I don’t know if you have noticed but the world is crazy place. In our current technologically “advanced” society there is no end to stimulation. We go from the morning to the evening, absorbing so much around us. I notice how my body reacts to thrillers or intense movies. The constant movement and fast paced story line makes me feel stressed. Since I’ve become a mom, I notice I watch less and less thrilling movies. The least stimulating the better! I now understand my mom’s hallmark kick when we were growing up. Mama’s already got too much stimulation in the home to add to it. I need a feel good movie with very little conflict and lots of beautiful nature scenes. That’s my kind of movies these days because I’m stimulated from 8 AM to 8 PM.

Stress is not in itself bad. It has a stimulating effect on the body. You can  even have good stress. Stress on the body can build its strength, like a weight or a work out band. The resistance causes stress and with a fighting spirit grows muscle in the body and releases feel good hormones. But too much resistance over a long period of time can cause the muscles to tear or collapse. 

Your brain was built to withstand stress, we are more than conquers in Christ Jesus after all! All warriors are built to fight in battles. Each time there is a stress the brain releases chemicals that signal the body’s response. That can look like the famous three responses: fight, flight or freeze. A little fight could help you overcome a battle, Running away could save your life, freezing (although maybe the least generous of the three reactions) could stop your body from stepping onto something dangerous or doing something you would later regret. But when the brain is crippled by stress it becomes trauma.

The problem I’ve seen in myself and others is when the brain thinks those experiences in the past are still present. Our brains can keep producing those stress hormones so that a small stress can feel like a big stress or even no stress can feel like stress. Thought processes built around those traumas will keep signalling to our brains that we are in that stress moment so weekly, even daily, a person can be living in constant anxiety or fear which plays a significant roll in the other systems of our bodies, possibly leading to illnesses.

Lets try an experiment! Take a moment and think about the ocean, maybe your favorite beach destination. Really put yourself there mentally and emotionally. You arrive in the late afternoon and set your beach bag and towel on the sand, maybe you have a favorite chair and sparkling cold drink. As you sit there by the beach you feel moved to walk up to the water and let the waves lap against your toes. You breathe in deeply and take in the view. The sun is setting now and the brilliant colors are reflecting like rippling gold on the water. The tide brings the water in a little more so now your feet are covered: the cool salt water absorbs into your lightly browned skin and feels so refreshing. You open your hands wide to receive the joy you feel at the artistry all around you and you look up and smile. Its a good day!  God is so creative in His design!

 You may have noticed if you took the time to really imagine yourself at the beach that your brain started to release feel good hormones. You can actually change your brain chemistry over time by thinking of good things. It can be trained! This year I had to retrain by brain. I came out of my last baby stage so burned out. I didn’t like the mornings anymore and I had no energy! The Holy Spirit led me to a brain training program that taught me about the brain’s chemistry. It was definitely a necessary assignment from the Lord both for myself and my business where I come face to face with a lot of emotional battle in other’s lives. The Lord had to help me to retrain my brain so I could enjoy motherhood again. I had come under so much stress that my body was telling me I wasn’t happy anymore and I felt the whirlwind of anxiety and depression.

I knew that wasn’t true. I knew my body was just weary and my brain caught on a negative cycle after a very hard year. I was also holding onto things I didn’t even realize from my past. Burn out is one of the toughest things I’ve had to go through. You are faced with the end of yourself, because you’ve essential spent everything of yourself that you possible could. Healing because a desperate need for survival. For me it was a matter of letting go of the past, of my unhealthy expectations, and learning that my roll was not your identity my saviour was. Even though I knew much of that, now I feel that. I feel a  weight is gone!

I have to say that even though I’m really stressing the fact that retraining the brain is an active and effective tool, I needed the miraculous healing of the Lord in the process of retraining. I was beyond self-help. I needed Holy Spirit affirming healing and that’s what I got. In His sovereign will He didn’t waste one minute of that experience. He turned it around for my good and His glory. He healed me of anemia, but taught me when I was malnourished about sprouted grains and eating grassfed beef and local veggies. He healed me of fatique, but taught me even more about letting go of weights that I don’t need in my life. He healed me of burn out, but taught me when I was burned out to slow down and soak HIM in. 

He took me, put me in a tight place, got rid of a lot of junk, and then healed me. He brought me to a spacious place as He promised and retrained my brain from the past to think strong, to think healthy, and to think happy.

One of my favorite things about using oils is that they can pass through the blood brain barrier and have significant effect on the health of the body by encouraging the brain to release the feel good hormones as well as helping with the symptoms. They help the body process stress in a healthy way so it stops over reacting and living in the past. All the oils I use are for more than just physical healthy, they go straight to the source and aid in a all over journey of healing.

The holy spirit is the perfect guide on this journey, His healing process trumps all others and He knows your body! How wonderful it is to know He knows my every need and will meet it! 

How great is His love for us that we should be called children of God! He is our mediator, counselor, and friend and the great physician! 

So friends, 

Do not be anxious for anything, but by prayer and petition, WITH THANKSGIVING, present you requests to God, AND the PEACE of God which transcends understanding, will guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7

Let Him teach you to let go and grab up what He has for you.