Essential Oils 101 with Melissa Crabtree – 762

This time of year I get all kinds of questions about essential oils! Pollen in the air, allergies, ticks… the list goes on and on and so today, my friend Melissa Crabtree is joining me to share a little bit about essential oils and how they work. Y’all in the southβ€”I dedicate this to you! πŸ™‚
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Hey everybody, this is Heidi St. Johnβ€”welcome to my little corner of the Internet.

Today is Monday, May 6th, episode number 762. Also, this is Mailbox Monday. You guys know I love to answer your questions, and today we are going to answer the question on essential oils. A lot of you guys ask me about essential oils. I know a lot of you see me on the road with them, and soβ€”I’ve asked my friend Melissa Crabtree to come on the show with me todayβ€”and we’re going to talk all things essential oils.

Stick around, we’re going to have some fun and I think you’re going to be encouraged.

All right. So you guys know that this is the time of year that I am out on the road, and this week I have a very busy week ahead of me. I will be leaving on Wednesday to fly to Teach Them Diligently in Mobile, and I’m excited. I love Teach Them Diligently, I love being there. I love to see what God is doing in your families. So come on out.

If you haven’t had a chance yet to visit me at a convention, this is a great time to do it. So I will be opening that event with a bang on Thursdayβ€”so coming out for that. And also, this Sunday I’m going to be bringing the message at Abundant Life Church in Lee’s Summit. And the Lord is but something so powerful, on my heart, for this particular weekendβ€”for Mother’s Day weekend.

 

You guys have heard me say this many times. I really believe that when faith finds its feet in this generation of parents, we are going to see a culture shift. And so, I’m going to be speaking to you guys out of Psalm 127 for Mother’s Day. Come on out, it’s going to be a fantastic opportunity for you to get encouraged. Whether you have children or whether you don’tβ€”this message is for you. So that’ll be this Sunday, May 12th, at Abundant Life Church in Lee’s Summit.

All right. I want to jump right in to the topic today, it’s mailbox Monday. I get questions quite a bit here at the podcast about essential oils. And you guys have heard me have my friend on here Dr. Edie Wadsworth has been on the show a couple of times with me. And today, I decided to go ahead and ask Melissa Crabtree to come on and talk with me about essential oilsβ€”because Melissaβ€”well, a lot of you guys already know she’s my assistant. She’s worked with me for probably at least six years, and we love essential oilsβ€”and so, we take them on the road with us. I use them in my family all the time for lots of different things and they’ve been so helpful for me. So I thought it’d be fun to have Melissa come on and just chat it up about essential oilsβ€”101. Melissa, welcome to the podcast.

[Melissa] Hey, thanks for having me.

[Heidi] So this is kind of funβ€”you and I podcasting together. We don’t typically do this.

[Melissa] I know, it is kind of fun. I guess if we can’t have coffee together, we might as well podcast together, right?

[Heidi] Right? That’s one way to look at it. You’re going to be with me, though, this weekend, so it’s a great chance for people to meet you tooβ€”because you’ll be in Mobile with me, and also at Abundant Life for Mother’s Day.

[Melissa] Yeah. This is the second year we’ve spent Mother’s Day together. I was thinking about that. I’m excited about it.

[Heidi] I know! It’s gonna be great. I’m excited too. You and I, we talk essential oils all the timeβ€”because I was using them before I met you, and then I met you and I feel like you kind of opened my eyes to lots of different things that I could be using essential oils for. And over the years, you’ve had kind of fun to sort of experimenting with things. And so, I thought it’d be fun to give our listeners a little bit of a, just sort of our history, using essential oils.

Because a lot of people ask meβ€”Do you use essential oils? and the answer isβ€”absolutely, yes. So I thought I’d start by just asking you how you got into using essential oils, and how it’s been helpful for your familyβ€”because I know in a lot of places it’s really actually been life changing for you.

[Melissa] It definitely has. When I, about 12 years ago, I was researching a couple different things. My face broke out constantly. When I was 11, my face started breaking out and did not start stop breaking out, really. And then my daughter also had a really bad rash. And after seven weeks of using the prescription cream for it, and it only spreadingβ€” it started out the size of a quarter it ended up from head to toeβ€”I started googling, and I thoughtβ€”I think there are other things I can try. And lo and behold, I actually had some oils in my house that I tried. And within three days she was completely cleared up and it just opened my eyes to the fact that there is a lot out there that is so good for us to help our bodies work the way God created them to work. And they’re just good tools to have in our tool kit. We don’t have to always depend on modern medicine. Modern medicine is a great tool but I love having other tools in my house to take care of my peopleβ€”right in my medicine cabinet.

[Heidi] Well it’s fun too, because we’re teaching our childrenβ€”really, we’re setting an example like we do in all aspects of our lives. And I think we’re teaching our children also that they don’t have to be dependent on prescription drugs and things like that we’re teaching them. There are lots of tools they can put in their toolbox. Essential oils is definitely one of them. I started using themβ€”I think it’s been about 10 years ago now, because someone mentioned them. The first thing I ever did was treat a sunburn and it was a wonderful way to just sort of soothe the sunburn, and I think up until that point I thought essential oils were, kind of you knowβ€”sort of a hippie thing.

Like, you know β€”I’m from Portland and a lot of people round here have got this sort of hippie mentality going on. And to be honest, I kind of ignored it until I saw this just amazing, this amazing healing that happenedβ€”and then I started researching uses for essential oils with anxiety and depression. Wich, anyone who’s listened to me for very long at allβ€”knows that I spent a very large part of my early mothering, and particularly my young adult lifeβ€”really struggling with panic attacks. And so I started researching what I could be doing to help with that with a more natural approach. And it’s been amazing and I wrote about this a little bit. It’s been amazing to me just to see how something the Lord gave us, which are these oilsβ€”because really, they come off of plants, and the healing properties they have are completely amazing.

[Melissa] Yeah it’s true and I want to take a second too, to make sure and say that we are not medical professionals, we’re not doctors, we’re not claiming to be doctorsβ€”and we’re not treating. We’re just sharing our stories. I think that’s really important to say, and we are gonna be real broad about what we’ve used, just because we want to make sure that we’re not we’re not giving medical advice.

So I want to make sure that we say that part to everybody who’s listening. But you’re right, they are tools to have in our toolkit along with a healthy diet, healthy food, good exercise to help our bodies. God created our bodies. One of the things that Dr. Edie often says is, she’ll sayβ€”we were not born with a deficiency in Zoloft, we were not born with a deficiency in Claritin, right? And God designed our bodies to work well, and through a fallen world and disease, and all of these things, our bodies are not working well a whole lot anymore. But there are ways we can help it work the way God created us to work. And that’s how we like to use oils is to help us work. Well, we’re thinking about a wellness aspect instead of a medicine.

[Heidi] Yeah. And so really, what we’re doing is we’re taking advantage of creation. I love that because reallyβ€”once you start to see how powerful it is ot opens your eyes to so many other aspects of wellness, personal wellness. And for, I wroteβ€”I think I Instagrammed, it must’ve been last weekβ€”I said that about three months ago I went sugar free. And the first two weeks of my sugar free dietβ€”well, I talk to you through a lot of itβ€”it was pretty hard. It was pretty rough. Oh my goodness, it was so difficult. But then I got over the hump of getting off of sugarβ€”which I really discovered, pretty quickly, that I had kind of an addiction to sugar.

And once I got off of that, and started eating betterβ€”Oh my goodnessβ€”I’m thinking better, I feel better. And when you start feeling better, and your body starts working more in line with how God wants it to workβ€”it’s amazing how it changes your perspective. So one of the big questions I get from people when they ask about essential oils isβ€”are they safe? So that’s a good question. So Melissa, when people ask you about essential oils being safeβ€”what’s the first thing that you’d like to tell people?

[Melissa] People ask this question all the time, they’re afraid essential oils are going to kill them or they’re gonna kill their cat. And what’s interesting is, we always sayβ€”are you asking is something safe? Go look in your pantry. When was the last time you asked those companies if any of those things were safe? Is sugar safe? Have you asked McDonald’s how safe their food ingredients are? β€”and things like that.

You know, we’re trying to measure essential oils in a way that we’re not measuring anything else that we’re putting in or on our bodies. So that’s actually kind of always a jokeβ€”but it’s really so true. Essential oils come from plants. They are very safe. They are very powerful. They are concentrated, and they are very powerful. They are very very safe.

There is not one recorded death from essential oils, anywhere. And if you compare that to heart disease, or medicines, or a whole lot of things like thatβ€”you know overdoses. There are a whole lot of recorded deaths from a whole bunch of other things. and there’s not one recorded from essential oils.

[Heidi] Right? And I think, it’s just like anything elseβ€”people don’t want to be stupid. Right? Please don’t be stupid. You know, you’re not going to want to take your peppermint bottle and drink it. That’s probably not the best use of peppermint. Although I will say, peppermint is something I keep with me all the timeβ€”oh my goodness. I use it for so many different things. Was it? It was Melissaβ€”a couple of weeks ago when I was on the road with my family, and we have a Facebook group that we talk about oils and what we do with themβ€”and it’s it’s really a lot of fun, And I opened up my travel kit and we were laughingβ€”because I use so many of them for so many things, and as soon as my kids have a stomach ache they’ll be likeβ€”Mom, do you have any DiGize? because they know that it works. They know that it works. And I think that’s when we started to say heyβ€”you’re actually right. Look at the last time that somebody died from an essential oils as opposed to all these prescription drugs that we hear about all the time that people are struggling with.

So when people sayβ€”well, what do you use them for? I’m likeβ€” oh my goodness, I used four for all kinds of things. What’s the best way, Melissa, when we talk about how we use essential oilsβ€”and let’s say someone’s listening to this, and they’re just thinkingβ€”maybe I should look into this. When we want to encourage someone to a good place to start using them. What is a good place to start?

[Melissa] So there are a lot of places you can get essential oils, all over our country and internationally. And one thing that I think is really important to know is they are not all equal. All bottles can say 100% pure grade essential oils, and that they only have to have like 3% essential oils in them to say that. So know that they are not all equal.

We’re talking specifically about Young Living Essential Oils, and Young Living owns or manages, handlesβ€”they have a very specific relationship with all of their farms. So we know exactly what is happening. There is never any sort of pesticide used in any of the dirt on the farms that we use. They use their own oils for pest control and things like that. Everythingβ€”they are actually higher than organic quality. So Young Living knows every single thing about it. And that’s what they call their Seed to Seal guarantee.

So we know that we can use them safely because of that. That just helps us know what we’re putting on our bodies and what we’re putting in our bodies. We can use them by we can rub them on our skin, we can use them by smelling them. And I want to say this β€” it’s really cool because it’s it’s one of the neatest things to know about how God made our bodies and how God made these oils to help us. When we rubbing oil on our skin within 2 to 3 minutes, it starts soaking into our bloodstreamβ€”I’ve heard two to three, I’ve also heard five to sixβ€”nd there some specific studies with answers on thatβ€”it soaks into our bloodstream. Within 20 to 30 minutes, those oils have touched every cell in your body. That’s one statistic, or specific info piece that I’ve heard.

Another one is that when we smell the oils, those molecules are affecting our emotions within seconds. And our emotional center of our brain is affected the most quickly by our sense of smell. And I just love it that they can be their tools that we can use so quickly. And then the other way, Young Living has a very specific Vitality lineβ€” it has recipes and directionsβ€”we can talk about those as supplements, and they’re made to support our body systems in very specific ways. And we have a lot we have so many ways to teach you and help you figure that out.

[Heidi] So, I think one of the things that I think, really practically when we talk about when we talk about oils and uses for oilsβ€”I always laugh because, well you know this Melissa because you’ve been around me for a long timeβ€”I‘m from the Pacific Northwest but I travel all the time with my family. And a couple of years ago we lived in Chattanooga, which I loveβ€”such an affinity for the beautiful city of Chattanooga. But I’ll tell you whatβ€”the south is like at Jurassic Park insect edition. It really is. I remember calling Melissa up and was likeβ€”dude, everything down here is trying to kill me. Like, there’s snakes. We don’t have this stuff in the Pacific Northwest. I was likeβ€”you people are fierce down here in the south, you know? Like they’re bugs, I swear, that like the size of my face, you know?

And so, and that was my first introduction to ticks. I literally had never seen a tick until I traveled east of the Rocky Mountains and we started having really big problems with with ticks. My daughter Summer, I found a tick on herβ€”and because I’d never seen them beforeβ€”I mean you guys would laugh. I mean everybody in the south is like they’re dying right now because Heidi is such a wimp. I know! Β 

But I didn’t know what it was. I saw this little insect embedded in her skin and I’m literally on YouTube typing in β€œlive bug in skin”. And by the time it comes up, my husband was likeβ€”Oh my word, this is a tick. Well, by the time we discovered itβ€”she already had that bull’s eye around her and I ended up getting herβ€”you know, calling a friend of mine who was a physician and we gave her a round of antibiotics because I’m not messing around with Lyme Disease. And fortunately, she’s doing great, but after that I was likeβ€”all right, I’m going to find myself some tick repellent. So I started looking up tick repellents and I started off by using some chemical, really, some strong chemicalsβ€”I think DEET and some other things. But then about a year later, I discovered that I could make my own tick repellent with essential oils, and I’m telling you whatβ€”it works like a charm.

It was amazing. I think it was lavender, and geranium, and lemonβ€”and not only does it work great, it smells great too! So you don’t smell like that chemical, awful, whatever. And so now, every time we go toβ€”if my kids knowβ€”hey, we’re travelin’, you know south where there’s ticks, they’re likeβ€”Mom, where’s your tick spray because we’re going down to Jurassic Park? I love you people in the south. I got a lot to learn still but it’s amazing to me. And so, in the car like if you travel with me and I’m driving across countryβ€”which I just did. You’re going to find, you know, things that help stomach aches. I put DiGize on the vents of our car to kind of blow that smell into the car when we’re driving for 13 hours at a timeβ€”helping with things like car sickness, and things like that. And it really does give you confidence knowingβ€”hey, these things come from plants, God gave them to us. And they really are amazing. My favorite thing, obviously, is the tick spray when I’m traveling. But we use them for everything.

[Melissa] Well, and you’re not only using something that is helping, you know, as a tool β€”you’re also using something that’s good for your body. You know, which means you’re not using something that’s not. You know, DEET is not good for us. We don’t want it on our kids. Our skin is the biggest organ in our body. We don’t want it soaking in DEET all the time. But you can slather your kids in essential oils and it’s good for it. So not only are we replacing something negative, we’re actually adding something positiveβ€”because even when it’s helping repel bugs, it’s also doing so many other things in our bodies that we’re not even aware of because they’re so good for us.

[Heidi] Right. Andy I always tell people it’s also good for your emotional health when, you know, that you’re repelling ticks. I just think it’s probably not scientificβ€”but you know, it helped me.

[Melissa] Well you know what. A lot of people are likeβ€”well how do I know about that one? So one of the things that we have in our oily family isβ€”we have a Facebook group where we we all tell our stories. And you can sayβ€”hey this is great for all things digestion, and my kid was puking and this helped us, and when we were in the car this is what we did, we were at the beach this is what we did.

And that relationship, and just getting to know other people who use oils and other healthy things. We don’t only talk about just oils, we talk about other things that are good for us. It’s just a great way to walk alongside people and build some relationships. We talk about the Lord, we talk about the Lord wants us to live well so that we can serve Him. He created us for a purpose. And when we’re healthy we can accomplish that purpose with a whole lot more effectiveness. And so, that’s really what our focus isβ€”walking in relationship with people, and helping them to live wellβ€”live a healthy life.

[Heidi] Yeah. And we’re having some fun along the way. I’m not going to lie. We’re having some fun a long way. So if people who are listening, I’ve got about a minute left, and they’re sayingβ€”this is kind of interestingβ€”How do people get started, especially if they’re interested? Because what you I’ve have been doing this for a long long time is Young Living, and that’s really what we’re talking about right now. So how did they get started doing that?

[Melissa] Yeah it is. Everything we’re talking about today is Young Living because that’s what we love and that’s where we, I guess I could sayβ€”expertise. So Young Living has a starter kit that is perfect. It has what we’ve talked about a lot of different waysβ€”digestion , respiratory, mood support, emotional support, aches and pains, skin. Everybody wants clear beautiful skin. Right?

So Young Living gives us a tool kit that makes it so easy to get everything, actually, that we just talked about. So it comes with 12 of the most common oils. It comes with a diffuserβ€”so you put some water and, you put five drops of oil, and you flip it onβ€”and there you go you’re ready to go.

It also comes with a wholesale membership which is 24 percent off. And you do not have to sell anything. Everybody says thatβ€”I don’t want to sell oils. You don’t have to sell oils, you don’t have to sell anything, you don’t have to have a monthly order.

You get 12 oils, a diffuser, and a wholesale membership which is 24% off retailβ€” and you also get a concentrate of the plant based cleaner. We didn’t talk about that at all, but Thieves cleanerβ€”everybody’s actually probably heard about itβ€”Thieves cleaner is a plant based cleaner that can replace all of the other cleaners in your home, and you get a sample of that enough to make four cups.

If you go to TheBusyMom.com/oils we have information there about how to get this, the best way to do it, the membership versus just a retail account. We don’t ever advise a retail account because you don’t get the Facebook Support Group and you don’t get the 24% off. So it’s really just not the smartest way to spend your money. We want you in our oily family. We want to be able to help you, and walk with you, and get to know you better. And I have to say that our oily family has become about so much more than oils.

One of my oily family girls sent me two suits for my son who needed them for a teen pact, and I only met her online through our oily familyβ€” and then another one is housing a car in her backyard for a client.

[Heidi] Did it smell like Vetiver. That’s what I want to know. So when the suit showed up.

[Melissa] You’re really building relationships with people and it’s really about so much more than just a product. So we love that part of itβ€”and we’re talking about Jesus at the same time so.

[Heidi] If you guys are interested: thebusymom.com/oils. If you’ve got any other questions you can shoot them to us. Melissa is really great about answering these questions tooβ€”and you’ve got questions about oils, or whatever, if you guys want something.

The reason I took the time today is because this is a great time of year. You know spring cleaning, if you’ve got allergies, anything like thatβ€”this is a great time of year. A little bit of lavender, lemon, and peppermint. Woot! You guysβ€”it’s gonna change your life! It’s gonna change your life.

But we get a lot of questions about essential oils here at the podcast, and I appreciate that. And about once every six months I take the time to answer it, so today is that day. If you’ve got questions specifically, please shoot me an email podcast@thebusymom.com.

Melissa, I love you woman. Thanks for coming on with me today.

[Melissa] Thanks for having me.

So if you guys have questions please go to thebusymom.com/oils.

Don’t forget, I am going to be in Mobile Alabama this weekend for the Teach Them Diligently conference. I’m really looking forward to that. And just a couple days later, I’ll be speaking for Abundant Life Church in Lee’s Summit, bringing a Mother’s Day message of hope and encouragement to you.

Hope you guys are having a great Monday. Kick it off right. Be in the Word of Godβ€”you can do that with us at MomStrongInternational.com. Download the Scripture Writing Challenge, download the copywork for your kid. It’s a great opportunity for you to dig deeper into God’s Word. That’s MomStrongInternational.com. Thanks for listening everybody. And I’ll see you back here on Wednesday.


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About Heidi St. John

Heidi has been married to her husband Jay since 1989. Together they have seven children and three grandchildren! The St. Johns homeschooled their kids all the way through high school. Heidi is the the author of seven books, host of the popular podcast "Off the Bench," and the founder of MomStrong International, an online community of women learning God's Word and how to apply it to every day life. She and her husband Jay are also the founders of Firmly Planted Family and the Firmly Planted Homeschool Resource Center, located in Vancouver, Washington.