The Air You Breathe
Simple Steps to Breathe Easy
The Great Long Island Summer
Long Island Summer has finally arrived! Yeah! It’s time to step outside and enjoy the plentiful choices of outdoor activities: Concerts, parades, street fairs, gardening, hiking, bike riding, BBQs, swimming, boating and beach parties. In this geographical location, we spend eight months of the year pining for the four months of ideal weather that makes Long Island summers famous!
But wait! More and more headlines caution outdoor activities these days due to poor air quality.
Poor air quality can cause people to experience eye, nose and throat irritation, shortness of breath or chest pain. These experiences can present a significant challenge to high-risk populations including children, older adults, and people with underlying respiratory and cardiac conditions. Also consider the potential impact on our pets, animals, and livestock.
What’s a Long Islander to do?!
The Ins & Outs of Respiration
“We breathe in and out roughly 22,000 times a day. That’s a lot. Breathing is a necessary action for our body, delivering crucial oxygen to parts of us that need it to function. If the air we breathe is unsafe, think about how much damage this could potentially cause to our health.” ~How Much Pollution Do You Breathe In Every Day? U-Earth Team, July 25, 2022
Fun Fact: The atmosphere contains a mixture of gases, primarily nitrogen! Oxygen represents only about 21% of the air we breathe!
We breathe in air and breathe out carbon dioxide. While our lungs can perform this exchange well, they can’t filter out the pollution in the air. This makes me wonder about the cumulative effect of poor air quality on our long-term health.
While the collective issues with the air quality in our global environment may require a collaborative effort and long-range plans for improved air quality, there IS something we can do in our local environment…our very local environment. I’m referring of course to the places in which we live and breathe for a significant number of hours every day…OUR HOMES!
According to the Environmental Working Group, the air inside our homes is 2 to 5 times MORE polluted than the air outside! Ouch! “Cleaners & air fresheners can release a plethora of chemicals into the air, including ones linked to asthma, developmental harm and cancer.”
What are we to do?!
Simple Steps to Improved Air Quality
There are many things you can do in your own home to improve the quality of the air you breathe!
Wash your hands!
Besides the benefits of cleansing germs, this simple practice helps to remove environmental toxins, phthalates in plastics, and heavy metals that can damage the brain…substances you definitely don’t want to ingest.
DITCH the harmful, toxic soaps and SWITCH to a gentle, healthy alternative. My favorite foaming hand wash features doTERRA onGuard® blend. This protective essential oil blend includes Cinnamon, Clove, Eucalyptus, Rosemary, and Wild Orange; it is non-toxic, has an energizing aroma, and also provides many health benefits.*
Use plant-based cleaning products!
What’s in the cleaning products under your sink and in your laundry room? Look for products with ammonia, chlorine bleach, hydrochloric acid, phosphoric acid, sodium or potassium hydroxide, or ethanolamines. These chemicals can cause skin burns, blindness, and lung irritation, to name a few consequences of these toxic substances.
DITCH these products that pollute the air in your home and SWITCH to cleaning products infused with essential oils! Send me an email if you want my favorite DIY recipes for carpet and furniture deodorizers, natural laundry and dishwasher detergents, glass cleaner, and more! Creating your own non-toxic solutions is easy and inexpensive!
Choose to infuse your home with natural aromas with health benefits!
Essential oils are volatile aromatic compounds, so they smell fantastic. Using them aromatically is simple and offers immediate benefits, such as promoting a calm and stable environment, contributing to an uplifting or energizing atmosphere, freshening the air, and more.DITCH the candles, air fresheners, and plug-ins around your home and SWITCH to diffusers with your favorite essential oil scents! Every essential oil has a unique aroma so you can mix and match scents to customize your experience. Send me an email if you’d like my favorite diffuser blend recipes to help you create the ideal aroma in your home.
If it’s ON you, it is IN you!
The cumulative effect of toxins found in the myriad of personal care products in your bathrooms delivers a high toxic load to the body and respiratory system. These toxic chemicals are found in adults, children and even newborn babies! A recent study by the Environmental Working Group confirms that even before birth, a child is exposed to hundreds of chemical compounds, many of which could harm that child’s health and development.
DITCH toxic shampoo, conditioner, facial products, shower gels, and especially harmful sunscreens and SWITCH to natural products infused with essential oils that offer health benefits. Send me an email if you’d like my favorite DIY recipes for personal care, skin care, hair care, and bath products.
Simple Tips to Breathe Easy!
“Research has suggested that essential oils with chemical constituents including d-limonene, 1,8-cineole, and alpha-pinene can help support respiratory health as part of a healthy lifestyle.*” ~Wellness-Topics-Clear-Breathing, doTERRA.com. My top five oils for respiratory support include Peppermint, Eucalyptus, Cardamom, Douglas Fir, and many citrus oils.
What else can we do?
Do you like to keep your windows and doors open? Spray Tea Tree, Eucalyptus, Lemon, Cypress, and/or Siberian Fir essential oils on the screens to help filter out seasonal and environmental threats. You can also spray these essential oils when you change the air filters in your home before inserting them into the grid.
Is your home plant friendly? House plants can be a simple way to help cleanse the air and infuse it with oxygen.
Do you have difficulty breathing? I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the emotional quotient: What takes your breath away…to fully take in life? My go-to solution for times like these is the Console® essential oil blend. Use 1-2 drops in the diffuser or topically over the heart “to promote feelings of comfort and hope – particularly in times of loss, sadness, or grief.” ~doTERRA.com
You are invited…
Join us on July 21, 2023 at 7pm for our workshop, Sharing Solutions, to discover more about how easy and rewarding living a natural solutions lifestyle can be! We will discuss other DITCH & SWITCH ideas and solutions to support your respiratory system! Register here for information and reminders.
Success Concepts
You are worthy and deserving of allocating time and attention to your personal needs. Invest the time and resources to live and love a natural solutions lifestyle with pure and potent essential oils at your fingertips! Find the combination of solutions that work best for you and hire them to do a great job in your life.
There’s a cost for waiting! Get started today!