My Body is My Vehicle

I have spent the majority of my life not taking care of my body well. In my childhood, I didn't grow up playing organized sports or eating particularly well. I was an active kid but craved intensity and people all the time. As a young adult, I was naturally thin so I ate like crap and exercise was a swear word. The intensity I craved in my early years turned into workaholism and a lust for more, faster, stronger in my job. I remember my first years of work putting in 60-80 hours a week just because I could. Stress became a way of life. Tension headaches, messed up hormonal cycles, feeling wound tight more often than not, and a generally inactive body was my way of life. 

At the risk of sounding all doom at gloom, I have always been a rock star sleeper. zzzzz.... The intensity and assertiveness with which I live my life has allowed me to fall asleep the moment my head hits the pillow. I've fallen asleep in more movies than I've stayed awake in (much to Brian's annoyance). And while my early years didn't give my taste buds a palette for brussels sprouts over Butterfingers, I made a turn in my eating in my late 20s. 

Thankfully, I've had mentors for years who have lead me toward self-care and doing the internal work necessary to live fully. They've taught me so much about caring for my soul and leading from a full heart. I'm forever grateful for the rhythms and practices they've invested into me, so my soul is healthy and thriving.

Still, my body has lagged behind my mind and spirit. I've learned as an Enneagram 8 that the ignoring of my body is what we do. It's almost as if our body gets in the way of what we really want to get done. We deny ourselves the 'luxury' of caring for our bodies because we don't deem it important or significant. Instead, we pursue power and brut force of our lives. Think: bulldozer. Challenge? Accepted. Too hard? Watch me. We use and abuse our bodies.

I remember over a decade ago spending a year being coached by the incomparable Jack Groppel. He co-founded Johnson & Johnson's Human Performance Institute that works with top athletes on their energy and rest quotients. (Ha! And he agreed to coach me, the super non-athelete!!!). It was honestly the first time I really considered that my body is a temple, that my physical health and wellness is the foundation by which I can do everything in life. I literally didn't have a mental framework to consider what rest, Sabbath, hobbies, and being alive in my own skin meant. I struggled that year with Jack gently and strongly coaching me that I needed to pay attention to my body or my body would get my attention one way or another.

“When you have your health, you have 1,000 dreams, and when you don’t, you have one.”

— Unknown

My body did get my attention through a cruel infertility diagnosis. Years of testing, poking, prodding, medicating, and physical dysfunction kept me on the journey toward understanding what my body was trying to tell me. The natural shifts of your body from the 20s to the 30s caused me to begin asking more questions and making more changes. Slowly, I was catching on.

Fast forward to today. I've been radically changed these last couple years in learning to listen to my body. I'm learning to honor when she says "I'm tired. I need a break." I'm learning to listen to my hunger pains - physical or otherwise - and validate they are real and need to be addressed, not shamed and shoved away. I'm learning to listen when something hurts or isn't quite right in my body and take care of it, not ignore it. I'm increasingly aware of my physiological responses to anxiety, fear, and nervousness. I am so much more in tune with the signs and clues my body is giving me about what she needs and how I can best honor her. And as I've been honoring my body, the benefits have been phenomenal.

As a result of this up-and-down journey, I’m increasingly convicted that we have one body to do our life well. Everything in our lives flows from this body we inhabit. Jesus says he’s come to give us life in its fullness. I want to honor this body with what she needs and not mask the issues with medications, cover with socially acceptable coping mechanisms, or settle for “it is what it is”. I want to be well and live to the fullest.

You with me? I'd love to tell you more about the biggest changes I made and how you can make those changes as well. Join me.

My Deep Dive with dōTERRA

Seven years ago a friend from church gave us a kit of dōTERRA essential oils and a diffuser as a gift when Judah and Addise came home. We were brand new parents and pretty clueless about how we would best care for their little bodies and hearts. I had literally never heard of essential oils before before, but I was grateful for what seemed like a generous and special gift. I busted open a few of those little amber bottles and LOVED how they smelled (okay, Oregano was crazy intense and Melaleuca smelled like the dirt to me, but the rest of them were pretty amazing). Lavender seemed to make sense to diffuse at bedtime to calm our babies. Breathe was obviously to be used to help them breathe better if they were a little congested. OnGuard resonated as an oil to diffuse to guard our kids from germs and sickness. 

We saw results immediately with our kiddos and continued to casually use them for several years. We really had no idea what we were doing with them but I like the smell and I liked what they did for our babies' health and wellness.

Fast forward to 2015, a change in zip code and emotional well-being jolted me into diving deeper into natural solutions for supporting our bodies and emotional health. I started learning, exploring, and experimenting more. I learned about how many toxins and chemicals are in the average American household (HUNDREDS!) and how few are approved by the FDA (a handful!). I became very discontent with the contents of our medicine cabinet and their side effects. Our health insurance changed and I didn't want to spend so much time and money at the doctor's office. I began researching supplements. We continued to replace product after product in our household with chemical-free, essential oil products. We were saving money and lowering our toxic load! We made incremental steps forward at times and giant steps forward at other times. After a year, we were making massive changes to our lifestyle. 

And our family has experienced an incredible benefit of wellness - body and mind!

A year ago I hesitantly decided to start building a business with dōTERRA. I was constantly sharing with people what I was learning -- and if you know me, I'm not a crunchy, granola momma by nature. But the evidence was too compelling not to share with family and friends. I tiptoed around business building for the next 5 months but I kept experiencing other people's stories of transformation and change.

Those stories captured me. Our story captured me. 
I decided to move from hesitancy to whole-heartedness. 

There's a lot to this essential oils business. It's a life-altering, life-changing, lifestyle that empowers us to care for our bodies and hearts in whole ways. One of my favorite descriptions of oils is that oils are bossy. They have to work because they are chemistry. It's how the plants been designed by God for our benefit and wellness. They walk into a body with a purpose and a mission to accomplish. It willl command an audience to move your body to homeostasis.

Explore dōTERRA with me.

I'd love to schedule a wellness consult with you to see what goals, priorities, and needs you have and how oils can help you accomplish those needs. No pressure. What do you have to lose? Nothing. What do you have to gain? Everything. My mission is to walk alongside you in your journey so you can experience your own transformation in health and wellness.

Speaking for your People - Words Matter. Hope Moves.

When you have an opportunity to gather your people together, what happens during that time is priceless. Holy. Potentially life-altering. How you curate the words that are spoken and hold the space for your people to experience a new thing is important. 

Inviting someone into that space is vital. Asking them to use words that bring hope, life, and truth is a risk. I get it. It's a gamble to ask someone to step in for a day or a weekend to bolster what's already been happening in your community and what you're hoping will continue after they're gone. It's nerve-wracking to ask someone to speak on "this" and hoping they don't talk about "that". You cross your fingers that you won't have to do any clean-up after your speaker leaves.

This year I'm inviting you to ask me to come and bring words of hope, life, and truth to your people. I boldly want to ask you to trust me. I humbly ask that you'd consider what my unique voice could bring to your people. I commit to bring my best, to love your people, to thoughtfully consider the specific words they need to hear. I promise to be a voice of hope in a world so desperately in need of it. 

Don't only take my word for it. Here are some words that will tell you what I bring with me and how my words will intersect your people.

If you'd like to explore a retreat, a conference, a service, or a training, take a couple minutes to fill out my speaker request form. It'll help us cut to the chase and figure out if it'd be a good fit.

Even if I cannot speak into your people's lives this year, know that our words matter. Being leaders and people of hope moves us into possibility and our fullest potential. Speaking words of life are so needed in all our lives. Rooting our hope in what lasts beyond our present circumstances allows us to move forward in spite of fear or doubt. 

May your words bring hope. May those you invite to speak into your people's souls do the same.