Last weekend, I celebrated a day I was told I wouldn’t ever celebrate - my 35th birthday. I want to share with you the story and the gift that I was given which made last weekend’s celebration so important, as well as the reasons that I opened this website, Secret E Scentials to share the information that I’ve learned.

I know that most people expect to see birthdays *well past* 35, but, almost 6 years ago, I was diagnosed with SLE - commonly called “Lupus”. Considered a chronic disease, it is not considered curable and the best hope most lupus patients have is to control the auto-immune disease that attacks the body’s own tissue.

The major hurdle in treating lupus is that there isn’t one protocol that will treat every person with lupus. So my doctors started with one treatment, waited to see results, and would move to the next. After almost 2 years of treatments with little affect on the disease, it had built to a point that it was causing serious damage to organ systems. My doctors sat me down and told me that drastic measures must be taken immediately or I would not enjoy another Christmas. I reluctantly agreed to a modified type of chemotherapy which was supposed to kill off all but the most immature cells of my immune system. There were, of course, no guarantees that it would work - and even if it did, I would spend the rest of my life on low doses of drugs to prevent the lupus from becoming active again.

After the summer-long treatment, including months of isolation (from everyone - including my children), I made a few decisions. First, I was determined to find another way to lead my body to health - real health. The other decision was that I would never consent to anything like that - ever again. My doctors put me on a handful of drugs to keep the lupus under control after the treatment, along with a handful of other drugs to counteract the side effects of the first handful of drugs. I felt like a walking pharmacy.

By October, I was planning my “escape” from the prescription drugs. I wasn’t sure exactly how I would do it, but, my goal was to wean myself off all of them before Christmas - the Christmas I wasn’t supposed to see. I knew the risks of taking myself off all the drugs without my doctors’ consent - but, for me, the decision to do this was easy - I wanted a higher quality of life - even if it meant a potentially shorter quantity of life.

As I built up my physical strength and endurance, I found myself with recurring painful shin splints that threatened to derail that important aspect of my plan. I was talking to a friend one day and she mentioned that she had used Lemongrass essential oil from Young Living Essential Oils with great results when she had shin splints previously. I thought that may be something I should consider, and while I was still considering it - I received a package in the mail with a bottle of Young Living Essential Oils Lemongrass essential oil! I immediately applied it to the areas that hurt the worst, and by the next morning, I was back on track with my physical training!

After experiencing those results first hand, I started to research and find out more about this company - Young Living Essential Oils - and more about the oils, themselves. As you may know, I’ve assisted my dad with his natural skin care formulations for quite some time, and so I had experience with some essential oils….but, I was shocked and amazed by the sheer number of oils and all their uses! I bought a few more oils here and there - and found that there was an enormous difference in both the effectiveness and the quality of Young Living Essential Oils versus other brands of oils. I also began using various oils to help myself as I have travelled the road of leaving the prescription drug life that I once felt forced to live.

I am happy to say that I’ve been living a life without prescription drugs or lupus flares - a much better quality of life to boot - since December of 2005. I’m often asked how I accomplished it. To be honest, I just made the decision that my quality of life was important enough to spend some time working on it.

• I changed my diet from processed foods to whole, as-close-to-the-source-as-possible natural foods.
  
• I’ve included physical exercise - cardio and weight training as a regular part of my life.
  
• I’ve added evening yoga and morning Qi gong to my daily routine as I’ve went along.
  
• I’ve eliminated as many chemicals from my environment as possible,
  
• and I’ve incorporated essential oils into my daily life.

That’s it.

There’s no “secret formula” or difficult routine involved in my journey to natural, whole health, I just made the conscious decision to take my quality of life seriously and took the positive actions to accomplish it.

High quality, essential oils have become part of my daily life - I’ve used oils for a variety of things - from improving and uplifting my mood to preventing pink eye in my youngest child and alleviating the pains of working out, broken bones, and so much more.

I’ve even discovered a combination of a few of these wonderful oils that have positively impacted my older daughter’s mood disorder.

When something comes up, instead of panicking and running straight to a doctor (without passing “go”), the first thing I do is look in my essential oils reference guides for a kinder, gentler way to move myself, my friend, or my family back to a state of health.

After a year of experiencing the consistent quality and purity of Young Living essential oils, I made the decision to become an independent Young Living Essential Oils distributor. This gives me the benefit of better pricing on their full line of therapeutic grade essential oils. I’ve had the opportunity to share the oils in community seminars and programs, and find myself sharing them with friends and family, and incorporating them into my daily business life.

The best part of Young Living Essential Oils, however, is in what they have given me.

They gave me a quality of life, along with a quantity of life that I didn’t imagine possible only 4 years ago. They inspired me to learn more and empowered me to take control of my own health.

In my opinion, the best gift that I’ve ever been given was that first bottle of Young Living Essential Oils - not only did it provide relief for me then, but, it was provided me with a life that I never could have imagined.

With my milestone last weekend, I realized the importance of sharing this story and sharing the gift that I’ve been given with you. I pray my story will bless you, and inspire you to check out Young Living Essential oils and empower yourself to take control of your own health.

Seize each moment,

Dee
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“The power of imagination makes us infinite.”
– John Muir
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35 years and counting……
just call me…. the oily artist
http://www.theoilyartist.com/