The Wellness Prepper

A Testimonial! (reprinted with permission from Amanda Simas)

I’ve had a good amount of confrontation in my oily life. It doesn’t really phase me, it actually makes me quite happy to talk about it. But today I dug up my response to a volley one day, and was encouraged to share. This was my response to a professional degrading what I do, sorry it’s long:

sci·ence – sīəns
noun: the intellectual and practical activity encompassing the systematic study of the structure and behavior of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment.

What is science? I combat this question a lot. Because much of our culture wants us to believe that science is fact. When really science is a living breathing ever-changing world of possibilities, failures, successes, and more questions from answers. My grandfather, an inventor, designer and builder, once told me “Up is up until someone discovers it’s sideways.” Meaning, don’t define what you understand as fact, define it as observation. If we are speaking scientifically anyway.

The world that we live in is very defensive. Especially when it comes to health. Why? People’s lives are on the line, more than ever. Our babies lives are on the line. And further some people spend their entire lives practicing, through observation, experiment and studying others observations and experiment outcomes, and understand their focus very well. Their expertise and knowledge aren’t to be taken for granted. But their expertise only goes as far as their focus. Outside of your focus is where life gets colorful. You cannot be sure of what you have not observed.

Our world is innately natural. We live in the natural world and modern science is based off the observation and experimentation of it, and conclusions we have derived from them. Medicine, the science of healing, has as long a history as humans do. Human beings are natural, the science of healing them is natural, the tools we now use to heal are both natural and synthetic replicas of natural chemistry, along with the physical tools used. Why is this important when talking about science and medicine? Because the natural world, despite what we’d like to think, is exponentially more complex than we are capable of understanding, or outside of a lab, controlling. Meaning, my chemistry, genetics, environment and other influences are different from yours and that complicates science. We have SO many questions unanswered when it comes to the human body and the way that it interacts with the natural, and synthetic world. Every single doctor and scientist I’ve known would say that we know a great deal especially in this day and age, and still we do not understand enough, there is so much more to understand. This doesn’t mean that science is useless. The contrary. But that medicine is not absolute, it’s as much an art as science.

I discuss this in length for a purpose. When two people debating a topic can come to a place where they realize the ultimate and only certain medical truth, that they do not understand all that they need to be definite about the natural world (meaning medicine, science, and otherwise) a scientific discussion can be started.

Now, as a medical professional, you know more than anyone that you don’t know everything. And if you have a specialization, and you encounter a problem outside of your specialization, you send that person to a specialist that can better help with that problem. Because you likely took an oath that says: “I will not be ashamed to say “I know not,” nor will I fail to call in my colleagues when the skills of another are needed for a patient’s recovery.” This is the humility of medicine, and it is a difficult balance to both be confident in what you do know and humbly accept what you do not, especially in our world of blame.

The hippocratic oath also says: “I will prevent disease whenever I can, for prevention is preferable to cure.” This is where, admittedly, modern medicine fails dramatically. Early detection is wrongfully assumed as prevention, and prevention is all but nonexistent. Though there are experts in the field of prevention, they are (almost) never utilized by practitioners, and the field is completely undervalued by the medical world. Medicine (in general and as a whole) understands this, but does not change. Why? Because the majority of people will not or cannot spend the time, money, effort, and brainpower on prevention. And there are corporations making a very large amount of money both poisoning you and on the other side treating you, through food, environment and medicine. Wellness is undervalued, unwell is normalized.

This disconnect is where I believe frustration resides. When we defend one end and not the other. Really, what we need is a balance of the 2 worlds. Natural wellness paired with emergency and chronic medicine. Natural wellness is my focus when it comes to young living.

Thankfully when it comes to essential oils there is both customizable wellness benefits observed by a vast amount of testimony, along with cold hard science. The study is just as vast as it’s unanswered questions and there are experts that have spent their entire lives in the focus of essential oils, as well as a history far exceeding modern medicine. Their expertise is well respected and also deserves the learners humility and consideration.

Because you’re reading this, I am assuming your interest is in the science and expertise of the professionals that study essential oils and their roles in both medicine and prevention. Unfortunately, though there is a huge amount of information out there on essential oils and medicine, as a business owner my job is to highlight the wellness and prevention aspects of essential oils. If you are interested in the medicine may I suggest searching for essential oils of your choice, like Oregano or Frankincense, on pubmed.gov. I would however love to talk to you about essential oils and how they support your body systems, and are a great tool for encouraging and maintaining whole body wellness. Let me know if you’re interested!