Low Tox Living with The Essential Soul
Living a Low Tox Lifestyle is no fad or phase. It is something that has been around for centuries, long before the overpriced, chemical based products ever made it to our shelf. It’s about going back to basics, using ingredients that are at our fingertips with a sprinkle of the beautiful essential oils on offer from mother nature to empower your home and family. For us, going Low Tox was a no brainer. We had spent years battling emotional regulation issues, eczema, poor sleep, illness after illness and health scares. It was time to look deeper than the surface and sadly what I found, could not be unseen. It was time!
There is nothing more empowering than being able to fill your home and support your family with everyday products made by you with love and care. Using my dōTERRA essential oils and some common household ingredients, I have been able to transform our home, not only saving us big bucks but also allowing us to live a healthier, safer, low tox lifestyle. The improvements with the issues that were prevalent in the past, has truly been astounding and I am forever grateful we chose this path.
We tend to put so much trust in large companies and brands to do good by us, without even a thought (I know I did for many years!). We trust that these big companies will provide our bodies and our home with safe products to fulfil our needs. The misleading information on the packaging or the marketing that promotes a product being “natural” or “organic” is in fact a tactic to lure us in to believe we are making the right choice for our family. This is the fine art of “Greenwashing” and is the very reason why most people wouldn’t be aware that the vast majority of products used on a day to day basis, are in fact heavily chemical and toxin based. Over time, these ingredients cause absolute havoc with our internal body systems and general health and wellbeing. Every single toxic product we use can stick to our clothing, linger in small particles within the air in our home, and remain on surfaces for weeks. This can leave our bodies working overtime to detoxify the chemicals, particularly for our children whose detoxification system is not as efficient as that of an adult.
It is the cleaning products we spend the day inhaling, the toxic off gassing from our household items and furniture, the dishwashing liquid that sticks to our crockery that we then ingest or the beauty products we apply topically that is absorbed through our skin directly into our blood stream. Each and every product adds exposure to these dangerous ingredients and accumulates in our body by the minute. Whilst it is easy to hold the belief that you have used these products for some time and you are fine, there is evidence to suggest that over time, these chemicals can be carcinogenic amongst an array of other issues linked with fertility, respiratory health, developmental issues, psychological issues, and severe illness that compromises our immune system and interrupts the optimal function of our bodily health.
“The hidden danger is in the combined effect of repeated small exposures and an accumulation over time, of all the toxic substances we encounter little by little, day by day. – Pop of Health”
So, let’s break down just a few ingredients commonly found in your everyday products.
Petroleum: This is a human carcinogen. It is found in most soaps and beauty products and is quite literally derived from petrol (the same petrol you put in your car *insert vomit emoji here*). This ingredient is beyond dangerous and can cause issues with your cardiovascular system, nervous system and respiratory system. Castile Soap is a natural ingredient and alongside some beautiful essential oils you could easily whip up a low tox soap replacement, a simple way to minimize your exposure to petroleum based products.
Formaldehyde: This ingredient is found in so many of our products and items and is highly toxic. Not only is it highly poisonous, but it is easily inhaled and can commonly cause issues with our respiratory system, sleep, nervous system and can be a skin irritant. Found in things such as our soaps, beauty, on our clothes, baby seats (yep its true!), this toxin is also a carcinogen and if regularly exposed to, this can be cancer causing and damage our health both long and short term. This very ingredient is used in Taxidermy to preserve dead animals.
Fragrance: This bad boy is in almost every single product on the supermarket shelf and is incredibly hazardous. Just this one word can be made up of thousands of chemically derived ingredients and by law, companies and brands do not need to display or disclose what specifically makes up their “secret” ingredient of “fragrance”. Even the term “natural fragrance” can be misleading, as only one ingredient in the fragrance needs to be natural amongst the thousands of those chemically derived for the brand to be able to market the fragrance as “natural”. If there is one product I always encourage people to swap, it is perfume which is where fragrant ingredients are the most concentrated, in high levels and super toxic. There is a reason you are not allowed to wear perfume into an IVF clinic, and that is because the chemical ingredients quite literally have capacity to kill an embryo from the particles that linger in the air and off gas from your body. So, you can only imagine what any product with a fragrant ingredient is doing to your internal systems and organs. From cleaning products, to body wash, laundry powder and candles, fragrance is everywhere and it is causing issues with things such as fertility, the endocrine system, the respiratory system, compromising your immunity and disrupting all your vital organs. Essential oils alone make the perfect fragrance replacement in any beauty or household product and instead of causing havoc in your body, the properties of these oils are in fact extremely beneficial for things such as immunity, mood, sleep and overall wellbeing, making for a much safer and better option to fragrance.
So how can you limit your toxin exposure within your home? Here are some of my top tips:
Open your windows and doors at every opportunity you get. The air inside your home is 8 times more polluted than the air outside, so regardless of the weather, let the polluted air out and the fresh air in.
Diffuse and purify the air within your home using some essential oils with cleansing properties or invest in a humidifier. Remove all air fresheners, candles, fragrance, antiperspirants, toilet sprays and anything heavily fragranced from your home.
Use natural cleaning/household/beauty products or DIY where possible. Purchase items with natural fibers and natural furniture to reduce off gassing and toxin absorption.
Purchase a good water filter. So many nasties can be found in our water and are ingested through drinking or absorbed through our skin during showers and baths. Chlorine, Fluoride and Aluminium to name only a few.
Become responsible for looking into the ingredients of your purchases. Download Chemical Maze App and spend time looking up the ingredients of the items you are using and the impact these can have on your body. If it isn’t safe, don’t let it in!
Invest in a dōTERRA essential oils kit to support you, your family and your home with natural ingredients, powerful properties and beneficial outcomes
Some regular recipes we choose to DIY in our home are baby wipes, surface spray, laundry powder, dishwashing liquid, body wash, scrub paste (Jiff replacement), eczema balm, body butter and purefumes to name only a few. I am yet to come across something that I have not been able to create or my home or family/personal use. The beauty of utilizing your essential oils to create something for your home or family is that the properties of each oil are so versatile, allowing you to adapt their use for so many different recipes or needs. Not only that, these little bottles of goodness are quite literally the best of the earth. They are potent and therefore their constituents are far more efficient, effective and beneficial than any chemically based product that you will use. Gone are the days of ending your day with a migraine after 6 hours cleaning your home. Not only do these essential oil based recipes leave your home sparkling, smelling amazing and hygienically clean, they also have incredible emotional and immunity benefits, quite the contrast to toxic products being sold on our shelf that are detrimental to our precious bodies.
dōTERRA specifically source each oil in its most organic state from over 40 different countries. Each bottle goes through rigorous testing to ensure that no contaminants make it into the bottle. You are literally getting 250 drops of nature’s finest. This ain’t no $4 bottle of Lavender from the supermarket that has one drop of pure essential oil and is topped with all kinds of synthetic fillers, with some contaminants leached in there. This is the real deal!
I guess you might be wondering how time consuming DIY Low Tox products are? The answer is, they aren’t! it would take you longer to jump in your car and head to the shop to purchase your store bought items than it would to whip up a body wash or put together some dishwashing powder. When you have your Essential Oil tool kit at arm’s reach, the options are truly endless. You do not need to tip your home upside down and start again. Develop a plan of attack. Work on one room at a time or each time a product runs out, make the swap then. The process does not need to be daunting or stressful. Go at your own pace, link yourself in with a support network and community that can guide you on your journey (Hi my name is Sarah, I would bloody love to help you!) and before you know it you’ll have already cut out hundreds of toxic chemicals that you otherwise would have exposed your body to. The immediate improvements you will start to see in things like your energy levels, sleep quality, and general health and wellbeing will make the change well worth it and you will reap the benefits of reducing that long-term exposure.
Once you start digging, the motivation will continue to flow because once we know better, we do better.
A mum of four and Essential Oil lover for almost 5 years, Sarah is a dōTERRA Wellness advocate who runs ‘The Essential Soul’. Passionate about educating and helping people make positive changes in their home and family, Sarah shares her tips and tricks for going Low Tox whilst supporting her customers in their journey to do the same within their space. Sarah is dedicated to making a change for current and future generations. Nothing gives her greater joy than educating, inspiring, creating a shift and making a change.
“Together we can make the change.”