Episode #64: Essential Oils to Boost the Brain & Heal the Body, with Jodi Cohen

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Hi ladies.

So this is a really awesome episode. You're you're gonna find. So much good information today because we are talking about pretty much what we're all going through right now. You know, COVID has done a number on our lives, just kind of shaken things up and really putting us to the test. And I feel like whatever was kind of brewing before just kind of got magnified because of COVID Any anxiety that you're having, sleep issues, energy issues, you know, not having energy to get through your day. And a lot of that has to do with not detoxifying your system appropriately and our immune system struggling with COVID like so much important stuff. And we're all struggling together as women. And my guest today did something about this. So I'm really excited because she's going to give you like actual tips that you can start using today. It's really a great episode. We are going to be talking about her essential oils line and her new book that's coming out. So this is definitely an episode that you're going to want to listen to. You're going to want to share it with your friends and everybody that you know. And I'm really excited because I got a— oh, let me pull it up— a review that I want to give a shout out to Cassandra M. from Canada. So that's pretty cool because I'm in the US. She said, best podcast for women's health. This is by far the best podcast for women's health issues. If you suffer from any chronic illness or just want to feel better, this podcast is essential. Dr. Tabatha is very knowledgeable and brings a unique perspective. Her podcast covers a wide range of issues with suggestions that actually work. I am so happy I discovered her show. Thank you, Cassandra, that's so awesome. So please reach out to me on Facebook or Instagram at Dr. Tabatha so that I can send you a free gift because I really appreciate you taking the time to write that review. That means so much. I think we need to get the word out to share with women. You know, this information is important, and we are in really difficult times right now, and we just need to support each other and lift each other up. And I have, you know, been looking for people to bring you new tools to help get through this, and today's guest is gonna be really awesome. She's no exception. She's gonna give you some amazing tools to help handle this anxiety, this insomnia. you know, your estrogen dominance because your, you know, lack of detoxification, your lack of energy. Like, so much we covered today. It's a great episode. So Cassandra, thank you so much. And to all of you other lovely ladies, I would be super honored if you would, you know, hit the subscribe button and consider leaving me a quick review. It just helps iTunes know that we want this message to get out there. We want them to keep sharing it, so I really appreciate it. So let me just sing Jodi's praises real quick before we get on with it. Jodi Sternoff Cohen is a best-selling author, award-winning journalist, functional practitioner, and founder of Vibrant Blue Oils. She has combined her training in nutritional therapy and aromatherapy to create her unique proprietary blends of organic and wildcrafted essential oils. She's helped over 70,000 clients heal from brain-related challenges including anxiety, insomnia, and autoimmunity. Jodi's website vibrantblueoils.com is visited by over 500,000 national health seekers every year. She has rapidly become a top resource for essential oils education on the internet today.

So impressive.

And it's going to be more impressive when you listen to her compelling stories because this woman has had some rough situations in her life. She has suffered losses and tremendous trying situations, and she continues to come out on top and think of others and provide You know, help for you guys and everyone out there. So she's an incredible soul. She's got a huge heart, and I'm really excited to talk to her. Her first book, Healing with Essential Oils, is available on amazon.com, and her new book, Essential Oils to Boost the Brain and Heal the Body, is coming out on March 16th. So I will have all those links down in my show notes. Check those out. But let's talk to Jodi. Here we go. Well, welcome, Jodi, to the Functional Gynecologist Podcast.

Oh my God. Thank you so much for having me.

Yeah, I'm so excited because we were talking right before we started recording and you are just— you are my audience. The women that I speak to every day and treat in my office and talk to online, they are just like you and you have so much wisdom to share. So I'm super excited that we're having this conversation.

Oh, thank you. Yeah, I am. I could be the poster child for anxiety. I've just figured out a lot of coping strategies.

Yeah, I think this past year has really tested us in so many ways. And I feel like any inkling that you had a little bit got super magnified, right? So if you were having issues with anxiety or insomnia, or with your weight or your hormones, it all just got magnified because self-care went out the window, fears came rushing in, all of that. Is that what you're seeing as well?

Yeah, a lot of people, you know, one of the things that I really want to leave your audience with is this idea that, you know, so many of us kind of cope with our anxiety through control mechanisms. And when the world is outside of our control, when we can't go to restaurants, we can't go to the movies, we can't do all these things that we are used to doing. That can be very anxiety-provoking, but we can always control our response, and that's what I'm hoping to share today.

Yeah, I want to give my listeners tools so that they can feel empowered to actually do something different and feel different than they have been feeling, right? So you created an amazing essential oil business, Vibrant Blue Oils. Can you just briefly tell my listeners how you got into that? Because I think your story is so powerful and so beautiful, and I love that you just like took lemons, made lemonade, made the best of your situation, and you rose above. I love it.

Yeah, thank you. I, I really try. I mean, I think like a lot of your listeners, you know, we're just doing the best we can, and my Introduction to health really came through my second child. You know, my first child was so easy that I just assumed I was a good mom. So I had a second one 22 months later, and he was not easy. He was super busy, super nonstop, couldn't pay attention, couldn't slow down, no impulse control. And I took every parenting class I could find and nothing helped. Like, our big cue was like we'd point at our nose, look at our nose, and he would be all over the place. And one day we were at a picnic with some other families at the zoo, and my friend was actually complimenting me on how well-behaved he was. And then another mom passed out a snack. It was Ritz crackers. He ate the cracker and literally took off running. So after I, you know, raced after him, brought him back, she said, that was interesting. I've never seen him Jekyll-Hyde after eating something. You know, my brother was on Ritalin his whole life, and it turns out he was just allergic to weird foods. You should take him to a nutritionist. And I thought, I can certainly do that, you know, like I've tried everything else, why not?

Yeah.

Took him to a nutritionist who suggested we take him off corn, soy, and dairy. The next day we did our little look at my nose and he could look at my nose. It was so profound that I thought, this is crazy, people need to know this. I went back and got a degree in nutrition and was trying to work with other parents with kind of squirmy kids. So I learned this assessment technique called muscle testing where you kind of— it's a way to very quickly, you know, ascertain what supplement will help. And that came in handy when the next shoe dropped. My then-husband was severely bipolar. We didn't know it. I just thought he was crazy fun. Had my daughter. He got a little too manic. We thought we kind of wrangled it in. Then my son was born and he went the other direction and was severely depressed. And for 5 years, I was, you know, trying to keep everything going, you know, doing more and more and just really trying to make sure he didn't die on my watch. And when it became clear that I needed more help than, you know, than I was getting, we moved him into a residential treatment facility. And the minute I knew he was safe, and it wasn't my job to keep him safe, it was like I completely ran out of steam. Like, I just, I could barely get out of bed. You know, the kids were 5 and 7, I would wake up with them, feed them breakfast, make their lunch, take them to school, come back, crawl back into bed, and set the alarm for 10 minutes before pickup.

Yeah, you were in severe adrenal exhaustion.

Yeah, like rock bottom. But I knew, you know, I was taking all the right supplements. I was trying to do everything. Nothing helped. Sorry, you can hear my dog.

Don't get mine started.

Yeah, I was like the uber volunteer and I had just helped a friend put on a big event, and as a thank you gift, she came by with a big box of essential oils and said, you know, you've been so chronically inflamed for so long, I bet your gut is just toast. Like maybe topically applying oils is the way to go. Maybe this will help. And that was like a glimmer of hope. I thought, well, you know, why not? I'll try anything. So I muscle tested the box. Will anything in here help my adrenals? I got 5 oils, which confused me. Because normally I get like 1 or 2 remedies. And then it occurred to me like, oh, it's liquid, I could combine them. So I made my own remedy, you know, no experience. I just put it in a shot glass, put it on my adrenals, on my low back. And my first thought was like, oh my God, I could go running, which was always my default. But you know, when walking up the stairs feels exhausting, the idea of running 3 miles was like not even in the cards. Yeah.

Yeah.

So I went running, I cleaned the house, I did the laundry, I went to the supermarket, I made their favorite meal. I was more productive in that day than I had been probably in the previous month.

Wow.

And I thought that, that worked well. So, you know, at night I'd get my kids to bed and then I would lie in bed and like watch the clock, you know, 10, 10:12, 10:30, you know, kind of praying for like please, please, please let me sleep. And at about 10:42, I had this idea, oh, I wonder maybe oils can like help, you know, the melatonin release. Because I knew that the area above the ears kind of on the skin is the easiest way to get remedies into the body. So I made up another blend, put it there, literally passed out. Like I made it in my kitchen before I was even walking upstairs. I was like, God, I hope I don't fall asleep on the stairs. I mean, I like, went to bed immediately and kind of kept making up my own remedies to help myself heal. And when I started to feel like myself again, my friends were like, what are you doing? We want to try it, you know. And it worked for them. And then they were like, you should do something with this. And I thought, oh gosh, I'm sure it's so obvious, I'm sure someone's doing it. So I went online to research and I was super surprised. I, um, I was almost grateful that I hadn't started with research because Not only was no one really looking at oils through that lens of physiology, but they made it so incredibly complicated. If I had started there, I would have been like, oh, I'm not qualified, I can't do this. So that's really how I started it.

That's amazing. And you went on to focus on all of the issues that we women are struggling with, which I love, and I'm super excited Because your new book is coming out, right? So yes, let's talk about your book.

Yeah. So basically, I mean, being 52 and having all of the PMS symptoms and all the other issues, it's interesting when you're your own crash test dummy, your own taste test case, because you can feel like— the example I use, sometimes you're driving in traffic and someone cuts you off and you're like, whatever, it's fine. And the next day the exact same situation happens and 4-letter words fly out of your mouth. The only variable is kind of your resilience in that moment. Because, you know, people are going to cut you off, people are going to say things you don't agree with, like you, you can't control anything outside of yourself. But if you're able to control your response, you know, see something you disagree with online and not comment and not get upset and, you know, just keep moving. That, you know, that's a way better way to kind of move through life. You feel a lot less anxious and a lot less upset most of the time. So the book, you know, in clinical practice, I find a lot of people come and they think they're broken. You know, they think everything's wrong with them. They have a full file folder of their test results. They have this, you know, genetic mutation. They've got this. They have all these data points. And what I've always found is no matter kind of what's going on, if there, if there are certain 5 things that are kind of in balance, you feel better. You know, even if you're very chronically ill, you need those 5 things to be in balance. And those 5 things lend themselves very well. I do not think essential oils are for everything. If you're having a heart attack, go to the ER.

Right.

You know, if you're, um, you know, if you break your arm, that's a doctor problem. But if you're always running anxious and overwhelmed and depressed, that's something that you can kind of shift gears in the nervous system with oils. That's good. Sleep— we can help you with sleep. Kind of a fluid movement and drainage throughout the body, making sure that the garbage gets out and the good things like the oxygen and the blood, you know, the blood sugar get into the body. Supporting the immune modulation and supporting energy. Basically, those 5 things lend themselves incredibly well to oils. And so what I tried to do is really detail how you can use specific combinations of essential oils and very specific topical application points or inhalation points to really help the body get back to balance so that when that car cuts you off, it's one of those like, whatever, you don't let yourself get upset about it. Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Oh, I love that so much. I mean, you hit on such an important point that I think patients are just like seen as their diagnoses, you know, and they start to internalize that and believe that's like, I have Hashimoto's, that's my, you know, that defines me. And it's so not true because all of that stuff is reversible. And it's just, you know, it's a name that the medical system has given to your symptoms, but it's not you. It's not permanent. And I love that you have figured out these tools that women can, you know, try and get more sleep, get their anxiety under control, you know, get rid of sugar cravings, make better choices, because that will reverse their diseases, right? Like, I just think it's so powerful. I love it. So, you know, you talk a lot about boosting the brain. So tell me, like, give me a good example of how your oils help with acute anxiety issues.

Yeah. So for acute anxiety issues, and by the way, I do have Hashimoto's and all of my symptoms have pretty much gone into remission and the antibody levels go down every time I take a blood test. still technically have it, but, you know, I, I manage pretty well. But what's interesting with anxiety— what's fascinating about the brain in general is that it's really hard to get remedies into the brain because it's got a really strong bodyguard. It's got that blood-brain barrier that only lets super small fat-soluble molecules pass. This is one reason that I believe essential fatty acids are so good for the brain, because they're actually the right key to get into the right door. Oils, just by their chemical composition, can actually access the brain in a way that other things can't. And what most people don't realize is that your, your nose, your olfactory cells, those are brain cells. And the fastest way to get anything into the brain is to literally inhale. Your sense of smell is kind of the preferential of your 5 senses. It goes directly to The anxiety center in your brain. It's called the amygdala. You know, if you're ever on a walk and you think you see a snake and you almost involuntarily jump back, that's your amygdala kind of jumping into action to keep you safe. Now, the amygdala works very closely with your prefrontal cortex, your kind of executive function. And so what's supposed to happen is you have that initial safety response, and then your prefrontal cortex says, oh no, that's a stick. You're fine, and you calm down. And so anything that kind of keeps the amygdala going a little proactive and crazy keeps you in a state of anxiety. So anything you can do to activate your prefrontal cortex, your forehead, kind of pulls you out of that. Now, taking it one step further, panic attacks tend to be the overactivation of kind of the right frontal lobe. And what's incredibly cool about your nose is it goes directly Left nostril goes directly to left forehead. So just taking your right thumb, plugging your right nostril, smelling something through your left nostril. It can be as few as 3, sometimes as many as 7 inhalations, and you balance the 2 hemispheres of the brain, and suddenly you feel a lot less anxious.

That is so cool. Yeah, I love it. And this is a blend you're using that you've created?

Any oil. Well, I, I do have specific blends, but for this particular approach. You can smell anything in your house. You can, if you have a citrus fruit, you can peel the citrus fruit and the oil lives in the peels of the fruit. You can smell a tangerine. It doesn't matter what you smell. It's just allowing the stimulus to the left side of the brain to balance the 2 hemispheres.

Yeah, I think if someone thinks about the fact that they can smell a certain smell and have a memory that they've enjoyed, you know, Smell is so powerful, and I love that you've explained, like, it actually stimulates our brain tissue to do something different, you know, make our feel-good neurotransmitters, get us out of that crazy fear-based, you know, brain. I love it. So that is one way. And you talked about insomnia a little bit, so that's something you're putting behind your ear. Can you do that every night?

Yeah, yeah. And what's really interesting is, well, sleep, you know, there are different reasons that you struggle to sleep. Like if you have trouble falling asleep, that often has to do with your stress hormone cortisol, which has kind of an antithetical relationship to your sleep hormone melatonin. It makes sense, like for anyone that's done the 24-hour saliva test, You know, your cortisol is not flatlined. It's supposed to be higher in the morning because it gives you energy and then wane as the day goes on so that when it's time to fall asleep, you fall asleep. But if, you know, everyone uses the example of the lion chasing you. I don't see many lions running down my street, but we all have other stress response. We can worry about our relationship, our health, our job, our children, you know, anything else and the same stress hormones are kind of activated by thought-based stress as they are from physical stress. So worrying at night, that kind of jacks up the cortisol levels, which forces the sleep hormone melatonin down because if you're truly in danger, if the lion is chasing you, you don't necessarily want to fall asleep because then, you know, you're easy food.

Right.

So there are oils that you can use to help The part of the brain that releases melatonin in response to light, your pineal gland, naturally release melatonin. So if you almost think of a teeter-totter, right? If cortisol is high, melatonin is low. If you can naturally release melatonin, that helps to kind of bring down cortisol levels. So people who have nighttime anxiety, you know, like they're good during the day and then at night all of their fears come out, you know, they can't stop worrying about whatever it is and they really can't sleep. That's a really good backdoor to kind of helping them calm down and fall asleep.

Yeah. Oh my gosh, I think that's so many women listening right now, so many of my patients that I see every day. It's just, we are doing it all, all day long, nonstop, morning till night, taking care of everybody else's needs and not even stopping to process or breathe or take care of ourselves. You know, and COVID's made it even more so now that we're working from home, schooling our kids, you know. Oh my gosh, like when I couldn't get my groceries delivered for a couple months and I had to add that back into my life, that was so stressful.

And oh, I know, it's like, and I'm OCD, like the fact that the house is now messy because the kids are home and they're right in the kitchen.

Oh my gosh, they eat nonstop, like what the heck? Oh, and you finally lay down to go to sleep and you have to like process all of that crap that you just went through, right? And it's really hard to turn that off. So I love the idea of just using some nice clean, you know, oils that we don't have to worry that they are addictive or they're, you know, making our liver sluggish or they're gonna upset our gut or any of that. It's like nothing but good. I just, I love this. This is so awesome.

And I want to share, you know, when it comes to the liver, like most people don't realize that, you know, we have an operating system. It's our nervous system. Our autonomic nervous system controls our automatic functions like detoxification, which is super important in perimenopause and menopause, digestion so that we actually get the raw materials into our system, calming inflammation, turning on your immune system. And our nervous system has 2 gears. We've got kind of the parasympathetic— or sorry, the sympathetic: I'm in danger, I'm going to allocate resources to survival, which means allocating blood flow to the arms and the legs away from digestion, you know. Or the danger has passed, I can be calm, I can focus, I can be centered— parasympathetic state. And one interesting fact, when you're kind of in that fight or flight sympathetic state, your pupils, the black part of your eyes, get really, really big like saucers because when there's the threat of danger, you can't take in all the options because you'll be paralyzed. You have to just focus on that next option. And the reason I share this is if your children, your husband, if you're trying to like tell them something and you see that their eyes are huge, they're stuck in that sympathetic state. They can't hear you. But there's a really fast way using oils that you can shift gears. The gear shift is the longest nerve in your body that most people have never heard of. It's your vagus nerve.

Uh-huh.

Super quick anatomy lesson. It starts at the back of the head, splits, winds around both sides, is the most accessible right behind your earlobe on that bone. That's your mastoid bone. Then it winds through your throat, your heart, your lungs, every organ of digestion, And it's kind of a 2-way highway. And so anything you do, like deep breathing, that engages the vagus nerve and kind of helps you switch into that safety response, that parasympathetic response. That's why you always feel better in shavasana than you do in the beginning of yoga, because the breathing turns on the vagus nerve. You know, you can also gag yourself with a tongue depressor, do a coffee enema, splash your face with freezing water, or Apply a very small amount of essential oil right behind your earlobe or even massage that area. So when you're feeling like you're about to combust and explode and you're overwhelmed or you're anxious and you feel your heart beating out of your chest, just kind of stimulating that vagus nerve to shift gears. That is almost like a system override. You know, your phone glitches, you just restarted it. This is your restart to help you kind of stay calm. No matter what's going on around you.

Oh my gosh, that's such an amazing tip. I love that so much. It's— I, I really want women to understand that they don't have to be controlled by these feelings. You know, their response is everything. And now that they have some tools, they can grab the essential oil, they can put it on the back of their ear, they can do these Breathing techniques, so many good things, you know, to get you out of that state and bring you back into the moment where you can like calmly handle things. I just think that's so important and it's going to be helpful, that and the sleep and dialing everything else in. So you mentioned also the immune system. Talk about that a little bit, will you?

Yeah, you know, the immune system also has some different gears, right? Like if your body is in stress and in kind of the survival state, it shuts down because, you know, even fertility, like anything that's not kind of important and critical to your immediate survival is unnecessary in that moment. And so in order to really turn your immune system on, you need to kind of be in that parasympathetic state. The other thing that happens with over-autoimmunity is that it overfunctions, you know, like it's reacting to everything. Part of this is digestion. If you're not breaking down your proteins, sometimes the immune system thinks that that's a pathogen and reacts. But, you know, you can't— it's kind of like you can't overreact, you can't underreact. It's a little bit like Goldilocks. You don't want your immune system to be too hot or too cold. You want it to be just right. Right. And that's one thing everyone agrees on. Essential oils are amazing for modulating the immune system. There's specifically some hot oils like oregano, thyme, clove that have tons of research on them. So even if you just buy those oils and put them on the bottom of your feet where your skin is really thick, and even if they, you know, if you put them on the wrist, it might feel like hot or red to the touch, but the bottom of the feet, it's pretty safe.

Okay, nice.

Yeah, and I give all the recipes if that's something you want to try in the book.

Oh, wonderful. Okay. Yeah, we're going to have the link to your book in my show notes because it's coming out March 16th. So that's definitely— you're going to want to check that out. How often would you do that with your feet?

I usually do it before bed, especially on kids. I love to give them a hot bath and then if the feet are warm, 'Cause, you know, when you're— there's certain points on the body like the wrists that get better circulation, or if you're warm like after a shower, it just allows things to get into your system more quickly.

Right.

So I just put it on the bottom of the feet and then put socks on before bed. And it's kind of like the magic works while you're sleeping.

Okay.

Yeah.

And do you think that's why your Hashimoto's kind of went into remission?

For, for me with Hashimoto's, it was really about supporting detoxification because what I, I had estrogen dominance. Basically my gallbladder was gunky and so the toxins weren't really leaving, they were getting reabsorbed. And once I really started focusing on drainage and, um, you know, we have oils that support the gallbladder, basically making sure that the garbage gets taken out of the body, that's when I started seeing a big shift. That and, and the stress. I, um, I didn't share this, but I used to— I used to have panic attacks in the supermarket. I'd get the whole cart, you know, spend the time putting everything in the cart, and then the checkout line would be so long I would start to have an anxiety attack and have to like abandon cart. And so that trick about like smelling through the left nostril, that has been a lifesaver. I, I can tell you from personal experience because I know I can tell the difference between I'm feeling claustrophobic, I am— my heart's gonna explode, I have to get out of here, to like, okay, I'm okay, I recognize that this is not ideal and it might take longer than I want, but I'm gonna stick it out.

That's awesome. Thank you for sharing that. I think that we definitely need to try that if you're having that issue. You can just have like a little bottle of the oil in your pocket, right? And literally just take the cap off and just Yeah.

And it can be any oil. I mean, one of my favorites, the citrus oils are kind of known for their anti-anxiety, antidepressive effects. The ones that are really well known are bergamot and neroli, but you can just buy an orange oil. Orange is super affordable. It smells good. You know, it's great for kids. They seem to like it for focus. Just anything that smells good to you, that's all you need.

Awesome. I love it. Okay, so you mentioned the detox pathways, clearing out the garbage. What type of essential oils are you using for that? Are you doing anything directly over the liver, the gallbladder?

Yeah. Well, as you know, I mean, toxins flow from the cell to the lymph, to the blood, to the liver, to the gallbladder, to the gut. to the toilet and they tend to flow in that direction. But if they run into congestion, they can get backed up and go back into the bloodstream and get pushed out through your skin. And then you have rashes or skin issues or get pushed into the kidneys and then you get low back pain. So anything you can do, what's really cool about oils. And if you think about the role they play in plants, they're moving fluid and they're moving in a direction, right? The roots are in the ground getting the water, the leaves can be hundreds of feet in the air. So you can use oils like— I love mint oil, spearmint in particular, for kind of putting on the neck and the left clavicle to kind of help with lymph. I put oils directly over the liver, especially before bed. I like to combine them with castor oil. You know, and castor oil has become a whole experience in and of itself. It can be very complicated with a, with a pack, um, or you can just wear a t-shirt that if you stain it, you are okay with that, like an old concert college t-shirt, whatever, you know. And I literally just put like, um, probably about a tablespoon of castor oil. Make sure it's in a glass bottle, not a plastic bottle. And then I drop a couple drops of essential oil. Helichrysum is good, white grapefruit's good. I give some specific formulas and just apply it over the liver gallbladder, which is kind of right under the bra strap on the right side, and just go to bed in the heat of your body. Helps to really support the liver, especially during the night.

Oh my gosh, that's so good. I, I think so many women in our age group and what we're dealing with have estrogen dominance, like you mentioned you have, and it can be seen as the typical heavy, crazy periods, PMS, breast tenderness, irritability, anxiety, but it also can show up as thyroid dysfunction and other issues. So I love that you are helping support the liver and the gallbladder because if things aren't flowing like you said, you got backup, you got congestion, you're gonna reabsorb those bad estrogens. So, and you said you have the blends all listed in the book and everything, so that's awesome.

Yeah.

Okay, cool. So what did we do, all 5? Are we missing one?

We're missing kind of energy to heal, and it's this idea of, um, You know, the hypothalamus-pituitary axis. So one of the, you know, the hypothalamus controls all of the endocrine organs, including the thyroid and the adrenals. And it's a little bit like it's constantly weighing what's going on in the system. So it signals the body to release chemicals, and then it's evaluating the blood and making sure that there's the right amount in the system, right? It's like a furnace. And then when it gets warm enough in the room, it says we're good and shuts off.

Right.

But sometimes it can get overwhelmed. It's getting too many incoming signals and it doesn't respond properly. So you can use a combination of oils kind of right on the forehead to just, again, like reboot, recalibrate the hypothalamus so that it sends the right signals. And then you're feeling— you're not, you know, cortisol is, I think, what kind of messes with our energy levels because it's either too high and we're like jittery, you know, it's midnight and we're cleaning the kitchen, right? Or it's 8 in the morning and we need like 7 cups of coffee to function. So it's just the more you can recalibrate it and have it send the right signals so the right amount of energy shows up when we need it, that's really beneficial.

That's awesome. And so you're putting some essential oil just directly on your skin in that area?

Yeah, and then the other thing, especially with women, like if you have cold hands and cold feet or maybe your nose is cold, that's a circulatory issue. And there's certain oils like cypress is a great one that kind of help to expand the vasculature. So think of, um, if you're driving on the freeway and technically there are 4 lanes but 3 are under construction, you know, you're not going to get to your destination as fast because there's not as much space to work with. If the blood is trying to travel against gravity to your brain, it, it's working harder. So the more you can kind of open up all lanes and really let the good things flow in and the bad things come out, the, the more energized you'll feel, the better able to focus, you know, the less your fingers and toes are freezing.

Yeah, yeah. And I would imagine that would help with headaches as well. So many times that's a vascular Constriction issue, right?

That's exactly what it is. Yes, exactly.

Oh my gosh, so many good tidbits. I'm excited for your book. I can't wait to read it. It's gonna be so good. So you sell your oils online, is that right?

We do. They're at Vibrant Blue Oils. And actually, if you want kind of 25 ways to activate your vagus nerve, you can just go, uh, boostyourbrainbook.com. And we'll give you 25 tools. You only need to pick one. It's really just how to gear shift into that state of calm, but then they'll get more information about the oils if they're interested. And all the recipes are in the book if they already love oils and just want to know how to, you know, different ways to use what they already have.

Oh my gosh, I will have the link in my show notes. That's amazing. I love this. Do you see patients, um, online, or do you still function as a nutritionist?

You know, I am. So the— my, my 12-year-old was sadly killed in a car accident August, uh, 27th, 2018. And after that happened, I feel like you need to be kind of in this really— I, I just, I felt like I was, I was not as clean and clear as I wanted to be to see patients in person. But I always answer emails, and we have tons of practitioners that we refer to and work very closely with. But basically what I really try to do is help you identify what is, you know, if you're not sleeping, we start there. If you're sleeping but you're still stressed, we start there. Like just helping people identify their root issue and how to support it with oils.

That is so beautiful. Well, my heart goes out to you. You have been through so much and yet you just keep rising to the top. And you're so amazing. Like, you're just helping so many other people.

Thank you. Well, you know, it's—

Pain to purpose.

Yeah, you need, you need to do pain to purpose. But also, there's an aspect of me that, like, I would never want anyone to have to go through what I went through. And when you're, when you're drowning and learning to swim at the same time, you pick up some things that you're like, oh gosh, that, you know, like, um, for grief, rose oil over the heart. To me feels like you're drowning. It feels like a tidal wave, you know, and you can kind of calm it and feel better. And I'm like, wow. Like, it, you know, it wasn't like day one I figured that out. It took me a while. Now that I know it, I'm like, oh gosh, I, you know, I would hate to have people have to endure that learning curve.

Wow, that's amazing. So you just put that directly over the heart area and it just calms you down?

Yeah, it's, it really, it's a really interesting like reset. It's, it's kind of amazing. I mean, I think it's what so many of us do. Like, we learned the hard way and we want to make it easier for other people.

Yeah, well, not everybody does that, you know. That's why I'm so impressed by you. It's like you actually share your knowledge and what you've learned and you're making and putting it to good use. Oh my gosh, so many important things. So tell my listeners where they can find you. The book's coming out March 16th, Essential Oils to Boost the Brain and Heal the Body.

They can find me at Vibrant Blue Oils, and if they have any questions, uh, just email us at info@vibrantblueoils.com and we'll get back to you usually within 24 hours.

Okay, that's awesome. I love it. So thank you so much for Being so vulnerable and sharing all your amazing wisdom. I love this. This is so good.

Thank you. Thank you for having me. Yeah.

All right, take care.

You too.

Wow, wasn't that a beautiful episode? I think Jodi is an incredible woman. She has suffered tremendously and she has somehow persevered and continues to have a big open heart and, you know, just cares about other people and wants to share her wisdom and help you feel better. So she just gave us so many amazing tips and tools today. I'm really excited for her book to come out and to try her essential blends. She's gonna send them to me. I'm super excited. But even, how about that Tip on the vagus nerve, just rubbing, you know, behind your left earlobe to calm yourself down and, you know, get into your parasympathetic autonomic system, which is more rest and digest. I think that's amazing. You know, I often recommend people gargle some warm water before they eat if they're having digestive issues because Gargling stimulates that vagus nerve, and then your digestive juices get flowing, and you're more apt to digest your food completely and not have big proteins go down to your intestines and create food, you know, responses, food sensitivities, all that. That's a whole nother episode, but it's just another way for the vagus nerve to be Stimulated for rest and digest. So check out the link in the show notes for other ways that you can also activate that vagus nerve. That was a really cool little tip that she gave us. So I want you so strongly, I want you to take a golden nugget from this episode, add it to the golden nuggets you took from the other episodes, and just keep Taking those baby steps to change, to health, to, you know, remission, recovery, whatever your health journey is. If you keep adding little golden nuggets of wisdom and techniques and all of that on every week, you're going to be a whole new person by next year. It's, it's, it really does work. That's what I did. You know, I started out, I gave sugar. That was my first thing. I gave up sugar. Then I started sleeping. I made sleep a priority. And then I got my priorities under control and set boundaries, and I took control of my schedule and my life. And then I started moving my body regularly. And then I started supplementing and replacing all my vitamin nutrient deficiencies. And, you know, the list goes on and on. I just kept adding little changes. I got rid of the plastics in my kitchen. I switched out my Teflon pans for clean pans that aren't full of toxins. You know, if you keep making these little changes, they do add up. You're not gonna have A change overnight, but within a year you could be a whole new woman. I promise you, I've done it. I've met thousands of women who've done it that I've helped get them there. So don't give up. I mean, the things that Jodi has been through, she only shared a tidbit, and she just keeps on going, and she's got her Hashimoto's in remission. She's got her anxiety under control. It's beautiful. You can do that too. So hopefully you got something out of this episode. I know I definitely did. Check out her book and try the oils, try the things that she recommends, because I really do think that it's gonna help. So thank you so much for honoring me with your time today.

Thank you.

You know, and don't forget, shout me out on Facebook or Instagram, wherever, or go to my website, Dr. Tabatha, 3 A's, no I's. And, you know, shout me out, tell me what you want to hear, ask me questions. I am here to serve you. I do this for you. So have a kick-ass week, go out, do your thing, don't give up. Okay, all right, ladies. I love ya.

Bye.