Liquid Sleep

Behold the time has come for my Liquid Xanax follow up :) I have come to so many realizations in the last few weeks. One of them came from my sweet Grandma who told me "you need to just help people the same way that you were helped." Wow. That hit me hard. Because I realized that I have so much to offer. And that is ONLY because I have found help a certain way from various sources of information and products. And that is what I have to share. So the benefit of what I have to offer is that I will only speak on behalf of the real experiences that I have personally had and in some cases, the experiences that other people have had extreme success with.

I don't want to blab on about things that I don't know a thing about. Because there are a lot of things that I DO know a lot about. And that is my point of creating this blog. When I took the time to focus on what I am really moving forward in my life I finally found a way to explain it true to my soul. My focus and my passion is HEALING. It felt so beautiful to finally get to the core of what I want to do. And it makes sense. I have had to do a lot of healing in my life. I have healed from grief, loss, addiction, depression, anxiety among other things. And I know that I chose to experience these things so I could help other people.

So that is what I am going to do. I am going to help people the same way that I found help. And comfort people the same way that I found comfort. What a blessing to hear the responses that I have received about my 'Liquid Xanax' post. So many people struggle with anxiety and depression. And unfortunately doctors are quick to pull out their prescription pad to "help you take care of that." I have different beliefs and that's only because I have the experience to back it up.

I guess I should explain my battle with insomnia. I have struggled with insomnia for about 9 years. It started in high school. It was awful. I just could not fall asleep. And if I happened to fall asleep and then woke up in the middle of the night, there was not a dang chance that I was going to fall back asleep. So I started with Melatonin, then went to Tylenol PM, then Ambien and have recently (up until about 2 months ago whoop whoop) been on Trazodone. I love sleeping, I'll be honest. But when you have to deal with getting no sleep, it is a killer. I absolutely depended on my "pill" (which ever one I was taking at the time) to put me to sleep. I can proudly say now that I am OFF OF ALL OF MY PILLS! AHHH I could just scream it from the rooftops. And I now rely on my oils to put me to sleep. The side effects to be expected are: relaxation and no grogginess for the whole following day. It is awesome.

So let me give you my recipe for my Liquid Ambien:

20 drops lavender
7 drops vetiver
Top off with FCO (fractionated coconut oil)
Mixed in a roller bottle
**Apply on feet and neck before bedtime as needed.

Lavender is very well known to assist with sleep. But with the issues that I have personally experienced I need something heavy duty to add to the lavender (enter vetiver). Vetiver is known for its soothing and calming effects on the central nervous system. I think the main reason that I have struggled with sleeping is just because of what goes on in my mind, kinda hard to turn my thoughts off. And that is where the vetiver comes in. The earthy aroma just tells my brain its time to calm down, get your head out of the clouds and come to sleep :) Never hurts to add a little balance blend in addition before bed or use serenity blend to substitute for lavender.

** Now I should put a little disclaimer (or a whole 'nother blog post) just explaining that not EVERYTHING works for EVERYONE. And essential oils are not any different. I have had to try lots of different combos for different issues like digestion ect. So realize that you shouldn't get discouraged if something doesn't work for you. Keep trying! Maybe you say "Maggie, I really think that I'm going to need more Vetiver then that!" BY ALL MEANS ADD SOME MORE!!!! Until you find peace! Because it is available to you. Don't give up on yourself. I believe in natural healing. And I believe in the healing power of essential oils. You will too :) All I can tell you is what works for me, and what works for other people! Find what works for you! And then share that with me and the people you love! Its bout dang time to share the gift of natural healing. I'm no doctor, but I would like to slpwly introduce you to my medicine cabinet (which looks much different now) and assist you in finding alternative choices for your health and wellness. Enjoy :)

Respect the journey

We are all on a journey aren't we? I believe that we are. My journey has been a crazy one. I have experienced loss in my life and all kinds of mental health shenanigans. I have faced lots of choices in my life (many of which where I made the "wrong one") but its all beautiful to me. And do you know what the most valuable thing that I have gained is? The ability to respect another's journey.

And that is what I want to address today in this quick blog post. I have been able to gain this unending respect for everybody exactly where they are at in life, and I wouldn't trade that for any other gift available. Whether you have experienced a lot of tough things in your life or not it is not our job to judge one another. It is OUR job to "LOVE one another."

In all my studying and reading and learning, I have come to find that at the base of every philosophy and teaching is LOVE. Everything circles back to love. It is where everything starts and everything ends. We need to learn love. We need to encompass the idea of unconditional love. And I think that we are on the earth to remember that at our core we already exist as love.

Loving someone through their journey is the best thing you can do. As you may be able to imagine, because I am constantly learning new techniques to reduce anxiety and boost my faith and really understand what I think we were sent to earth to understand, it is easy for me to want to push this info on other people. Not for selfish reasons but because I want to help. But I've had to learn the hard way (a couple of times) that it is impossible to help someone who isn't at that point the their journey where they are ready for help.

And at a certain point in our lives we really do have to accept and respect that. We are so eager to push what we learn on other people that we hardly can call ourselves living examples of what we teach. So I've made a new promise to myself that I am going to continue to become an example of what I teach and believe. I'm going to be more caring and interested and most of all loving toward people. Because in these times of trouble what the world needs most is love. And the other beautiful thing I've learned is that YOUR journey is not the same as MINE. We are all meant to experience different things and what works for me might not work for you. And vice versa. The cool thing is that THAT IS OK. Let us all take some time to remember to respect each other exactly where we are at in life. And trust each other enough to ask for help when needed and love each other enough to respect where someone stands in their journey. Sending my love and peace to everyone.

Xoxo
Maggie

My dance with fear

I want to talk about fear. I have had fear on my mind a lot lately. Like a whole lot. I am making changes in my life and it is incredible how fear peeks it's head when you try to make changes into your life.

The only thing I can compare fear to is poison. It is what keeps you scared and prevents you from taking action in your life OR attempts to stop you once you've already taken action. After I deemed this month to be ACTION-APRIL all kinds of anxiety began to surface. Luckily I have remembered to use my essential oils (balance blend and frankincense) especially on my solar plexus (the energy center above the belly button) But as always when I am in need of answers and help, people show up with suggestions and recommendations.

My recommendation came to me this month by my health coach/mentor Nicole. She recommended that I read a book called "The Four Agreements" by Don Miguel Ruiź. I LOVE book recommendations so I took the suggestion and got the book yesterday.... I read it in one day. Haha. It is so good. As much as I recommend you read the book as well, I am going to give you the readers digest version as well as my thoughts on each of the new agreements that I have committed to making.

The first new agreement: "Be impeccable with your word."
- I have learned a lot about the power of words. The power that I have to affect change in my life and in the lives of those around me. And the destruction that gossip can have in the lives of people around me. I have been trying really hard to watch my words and I constantly catch myself in the process if giving 'my two cents' in certain situations. It is a work in progress but I try hard every day to use my words 'in the direction of truth and love.' Have you ever been gossiping about something or someone and someone else decides to join you?! And suddenly you feel like that person just added fuel to the conversation and your adrenaline starts rushing? It is just adding bad energy to the situation and actually turning it into more than it really is. Try to be more conscious about how you use your words. The issue will go away sooner if you start refusing the need to add fuel to someone else's fire or let people and fuel to yours.

The second new agreement: "Don't take anything personally."
-Wow this is a good one. "Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality." Isn't that the truth? If you can really let this agreement set into your soul, your life will take new form almost immediately. Maybe someone tells you your ugly, for example. If you can commit yourself to this agreement, then anything that anyone says will not affect you! If you take a minute to realize that what this person is saying has NOTHING to do with you then you will avoid needless suffering in your life. Maybe what someone else says about you is true, maybe it's not. But at the end of the day you need ONLY worry about what YOU feel about YOURSELF. Once confident in your feelings about you, the opinions of others are just that, opinions. They are not personal. When someone attacks you with their words or opinions just respond mentally (or outloud if your brave enough) "I am not going to take this personally, this is not a reflection of me." By doing this you stop the energy in its tracks and refuse to take that information on as your identity.

Third new agreement: "Don't make assumptions."
- A wonderful and welcome change. So many times we get ourselves into trouble because in our head we COMPLETELY make up meanings for certain experiences that we have that are completely FALSE. You will see this is very common in special relationships (marriage, boyfriend/girlfriend). The advice in the book is to ask more questions. Don't just assume you know exactly what someone meant when they did something or said something. Make sure if you are unsure that you ask for more information so you can take things for what they are worth. We cause ourselves SO much unnecessary pain by making assumptions in our heads. Pain that most of the time the other person doesn't even know about!! Whats that saying about holding on to poison expecting the other person to get sick?? Or holding on to a hot coal hoping the other person will get burned? Anyways you get the picture.
Some advice I would add would be, if you are going to assume, assume the best! Give people the benefit of the doubt where possible. Stop assuming the worst in people you may be surprised at what they show you.

The fourth new agreement: "Always do your best."
- Pretty self explanatory. Simple yet profound. If you do your best with your daily tasks then you can be sure that there is nothing more that you could have done. The book talks specifically about how at different times, your best will look a little different. For example when your sick as opposed to when you are full of joyful energy. Do your best. No more, no less. Don't push yourself farther then you have strength. Just do your best. That has been a common theme in my life. "I did my best so if that was not good enough then I will just have to live with that, because there is nothing more I could have done." Be proud of your "best" and don't compare it to someone else's best. You can always sleep soundly if you know you did all you had in you to do.

What is your favorite new agreement? What is one (or all!) that you could commit to that would really bring you some peace in your life. In my honestly I will admit that I messed up on 3 out of the 4 new agreements my first day. But NOT THE FOURTH! I did my best. And I know my awareness is the first step to any kind of change. So rather than letting my mind control my life, I am taking control of my mind.

This is my new screensaver on my phone as well as taped on my closet so I see it daily