My journey through Ovarian Cancer led me into a wonderfully uplifting business, thanks to my oldest niece, Zoey. Her mom was in college when she was born in 2006, and I got to shower Zoey, the first of her generation, with care, love and affection—I fell in love with being an Aunt! While living in beautiful Naples, Florida enjoying the beach lifestyle, a nurse practitioner saved my life by realizing I had a cancer symptom—a thickened lining of the uterus. When I was diagnosed with Stage 1A Endometrial Cancer in 2009, at 32 years old, my gynecologist gave me the choice of having a baby right away, or having a partial hysterectomy. Zoey’s importance in my life and the love we share made it easier to choose to have the surgery right away. Then about a year later, I was diagnosed with Ovarian Cancer. About a year later I was diagnosed with Ovarian Cancer. I had surgery to remove the cancerous tumor and then 7 weeks of radiation therapy in Florida. Then treatment took me to my Mom’s home in Tennessee. I’m so grateful to her for opening her heart and taking me in. No one could have loved and supported me better through those long and scary months. Cancer treatment IS traumatic. When it was finally over, I was very weak and my legs hurt so badly, I often couldn’t walk down a single flight of stairs to the living room. I was depressed and questioned who I was, wondered what my future would be and whether I have to live with my Mom forever. Would I be able to be to forgive myself and my body? Could I find love for this new person I had become after two cancer treatments? My gynecologic oncologist did her best to help, but the pills she prescribed weren’t the answer. I wanted to feel Whole. I wanted to feel and BE better than before cancer evicted me from my life and my body. I had faith and knew I would find what my soul and body needed most. Shortly after finishing chemo, I got really brave and attended a Christian Healing Spa for Women at a local art gallery. I didn't know anyone there and was completely bald, very weak and totally vulnerable. It was a pivotal Divine Moment for me. I met a reflexologist gifting short sessions to Survivors. I was strongly drawn to holistic and alternative healing methods to repair the results of traditional therapies. The reflexology stimulated points on my feet that represent every organ and system in my body, and it brought wonderful relief to my painful neuropathy and sciatica. After my initial gifted session, I got regular reflexology treatments for months to return my body to balance. Then my reflexologist gave me a sample of Young Living Peppermint Essential Oil to rub on my knees and it changed my life. For the first time in a year, my knees felt normal! I began studying nature’s living energy and oldest medicine. Did you know when you simply breathe in essential oils they go to the limbic system of your brain within seconds? That system controls heart rate, blood pressure, breathing, memory, stress response, hormone balance and emotions, including our flight, fight or freeze response to emotional and/or physical trauma. My life had been full of trauma, from more than just the cancer treatments. Discovering essential oils brought me comfort, hope and empowerment. High quality unadulterated essential oils are like the breath of God to me. They quickly became a sacred part of my recovery from cancer. The more I learned, the more I shared my knowledge. Young Living essential oils helped our whole family improve our health. Zoey and her Nana suffer from seasonal allergies. Rubbing very diluted drops of lavender, lemon and peppermint oils on the bottoms of their feet cleared their symptoms for a few hours. Essential oils that touch the skin are absorbed and metabolized in about an hour. The best absorption is on the bottoms of our feet because the pores are so large and, as reflexology teaches, we reach the whole body from there. Then Zoey started first grade and asked me to find a way for her to not have allergy problems at school. When Zoey asks me for something, I make it happen for her. It’s my Auntie Duty and I accepted the assigned mission. That mission changed my life and led to the development of my essential oil jewelry and business. First, seeking guidance, I prayed, clearly expressing my needs and my gratitude to God. The next day I searched online for essential oil jewelry. It was all either too expensive or too delicate for a 7-year-old and none actually put the essential oils in contact with skin, vital if the essential oils were to ‘work’ and last all day. It became clear that what Zoey needed didn’t exist, and I would need much more Divine Guidance. Within days, to my amazement, I got connected with a family who handcrafts wooden beads in the Philippines. This Heavenly connection led me to order a strand of Rosewood beads to experiment with, as well as a strand of natural crystal beads to make it pretty for my Sweetpea. I tested a few beads, and to my delight they worked! Just 2 drops of essential oils rubbed into the natural wood beads held the scent for more than 24 hours and could touch the skin constantly without irritation! Success! The bracelet works two ways, which makes Infusion Jewelry so magnificent and unique. First, you can breathe in the wonderful balancing scent of essential oils from your bracelet anytime you’d like. Second, the wooden beads are touching your skin so your body is absorbing, or INFUSING, the health benefits of essential oils throughout the day in a constant flow. I chose to add natural crystals to make this jewelry simply beautiful. I think of crystals as God’s jewels, another gift of nature that goes so well with essential oils. The next day I made an elastic banded bracelet for Zoey, and added 1 drop each of Lavender, Lemon and Peppermint to her beads. She was SO happy and excited to report that she didn’t have ANY allergy problems at school that day! Thanks be to God! Mission accomplished! We made bracelets for nieces, sisters, Mom and myself. A little later a friend asked me to make one for her and she offered to pay me. At first I refused to accept her money, but she convinced me that I had created something special and insisted people needed to know about Infusion Jewelry. She was right. A blogger I respect shared an article at that time, calling her readers out, encouraging us to DO what we feared. I stepped completely out of character. I created an Etsy Shop for my essential oil jewelry, and a business—folding table, my Mom’s laptop and a cardboard box of beads in my bedroom at my Mom’s house—was born. My business and I have grown through a lot of wonderful, exciting expansion in the past 3 years. Infusion Jewelry is bringing balance to people’s lives in many countries including Finland, England, Australia, and Mexico, while I coordinate everything from central Arizona in the shadow of its breath-taking mountains. Wholesale friend/customers share this simply beautiful healing jewelry with their clients across the United States. Events with Teal Diva, Friends of Gilda and Ovarian Cancer 101’s Live Like Renee 5K in Cape Cod, allow me to reach out and share my jewelry as well as provide opportunities to give back and pay it forward, especially when it comes to Ovarian Cancer awareness. Infusion Jewelry wouldn’t exist if I hadn’t been diagnosed with Ovarian Cancer. We all need more natural solutions in our lives and essential oils support any healthy goal. They can help you: energize, relax, calm allergies, protect from physical or emotional annoyances, improve focus at school or work, ease nausea during chemo or travel, release emotional trauma so you can enjoy peace and so much more. I love essential oils because they work to bring your body and emotions into balance, the way God intended our bodies to be. Everyone in the world needs essential oils —and my unique, simply beautiful essential oil jewelry, of course! Cancer evicted me from my original life. When cancer first entered my life, it led me to begin a Gratitude practice that continues today, 7 years later. It strengthened and deepened my relationship with God and my family. Ovarian Cancer helped me find love and respect for myself as a Child of God. And it led me into a holistic and creative business that brings God’s jewelry and essential oil’s breath to people all over the world. I am so excited to have found this natural solution with no negative side effects! Cancer broke me out of my shell and gave me a new path as a two-time gynecologic cancer Survivor and as a business woman growing ever more skillful. My gratitude deepens daily.
My website link is https://www.etsy.com/shop/InfusionJewelryOils
Please add this coupon code for my Etsy Shop for your readers. Save 20% on any order through 2017 using coupon code TealDiva20.
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