Children - Insomnia - Anxiety

Sometimes emails and current events prompt these articles.

A new friend named Kate wrote earlier this week:

Good Afternoon,

My 10yr old daughter has been unable to fall asleep since my husband's leukemia diagnosis over a year ago. She is restless for hours until her body eventually shuts down. We have tried conventional medicine, counseling, melatonin, new bedtime routines, etc. I am at my wit's end... A friend of mine recently suggested using an essential oil diffuser and rubbing oil on her wrists in the morning for daytime relaxation. At this point, I'll try anything!

Which essential oils would you recommend? Are there specific oils that you would suggest for daytime wear vs. nighttime diffusing? And finally, is there a specific diffuser that you find superior? (She referenced one on Amazon that I am not familiar with.)

Thank you in advance for your assistance. I am a desperate mom. I'm hoping that I will finally find a solution for my daughter.

my "first thoughts" reply (keeping in mind that her daughter is 10, not a toddler!): 

Poor wee one..
Seems to me the insomnia is triggered by anxiety... so my recommendation would be to treat the underlying anxiety..    AND the insomnia... but not just the insomnia.

My first thought... https://www.naturesgift.com/product/happy_dreams/  (look at the link for the aromapatch)     lavender for sleep/relaxation...  sweet orange for general mood improvement..  petitgrain bigarade for anti-anxiety AND sleep.

  The three essential oils specifically known for aiding with anxiety are     1. Neroli    2. Petitgrain Bigarade (from Italy.. in my experience the oil from Paraguay has different chemistry and is less effective) and BITTER Orange..  all oils from the same tree.

You could also look at using Neroli Hydrosol..   (ie, floral water) as a linen spray, perhaps, or a facial spritz at bedtime.   Neroli is not, by itself, sedating... but calms anxiety.  I find the Petitgrain a bit more relaxing/sleep inducing and often use it myself when insomnia strikes at 2 am.. (my mind likes to run todo lists in the middle of the night...  Petitgrain helps with that.)

Other 'sleep inducing" oils that you might look at....  Roman Chamomile... (the MOST relaxing eo!)... Lavender.. Bulgarian or Mailette...  

and we have a blend for anxiety..  called Reunité...     look at the anointing oil.. a skin safe dilution for pulse points/perfume type use  https://www.naturesgift.com/product/reunite-synergy/ I would look at the Reunité for daytime use, not bedtime.

I can't address the diffuser you have mentioned... that's a fantastic price... half what we have to sell ours for.    it might be worth trying.  what I was thinking of...  was this one..   but at more than twice the cost... go with the one you are looking at.

I would want a diffuser that can be shut off after 30-60 minutes... you don't necessarily want it to run all night.  (I use an Aromastone on my bedtable... safe and gentle, and DO let it run all night, contrary to today's guidelines.  BUT I also control the amount of oil or blend put on it.)

and, please remember.. ANY oils that you decide to apply topically need to be well diluted.. for a 10 year old I would want to use from between 1 and 2%... no stronger.  

You might want to add the right eo or blend to some unscented hand lotion... she could carry that in her back pack and apply at will, perhaps???

May I use your question and this answer in a blog article?  It's not the first time I've been asked about this..

hope some of the suggestions help!  Please remember...you may request up to 4 free samples with an order in the comments box at checkout.. so when planning..  request samples of the highest priced... to see how she responds...

poor wee one... let's get her (and her mom) some rest.

NOTE:  I would not normally have turned this conversation into a blog article, but with the most recent school shooting in Florida, how many children are sleepless from anxiety? How many are realizing that their school may not be the safe haven they deserve?  I can not change what is happening in our country, but perhaps we can ease the burden some of our children are carrying.

Kate's response, when I asked if I could share with you all?
 
Thank you so very much for your thoughtful and speedy response.... You're God sent. Feel free to utilize my questions in your blog. It would be nice to know that some good could come of our struggles.

With Much Appreciation,

Kate

Yes...  let some good come out of their struggles...  


Please share this with any friends you think could benefit from it.

affiliate links?

An old friend suggested that I become an affiliate of a new service she is providing.  Recommend her service, if people sign up, Nature's Gift gets paid.

And my immediate response was, "We don't do affiliates." and we dropped the subject.

But the idea of affiliate links has been running around in my head ever since.

And I'm glad that we don't.

You have all seen them, the blogs, the websites, that give a glowing review of a product. With a link to buy it.  Not from the person writing about it, but from Amazon, or a supplier, or the producer, or, whoever.

Some of these are perfectly innocent.  Mommy bloggers who are in love with a product and want to recommend it, and also get paid if their friends click on the link.

But there can be a dark underside of the whole affiliate concept...when the writer goes from recommending a product, service, school that they love, to only recommending products, services and schools that will pay for the recommendation.  A sort of "pay to play" arrangement.  And you, as the reader, can't know.  Does this writer recommend things she loves, and sometimes get paid for it? Or does she only recommend things that she gets paid to recommend?

We have all seen this.  I have watched it happen in this field that I love, and I suspect those who love the oils are not unique.  It probably happens in any industry, any area.

But... we don't.   Because when we recommend a school,  a practitioner, a product, I want you to know that we *love* it.  We hope you will love it too. At the very least, we want you to know that it exists.

Now, there is ONE exception to our "no affiliate links" policy.  Our "book list."  There are some books, rare and hard to find, like Sal Battaglia's and Madeleine's that we gladly import to make available to you.  We believe in them, and we "put our money where our mouth is."

If it were possible to offer all the books that we think you should be reading at a reasonable price, we would stock them.

But if we stocked them, you would still buy from Amazon. We can not match their prices for books printed in the US. So, we review the books that we recommend, and give a link for purchasing on Amazon.  If you purchase via our link we make perhaps 25 cents or so on the purchase.

These are our only affiliate links.  If you see me blog, or post on Facebook, or write a newsletter about another company,  a product that is not ours, a course that interests us... it's because we are enthusiastic about it, not because we are being paid.

Thank you for listening.

Guest Post - Cathy Skipper - Black Sacra Frankincense

My teacher Cathy Skipper sent this in a newsletter recently, and it gave me chills.  I need to read and reread, and sit with what she shared for awhile.  It may resonate with some of you, as well.

You may learn more about the work that Cathy and Florian are doing on  their website, AromaGnosis, upcoming live classes,  online classes  and, most important, Cathy's new book "The Alchemy of Menopause" on Amazon.

Cathy writes:

Without consciously meaning to, I have been working with two very seasonal oils this week: Myrrh (Commiphora myrrha) and Frankincense (Boswellia sacra). In this issue of the newsletter, I want to talk about frankincense.

It all started in Atlanta in November. We were teaching at The Heal Center and had asked each participant to bring two essential oils for exercises in the class. Marge Clarke, who owns and operates “Nature’s Gift” came up to me at the end of the class and said, “I want to gift you this black frankincense. It is a great one for women and I would like to know what you think about it.”

Until that point I had never really developed a deep relationship with frankincense. I could ‘take it or leave it.’ I firmly believe that the right oils meet us and talk to us at the right time. Maybe earlier had not been the right time for Frankincense and I to meet.

I really enjoyed the smell of this particular frankincense, which is also known as Black Nedjei. I love the pine needle-like ‘green’ odor delicately dancing with a subtle floweriness. It has a freshness and lightness that brings me back to a deep calmness, like the calmness you imagine to be at the beginning of the world. Black frankincense is harder to come by than white and Marge only had a very limited supply, which was harvested and distilled in Oman.

We decided to deepen our relationship with frankincense used it in ceremony. For a couple of years, I have been working on re-integrating my maternal great-grandmother’s roots that were Anglo-Indian. Being of Anglo-Indian ancestry was kept secret within my (so called) ‘upright’ British family and this secret bothered me for a long time. This week, I actually started working on a family tree through the website ancestry.com. As I filled in the pieces of my genealogical tree, I was surprised and touched by how easily I could find the information and how quickly the tree grew and how large it became. Except, there was a dead end in one small corner of it. As you could have guessed, everyone on the paternal side of my mother’s side the family tree, going as far back as the 16^th century, has an easy to find, clear lineage including mothers, fathers and children. The blank spot was the ancestry of my great-grandmother, i.e. my mother’s maternal grandmother, who was born in India and married an Englishman. Before her, there is nothing in the records, as if she just magically materialized on earth, as if bought here by a UFO.

Working with the deep, calm, pure, peaceful groundedness of frankincense, I realized first of all that in any family tree it is the secrets, lies and unresolved or un-integrated traumas that stick out, that stay alive, and that call on a future generation to resolve them. Frankincense as a spiritual guide enabled me to feel and understand that my soul had chosen to end this secret within my own family. Since I was a little girl, I have been drawn to knowing the truth. I felt the call of this Indian lineage. And yet, there was silence, mouths were kept shut. The Indian blood running in English veins had to be be hidden. The family tree had to be sanitized. With frankincense, I was able to put the missing pieces together spiritually. What had felt like a wound, I could now see as my gift. I had chosen to be incarnated into that family and felt the pull of that void and was called by it. I felt it as a shadowy wound inside of me, a shameful secret, and frankincense helped me realize that this was actually my gift. My lineage tried to annihilate this secret, yet inside myself, I was retrieving the essence of my Indian lineage. What I brought to the story was inside of me and my gift is to be who I truly am. The secret was ready to be revealed.

“No secret can remain hidden for ever. Silently and patiently, it waits in the dark. It lets you build your life, carefully stacking the bricks one by one, and then it appears. It deals its blow and everything crumbles. That’s why it remains intact and incorruptible in time, waiting for its ultimate destiny to be revealed.” (1)

What has been beautiful and enlightening is that the revelation of the secret is like a key within myself. That secret is part of who I am, which is why I came to unlock it. The banished Indian girl lives in me, she is part of my essence and I re-claim her.

Frankincense is a unifying oil. It helps us bring all the pieces together on all levels, physically and spiritually, into consciousness of presence. The space that this oil creates in us allows us to experience the opening needed to be able to feel our unique spiritual journeys as part of our earthly existence.

To bring this full circle, I have just read that already two thousand years ago, Jewish women used to use myrrh and frankincense for a year before their marriage. For the first 6 months, they would massage themselves with myrrh and for the second 6 months with frankincense, in order to prepare themselves for the sacred union. (2) My modern experience with frankincense and myrrh feels like an inner sacred union. They have helped me unite my spirit and my body. I can clearly feel the resonance of spirit and allow it to inhabit my physical vessel.

During the ceremonial experience with the frankincense, I kept hearing a line from the well-known Christmas carol “Hark the Herald Angels sing”: Peace on Earth and Mercy Mild. Frankincense was one of the gifts from the three Kings to the newborn Christ child. I feel its gift is that it unifies all parts of ourselves and allows us to taste our true essence in the world. It brings a truly delectable feeling of coming home to myself, to all of myself, to all fo us, here on this earth. In so doing, we experience an inner peace that exudes outwards and helps us feel compassion to ourselves and others.

Happy Winter Solstice!

Cathy

(1) Stefano Livos  A life in a moment

(2) Translated from “Huiles Royales, Huiles Sacrees” by Jutta Lenze