Heather Aardema explains how household toxins drain your energy and shares what she did to fix it: remove shoes indoors, swap dryer sheets for wool balls, use HEPA filters, open windows, keep houseplants, ditch scented candles. She recovered from toxic mold exposure and treats a clean home as an act of self-care.
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Identify a few things that you know are disrupting your health and decide to get rid of them. I was taking a walk with my son and our dog Lulu. It was in the evening, there was a beautiful sunset. We live in Colorado, lots of oranges and pinks and purples. We're having a really nice experience. And then all of a sudden we both felt like we got hit in the face. Just smacked so hard in the face. Our eyes started to water and we both got an immediate headache. Any guesses on why? The house that we were in front of was using their dryer. And I am positive that they were using dryer sheets. Dryer sheets are so toxic, they are so bad for us and they create dis ease. And so I've been thinking a lot about body clutter lately. Body clutter, it's not just foods that we're sensitive to. It's anything that impacts our health, anything that impacts our vitality. Dryer sheets, they are definite, definite body clutter. So something that I'm really focused on right now is creating a healing home environment. This means getting rid of anything that doesn't serve us. Getting rid of anything that might disrupt our health. And so I thought it might be fun to walk you through some of the steps that we've taken in our little 1300 square foot home to make it a healthier place, not just for me, but for my family, for our dog and, and see if any of these steps might help you. And the reason why we wanted to do this is because it's a form of self care. It's a form of self love. All of us are worth these steps so that we can feel the best that we're able to. The first thing that we do is we ask people to take those shoes off when they come into our house. This is not just a rule for, for other people, it's what we do as well. When I was in the functional medicine coaching academy, I first heard of the coho salmon study. The study blew me away. What they did is they took, they took runoff water from an expressway after a storm and they put that water into a big tub and then they put a bunch of coho salmon in that tub and within two hours all of the salmon were dead. So when we are out walking around and then we come home and we keep those shoes on, all of those toxins that we're walking on outside are then coming into the house and so we take off our shoes. And I strongly recommend that you take your shoes off too. What else? Our vacuum cleaner Also has a HEPA filter so that we are adjusting the microbes, the dust and everything else. We also have air filters. I have been on a healing journey for a number of years from toxic mold and I had over 100 symptoms and I'm doing much better. The healing process is long and for years, for decades I was breathing in toxic air. Now the mold we never saw, it was up in the attic and below the house, basically invisible. But it was really impacting my health. And so we have air filters and air purifiers throughout our house. We also make sure to open the windows, especially in the spring, the summer, the fall, and occasionally in the winter. I'll open up the front door, don't tell my husband, I'll open up the front door, I'll get in some fresh air because it's just so much better for us. Indoor plants can also have some really great air purifying properties as well as the spider plant can be really popular. Also, there's one called the mother in law plant that I think is so beautiful and I love as well. And I love my mother in law. She's incredible. Hi, Mary. Now, if you're wondering about candles, most candles are not good for you. In fact, some would argue that none of them are good for you because you're burning something inside and you're gonna, you're gonna breathe in some toxins. So instead of candles, no, we don't use Glate plugins. Those are toxic as well. We use essential oils. Those are safe. They smell great. It's natural, it's nature. That's what we like. This might sound like a no brainer, but anytime I'm cooking, I make sure to turn on the exhaust fan, especially if you're cooking over a gas flame. A few more things that we do, we make sure to drink filtered water. Here in the United States, you might assume that our water quality is great. It is not. There are a lot of gasoline derivatives, a lot of chemicals, a lot of pesticides, a lot of antibiotics and things in our water. And so we make sure to drink from a filtered system. Do we use the dryer sheets? No, we don't use the dryer sheets. We have wool dryer balls that we absolutely love. They last forever. Maybe not forever, but ours have lasted a long time. These are some ideas that we have used to help us create a healing home. So is it nice to have an uncluttered home? Yes, absolutely. However, if some of your things are toxic, if they are creating dis ease in your body, there's still clutter. And so it's really, it can be really beneficial to look at the toxins in your home and deal with those as well. I often say that clutter is morally neutral. However, its impact is not. And so maybe as a form of self care or self love, identify a few things that you know are disrupting your health and decide to get rid of them. Decide to let them go. Do this and you'll be on the lighter path. You'll feel so much better knowing that these things are no longer in your home and you'll begin to feel better and better.
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