The positives of having a cold

Seriously, is there a positive to having a nasty cold?

When you are experiencing it sometimes it feels not.

However, I thought I would turn those feelings on their head and see where I ended up!!

Here goes........................

I have tried really hard, and quite successfully until this last weekend, to NOT get a cold. It is the season to be coming down with something at the moment whether it be a cold, stomach flu, etc.

My dh got the horrid cold last week and I still managed to avoid it. I am generally a healthy person and having recently started using essential oils (EOs) via doTERRA, I have found diffusing their protective blend, drinking lots of water with their lemon oil to alkalise my body, as well as other things, has greatly improved mine (and my family's) health.

The irony is that because I was preparing for my first outing as a doTERRA wellness advocate, some of these routines went by the wayside: I was going to Wakefield Vegan Festival to share oils and hopefully empower others to look after themselves with EOs as part of their health regimen and I was forgetting to take that advice myself.

How often does that happen?


Anyway ,Sunday came and so did a cold - straight to my throat. I was so annoyed because I find it SO MUCH EASIER to prevent an illness than GET RID of it once I have it. Also ,I have no tonsils (they were removed on my 19th birthday!!) so anything that goes to my throat makes me very annoyed as it brings back memories of many, many attacks of tonsillitis but also it tends to then go to my chest.

So how to get rid of a sore throat and not have my infection go to my chest?

I am relatively new to using essential oils but I have some great books I bought from Essentoils and there is also a wealth of information out there from other EO people via Instragram, etc.

I ended up with this combination:
1. Lots of water with lemon and peppermint.
2. Healthy snacks like apple with On Guard oil (wild orange peel, clove bud, cinnamon leaf, cinnamon bark, eucalyptus leaf and rosemary) diluted with coconut oil.
3. And then other oils to combat the illness internally.




That stopped the sore throat in its tracks - SUCCESS. Now I just have a runny nose which will pass in time if I keep looking after myself.

However, it hasn't all been about EOs. They are foremost in my mind because as a geek I like to try and see what works but also the best way for me to try and share the oils with others is to practice what I preach. However, I also took the opportunity to clear my decks of everything that I could this week and take some time for myself.

I am a person who does a lot of stuff (by choice) but I do forget sometimes that the energy required to have a full life also requires time to just be.

It has been great to rest, do some shamanic journeys, use my oils in new ways, read a new book, re-read an old book, mind-map ideas, listen to webinars, do a bit of planning for the future and write this blog post.

So maybe it wasn't just my 'not looking after myself' that meant I ended up ill. Maybe, as we all do, I needed the excuse to slow down and take some time out. However, in the future I am going to try to:

1. remember to plan taking time out
2. remember my daily health routine
3. NOT get ill

If I fail again though, I will count it as a blessing and take the time to slow down, reconnect with myself, sleep and dream.