plant medicine — Blog

*It takes 5000 tonnes of raw plant material to make 3 litres of precious pure Rose oil*

Quality is paramount in choosing essential oils. In order to maintain safety and efficiency, the oils you choose Must be sustainably, indigiously sourced and of the highest quality. The oils I recommend are dispensed from one of todays leading, most trusted Essential Oil providers, who sustainably sources its oils from the countries and communities each plant is native too and has rigorous testing procedures to ensure every drop is the pure essential oil and nothing more, or less.

This is a big deal as according to leading Essential Oil researchers, up to 75% of essential oils on the market today are in some way tampered with and there is no regulatory agency to illicit change. The company I source my essential oils from offers transparent practices that make available laboratory testing of single oils to the public, ensuring purity and trust within the Essential Oils community.

“For me this was an important part of my decision in choosing the company I chose (above all other companies) but ironically, not the deciding factor !”

After rigorous investigation and experimentation of many of the Essential oils on the market, my head was spinning. (Take a look - or better yet, don't - at all the propogander circulating throughout the google pages)

In choosing the best company to partner with, I knew that the decision would be an important one for me for two main reasons.

Firstly, the relationship we have with botanicals is highly personal. It is (or can be) beautiful, scared and something that filters through into ones entire family, their community and I really don't have any inclination towards needing to defend such well researched and heart made choices with anyone.

Secondly, for me, this company would provide the wonderful opportunity of reigniting my inherent entrepreneurial creativity - a way for me to build a lucrative business within a well informed tribe; a community content and inspired to join me in sprinkling the magic of pure plant based wonderment worldwide. Maybe that could even be you and if it is, then please reach out :)

I digress... If you'd like to read a little more about my Essential Oil journey, find the blog post here.

Back to the story !

So. Thereupon consuming, digesting and assimilating all the necessary jargon, I let the mind stuff settle and went directly to the practice; using the oils in my day-to-day life.

It took me almost 6 months of sampling and trialling the products of the two major essential oil leaders, to make my choice and I must say it was a difficult choice as the quality of both companies is truly high !

Quite surprisingly though clarity arrived one fateful day after watching the emotionally gripping movie LION.

My goddess, I watched that movie in tears; not the gentle dainty kind of tears that accompany a tentative sniffle and dab of a tissue no, the gut wrentching snot laden tissue box emptying kind of tears that invite 'a little lay down' after the ordeal. For those virgin to the film about which I type, here is the synopsis courtesy of IMBD

“A five-year-old Indian boy gets lost on the streets of Calcutta, thousands of kilometers from home. He survives many challenges before being adopted by a couple in Australia. 25 years later, he sets out to find his lost family.”

— https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3741834/

The entire first hour of that film touched all the pain points of being a mother. Having spent a good portion of time in India during my younger explorer days, I was transported, my present mind reeling with dismay, every cell in my being wailing - "But they are only little boys !!!"

This movie beautifully illuminates the abysmally dismal situation of extreme child exploitation that India maintains as a hideous stain.

Not two days following my exposure to this film, I fell upon the following and my choice was made.

“Operation Underground Railroad
The doTERRA Healing Hands Foundation is proud to be partnering with Operation Underground Railroad (OUR Rescue) to bring healing and hope to the world. OUR Rescue exists to rescue children from sex trafficking by utilizing some of the world’s experts in extraction operations and anti-child trafficking efforts.

OUR Rescue’s Jump Team, consisting of former CIA, Navy SEALs, and Special Ops operatives, lead coordinated identification and extraction efforts to rescue children being trafficked for sex.”

— https://www.doterra.com/US/en/healing-hands-foundation-about

Its hard to read, I want to look away and yet; in Yoga we'd call that Avidya (ignorance) that, and philanthropy is a cause ever close to my heart. I have always offered my time, finances and services for the greater good and even now since becoming a mother this has remained unchanged, perhaps however rescaled.

What I have found from my experiences of giving charitably over time, is that (exceptions recognised of course) it makes sense to support foundations already organised. It makes getting the dollar to exactly where it is needed to go, easier and more effective.

Learning of doTERRAs humanitarian efforts was certainly the change maker for me and I am delighted to not only be using their superior quality essential oils - also to know that my product usage and propagation supports the Healing Hands Foundation (amongst other philanthropic efforts), directly.

If you feel called to join me, on my team, within the blossoming doTERRA healing tree;

Contact me with your top 3 health concerns and I'll get in touch with some solutions. Or if you know you are ready to join me on the journey immediately

Follow these instructions

Purchase your starter pack here

Wishing you all the LOVE and miracles of a plant empowered life,

xo Amber

Blended to bring light into the darkest places, Hope offers the full purchase price of each bottle as donation to support the work of ending sex trafficking world wide via the doTERRA Healing Hands Foundation.

Faith. Belief. Hope.

To have hope is to hold in your heart the possibility of embodying the whole. Happiness is your birthright. Born wide eyed and full of soul, sometimes its necessary to be reminded of your invincible dynamic might.

The doTERRA Hope blend is a courageous concoction of cleansing Bergamot, innocence restoring Ylang Ylang and perspective shifting Frankincense; tickled by the steadying scent of vanilla in a base of fractionated coconut oil.

Apply this gorgeous blend directly from the roller bottle. It's fresh, playful and enlightening perfume comes in handy during times of trauma recall and despairing stress.

Be reminded of your nature as whole.

Our plant friends are wonderful ally's on this path and a little hope, goes a long way.

Would you like to purchase a bottle of doTERRA Hope for your own ?

Ask me how

*Ganesha Mudra embrace. May all obstacles to your highest Grace, be removed from the way !*

I use essential oils everyday and in so many ways. On my body, diffused, in lotions and potions and even with know-how, internally.

To withhold any of this information would be to withhold a big part of who I am and all that makes me, me!

Scattered throughout my offerings, my yoga, teachings and contributions I will show you how you can incorporate botanical extracts into the elevation of your everyday experience of life.

But first, let me be clear on something - I took a sabbatical from consciously using Any essential oils for about 3 years and here’s why.

I became jaded. Jaded by the surge of essential oil consumerism, injury and fallacy. I didn’t want to participate in the evolution of modernistic botanical reach, it was a perceptual train wreck to me and so instead I retreated. Retreated from that which had only ever been a deeply personal communion with the most potent form of botanical healing I'd known. For me, the unregulated face of the Aromatherapy I'd cherished became endangered and I felt as though I'd lost a home.

During that time I deepened my study of herbalism. I was pregnant with my first son and instead of inhaling aromatics, I’d sit with, listen too, lay beside, seed, harvest, prepare, macerate, medicate, craft with and ultimately dance with plants. The actual plants. The whole plants, their different parts, their colours, their grit, grime (sometimes slime) and the personality of each. The plants enveloped me inside of a heady curiosity, carrying me through the seasons on a cycle of deeper states of presence, Wonder and awe. Some things can’t be rushed.... and the whole process nourished my yearning for home.

I first studied clinical aromatherapy in 2001 at the Australian School of Clinical Aromatherapy. I was soon to be living in a little house just up the street and had been experimenting with oils wholeheartedly (uneducated and full of curiosity) since my first purchase of 40 oils in a wooden box, some years before.

Like most new to the world of Aromatherapy I was SMITTEN. These oils seemed to save my life. Really. I was struggling with change, leaving a relationship that I’d far outgrown and entering an adulthood that my adolescence couldn’t rectify no matter how hard I tried. Cedarwood was my ally then, Geranium and Lavender not only quelled the tremors of my mind they also appeased a suppressed yearning for expression that little patches of eczema erupting on my neck tried to hide. I shared so passionately about my beloved botanical allies and how they’d transformed the relationship I had with upcoming milestones in my life. They set me on a path of deeper intimacy and truly, the rest is history.

Furthering my education in Essential oils and the study of Aromatherapy, I delved into reflexology with massage soon becoming a modality that served as a catalyst for deeper remedial and clinical qualifications.

Essential oils guided me through the gamet of understanding chemical toxicity, and eradicating harsh cleaning supplies, body care products and food stuffs from my home. Their unique, natural and harmonious chemistry infiltrated my senses to rewire expired beliefs, confirming a deeper knowing that as organic organisms, we humans need to live organically. I was never formally taught that and it was these experiences that transformed me, sustainably and for life.

And then after all those years of deep intimacy, private experimentations and joyful revelations; I became jaded. It seemed as though all of a sudden, everyone started sharing about essential oils. Seemed as though all kinds of far reaching claims, promises and consumption demands were being made; all for the pull of a dollar.

And something so beautiful, so healing and so sacred for me became void.

I shied away and it wasn’t until my second born was admitted to the emergency room at 2.5 weeks old with a (unknown at the time) benign stomach virus, that my knowledge and need for these powerful plant extracts reignited. You see in the very next room a 4month old whooped day and night with pertussis - a potentially deadly childhood disease. I diffused a suitable dose of melaleuca in our room to clear the air, with a drop of lavender to soothe. Body, mind and soul, they offered protection and it was palpable. After a 3 night stay we were freed and since then my good ol’ botanical extract/essential oil friends have been reverently reintroduced to our home.

Having braved that sabbatical, I developed a whole new respect for essential oils and am grateful for my time of being ‘jaded’.

Essential oils need to be respected. And to respect them is to know how to use them.

I have joined the company doTERRA as an independent distributor - a Wellness Advocate. Because after much exhaustive research, I’ve fallen in love with the company and their essential oil based products above all others. I use them on myself and for my family, daily, wisely and would love to help you do the same for you and your family ! Join me and many other like minded future friends, on the journey.