Several years ago, I started on a wellness journey that led me to re-evaluate everything in my life – from how I was spending my time, including who I was spending my time with, all the way to what I was using on my body and in my home.

This led to some major shifts, some of them very difficult I won’t lie, but some of them very, very simple.

I became super aware of the impact of the environment I was spending my time, what I was buying, where it came from, how it was produced and what it was doing to me, and my family, when I used it.

Why Ditching Toxins in Important for Health

At the time I knew there was too much toxicity in my life, from people to products and everything in between.

If you’ve been looking into natural alternatives for a healthier lifestyle, you’ll probably have come across the term toxic load. Toxic load is when your life / body is overloaded with more toxins than you can naturally deal with. Our bodies are designed to manage toxins and process them through various bodily systems to excrete them as waste, but when you are exposed to too many toxins the body simply can’t cope with all of them, and when you add in something like toxic relationships or working environments, it becomes overwhelming. Taking a closer look at my life, I knew my toxic load was high and I needed to do something about it.

One of the simple solutions I found was essential oils. They weren’t new to me, I’d known about essential oils for many years, but these were different. These were pure essential oils that I could use in my new healthcare regime to swap out some of the toxins I was using on myself and in my home.

How to reduce toxins with essential oils

If you are going to use essential oils for health and reducing toxicity, then it’s vital that the oils you use are not adulterated in any way and are the purest you can find.

Sadly, it’s common in the essential oil industry for oils to have either artificial compounds added or even be entirely synthetic. Indeed, synthetic oils make up most essential oils available and are most often found in products like household cleaners or beauty products such are perfume, body care or laundry products.  Personally, I do not recommend these products or use them in my home, especially as part of a detoxifying process where you are aiming to reduce toxic chemicals from your home and self-care routines, not increase them.

When reducing toxins in your life, you are after oils that are pure, and not just labelled as pure, but independently tested and verified as pure. That way you are 100% sure that what you are using will not be increasing your toxic load. Any product that you are using on yourself, be it soap, shampoo, moisturiser or household essentials, will find its way into your body so you want the products you use to be as pure as possible.

In the case of dōTERRA essential oils, the only essential oils I use, they are not only toxin free but will also be helping with the detoxification process for toxins already in your body. And for each dōTERRA oil I use, I can look up the results of the tests completed on that batch of oils for extra peace of mind.  

Creating a healthy low-toxic environment for your home and wellbeing

Obviously the first step is to make sure the oils you have are 100% pure – if you are interested, I can help with that. If you live in the UK you can sign up at the bottom to get hold of some free samples. 😊

Secondly you need a place to start. You don’t need to do everything at once. You can of course, but that can be overwhelming, and expensive. I started replacing things gradually as my products ran out. I did however stop using off the shelf perfume straight away and now make my own ‘purefume’ or use a premade blend that I use for stabilising my post-menopausal hormones! Honestly, that has been life-changing all on its own, but I’ll share more about that another time.

I made recipes for various things I identified as being priorities to me, such as skin serum, which I used to help with fascial redness, but the best thing is to know what you want to achieve and start there. I stopped using cleaning products off the shelf and either make my own, for specific cleaning tasks and buy the non-toxic cleaning range from dōTERRA. I do not have a vast amount of cleaning products under my sink, I stick with the few non-toxic ones I have, and quite honestly, that works for everything I need.  

I also use essential oils for supporting my wellbeing both in the daily supplements I take, again another big topic which I’ll share about another time, and individual oils I use on a daily basis to support my emotional and physical wellbeing.

Easy ways to support a body detox using essential oils

Essential oils are very easy to use however, as with anything you use in your home or you apply to your body, you should always be aware of how to use them safely. There is plenty of information available to help you use oils safely to which I recommend you refer.

The three ways you can use DoTerra essential oils to support a body detox or home detox are:  

Aromatically – One of the easiest ways to use essential oils is aromatically. That means the oil travels through the air, and you benefit from the oil through your sense of smell.

The aroma can be inhaled directly from the bottle, or by putting a drop in cupped hands, or you can use a diffuser. A diffuser is especially good if you want the aroma to fill a room or cover a larger area. Using oils aromatically is very good as a room freshener / fragrance, or for a specific therapeutic purpose, i.e. relaxation before bed for example.

Topically – Essential oils can be applied to the skin for many different purposes. Ideally, they are diluted to the appropriate ratio, however some oils can be applied neat to the bottoms of the feet and used for targeting specific needs. Using oils topically is a simple and straightforward way to use them and the oils are absorbed into the body via the skin.    

Please note - Some oils are photosensitive and should not be applied to the skin before exposure to sunlight. Citrus oils are the main oils which are photosensitive but as mentioned above, for best results make yourself familiar with how to use oils safely.

Internally - Some oils can be used internally, and you can see which oils are safe, by referring to the label.

Once you’ve decided which oil you would like to use and established it is safe to use internally, there are several ways you can consume essential oils. One of the easiest ways is using a drop of oil in your water for flavouring, such as lemon or lime. You can also add oils to your cooking or take the supplements which contain essential oils.

 In addition to applying essential oils to yourself or your family, you can use them to replace the standard, but toxic, cleaning supplies that are readily available from supermarkets. It’s a great way to reduce toxic load for yourself and your family. I’ll cover more about homemade, green cleaning in another blog so make sure you return for more info!

Toxin Free Products - How you can reduce your toxic load

If you are interested in reducing your toxic load then the ideal place to start is by using pure essential oils and swapping out some of your products you know contain toxins. The more you use essential oils, the more they help to support your body during its natural process of eliminating toxins. As you swap out the products containing toxins for more natural solutions by incorporating more essential oils you will soon find you’ve made some good progress.

Here’s a few things you can doing simply by starting with a Family Essentials Kit containing the top 10 essential oils and a diffuser:

• • • Family Essentials Kit - with the top 10 essential oils you can start to address those wellness niggles that all families face  

    • Cleaning products – either make your own using oils from your Family Essentials Kit or stock up on some On-Guard ready-to-dilute solution for easy toxin free cleaning

    • Ditch the plug in air fresheners and use your new diffuser from your Family Essentials Kit and come up with your own signature house fragrance or try one of the many diffuser blend recipes available

    • Calm your pets naturally using soothing lavender from your Family Essentials Kit

Not just for your physical environment…

The use for essential oils in your life is almost limitless. You can also use them to reduce toxic emotions from your life too, supporting you to let go of low vibration emotions and embracing a new solution for your emotional needs. More on this another time 😊

What to do next

If you live in the UK and are ready to give certified pure essential oils a try, you can request a free sample using the form below. 

If you don't live in the UK you can still bag a freebie - use the form on the blog home page to get a free guide on essential oils sent direct to your email.

Whatever you decide to do, sending you big blessings on your wellness journey,