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This is a weird story and you may think I’m making it up, but I’m sure some of you will be able to relate… And to be honest, I don’t know what really happened, it’s my interpretation of the situation.
So you know I’m still struggling with the final bits of candida and chlamydia peumoniae that are still active after my mold intoxication. Besides regular detox, following the candida diet and using targeted supplements to eradicate and build up immune function, I’ve also gone about once per month to see Anne, my foot reflexologist to help support my body systems. I went back to see her mid January and asked her to work on my pelvic area which seemed to be the source of a lot of aches and pains in my lower back region, legs and also moving up to my neck and shoulders. And I do know that the digestive system is a big part of it as it can cause a lot of tension in those areas when disturbed or inflamed. When I came out of the session, I couldn’t believe how free I finally felt in my pelvic area - I was so happy!
Until… a day later, after I went to sleep: I woke up at 2am with the worst uterine cramping I have ever experienced. I don’t have kids but I thought to myself “this is what it must be like to give birth”. I was drenched in sweat due to the pain and couldn’t move because of the spasms and pain. After a good hour I woke up my hubby and asked him to get me my castor oil and dill essential oil (it’s an antispasmodic) and a hot bottle. I poured that on my lower abdomen and put the hot bottle over it and it slowly resolved. This was one of the most horrible nights for sure and besides migraines surely the most intense pain I’ve ever experienced.
I had literally just seen my OBGYN the week before that for a check up including ultrasound and pap smear which were all good, so it should not be a gynecological problem. I was of course thinking of endometriosis and followed up with my OBGYN to describe the pain and ask if we should do any follow up exams to exclude endo. He assured me that it wasn’t necessary following my recent exam. Although I’m not completely happy with that answer and will definitely closely monitor my symptoms around ovulation and upcoming periods, I do think that this incident was a reaction to the foot reflexology session I had. The pelvic area is also where we store stress, trauma and emotions and I’m convinced that my reflexologist moved a memory or stored trauma of some sort in that session and the reaction I had to that was my body responding and moving it out.
Our body stores toxic emotions along with physical toxins (like metals, mold and pathogens). When you mobilize physical toxins, it is common to mobilize emotional toxins as well. If you are unable to process and release emotional toxins, it can interfere with the progress of your physical detox. I’ve also lost my mother 2 years ago at about the same time that we had found mold in our bedroom. I have done some release work on the grief and also I am aware that this mold has made me so sick it’s really been a traumatic emotional experience as well. That was one of the reasons I also wanted my reflexologist to work on my pelvic area since I had a hunch that there was something stuck there that kept me stuck.
Let’s break down how this works in the body: emotions activate your stress response and when you have unprocessed emotions, it’s the same as having underlying chronic infections: they are always running in the background keeping your sympathetic nervous system on high alert.
If you don’t let out or process your emotions, they can literally make you physically sick.
This is why I always make it part of my healing packages with clients to work on that aspect too and/or refer them out to other specialists who can help.
When you start releasing toxins from your tissues, you may not only release the toxins like bacterial die off, mold, heavy metals or pesticides, but you can also release emotional toxins (from accumulated grief, anger, or traumatic events). When you release emotions you can actually feel physical detoxification symptoms (like nausea, fatigue, flu-like symptoms, headache, joint and muscle pain) but also emotional symptoms (like sadness or anger).
I was already a big fan of TCM - Traditional Chinese Medicine before I even studied nutrition and functional medicine. According to TCM, specific organ dysfunctions can trigger specific emotions and vice versa.
For example anger is linked to the liver, fear to your kidneys and grief to your lungs. I see it often when I run my detox programs that people get very irritated in the first days of the detox and that’s very much linked to the liver working hard on releasing toxins. Once they get over that first day hump, everything looks brighter!
Today I wanted to talk more about how you can use essential oils to move emotions through the body and release emotions that may be stored or trapped.
Just like physical detoxification, emotional detox is a multi-step process:
Phase #1: this is where your liver transforms toxins from fat soluble into water soluble so that it is able to neutralize and process them. You also need to transform your emotions first so that you minimize the intensity and toxicity.
Essential oils that can help with phase #1 detox:
Nervous system regulation: distilled lime and clove oil help calm down your nervous system (apply a drop of each with a bit of coconut or olive oil behind your earlobe - this will activate your vagus nerve and calm down your nervous system)
Essential oils to support your heart: Jasmine essential oil can help support the heart by regulating heart rate, blood pressure and breathing. It also positively influences the nervous system and soothes emotional stress. Spruce essential oil helps balance the solar plexus, stimulate the heart, and helps release anxiety and stress.
You also need to help “unwind” your fascia - anyone experience that pain between your shoulder blades? If you’re looking at your anatomy, that's actually the back of your heart (& lungs). By applying essential oils on those spots, you signal your body that you’re “safe” and it will let you physically remove restrictions and physical tension in your muscles and connective tissue.
Essential oils to help unwind fascia: Angelica Root, Black Pepper, Cypress, Elemi, Frankincense, Lavender, Rose, Geranium, Vetiver, Litsea Cubeba, Rosemary and Ylang Ylang
Phase #2: this is where your liver neutralizes toxins. Toxic emotions can be stored into your organs and your nervous system. Here are some essential oils that can help you release the specific unprocessed energy from the emotional toxicity from your organs and tissues.
Liver support for anger: the liver is active between 1 and 3am - this is one that I see in most clients: waking up during this time of the night and also having hot flashes. Other signs of imbalance in the liver meridian: feelings of tension, anger, irritability, impatience, pain in the right shoulder, pain and tension underneath your right rib cage, bloating, twitching and tingling of the muscles, tension headaches.
Essential oils for anger and liver support: White Grapefruit, Helichrysum italicum, Lavender, Geranium, Elemi, Sandalwood, Blue Tansy, Ylang Ylang, Chamomile, and Cypress.
How to use: Just place the bottle under your nose and breathe deeply, fully inhaling the oil for 3 – 7 breaths. It helps you breathe into and work through the emotion.
You can also apply it around the ankles as this is often an area where we hold resistance to moving forward in life and block the ability to receive joy and pleasure. Start at the back of the ankle and apply under the ankle bone around to the front and back under the other ankle bone, all while allowing yourself to release challenging emotions.
Kidney support for anxiety, fear, despair: the kidneys are active between 5 and 7pm. If you are feeling restless and/or exhausted especially at this time, it may be linked to your kidney meridian. Other signs of imbalance in the kidney meridian: feelings of anxiety, fear, despair or feeling insecure, tinnitus, urine leakage, cold flashes & hot flashes, infertility or lack of sexual desire.
Essential oils for fear and kidney support: Cedarwood, Fir Needles, Frankincense, Pine, Spruce and Ylang Ylang
How to use: apply over your kidneys (one inch up and out from belly button), back of neck, or around the outside of earlobes, can help dispel fear, and assist you in feeling safe.
Lung support for sadness and grief: the lungs are active between 3 and 5am, so when you wake up during this time, it may be related to your lungs. Other signs of imbalances in the lung meridian: feelings of sadness and grief, problems with keeping order and structuring, fear of commitment, recurring infections, allergies and asthma. Grief that remains unresolved can become chronic and create disharmony in the lungs, weakening the lung’s function of circulating oxygen around the body.
Essential oils to support emotional detox from lungs: Bergamot, Geranium Rose, Lemon, Mandarin, Orange, Rose, and Ylang Ylang
How to use: Apply 2- 3 drops over the lungs, allowing yourself to deeply exhale any grief as you apply the blend.
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