep the days somewhat normal. We still do school. I still go to work. We still cook and play together. We’re even lucky enough to be parked on a beach. Hooray travel ban!
We also talk to one another…about what is going on in the world, what we’re feeling, how we can keep the good changes in place when it is all over, and what we would like to let go of as well. With so much changing on a day to day basis, keeping those lines of communication open is probably the most important thing we can do.
And hand washing.
Always hand washing.
We’ve also begun making masks for when we do have to venture out in town. You can find several good sewing tutorials online. We used the tutorial from Craft Passion and combined it with the interfacing instruction from the JoAnn’s Fabric tutorial. The combination of the two resulted in a super well fitting, washable mask.
The only thing I would change are the elastic placements. This mask was made to go over the ears and that chafes after surprisingly little use. I fixed the problem with a couple hair ties and safety pins but the next set of mask will have two elastic pieces that go around the back of the head.
So…what are your families doing right now? Is everyone hunkered down together? Do you have an essential worker in your home? Have you traded school books for board games? Or are you just surviving one day at a time? No matter what your situation, you’re not alone. We really are all in this together.
