We typically don’t think twice about grabbing over-the-counter medicine when we don’t feel well or can’t sleep, but we may not have considered another tool in the belt - ESSENTIAL OILS. Jodi Sternoff Cohen is a bestselling author and founder of Vibrant Blue Oils. Jodi has helped over 70,000 clients heal from brain-related challenges, including anxiety, insomnia, and autoimmunity. Listen in to Jodi’s journey on finding relief to chronic insomnia, how essential oils interact with the body for numerous ailments, and for an exclusive deep dive into her new book “Essential Oils to Boost the Brain and Heal the Body” launching March 16th, 2021.
BIO:
Jodi Sternoff Cohen is a bestselling author and founder of Vibrant Blue Oils. She has helped over 70,000 clients heal from brain-related challenges, including anxiety, insomnia, and autoimmunity. Her website, vibrantblueoils.com, is visited by over 500,000 natural health seekers every year, and she has rapidly become a top resource for essential oils education on the Internet today. Her first book “Healing with Essential Oils'' is available on Amazon.com. Her new book “Essential Oils to Boost the Brain and Heal the Body will be released on March 16, 2021.
EPISODE LINKS:
Jodi’s new book “Essential Oils to Boost the Brain and Heal the Body” launching on March 16, 2021.
Here is a free chapter for her new book:
https://www.boostthebrainbook.com/gift
SHOW NOTES:
🌿 An Exclusive Dive into Her New Book
🌿 Jodi’s Journey to Finding Relief and How to Improve Her Wellness
🌿 Why We Need to Listen to Our Body to Be Able to Hear What It Needs
🌿 Oils - Not Exactly a Magic Potion
🌿 How Our Rapid Fast-Paced Lives May Be Affecting Our Ability to Rest
🌿 You May Not Be Absorbing Anything You’re Ingesting - Here is The Culprit
🌿 Sleep support and why oils are the simplest solution to sleep
🌿 Did You Know Pharma is Derived From Plants But So Are OILS
🌿 Five Underlying Reasons Why You Can’t Sleep
🌿 The Endless Cycle Between Chronic Inflammation and Stress Responses
🌿 Anticipatory Stress: We’re Just Surviving But Not Thriving
🌿 The Easiest Anatomy Lesson You’ve Ever Had - Where to Stimulate the “Calm Response”
🌿 Regulating Hormones and How Environmental Exposures Disrupt Your Sleep
🌿 An Origin Story of Essential Oils Protecting Against Illnesses
🌿 Where You Can Find Oil Blend Recipes and Easy How To’s
QUOTES:
“Necessity is the mother of invention.”
“The power to kind of shift gears in your body and your nervous system lies in you.”
“Most people live in that highly adrenalized stress state most of the time, and they don't know how to downshift into the parasympathetic state.”
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
oils, sleep, people, brain, called, pineal gland, cortisol, essential oils, book, melatonin, feel, vagus nerve, blend, bit, balance, plants, therapist, podcast, body, hear
Mollie McGlocklin 00:04
Welcome to the sleep as a skill podcast. My name is Mollie McGlocklin. And I own a company that optimizes sleep through technology accountability and behavioral change. Each week, I'll be interviewing world class experts ranging from doctors, innovators and thought leaders to give actionable tips and strategies that you can implement to become a more skillful sleeper. Let's jump into your dose of practical sleep training. Welcome to the sleep is a skilled podcast the topic of today's podcast is essential oils. And it's actually a topic that I had been hesitant to bring to the podcast in any in depth way, because I didn't want it to be just old, tired, you know? Oh, yeah, we know lavender, yada, yada. And yet at the same time, I was happy to be connected with my guest today, Jody Cohen, because of her really laundry list of accomplishments as it relates to her in depth knowledge around essential oils, but also combinations of essential as the why behind them, really getting into the nitty gritty in a way that a lot of people have not quite been able to do. So having said that, when I read your bio her bio to you so that you get a little sense of what she's been up to in this in this realm and why she's gonna make a fantastic guest to go deeper on this topic and see why essential oils could be a really important set of, you know, tools in your toolkit. So Jodi Cohen is a best selling author, award winning journalist, functional practitioner and founder of vibrant blue oils, where she has combined her training in nutritional therapy and aroma therapy to create unique proprietary blends of organic and wildcrafted essential oils. She has helped over 70,000 clients heal from brain related challenges including anxiety, insomnia, and autoimmunity. Her website vibrant blue oils calm is visited by over 500,000 Natural Health seekers every year, and she has rapidly become a top resource for essential oil education on the internet today, her first book healing with essential oils is available on amazon.com. her new book essential oils to boost the brain and heal the body will be released in March or at the end of March 2021. Now let's dive in to this podcast. Now, before we get into the podcast, I do want to take a quick minute to give a shout out to our sponsor better help or as I like to call it a therapist in your pocket. It's the exact app that I use when I was going through my really challenging period of insomnia while traveling overseas. And the ability to maintain a consistent therapist in real life was just really not an option for me since we were jumping around from country to country. So the ability to with using my phone have video calls weekly with my therapist that was paired with a for me, actually, I connected with a great therapist right off the bat. But I do know other people who have been able to kind of shop around with some of the therapists on that app until they find a great fit for them. And in between those calls. One of the things that I found was really helpful is that you can also send voice notes, text messages, images in between that you no longer weekly video call, so that you do have this really very real ongoing connection and support that I certainly at least in my experience hadn't felt with real life therapists that I've used in the past and also the pricing structure is much more competitive than a lot of the real life therapists that you can come into contact with. So I found it to be a lot of benefits. I recommend it to a lot of people that are just kind of going through struggles in their life or just simply want to be able to uplevel and get bringing that level of reflection and awareness into their life about what's both working and not worth getting. And you can certainly cancel at any time and for our sleepy community. The better help company has hooked us up with 10% off if you go to better help comm forward slash sleep is a skill again and better help calm forward slash sleep is a skill. And welcome to the sleep is a skill podcast. My guest today is Jody Cohen and Jody, I'm really excited to speak with you more and hear more about your story. We had an opportunity to kind of chat a little beforehand and had so many mutual kind of friends and acquaintances and all of these things. So I can't wait to one learn more about you and to to hear all that you've accomplished and what that can bring to our sleep is a skill audience. Thank you for having me. I think like you I'm kind of a necessity is the mother of invention, you know? Yes. 100% I feel like often the most driven people and certain areas that came because they needed to do it. And then yeah, and so that's a perfect place to begin. So I'd love to hear a bit more about your kind of background and what brought you What was your necessity? What had you dive deeper and to create all that you've created? Yeah, I think sometimes our healing journeys are a little bit like roller coasters, you know, you hit rock bottom, you climb your way out, and you have another rock bottom, and you just keep building on what you learn. So my rock bottom kind of became my, my former husband was bipolar. And it became pretty clear that he was going to die on my watch. And so my friends had an intervention, and we moved him to a residential treatment facility. And once I knew that he was safe, and it wasn't my job to keep him alive. I ran out of steam immediately. I had been so stressed for so long and had just been burning through deficit spending with my cortisol basically. And so I had been practicing nutrition, I knew what herbal supplements and remedies are supposed to take. ingesting all of them, nothing was working. My kids were five and seven at the time, I would wake up with them, make them breakfast, pack their lunch, take them to school, come home, climb into bed and set the alarm for pickup. And it just kind of continued like that. But fortunately, I was prior to my collapse, I was kind of an overachiever, Uber volunteer, and I had helped a friend put together an event. So as a thank you, she came over with a huge box of essential oils and said, you know, you've been so high stress for so long. And we know that cortisol kind of turns on chronic inflammation. I bet your gut is so inflamed that nothing you're ingesting is getting into your system. oils are really cool, because they can work through the skin. I bet that will help. And that was a you know, kind of that first glimmer of hope like, Oh, that makes sense to me. Let's see if I can make this work. So I had a technique of assessment that I used in my practice, I worked a lot with squirmy kids. So it's this technique called muscle testing. That's just, it's a very efficient way to identify if something's going to help or not. And I used that technique to find five oils, which confused me, because normally I would find one or two remedies. And then it occurred to me, oh, they're liquid, I can combine them. So I tested each individual oil, made my first blend, put it on my low back over my adrenals and felt like myself for the first time in weeks. I thought oh my god, I can go running. I can clean the house, I can do all of these things. And that night, you know, I also suffered from insomnia. It's not uncommon to have your energy, you know, stress and insomnia go hand in hand. So I would put the kids to bed and then begin what I called the clock watching adventure. You know, 10 1012 1024 wonderful adventure. Yeah, praying for sleep as it just keeps you know, it pleases you. Yeah. Yeah. So basically, around somewhere between 10 and 1030. It occurred to me like, I wonder, you know, I know, this is melatonin. I know, it's released by the Sir, you know, pineal gland. And I know that there are certain places on the head where the skin is really thin. Like, I wonder if I can make something for this. And it was just enough about why not, you know, can't hurt to try, I went back down, formulated another blend literally carried it up to my bedroom in a shot glass. And knowing that you know, your pineal gland, which releases the sleep hormone, Melatonin is pretty much right in the middle of your brain. I kind of put it around like, above the ears on the skin back of the head, top of the head. I think I got the best sleep I had had since my son was born. It was like, Okay, that was a win. So I just kept making things up. And then when I started to feel better, my friends were like, Oh, can we try it? And I was really surprised. It seemed to work for everyone. And then one friend is like, you have to do something with this. And I thought, well, I'm sure you know, it's so obvious, someone must be doing this. So I finally had kind of the mental capacity to go online and research. And I was super surprised by two things. The first was, no one was really looking at essential oil blends through the lens of physiology, to kind of balance organ systems and regions of the brain. And the way it was explained felt so incredibly complicated. I was almost grateful that I didn't start with research because I would have felt completely unqualified and never even tried it. So that's how I started the company. And it's exciting to talk to you about sleep because I really do think for for sleep oils can play such a powerful role and help in ways that other remedies, you know, really struggle to support. Wow, well, number one, I just appreciate you sharing that story number two, I acknowledge you for taking the steps to not only you know make a difference for your own health based on what you found and kind of tinkering and playing with things and having that experience for yourself but then also what you've created is just Phenomenal and sharing it with the world so that we can all kind of learn more and benefits. So, and I am excited because I would love to hear more to around one, your thoughts certainly, obviously on targeted on wheels and sleep, but to kind of more to around is your site and your books and all that you're that you're putting out there does seem to fall outside of some of the traditional, you know, oil, quote unquote groupings. And, you know, I've been really hesitant to have a lot of kind of oil talk because I didn't want you know, to go into this sense of like, okay, we're selling stuff, and we're done. So I've been really kind of tiptoeing it. And yet what I was excited about with your approach is that to your point, it really does seem to be in a category of its own. So what I'd love to do is get a little bit deeper on what you alluded to, of how there's kind of more the approach that you took, and how that really stands out from the crowd. Yeah, I think oils have been marginalized, which is unfortunate, because they really are, first of all, they're derived from plants. And most people don't realize that over 50% of the pharmaceutical drugs that have come out in the last 30 years, are modeled on plants, you know, you aspirin is white willow bark, exactly M is the Larian route, we are basically but the drugs that we think are science are really plants that have been slightly modified. Sure. And oils are the concentrated essence of plants. And they're basically, you know, the medicine that you know, all of these Buddhist medicine diets, they're right. And yes, the constituents of certain plants that are really medicinal. So the other thing that people don't realize is, you know, there's kind of this epidemic of brain related issues, including insomnia, anxiety, depression, and one of the challenges is, it's incredibly hard to get remedies into the brain, like you can't do chemo in the brain because the molecules are too big. Right. So what people don't realize that security system in the brain is called the blood brain barrier. And it really only lets super small fat soluble molecules through like, for all the nutrition listeners, essential fatty acids, the reason they're so good at anti inflaming the brain is they can actually get into the brain. So oils are super small, fat soluble molecules, they can get into the brain. And you know, it's like the ambulance that stuck in traffic, it's not going to save anyone's life, you actually have to get into the area that's damaged in order to unravel and heal. I haven't heard it described as the security system for the brain before but it's that is so well said that is just a perfect kind of way to describe that around the blood brain barrier. And then just this unique kind of way for oils to defy that or to get through that in ways that others might not be able to. So that is so well said. And then in the domain. So one of the things I really like about your website is that you also sort by root cause she will have a different number of different kind of categorization methods. But one of them is to look at some of these oils and combinations of oils by your root cause and one of them is sleep specific and stress and adrenal support. And certainly those two seem to really go hand in hand with a lot of us that are struggling with our sleep, among other things, for sure. I'm wondering if you could share a little bit about why that would make sense to take a look at those what are some of the things that could support those areas? Yeah, and that's actually the impetus for my book, I really talk about kind of the five underlying things that I think can be easily kind of put into balance with most people that suffer from a variety of conditions, including sleep and high anxiety and stress. And what's interesting is that the oils are really uniquely positioned like I don't, I am not that person who says there's no oil for everything, if you are having a heart attack, go to the hospital. Right? I think that if you know, it's kind of a preventative issue, the oils are really good. And most, the most underlying issue that we see is kind of that the body is stuck in that chronic stress response, which impacts sleep, or it's not able to get the garbage out of the system. And so the garbage recirculates and it kind of triggers the immune response and the chronic inflammatory response, which then contributes to stress. So oils can do a lot of things and I give very specific ways like kind of clinically proven research back ways to use them. One example is the biggest underlying problem for everything is that our body's operating system, our autonomic nervous system, which controls our automatic functions, heart rate, breathing, digestion, detoxification, is designed to keep us alive. It has two gears, think of the bike right, you're going to be in a different gear going downhill than uphill when you think there's danger not just aligned. chasing you down a street, which I've never seen happen. But you know, anticipatory stress, you're worried about your relationship, your finances, your children, your health, your family, all of those things kind of make your body feel like there's danger. And when there's danger, resources are allocated differently right there allocated to prioritize survival. So that means all of you releasing kind of the stress hormone cortisol so that you have the energy to focus and fight or flee. It's called the sympathetic branch of your nervous system, blood is routed away from digestion to your arms and your legs, your breathing accelerates your heart pumps faster, so that more energy can kind of flow through your body, and everything kind of not critical to that survival turns off, but when you're in this stress state, you are pumping out your main lining all of those stress hormones, like cortisol that really throws off your sleep. So here's the problem. Most people live in that highly adrenal stress state most of the time, and they don't know how to downshift into the parasympathetic state. And this is problematic. People say like, Oh, you just need to relax, and you're like, really, but my job still needs to get done, my house still needs to get cleaned. My kids still need to get fed. It's not like I can just go to the spa for the day and life is perfect. And this is kind of what my rock bottom taught me is that it's not about changing your external circumstances so much as it is about shifting that internal gear. So yeah, the gear shift between your sympathetic fight or flight and parasympathetic, rest and digest is the longest nerve in the body that most people have never heard of. It's your vagus nerve, cranial nerve number 10. Super quick anatomy lesson starts with the very back of the head, splits and winds around both sides and it is most accessible. If you feel behind your ear lobe, you can feel that bone that is your master then that is where it is the most accessible to the surface and the thickest. And what's interesting is it's your gearshift. So permute has anywhere that it kind of winds through the body like the heart This is heart rate variability, the lungs This is diaphragmatic breathing, yoga, breathing, you know digestion gallbladder, this is coffee enema, gagging yourself on your face, laughing anywhere that it kind of winds through the body, you can stimulate it to help shift gears into parasympathetic. For years in practice, I was telling people like splash recent water on your face, guide yourself, you know, compliance was like zero. And then in 2012, right around the time I was launching my company, there was a New York neuroscientist by the name of Kevin Tracy, who started doing it surgical implants pacemaker like devices in that exact spot behind the ear lobe on the mastoid bone to stimulate the vagus nerve. And the FDA actually approved this technique for epilepsy, depression and migraines. So what I quickly realized with using oils is that you can combine stimulatory oils, I like clove in line with fractionated coconut oil, people don't realize that carrier oils, some are thin, some are thick, so some can kind of make the oils permeate your skin more quickly. So it's like an acupuncture needle. oils can be used for acupuncture. So basically, using this stimulatory blend right behind your ear lobe on your mastoid bone is your gearshift it drops you into parasympathetic, it helps lower your heart rate variability, it helps you feel more safe, more centered, more resilient, it down regulates kind of the cortisol output. So this is something that is you know, we talked about Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz, it's not that the wizard has great power, it's that the power light and Dorothy the power to kind of shift gears in your body and your nervous system lies in you. All you need to do is stimulate your vagus nerve. I think it's easiest to do it with oils, you know, you literally flip the bottle put one little drop behind your ear, and it's almost like for anyone that gets really ravenous and hungry, like the minute you start eating, you feel better. Yeah, the minute you put the oil on, you're like, Oh, I feel better. Wow, that is so interesting. So I'm wondering just now we've got me so curious. So throughout the course of your day, are there just different things like you're preparing for a podcast? Are there certain things that then you put on Yeah, okay, so you're just kind of back there kind of adjust? Well, I mean, as as you may relate to like I poster child for anxiety and so I know if something makes me feel better like I'll give you an example I I'm tend I prone to anxiety attacks, panic attacks they used to hit me in a supermarket checkout line would be so weird. Yeah, and I drive Why here? Why? No, I know and you feel like your heart is exploding and suddenly you've feel really claustrophobic. And so here's actually the people here, nothing else from this podcast. Remember this tip, when you're having an anxiety attack, there are different regions of your brain that do different things. In fact, there's a whole branch of chiropractic called functional neurology, where they're looking at how to balance different hemispheres of the brain. So panic attacks is over activation of your right frontal lobe, so your right forehead. So the way you kind of calm and balance that is do something to stimulate your left frontal lobe, left forehead, the nose conveniently goes directly to the forehead. So all you need to do is take your right thumb, plug your right nostril and smell anything, any boil you have, if you want to peel a citrus, fruit oils live in the peels of the fruit smell a tangerine. And within three to seven breaths, you'll have stimulated your left forehead, balanced the two hemispheres and you'll feel better. Wow. And the more you do it, you know, everything's additive and cumulative. Sure, less likely you are to have panic attacks going forward. Oh, my God. Well, we'll we'll make sure to highlight that suggestion. So thank you, thanks for preferencing that, yes, people, if this is, you get nothing else out of this conversation. I think that is pretty interesting. And just kind of one of the things we're really looking to do with sleep as a skill is provide as many tools in our toolkit, you know, many of us have come to this place around our sleep and improving our sleep. And when it was at its worst, we just may have felt powerless, or that we didn't have a lot of actions to take. And so thank you, number one, just providing that immediate kind of action. And then it can become a practice and become a kind of a calming ritual. So that's really amazing. And then beyond that, so one, you mentioned that your book kind of goes into some of these areas, we're talking about the root causes, sleep adrenal support, maybe you could share more about normally, I'm talking about the books at the end. But now I'm curious, are there? Is that something that you get into a lot? And do you focus specifically on sleep as a kind of parasympathetic response, and then I would also say, hormone balance, I know you mentioned that on there, too, is certainly something that a lot of women are certainly being mindful of, as we're planning out, as So say, for menstruating age, then different parts of our cycle and planning that appropriately for sleep and having a bit of a awareness around how to regulate that. So you know, multiple different root causes. So I'm assuming in this book, I knew your new book, then you're going deeper into that. So maybe you could just share a little bit about that, too. Exactly. Yeah, I identified five steps, five kind of imbalances that when you put into balance, you get better. I would say sleep is my top priority. If you're not sleeping, it's incredibly hard to heal, you know, people that have sugar cravings, or energy dips, all of that gets resolved when you start sleeping. So I have an entire section dedicated to sleep. And I kind of subdivided into, I think they're really four things that could be going on with sleep. Sure, first is if you're Insomniac, it's hard to fall asleep. And I'll get more into this in more detail. But that are kind of when cortisol levels are high, and they throw off melatonin. And then the second factor is if you're waking up in the middle of the night, but there are different reasons that you might be waking up. For example, if you wake up around 1am, and you're wide awake, that is a blood sugar issue, nocturnal hypoglycemia, your blood sugar gets too low, your adrenals release cortisol or adrenaline is energy. And then your pancreas needs support bringing the sugar into the cells and out of the blood. If you wake up at 3am, and you're kind of groggy, that's usually when your liver and gallbladder are working at the highest capacity. And so anything you can do there oils to support those organs, and things that you can do before bed to help you not wake up or if you wake up, go right back to sleep. And then the third thing is hormonal, as you mentioned, and there's certain oils that can help balance that but kind of looping back to the biggest issue for a lot of people is falling asleep, you know, their body is exhausted. They can't wait to hit the mat and yet their brain won't turn off. relatable. Yep, yeah. Yeah. And so that, you know, your stress hormone cortisol works kind of in tandem with your sleep hormone, melatonin. It's a little bit like a teeter totter. You know, when cortisol is high, Melatonin is low and vice versa. So what you really want to do is help the pineal gland to release melatonin. Now, we talked a little bit about how you know the blood brain barrier can be hard to pass. And that's one reason some melatonin supplements don't work as well as others, you know, the liquid, the sublingual that you squirt in your mouth, that can actually go through an easier pathway to get to the brain and start to turn things on. The other thing that's really interesting, your pineal gland where it's located in the brain, it's not really protected by the blood brain barrier. So it's really vulnerable to environmental toxins like specifically fluoride in the in the water, because it can start to do something calcifying it, which makes it harder to release melatonin glyphosate, that herbicide and Roundup Ready. And aluminum can also compromise the pineal gland function. And those three factors along with emfs can kind of work like a perfect storm. So it just makes it harder for your pineal gland to really show up and release melatonin. But what's incredibly cool about plants, you know, you always use plants when you're doing detox oils, they can help you to detoxify those metals. And it's almost like you know, your phone glitches while you just reboot, and it's fine. It's a way to kind of reboot your pineal gland so that it shows up as its best, healthy, functioning self. So that's what I really love about oils that you can actually, you know, topically apply them like, honestly, the point you know, the skin above where your ears connect with your head. That's a great point. I was originally putting it kind of on the face, but people don't really like oils on the face when they're sleeping
26:07
it right on
Mollie McGlocklin 26:11
top of the head back of the head, but it's just it's an it's another technique, you know, and I'll be honest, sometimes I use it with melatonin, I have an aura ring. I love blue glasses. I see it as like, people say like, Kathy gonna lose weight. I'm either gonna like diet or exercise. And I'm like, why don't you do both? You know, more things you layer on, the easier it is Jake kind of hit your goal. Oh, wow. Very cool. And then, of course, for the timely topic, as far as Immune Support based on what so many people are looking to improve, then that sounds like that's an area that you address as well. Yeah, yeah. And that's one thing. It's funny, because I think people, everyone has their own preconceived notion about essential oils. But most people on some level are like, Oh, yeah, they're antibacterial, antimicrobial. So all of these things. And what I really tried to do is give you, I have found, you know, as a busy mom, and you know, just at 20 ruling my way through life, there are certain things that feel easy, that will I'll actually do. And then there are certain things that feel completely overwhelming. But even though I kind of recognized like, that seems like a good idea, it's just not gonna happen. So what I really tried to do in this book is distill it down to like, these are, you know, the five things that matter? Like when I hit another rock bottom, someone said, all you need to do is sleep, eat and move. And I was like, I can manage that.
27:33
Yes, you know.
Mollie McGlocklin 27:35
Yeah. So it's actually a great way to Yes. So yes, it's, um, some version, I think it's just sleep eat move, I want to say and that's the title. And you're right, like that just kind of cuts at the heart of a lot of our our concerns if we can get those balance. So absolutely. Yeah. So in the book, I try to kind of explain why oils work for the immune system. And then I just give you you know, I have my own blends for people that are not do it yourselfers. But then if people already have their oil company that they love, I give you my recipes. I just want to make it as easy as possible, you know. And there's, there's a common blend that everyone kind of knows. So I share our version of the recipe. It's called thieves. It's actually timely because during the bubonic plague, there were themes that were stealing the gold teeth out of dead people's mouth, you know, if you think about how we're all masked and like, Can you imagine Can you imagine a crawler ad in your mouth?
28:29
Like
Mollie McGlocklin 28:30
they never got sick. So when they finally were captured, the authorities were like, what is it that you've been doing? So that you don't you know, catch the plague and die and it was this combination of oils that they put in their mask. I actually like to put out blue Tansy is my favorite, but I put oils sometimes, because I don't know. I just like to breathe in something that smells better than cloth. Oh, my God, I love it. Sorry, I forgotten all about the origin story of that. And actually, this was years back when I heard about that. And it didn't. I didn't think of how perfect that is for right now for what we're going through as a as a on the globe. Right? wild? Yeah. Oh, my goodness. Okay, so you've piqued my interest around so many things. So one thing that we started to add on at the end of these podcasts because, you know, for people that often are coming on the podcast, they have such a vested interest in health and well being and certainly in in the area of sleep. So then there's a lot of curiosity and Okay, well, what is that person doing? So we do have three questions that we started to ask for just kind of your own personal routine. I feel like it would be perfect for what you do. So the first one is just what is your personal nightly sleep routine? What does that look like so that we can kind of learn from you? Yeah, I always use my circadian rhythm oil before bed. And then I always take we didn't really talk about detoxification, but I take these things called binders. Basically, you know, the garbage is supposed to go from your cell to your lymph to your blood to your liver to bladder to get to the toilet, often in the gut. It gets recirculated. So things like binders charcoal, chlorella, algae, they just like magnets, kind of grab the toxins and pull it out so that it doesn't get recycled and have to be processed again. So that's a really critical component. And then if it's been kind of an edgy day, I like Epsom salt baths. My favorite recipe is that two cups of Epsom salt, one cup of baking soda, which alkalizes you. And then what I do is I use my bathtub as a mixing bowl, I put three drops of lavender in the tub, and then mix it into the salt, because then it won't slow down the top of the chat. Oh, smart. Oh my god, I want to start doing these things. My boyfriend or now fiance always calls me some sort of lens. Oh, thank you. Yes, it's pretty new. So I keep forgetting to say it right. But yeah, he'll often call me He's like, you know, if, if we were back in, you know, olden days, you would have been creating some concoctions, like the witch's brew of, you know, the tribe or what have you. And now certainly, if I started doing that, that will be a very funny talking point in the evening. So I think I'm going to start bringing that in and much, much more of the kind of a mix. I like that concept of the mixing that can happen in there, because often I'll do the Epson salt, a little bit of oils occasionally. But I would like to start bringing in more that baking soda. That's a great one, and then really mixing that in very wise. Okay, so then, so you're, you'll bring that in almost medicinally, when you've been dealing with some just, you know, quite a day. Take a proper Yeah. And, okay, and you know, it's nice to because, you know, your skin is your largest organ. And he kind of opens the vascular system. And there's something about the Epsom salt, which is magnesium. And oils, like I know, lavender is always mentioned as asleep. While it doesn't always work, it's very hit or miss with people. Yeah, when you incorporate it into a bath, it seems to be much more effective that way. Hmm. Well, I'm glad you said that too, because I can be so sensitive with oils. And so sometimes I just have tended to if they're very strong, then there'll be like a headache type response. So I appreciate you saying that, because that is one thing. I've noticed that in the bath, that seems to be a bit of a different experience. So very good, because it's coming in through a different channel. And that headache is actually a really good point. So here's what's happening with the headache. Yeah, please kind of shift your body into balance into that safe space where it's like,
32:23
oh,
Mollie McGlocklin 32:24
it's okay to mobilize my toxins, right. But one of the challenges is, it's like yelling fire in a movie theater without opening the exit doors, your drainage pathways, meaning like your ability to kind of have your toxins leave your body are congested, then they recirculate and they feel like a headache. So the biggest bottleneck in the body is the neck. And it's because there's a lot going on there. There's like your bone, your nerves, your blood vessels, your muscle and your vagus nerve, and your limbs and they all congest. So oils, like I give the exact recipe, but it's a lot of mints that can relate there's all this research where they took sonograms of the neck and saw how you know, when the lymph was congested, a little bit being like in the middle seat of an airplane next to two linebackers, like you're not getting that armrest, you know, nothing is going to leave because there's just so much congestion. Yeah, so the more you can ensure that that opens up casseroles a good one to use too. And then the lens doesn't drain evenly 75% drains on the left side. So your left clavicle is another kind of bottleneck point. So just you don't even need oil, just kind of massaging that. So you're allowing your body to relax. And you're also making sure that all the exit doors are open so the garbage can go out. I appreciate you explaining that part too. Because the only oil that I personally consistently use all the time I won't travel with that I won't go anywhere without it is peppermint, like a blend of kind of a peppermint blend for headaches. And it has been so important as far as you know. And I wouldn't say that's the only one but it's only one I'm using pretty much daily or regularly. And just the experience of that is so huge. I know there's so many others that obviously can tap into that I'm not. So I appreciate you sharing about then kind of the breaking it down and into the Why? Because I think it can help some of us when you hear what's going on behind the scenes versus like oh, well this is a nice smell or what have you. It makes it so much more layered and nuanced. So I really appreciate that. Okay, so then in your nightly sleep routine, you kind of have these different things that you can pull from based on how your day went and what kind of state you're looking to step into in your evening to kind of unwind, okay, and then that probably leads us into then what is on your proverbial nightstand or literal nightstand? might we see there if we were to see your nightstand and that can include gadgets, supplements, you know, Beyonds apps, any of those other things, but I would imagine probably some good oils too. Yeah, lots of good oils. circadian rhythm I have a sleep blend that's really kind of general and relaxing. And then I have one for the pancreas. I was kind of talking about this blood sugar night wakeups
35:09
Yes,
Mollie McGlocklin 35:10
I like tuning forks, I have a tuning fork that I use on the vagus nerve. And sometimes there's this point that just feels really calming. Or I do it over the heart. It just Seattle is why, you know, 5g is central. And I've actually found that tuning forks, it's this idea, you know, like, planes are all flying in the air, but they never crash because they fly at different levels. I think tuning forks can uplevel your vibration so that it doesn't really matter what's going on
35:35
outside.
Mollie McGlocklin 35:36
Nice. I love that practice. And is that a regular kind of nighttime practice for you? Or just Yeah, okay. Yeah, my dog likes to take my dogs on him. And then books I read to fall asleep. Okay, very nice. Awesome. And then what would you say was or has been your sleep kind of aha moment or biggest change to your sleep game? I think it really came when I realized that melatonin supplements weren't actually getting to my brain. When I started playing with sublingual, melatonin or oils, or just things that didn't have to travel through the digestive tract. That was a very big aha, for me. That is a big one. Wow. Well, so many value kind of drops that you've shared. And I know we loosely kind of alluded to your book and some of the ways that you're kind of looking deeper on this topic. I was wondering if we could share a little bit more about you how people can learn about you and kind of spotlight that book a little bit more that's coming out. Yeah. And you know, I talked about the Vegas nerve, I actually have a free bonus chapter. Oh, yeah. boost the brain book.com forward slash gift. It's 25 strategies to activate your vagus nerve. Some of them are as simple as trying to sleep on your right side, you know, or using your tongue like a paintbrush to paint the roof of your mouth. There are lots of free easy things that you can do to literally help shift gears so that you're calmer during the day and not kind of mainlining cortisol. Oh, that's awesome. Okay, well, we absolutely will include that in the show notes then. Okay, so I love that you include that because so many people will get to the end of the night, and then they're laying there. And then it's like, Okay, what do I do? What do I do to kind of bring myself you know, to bring some peace or ease or calm and so that's awesome. I'm gonna want to check that out. And so that's, that's a free offering. We'll include that in the show notes. And then tell us more chew about all the different places that we can find you. And then the book and all that good stuff, dates, all those things. The book is essential oils to boost the brain and heal the body. It's available everywhere on March 16. Nice. Yeah. And if you have any questions about anything I mentioned, my company is vibrant blue, like the color oils. And you can email us at info at vibrant blue oils. I'm on Facebook, we have a Facebook discussion group, Instagram, LinkedIn, you can find me pretty much everywhere. Not Twitter. I don't really tweet but otherwise. It's not tweet. I do. No tweeting. Yeah. I leave them similar in Trump. Yes. Yes, absolutely. I'm very similar. So perfect. Well, I know I definitely recommend checking out your website. I was just you know, kind of perusing on there. tons of resources there. Get that freebie. The book is coming out the day before my birthday March 17. So well, that's my birthday. So March 16 will be the day of the mirror Pisces. No wonder I like you. Oh, okay. Look at us do yeah, the water signs. Yes, absolutely. Very cool. Well, I so appreciate you taking the time to be here to share all of your vast knowledge, I clear that we only tapped into a little bit of it. And I'm also sure that people will after listening to this want to learn more. So definitely check out all those different platforms that you are on. And just thank you again for doing what you're doing.
39:05
Oh my gosh, thanks
Mollie McGlocklin 39:06
for having me. Oh, thank you. You've been listening to the sleep is a skilled podcast, the number one podcast for people who want to take their sleep skills to the next level. Every Monday I send out something that I call Molly's Monday obsessions containing everything that I'm obsessing over in the world of sleep. Head on over to sleep as a skill calm to sign up.