We have bad knees in this family. Well, okay, mine are just swollen, however my husband has amazingly bad knees (surgery and otherwise), and my daughter they have wanted to test for autoimmune issues. Now that I know about my own autoimmune disorder, I am pretty sure she is going to have the same thing. She's just turned 11. After the latest wellness conference I started taking everything I'd learned into some documentation to try to sort things through. Being winter my honey was in such pain the other night I decided to use the Force {Wintergreen, Frankincense, Muscle Blend and Birch Essential Oils} and then added in Cedarwood and Rosemary. My husband started Monday back to his workout program which is a lot of heavy lifting... and that he loves to do. Of course all of that made him more sore than usual. On vacation we used the cedarwood every day, but I didn't think to use the combination before.

I just returned from a week of travel to Southern California for an amazing wellness conference. My husband was active with our daughter every day. We swam the first part of the week twice a day, and then when I was at the conference they were at Great Wolf Lodge Anaheim having the time of the lives all day long. Let's say that he was not really prepared for post vacation + back to it so soon. 

So Monday night I applied what we call The Force Plus Yoda and gave him the plant-based omegas and some organic turmeric, and then applied some diluted oils on my daughter as well. I noticed my daughter just almost lied right down and went straight to sleep. First off she never does that. She uses every bit of energy and is your total ADHD kid that can't just go to sleep. The last time she did something like that was with teething tablets when she was a baby. She'd be in so much pain and when the tablets would finally work, she would be out. Like it was like instant relief. It was shocking to me that they pulled those off the market because they were the only thing that worked for us. My husband seemed to go to sleep pretty easy as well, and last night he was really complaining and did the same. Into bed and fast to sleep. I've applied this every night since. 

I have also started doing a 'tea' for my daughter. I 1/4 tsp pink Fijian ginger and the same amount of turmeric into warm water, and then add in some vanilla coconut cream. She thinks it's like heaven for both her sore body and her gut. I am pretty sure that it is pretty close.

On social media my husband posted, "Actually, I think I've just realized that everything *but* my knees hurts. I'll be keeping on Barbara Christensen's concoction for a few days to see if this keeps up."

This is a guy that often thinks this is all natural hooey regardless of the fact that I am a Certified Aromatherapist. LOL... and now he's sold. Got to love that, and I love that I have something to help him, and my little girl with her pain. I think we'll start with twice a day to see how it goes, but this is a life saver for any sort of muscle/joint pain in my opinion.

So what is in our family body support protocol? 

The Force was created by this amazing kid, Patrick. He was diagnosed with childhood arthritis (spondyloathropathy) as well as Enethetis which happens to be another form of arthritis when he was just 11 years old. He had several years of just not feeling good, not being able to play sports with other kids, and had been on medication for six years. He was pretty sick, lots of gut issues and was overweight before essential oils. With his mom 15 year old Patrick decided to make some changes in his life. He went to the allergist, and believe me we go every year. If you have autoimmune issues I would be shocked if you didn't have some allergy issues as well. So Patrick eliminated the bad foods from his diet, and he started drinking green smoothies and started working out. He felt a vitality and the ability to be a kid! It's amazing!

The Force is his own blend of sore muscle blend, Frankincense, Wintergreen + Birch. He says it helps him get up and going, and then when he works out during the day he uses and additional sore muscle blend with Ginger. I added the use of Yoda to make this something more specific for my family. I don't think anyone realized how amazingly powerful The Force Plus Yoda would be...

"Size matters not. Look at me. Judge me by my size, do you? Hmm? Hmm. And well you should not. For my ally is the Force, and a powerful ally it is." - Yoda, to Luke Skywalker 

Rosemary has been used to reduce nervous tension and fatigue and I have found it's great in blends for my personal training clients. And the Cedarwood has been amazing. Cedarwood essential oil may be useful they say to promote relaxation in both mind and body, and promotes vitality during and after a workout. It's the safe "oregano" so that you can apply it to the skin without diluting but I dilute most of my oils for topical use. It also may help stimulate your body into better sleep... and there it is. The sleep factor. It all made sense to me to use this for my family in a way that I didn't get initially, but knew it was something important. Sometimes we all need a little Yoda in our lives. Powerful, loving, kind, wisdom.