NEW SITE

I am super excited to say that the blog has officially moved to its very own SITE!  Check us out at www.FindingCenter.me.

Mindfully Enjoying Essential oils

If you are interested in exploring what Young Living essential oils can offer, feel free to message me for an invitation to an upcoming class.

Stop by our new site!

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findingcenter.me

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Living above the Line - Making the choice to be mindful

So in the last 5 months I have taken a major initiative to clean up my life.  I have changed my eating habits including where my food comes from; my cleaning habits, including the products I use; and my attitude regarding my health, including my expectations of the professionals that I employ to guide me.

I must say it has been an interesting journey.

Over the last year I heard a lot about essential oils, toxic chemical in our environment and how we have maybe been mislead on what "healthy" food looks like.  I was, very obviously skeptical and also pretty darn conservative.  I like my easy access grocery store.  I enjoy going out and having yummy food whenever I want.  But I was not well.  I was suffering from migraines, dealing with tremendous hormonal issues for years and getting generally beat up by my own body.  It really had to stop.

At that point a couple cool things happened, my mom started using essential oils to clean up toxins in her world and my boyfriend expressed concerns about the same.  I started listening from the side, and doing the "snopes check" on everything they said.  I researched essential oils on NIH.gov and I checked out cleaning products on ewg.org.  I was floored.

We started to change our eating habits in May because of the article "What Happened After One Family Went Organic For Just Two Weeks" that appeared on the Huffington Post site in May.  In July we took the next step by switching to locally grown produce from a CSA and supplementing with organic food from grocers when necessary.  We also eliminated grains and white potatoes at that time.  That change came about after watching a video of  Sarah Hallberg's TEDxPurdueU speech titled "Reversing Type 2 diabetes starts with ignoring the guidelines."

Now, I don't have type 2 diabetes and neither does my boyfriend.  I do have family members who had it and I gained a lot of weight in 1999 that took years to lose.  I related to this video on a very personal level.  In the middle of July, we made the decision to go "pseudo paleo" meaning cut out the barbs unless they come with a lot of fiber on board.  It has been an amazing journey.

My goal, through this blog is to share what worked and what didn't, as I go.  I'll introduce you to other bloggers with great recipes, advice and products.  I'll share with you my Essential Oil journey with Young Living essential oils and hopefully, if I do a good job, you will find the motivation to be mindful about everything and everyone that you invite into your world.

Here's to living an Essentially Mindful Life.
Mandy

Crazy

I start a blog so I can keep track of my opinions and I have so many that I can’t decide where to start!  Do I start with Household goods and my eternal quest for cheaper, more environmentally friendly products for my home?  Maybe, I start with my thoughts on the apps I have purchased for my iPad, there are only about a hundred I have tried out so far.  Then there's my Droid Razr Maxx (which I love) and all the stuff I have added to it.  Maybe I go for the vacation tools I use most or helpful musings from a person going through post-op PT.  The options are endless…

So…  Let's start with a list.  I am a technology fanatic.  I love new technology, both hardware and software.  I have:

• a PC (more than one in the house)
• Netbook (more than one of these here too)
• an HP laptop (work's)
• an iPad 3 (16 GB, 4G)
• Droid Razr Maxx (newest toy)MP3/MP4 players
• Creative Zen Vision M
• iPod Nano 6
• iPod Shuffle
• and a few others that are 1st generation MP3s

I guess I will start with my philosophy on technology.  Don't worry, in future posts you will get to see my thoughts on my iPad, my new dust mop and the super cool Gorilla Cart I mentioned in my first blog.  Oh yeah, no stone unturned :).

So, my thoughts on purchasing new technology are actually very conservative (thank you dad)  Now that terabyte drives are under $100, I am all about upgrading our PCs.  Before that, I was fine where I was. 

Sharing and Backing up, information is important

I recently added a 1.5 TB drive to the main house PC.  This machine has a shared directory for everyone in the house to save to.  Sharing out the directory allows me to back up everyone's critical files easily to an external drive.  The directory is shared with the wonderful new feature in Windows 7, Homegroups.  If you house is full of Windows 7 computers, I strongly recommend you ramp up the hard drive in one and share it this way. The hardest part is installing the drive.  Homegroups are simple…

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/products/features/homegroup

It is, basically, peer to peer networking for normal people.  Don't be afraid, try it out...

Or... Comments and reviews on the things I use!

I was inspired to start this blog by my mom.  I know, really?  In this day and age, an IT professional is inspired to write a blog by her mom?  Yep.  You should check out her blog (http://sew-psychic.blogspot.com), if you aren't inspired after reading it, you should at least be in a better mood!  Her blog is full of whimsical insights to the world around her and is a treat to read. 

I was working in the yard last week, trying to get mulch spread before my knee surgery and was chuckling about my mom's post about risotto.  "Seriously," I thought, "I'd love to have the time and energy to put my thoughts on down in writing like she is.  I just really don't... MAN!  This is the BEST yard cart EVER!"  (Yes, I get distracted pretty easily.)  Within 30 minutes, I had posted a couple of pictures to facebook and texted my sister about my awesome new cart.  When I returned to thinking about my mom's blog, I realized I had an opinion to share about things I try and like (or don't) and advice to offer to the rest of the world.  With that, my blog purpose was born.

Of course, my mom is in that stage in life where she can (and will) tell people what she thinks.  She is  perfectly ok with the sharing information and thoughts with people around her and really is not concerned with whether they listen or not.  She is pretty well over that!  Take it or leave it, she has at least warned you!  Me? I am in a much more "practical" stage in my life.  If I am going to take the time to share information, you had better be willing to receive it.  That being said, I probably need avoid  philosophical topics and stick to things that are more practical like what I think of my new lawn cart and how I plan to go to go on a very inexpensive yet thoroughly enjoyable vacation this summer.  I'll share things I learn like how and when to fertilize a lawn and just exactly how big a "scoop" of mulch really is.

Hopefully, in the process of sharing information about things I try, I will give someone the insight they need to go forward with a decision in life.  My blogs will probably be related to mundane things like my iPad and computers, house maintenance & tools, travel on the cheap and taking pictures.  All of these things I enjoy and when I try something new, I'll let you know how it goes.

In the meantime, I have a lot to learn about the art of blogging.  Thankfully, my mom can still teach me a thing or two. :)