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Lve Notes ...Words of Love from the Plants & Trees!
August, 2009

Welcome to Love Notes...the e-news from Audre Gutierrez of Shining Sun Aromatherapy.

Inspired by Julie & Julia (The Movie)

If you haven't yet seen the movie Julie & Julia, I would highly recommend it as a very entertaining and enjoyable film! Briefly, it is about a government employee, Julie, who is frustrated by her day job, but still searching for her "calling". She is also a frustrated writer, who never seems to finish anything. Combine this with her love of cooking and admiration for Julia Child, she decides to commit to preparing EVERY recipe in the tome "The Mastery of French Cooking" by Ms. Child in one year's time, and chronicle her experiences in her blog. This, intertwined with the story of how Julia Child came to be an unlikely but hugely successful icon in the world of cooking...especially French cooking...resulted in what was for me a very fascinating movie.

And...I was so inspired by Julie's blog adventures, I decided to follow in her footsteps and commit to covering the 240 essences, hydrosols, concretes and carrier oils in the Wisdom of the Earth line within a year's time...and, like Julie, share my experiences in my blog.

You can find my blog on my website, www.shiningsunaromatherapy.com on the menu posted on the left side of each web page. Julie waited a long time for the first comment to be posted on her blog. I am not as patient...so I am going to encourage each and every one of you to explore these essences along with me by running a weekly contest.

Don't miss this!!!

In each seven day period where I have had at least 10 legitimate (not spam) comments (in total, that week) posted to my blog entries, I will pick one commentor at random to receive a free gift...one of the essences or other products, as listed above , featured that week. I will pick the product randomly, as well. So....some lucky blogger has the chance to receive a 2 ml bottle of our Rose essence...or a 15 ml bottle of our Highland Lavender...or a Jasmine sambac concrete!! It will be fun, and we will all learn a lot in the process. So join in and read my experiences with each and every one of our precious oils...and share your experiences, as well.

Aromatherapy "Town Hall Meeting"

I recently gave a talk to my BNI (Business Network International) Group in Santa Fe, and instead of having a predetermined subject, I decided to hold, in essence (no pun intended), an Aromatherapy Town Hall Meeting! It was fun to have my friends and fellow members ask me questions (no holds barred) about my business, my relationship with Wisdom of the Earth, various health conditions, and situations that using the essences brings about...like, what do you do in a health club if some of the people around you don't like the smell of your essences??

So...I would like to cover some of the general questions that were raised there, and then open it up to you all...what questions would you like me to answer? And I will send out those questions and my answers in a week or two. (If you would prefer that I not identify you by name, please let me know.)

Some Questions/Answers from the BNI meeting:

One question had to do with how people with chemical sensitivities deal with the aromas of the essential oils.

Excellent question!! I once had a woman schedule a consultation with me who mentioned when she called that she was extremely "chemically sensitive." In preparation for the meeting, I moved the essences from the consultation space into another room that had a door on it that I could close. This allowed me to bring in an essence as I needed it, and then I returned it to the adjacent room after we were through with it. The first essence I suggested for the client was Grapefruit (for severe jet lag...she traveled overseas a lot). I remember telling her it would be like her cutting a grapefruit...would that aroma bother her? "No, not at all" she said. So...I proceeded to bring in the Grapefruit essence (which is made by pressing the rind of the fruit), and asked her to smell it. She thought it was wonderful!! Then we put a few drops on the sole of each foot. Still no negative reaction. She loved it!

This went on for about 40 minutes, as we ran down the health problems she was experiencing, and I recommended one or more essences for each situation. At the end, we had about 10 or so essences in the "buy" pile...not one that I brought in had bothered her in the least.

While this is not ALWAYS the case, if oftentimes is. Many chemically sensitive people are allergic to the SYNTHETIC and TOXIC substances they are literally surrounded by every day. Many essential oils on the common market have synthetic/toxic elements in them...carrier oils, adulterated essences, synthetic fixatives. That is what they are allergic to...not the pure oil, but the other substances many companies use to "stretch" the essence or adulterated oils that are less expensive, but certainly do not have the healing power that pure, medicinal grade essences do.

Another question was: How is your practice in New Mexico doing?

I moved to New Mexico about three years ago, and really began to focus on building my practice there about two years ago. My new website was launched in March, and is already reaching many people I did not know previously. My BNI group has been very helpful in sharing my information on natural healing alternatives with others in their networks. My monthly advertisement "Living Well with Audre Gutierrez" in the NM Free Press has also reached people who are curious about the medicinal oils. So, all in all, I would say that 2009 has been a great year for my business...I really feel that the essences have made a hugely positive difference in the lives of many of my clients, and that is what success looks like to me!

And the third & last question I will share is: Are there essential oils that can help with arthritis or joint pain??

Absolutely!! Several that are foremost for this type of condition are Sweet Birch (highly anti-inflammatory and great for pain reduction), Red Pine (similar properties) and Spike Lavender (all lavenders help with pain, but this variety from Spain is especially analgesic!). If you layer 5-7 drops of each of these on the painful joints morning and night (and as needed), you will likely experience a significant reduction in pain, much greater flexibility and, where applicable, greatly increased range of motion. While there are others that can be used, these three are very effective in working with arthritis.

I hope some of this information is of value to you, and I invite you to email me with any questions you might have on medicinal grade essential oils. I will answer you directly, and will select several of the questions to answer in the next issue of Love Notes.

With love from the plants & trees... Audre Gutierrez
Shining Sun Aromatherapy

"Written with Lve"