I have a history with mental illness, specifically Bipolar 1 disorder, which mostly deals with manic episodes — very rapid thinking mixed with a lack of sleep. In my normal day-to-day life, I’m a night owl and have also learned to be a morning person due to my day job. Due to my mixture of needing to go to bed yet not feeling tired, there have been times where my winding down ritual was replaced with late nights staying up text messaging, or google searching different topics that were seemingly more important than a good night’s sleep. Life is full of information, and as an adult keeping up with the information age can be a bit stressful. Having a lack of sleep over time will become taxing to your mind and emotions. It takes an immense amount of strength to acknowledge that your sleep health is a top priority. Getting back on track with a routine is a powerful gift you can give yourself, today for a better tomorrow.
I’ve learned that taking life a day at a time can be a struggle. The struggle of life is when which day is blended with things that need to be done weeks in advance instead of focusing on the here and now. Creating a daily calendar full of easy tasks can uproot the weeds of a projected week by showing that each step is providing an easier route to eventually assist the expected major outcome. This major outcome could be a huge project that takes a team effort to a daily personal goal of writing or journaling about life. Regardless of what your end goal is, there are important factors that make a goal successful; the right amount of sleep.
Currently, I’m navigating to get back on track after experiencing a mental health breakdown. And even after a week from the hospital I’ve found my emotional safety is to surrender my burdens to the Lord. My surrendering is reflective of my relationship with God, where I ask him to take the wheel of my life so that I may rest in his loving arms.
Transitioning from not resting at all to resting completely in Jesus’ arms has given me the ability to hone on the precious things that he gives unconditionally to help with rest. Typically natural herbs, ointments, or healthy diets are the last things we want to run into when looking at personal health and well-being. The urge to get around a recipe full of micronutrients isn’t as appealing to us as a melatonin Pill, to help with sleep. The journey to health isn’t just with an herb here and there but with a full life transformation from the head down.
Over time, I went from inconsistently putting relaxers on my hair so that the hair molecules would be completely straight. When I gave up on the awful chemical tradition that personally left my hair neglected and dry in this Colorado climate. I had to learn the hard way that sometimes what appears to be beautiful to the “world” is actually damaging to my scalp, hair texture, and well-being.
The journey to go natural was birthed after my sister under me made the commitment to go natural which, at the time, had my Mom and I shocked at the thought of such boldness. Since during her transition she was a teenager, I couldn’t fathom what that meant for my future. Her being six years younger than me and I was in and out of college due to mental health issues, left me pondering what was more important? May hair or a consistent ritual of putting chemicals in my hair, that left me back at ground zero wishing I had a way out.
As my natural hair journey started and progressed, I learned that there were ointments that if put in water would give me peace of mind knowing it was adding moisture and locking that moisture on my wayward tresses. This change of using natural remedies is how I learned about the beauty of Lavender oil. This oil has become the number one tool that I would use leading up to this transition. I purchased the oil in a small jar and would put a few drops in a spritz bottle of just water and the oil. When I would go to do my hair I would spritz my hair throughout to give it the moisture and seal it. I would then style my hair with a braid out or whatever style I was hoping to achieve.
Lavender oil has many healing properties and it wasn’t until later that I learned that the bottoms of your feet can absorb anything you put on them faster into your body, and locking the moisture with socks was a bonus to that benefit. This was originally explained to me regarding high fevers and VapoRub. That if you put Vaporub on the bottoms of your feet and place socks afterward to hold in that moister, the process of sweating out toxins will happen much faster than without doing this routine.
It didn’t take long for me to apply this same method with Lavender oil after learning that the properties in the lavender flower contribute to having great restful sleep. So I came up with a routine that I find comforting before bed; I drink a cup of lavender tea (which lavender tea can be found in most grocery stores), spritz my bed sheets and blankets with lavender ointment. Lastly, I put the actual lavender oil on the bottoms of my feet then put on soft socks to hold in the moisture and to ensure that my body absorbs the oil as quickly as possible, to assist with restful sleep.
If this didn’t give you any hope for a new bedtime routine or even curious about lavender for hair, just know that everyone is different. If lavender oil irritates or makes you feel uncomfortable, then please do research on different oils that can aid with sleep. I am not an expert on anything that I put on this blog but have learned this way of life through trial and error. As you embark on your lavender life journey, remember that research and looking up the different properties of Lavender will not only help you to achieve your goals of a more focused day but could support your lifestyle to remove reliance solely on sleeping aids to use something more natural to support with your sleep and overall well-being.
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Useful information
Thank you very much!