An essential passion of mine

I've heard that if you're going to blog, you'd better blog well. And blogging well means a few times a week. I have also heard that a blog associated with your business should post at least twice a month, according to social media research. I seem to have missed an entire month somehow... Oh well. I don't call myself a blogger. In truth, my past few blog postings were lacking in passion, excitement, and positivism. I figured I should take a break before putting more negative energy out there, since the point of starting this blog was to chronicle my passions as I navigate how to keep living out all of them!

A forgotten passion of mine popped up in December. Prior to December, I knew I was interested in this passion, but hadn't yet pursued it. Well, I'd run into this woman outside of Liquid Assets in Sartell, where a weekly networking group I'm a part of meets. I was introduced to her by a mutual friend and discovered that she is a massage therapist but also sells Young Living essential oils. I invited her to come to the networking group, and a couple weeks later she did a presentation for all of us. She was incredibly informed about the amazing benefits of essential oils and had so many life-changing stories to share. She's been a distributor for over a decade and loves it.

You should know that I've been invited - no, pressured - to be a part of just about every single Network Marketing business known to (wo)man. From Lia Sophia, Mary Kay, Thirty-One, Avon, and Premier Jewelry, to Xanga, WorldVentures, Alphay, Tastefully Simple, and Pure Romance, I've seen 'em all. And I could probably sell all of them successfully if I really wanted to. The consultants I meet know this, which is why many of them have repeatedly tried to win me over. I'm a charismatic person, and I know how to sell. Whoop-de-do. What sells many of these businesses is the networking part, not so much the product. I didn't care for that kind of business. I am not the kind of woman who even USES products. I scarcely use anything. Do I wash my face at night? Nope. Do I worry about eye wrinkles? Nope. Do I wear jewelry? Yup, but I make it. Do I cook? Yup, from scratch.

Back to the story. This Young Living essential oils lady is awesome. She and I became friends. I mean real friends. I went to a free oil class she offered and discovered that one simple oil, Basil, would really balance out my body. I figured, for such a small cost, what's the harm in trying it out? It is good for sinus issues, ovarian cysts, mental fatigue, aching muscles, and a variety of other things. (No wonder my body liked it so much!) While buying, this is where I was sold on the idea of joining and becoming an independent distributor, it was clear that the wholesale pricing was significantly lower than the retail prices of oils. Duh. For the small price of $50, I could join for a year to get wholesale pricing AND get their starter kit. That's like a Sam's Club membership but I get product too! Annually, I have to spend $50 to maintain my membership (still getting product for that fifty bucks). No additional fees. And if I wanted to sell it to friends or family, I could make a commission. If you want to join my team, click here!

Now I understand why many people join these kinds of companies. When you actually USE the product, and LOVE the product, it is really easy to justify the worth of your membership. It also makes it easier to sell because you see value in what you're selling! When you are simply selling product to make money off of other people, it shows.

What I love about essential oils is that I don't think of them as a "product." I think of them as part of my health care. I don't take OTC medicines or go to the doctor or even use aspirin. Pharmaceuticals scare me and they should scare you, too. Essential oils have no negative side effects (just make sure they're 100% and therapeutic grade, meaning they can be ingested) and have been around for thousands of years in medicinal remedies.

Now for the part I'm sure you've all been waiting for: my oil testimonial. I have suffered from cold sores for a couple years. For those of you who have them, you immediately cringed I'm sure. They're unsightly, they hurt, they take at least two weeks to heal, they spread, and my lymph node under the right side of my jaw gets inflamed and hard. In the past, I've tried Abreva and a number of other off-brand cold sore treatments. Recently, I've stuck with Lysine, a natural treatment that is inexpensive and under researched. It typically shaves off a few days of healing time. While reading about essential oils, I discovered to my delight that my favorite oil, lavender, is good for cold sores! So yesterday morning, with the first tingle of a new nasty sore, I dabbed lavender oil directly on the corner of my mouth. (By the way, the lavender oil came in my starter kit!) I dabbed lavender on again last night and used Lysine cream a few times during the day. It is now Thursday night, and my cold sore hasn't spread to any worse than one bump, it's not very noticeable, my lymph node is smaller than usual, and it's not painful. Crazy awesome, I have to tell you. If it's healed in a week, I may actually be able to kiss my boyfriend goodbye before I leave on a 15 day work trip.

I have also been ingesting or rubbing basil oil on myself once a day for the past week, and I have to say, the increase in my mental alertness is very noticeable. I would not recommend rubbing Basil on just before you go to sleep though, that kept me up until 1:30am the other night. ;)

Unfinished Business

I had an awful dream last night, well, rather early this morning. It felt so real that it stuck with me all morning and caused me to weep uncontrollably. I dreamed that I'd been executed for some reason - beheaded, to be precise. I remember feeling very calm and feeling very little pain during the actual experience, but I remained as a ghost for the rest of the dream. I walked around as my 26 year old self, talking to a few close friends who could still see me, and wallowing in painful memories of things I'd dreamed of and never done: like experience pregnancy and motherhood, travel to certain places, change the world... I was told by someone in the dream that I obviously had unfinished business since I was still here as a ghost.

I thought about unfinished business. I thought about loose ends in my life. I try very hard to live a life of purpose, with few or no regrets, and yet I still have things that drag on. We all have unfinished business.

Closing doors is really hard for me. Letting go and moving forward is not something that comes naturally to me. I am reminded during this holiday season that when I focus on gratitude and hope, letting go is a bit easier. When I am thankful for memories and past experiences, and I turn to the future with an energy of hope, then unfinished business becomes just business as usual.

Swagger and Spunk

The past couple weeks have brought the theme of CONFIDENCE to the forefront of my mind. I've been told throughout my entire life what a confident woman I am. Contrary to popular belief, confidence didn't come naturally to me! Most of me truly believed I was faking it, because on the inside I was terribly insecure for a long time. Throughout college, a three year spiritual development program, and a year of life coach training, I examined as many nooks and crannies of my personality as I could find at the time, faced some fears, acknowledged my shortcomings, and embraced the parts of myself I despised. Then, after all that work focusing on my weaknesses, I realized that I was totally missing a huge part of self-discovery.

Focusing on my weaknesses brought me some growth, yes, but it did nothing to boost my self esteem or confidence.

I started to explore where confidence came from. Internally searching myself hadn't done it thus far so I asked for feedback from clients and friends and I started to try and see myself how they saw me. I championed myself the way they championed me. It seems so easy to write about and to talk about, but in reality, it is really hard for people to do without proper support. Our culture condones being a victim and wallowing in a dark pit of sadness. It's familiar, comfortable, and acceptable. I decided I was sick of that. I wanted to truly walk in an energy of confidence and mean it.

How did I learn to embrace confidence? First, I had to figure out what the word confidence even meant. Confidence is defined by good ole Webster as "The state of feeling certain about the truth of something."  It became clear to me that I had to be certain of something within myself to obtain genuine confidence.

So, what was within me? Passion. A lot of passion. I was certain of that beyond all reason.

However, I needed help in focusing my passions. I invested in my own life coach, a business building program, and a lot of networking. When I invested my energy in what made me tick, what made me light up, and what made me want to get up in the morning, I discovered my core values came bubbling to the surface in no time. Once I had my focus on my core values, it was easier to align my actions and my vision. My life's purpose of empowering others, with particular attention on helping a woman "unleash her swagger," was crystal clear at that point. Pretty soon, I was walking my talk. And pretty soon, people were commenting on my confident swagger and spunk.

Everyone's swagger is unique. Your swagger is an expression of your inner workings and it is your's to own. Have you unleashed your swagger? If you're not sure or want to dive deeper, I'm developing a signature program that you're bound to love.