Today I made the commitment that I would not look at my phone, specifically social media or emails first thing in the morning. In fact, I told myself I had to wait until at least 9am before I could dive into the world of seeing what other people are doing and thinking. I decided to do what Ange Peters calls "Create before I Consume".
So I got up with Audrey (at 5:30am mind you), we watched the sunrise together, I meditated and journaled while she ate breakfast, we read books while I sipped coffee, We went out for an early walk in Fort Tryon Park where we took a different path than we have ever taken and found something new and beautiful (of which I have no pictures because I purposely left my phone at home), then came home and together created brand new chalkboard wall art in our kitchen. This brought us to about 11am or so and it turns out that I didn't actually attend to my emails, my work, or any social media today until roughly Noon. And you know what? It was awesome! I got to spend the entire morning with my daughter, completely phone free and then spend the afternoon doing all of the work that I had on my plate for the day. And here's the thing, I had a TON of work to do, but it got done all in the span of several hours time because I was so ready and able to focus on it. I wasn't being pulled in both directions of wanting to be there for Audrey while also wanting to jump right in to the excitement I have for my work. This has been my biggest struggle when it comes to working from home, I haven't compartmentalized and disciplined my time. Most of all, I wasn't at all consumed from the start with what was going on in the lives of others today and simply got to be present for my own. It felt great and I am confident it made a huge difference in how the day unfolded. And so, I am going to adopt that practice of turning my phone on airplane mode the night before when I power down for the day and not check in with anything that may consume me until much later than I have been. I am going to focus on myself, my daughter, my husband and our day at the start of each day. The work will get done, the emails and DMS will get answered (possibly even faster) and the consumption will still happen because I really do love me some Instagram...just not before I spend time actually creating my life first.
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I have had an amazing month of connecting with so many people who are already on my doTERRA team, and many who have just joined. I have heard how so many love the oils, they are so excited when they arrive and yet they are also struggling with how to use them. This is so common because #1 Essential Oils come with an entire new world of knowledge and information that requires time and discovery, so it is completely normal to feel overwhelmed! #2 because implementing daily rituals is not easy and it requires diligent and consistent effort. For many, even the concept of essential oils and using them in all the different ways that they can be is a new thing. And so whenever something is new, there is going to naturally be a period of time when things are awkward and uncertain. It's ok. One of the reasons I am here however is to help guide that time. I am in my own process and journey of using essential oils every day, but I am also so incredibly passionate and confident in how they can be used to shift your vision and change your life. So, bit by bit, class by class, conversation by conversation I help chip away at the confusion, the overwhelm and help us all get to a place of more clarity and consistency. And here is something I want to share because I heard it today and it struck my to my core: On her most recent HOL:FIT talks podcast, Ange Peters said this: "Women who are drawn to doTERRA are super committed to giving their best to the world. Because they are no longer interested in being last on the list" In the the last year of being a wellness advocate and really using these oils as the gateway to my own creation of daily habits and ritual, I can say so confidently how true that statement rings! I am no longer interested in being last on my own list, or any list. I am committed to diligent self-care and practices that help me to arise to my highest self because I am only interested in giving my best to my family, my community and the world. It is no longer a question or a negotiation, it is what MUST be and only I can make it so! So, with all of that in mind, here are 10 ways that I use oils every day to shift my vision towards my highest self and my highest work: 1. OnGuard toothpaste. This is really the first action I take every morning, without skipping a beat I brush my teeth. It feels like I am clearing away the sleep. And I use OnGuard toothpaste because it is a simple and easy way to use a powerful blend of oils daily. My next step to add to this is tongue scraping btw! Anyone already do it and love it? 2. Diffuse, Diffuse, Diffuse! In the morning it is one of the first things I do. I pick out exactly which oils are going to help both ground me and wake me up. Usually a citrus and a tree oil and sometimes some peppermint. In the afternoon, something to bring focus and clarity, often Balance blend or one of the emotional blends. At night, its all about setting the stage for sleep and rest. Cedarwood, Lavender, Serenity, Vetiver...these are my nighttime go tos. 3. Pick an oil to put on my body. This is usually Frankincense and I apply it to my heart and my forehead. Often to my feet as well. Meditation is usually a huge part of my routine every morning and so I will do this to set the tone, but sometimes it doesn't happen because, well I am the mother of a three year old! So by even just using the Frank in this way, I give myself a moment to check in with myself. 4. Citrus Oil in water. I love my coffee and I wake up thinking about it. And I cannot have it until I have had a big glass of water with a drop of citrus oil, often lemon, in it! This is my self-imposed rule and it makes a huge difference for my entire system! If I have had particularly not great eating habits the day before, then I will use DigestZen in my water. One drop is all you ever need! 5. Dry Skin Brush. I LOVE dry skin brushing. It helps to get circulation going and while I have often put Lemon or Purify on it right before doing it, my new favorite thanks to Ange's suggestion is Slim & Sassy! It has citrus oils like Grapefruit in it and peppermint and it's AMAZING!! Seriously, I may start craving this like I crave my coffee! Try it! 6. Oil in the shower. One or two drops of oil in the hot steam of a shower is heaven. I use Breathe or Eucalyptus just to get the airways open and ready to take in the day. 7. Floral oils as my perfume. I am no longer interested in putting fake, synthetic fragrances on my body. The harm they do is just so not worth it! So now I use Neroli, or Jasmine or Rose as my perfume. I roll some onto my neck, my pulse points and my heart. It's perfection. 8. Frank, Geranium or Melaleuca in my moisturizer. I love putting a drop of each and adding it to my lotion. They are all incredible for skin and help it to glow! 9. Lavender in Audrey's bath. It helps to set the tone for the evening wind down. I of course get the diffusers going to help as well, but this is a nice way to simply add self care to a necessary nightly routine. And if she isn't taking a bath that night, I will rub a little on her feet and spine before bed. 10. Serenity or Clary Calm on my own body before bed. Depending on the time of the month, I use one of these to help bring me down and unplug at night. Clary Calm during ovulation and menstruation and Serenity the rest of the month. Again, it's just the last moment of caring for myself that helps me seal the day off with me being first on my list. I hope that this is helpful! I would love to hear how you use oils, if you do so already! What are your daily rituals? And if you want to get started, email me: Sara@oneOMatatime.com This month when you purchase a kit to help get you started using essential oils, you get $50 worth of free oils to spend how you wish! This last month, I have heard from so many of you who have already begun using oils that you are loving them and you would like to know more/commit more to using them every day. Sometimes it can be overwhelming as to how to do that! So tomorrow I will go LIVE on my Facebook Page (join in, its free!) and talk about some simple daily practices and routines to commit to when it comes to using essential oils. It is truly the small, daily actions we take that make up the bigger picture of how we live our lives. Essential oils help to bring it all together, watch tomorrow to find out how! I will post tomorrow's class on here as well, but in the meantime, here are all of the kits you can purchase to begin your daily essential oils practice: The Diamond Kit - $2,750
The Every Oil Kit - $1,950 The Natural Solutions Kit - $550 The Home Essentials Kit - $275 The Cleanse and Restore Kit - $245 The Emotional Aromatherapy Diffused Kit - $195 The AromaTouch Diffused Kit - $150 The Family Essentials & Beadlets Kit - $150 Written by Justin Packard
This is my new friend, Beulah Lomax. She is 78 years old, and I've known her for all of fifteen minutes. I met her today at our voting location, as we both were challenged by the voting scanners and perforated ballots. We separately received help from a cheery volunteer, and then Beulah threw me a quick glance of mutual "surrender to technology". As she and I made our way to the exit, I offered to escort her wherever it was that she was heading next because, frankly, I wanted to experience Beulah for a little bit longer. As she took my arm, I got my wish. Beulah told me of her experience moving from her hometown of Winston-Salem, NC, to New York City in 1960, at the fresh age of 22 to be a live-in nurse for "high society", as she called it. She told me about her time living in Brooklyn in the 60's, then moving to midtown Manhattan, and the last 30 years in Washington Heights (my first apartment when I moved here was in Washington Heights, then Midtown, and eventually Brooklyn before now coming back to the Heights). During our slow but steady trip down the block, she told me she was worried about all the rain today. You see, Beulah had arthroscopic surgery on her knee after taking a fall while working outside for the parks department in nearby Bennett Park. (Bennett Park, I told her, is my daughters favorite park, and we go there almost daily. She said I should look for a plaque or a sign or something that they have posted there that has her name on it, for the work she did to renovate the park a few years back. She isn't sure where they posted it or if it is even still there, but she saw it once, and it was wonderful.) The slipperiness during the rain makes her cautious to travel outside of her apartment, but as she said, "Today I was surely coming out here. Rain or shine, I was voting." As we reached Beulah's destination, which happened to be the candy store on 181st street (hell yeah, Beulah.), I sheepishly asked her if it would be ok if I took a picture of us together, "so I can remember this day." Without hesitation, she replied "Oh sure, honey. Just let me get my 'picture face' on." She then took a deep breath, and smiled. I voted today. Beulah Lomax voted today. This is New York City, and it's also Everywhere. It's Brockport NY and it's Winston-Salem NC. This is the America I want to be a part of. This is a popular Sanskrit saying that we often hear in yoga classes that means:
"May all beings be happy and free, and may the thoughts, words, and actions of my own life contribute in some way to that happiness and to that freedom for all”. And may we exercise one of THE MOST IMPORTANT actions that contribute to that happiness and freedom by VOTING TOMORROW!! That is all that I need to say tonight. Love you all. I wanted to throw something your way for joining me on this 30 day journey...and it's only day 4! Today I taught a 20 minute Core Flow class over on my One OM at a Time page. Every month, along with my mama, we teach yoga classes right from where we are! This began while my husband and I were traveling the country for a show he was in and I wanted to continue to teach yoga every week! So, I created One OM at a Time, that could be practiced from whatever hOMe we were in, and be live streamed to your own hOMe! That was two years ago! The way it works is that each class is LIVE streamed over on Facebook, so you have the option to catch it in real time! This invites a kind of fun energy knowing that we are all practicing together, wherever we are in the world! However, if you cannot catch it live, you can still access it later on our OM at HOME page! We keep our classes timed and specific in genre so that you have options depending on what you need and how much time you have! Our goal is to make a regular yoga practice as accessible as possible because we believe so strongly in its power and benefits for our minds and our bodies. We also charge $15 a month, because we believe in getting paid for our work, but also want to make it affordable for as many as possible as we know that it can be costly to go to a studio! So when you are ready to sign up, click HERE And in the meantime here is today's class for you to try! This is a pretty fast and physically challenging one, however we give tons of different options and offerings. For the most part, motherhood has come really naturally to me and it's a role I have felt supremely comfortable in from day one. Then came the age of 3 and lately I find myself anywhere but in the zone of comfort. Let me first say, that this is not a bashing of my incredible child, who is so insanely smart and wonderful and the greatest joy and honor of my life is being her mother. It is also not me putting a warning out there to other parents to tell you of the perils of the "terrible threes". I don't wish to put any labels on this time and experience, only to express my own experience openly and honestly. While I imagine many find challenge in the age of 3, there are also those who do not. But in all brutal honesty...3 is kicking my ass. Yes there have been tantrums and crazy emotional swings. There has been stubbornness and epic amounts of not listening. There has even been some hitting (from her not me). All the seemingly "normal" behavior that comes with many three year olds is present. However, what is really throwing me is my natural inclination to respond is with frustration and anger and a rise in my own energy which very clearly only makes things worse. I repeat myself for the third, fourth or fifth time in a row and I feel myself boiling over and yells coming out of me at a volume that is earth shattering. And more than that, it's the intense feeling of anger that unsettles me the most, that I feel the most regretful about afterwards. A little over a year ago, I took a mentorship course with my teacher and friend Elena Brower. In one of our sessions she said something along the lines of "We have to parent ourselves, this is our job" She wasn't speaking specifically about parenting, although being one herself she often includes her journey as a mother in much of what she is speaking to. This idea speaks so perfectly to what I am in the present realization of. What is so hard about Audrey being 3 and exhibiting the behaviors at times that she does, is that it triggers reactive behaviors in me that I know have to parent within myself, or they get out of control. They are learned behaviors that I have carried with me for a long time and something about my child's actions, and truthfully her "defiance" of me, brings them up. But here is the good thing. I am self-aware to the degree that I know I am doing it and that I want to change it and that I CAN change it. There is another way and it requires diligent parenting, not on my child, but on myself. And the reason that this is the most important thing is because this is how I will also have the biggest impact on her. It's just a fact that much of our behaviors towards different circumstances in life come from our childhood, our parents and the people of influence during that time and what we witnessed in what they were doing and how they were being. As Audrey's mom, the greatest impact I will ever have on her is not in what I say, albeit important at times, but mostly in what I do, how I choose to be and in how I choose to grow and learn. If I can show her how to be frustrated but still maintain patience and calm, she will be much more likely to implement that in herself than if I just keep repeating myself over and over and over again words like "Listen to me" or "settle down" until ultimately she doesn't listen because its the exact opposite of what I am showing her. But in order to be able to show her, I must do the work of parenting myself. And in all of my emotional healing and inner work that I have done up to this point with yoga, meditation and oils, I am reminded again that this kind of work is never done. Unless we choose to stop learning about ourselves, which is something I vow to never do, the work continues. It's also why such practices such as yoga, meditation and oils are lifelong pursuits. What I do know for sure, is that our greatest growth comes from the times when we are the most outside of our comfort zone and things seem difficult. So, I am in the process of growing right now as a mom and as a human, right alongside my precious three year old child. I could not ask for a better mirror to reflect back at me all of the ways I can parent myself better so that I may hold space for her to learn and eventually parent herself. |
Sara Packardis a Mama, Wife, Yoga and Meditation Teacher, Coach, Writer and Activist. You can read more about her here. Archives
September 2021
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