Inspired with Nika Lawrie

The Power Of Essential Oils For Healing and Non-Toxin Living with Cindy Vallone

• Nika Lawrie, Cindy Vallone • Season 2022 • Episode 24

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Cindy Vallone has been a doTERRA Wellness Advocate for over 5 years and has an international team that helps people achieve their health goals. Cindy became interested in essential oils because she suffered from headaches and migraines and was tired of the side effects from pharmaceutical prescriptions and meds. Little by little Cindy and her began using essential oils and were amazed at how much they help with everything from digestive issues, stress, sleep, immunity, muscle aches, and pains, as well as, boosting mood. 

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Nika Lawrie:

Welcome to the Inspired with Mika Laurie podcast. Cindy, welcome to the show. I'm so grateful to have you here today. Thank you, I'm happy to be here. Yeah, so before we kind of deep dive into essential oils and all the goodies that I want to get into today, can you tell me a little bit about who you are, your backstory and how you got to where you are today?

Cindy Vallone:

Yeah, so it's kind of an interesting story. I am a busy wife, a mom of two teenage boys, an entrepreneur, and about six years ago right, who isn't busy these days? And about six years ago, a friend approached me and knew that I suffered from chronic headaches. And she said, hey, have you ever tried essential oils? And I said, well, you know, I use them, I use avocado oil, I use olive oil. And she started laughing. And then I started laughing, but I had no idea what I was laughing about, and so I was like why are you laughing? What's going on here? And she's like Cindy, essential oils. And I said, okay, I don't have a clue what you're talking about. Yeah, and so I don't know if I was living under a rock or what, but I never even knew what an essential oil was. And then I write. And then you know, fast forward six years. And here I am. I have an international team of people who help people with their you know health and wellness goals.

Cindy Vallone:

So she handed me a little bit of peppermint essential oil and she said yeah, you're just going to put it on your temples, like this if you feel a headache coming on. And I pretty much rolled my eyes and was taking the bottle from her more as a favor to her than for myself. Right, we've all been there, we're like, okay, whatever. I was incredibly skeptical, again, you have to remember. I never even knew what an essential oil was, never heard of them, never used them, and now I'm, you know, offering to try them. So I was somebody who suffered from chronic headaches and migraines. So one was right around the corner and I thought, oh yeah, I have that stuff. I'll go ahead and put it on my temples and give it a try. And it helped. But I was again incredibly skeptical, so I just chalked it up to being the placebo effect. Yeah, Coincidental.

Cindy Vallone:

Yeah, whatever, whatever this thing is in this bottle. So again chronic migraine. So another one right around the corner. And I thought, okay, yeah, I'll try it again. Well, after about three or four times of having this really positive effect, I thought, okay, there's something to this. And, um, uh, my family and I, we just started trying them for things that popped up Maybe some ear pain in my youngest son, digestive discomfort in my older one, and we just started learning and it just became kind of fun and intriguing and interesting. And like I said, and now you know, here I am, this is what I do and I love it.

Nika Lawrie:

Awesome. I love your story. It's it's so similar to so many of us. You know we have this health ailment and then either we have a recommendation or we go on this deep dive to figure out how to heal our own bodies. And then we find this like amazing world of natural remedies and you know food and nutrition and all these other things that like feed into healing our bodies. So I love it. I love your story. Thanks, yeah, so for people who maybe don't know what essential oils are or don't know the difference between, maybe synthetic and real essential oils, can you kind of elaborate on that?

Cindy Vallone:

Yes, absolutely so. First of all, what, what the heck are they? Right, essential oils come from plants, they come from nature. They come from plants and seeds and bark and petals and flowers and grasses and roots, and whatever you find in nature typically has an essential oil, and that plant, for example, will use it as a protectant, and so we are then able to source them. So we are then able to source them, and the doTERRA, the company that I partner with, sources ethically and sustainably, which was very important to me as a consumer and, obviously, as a business partner yeah, and they distill them, whether it's steam distilled or cold pressed distilled, and then put them into these, you know, beautiful little amber bottles for us to be able to use, and essential oils can help us physically, mentally and emotionally, and there are three ways to use them that I can talk about now.

Nika Lawrie:

Go for it. Go for it yeah.

Cindy Vallone:

Okay. So I think it's really important and you touched on this Not all essential oils are created equally. Yeah Right, I just I have to get that out there. And I work with a lot of practitioners on my team chiropractors, acupuncturists, naturopaths, massage therapists, physical therapists, even MDs the list kind of goes on and on and and from their standpoint, and I think they're right.

Cindy Vallone:

Um, it's, it's criminal that you can get an essential oil from the dollar store or Amazon or the market, um, kohl's. I was at Kohl's and um, uh, they were all marked down to like $7 and 98 cents. Okay, that is a red flag, and I will tell you why in a second. So the reason it's criminal is because essential oils are not regulated by the FDA, and what that means is that anybody can slap the word pure on an essential oil bottle and they're literally pulling the wool over the consumer's eyes Because, as long as it has like one drop of the oil, they're allowed to do that, which is basically criminal, because if you're using essential oils that have chemicals, synthetics, fillers, basically junk and you are putting that on your skin, in your body or smelling it, or you're doing this with your children, it can lead to harmful effects.

Nika Lawrie:

Absolutely yeah.

Cindy Vallone:

So, as a consumer, as a mom, it's very important that we really have to suss out, and it's sad to me that we have to work so hard in doing this right. Yes, so doTERRA makes it really simple for us. They are a science company. They, like I said, source ethically and sustainably. They really are the gold standard. Top research universities use doTERRA in their research and we do more testing, both internally and third-party testing, than anybody else out there doing my research. I was like, okay, I feel really comfortable being able to, to use these products now, and so, um, with that being said, there are three ways to use, um, a high quality uh essential oil like doTERRA. And so the first way is, I think, the easiest way, which we call aromatic use, which basically is just a fancy way of saying smell them. You can smell them, you know, straight from the bottle. Like this is wild orange, one of my favorites. My challenge is you cannot smell wild orange and not smile.

Nika Lawrie:

Right yeah.

Cindy Vallone:

It can't be done, or you can put a couple drops in your palm, rub your palms together and deeply inhale, and then I have a diffuser behind me, and a diffuser is just a little machine that you add water to and then some drops of essential oil and sort of this mist will come out, and so you're benefiting from them aromatically, which means that the essential oils will hit the olfactory bulb and the limbic system and basically almost change. I love that this is a podcast too, because you can hear me snap my fingers really change your mood faster than I can snap my fingers. So very easy and powerful way to use them. The second way is to use them on your skin topically.

Cindy Vallone:

I like to think about putting it where it hurts, so on your temples for a headache, on your tummy you just rubbing some on your tummy for digestive discomfort, maybe rubbing it into some essential oils, into your shoulder and neck for you know where we hold our stress even on your chest to open up the airways, and the list kind of goes on and on. And then the third way, again with a very high quality essential oil like doTERRA is internal use. So that means putting maybe a drop of a citrus oil in your water to help you keep hydrated throughout the day and helps detoxify your system. Putting a drop under your tongue, putting some in a veggie cap, swallowing it down that way. So those are the three ways.

Nika Lawrie:

Yeah, I love that.

Nika Lawrie:

I love that you talked a little bit about um, kind of the, the the, I want to say fake almost or the not they, the not super clean uh oils.

Nika Lawrie:

The reason I I sorry I struggled to say that, but I get so frustrated when I look at that because, um, so I too I have a I mean nowhere near doTERRA, but I have a small um essential oil line that I do as well, and and it took me a long time to find really good quality products to put in that line that were, that were sourced, clean and fair trade and all those kinds of things. And what I really learned through that whole process was how many other ones are out there. I mean, they are everywhere you go through. You know you shop online and they're your favorite online store and 90% of those are synthetic fragrances. They have weird chemicals in them. The ones that say that they're pure essential oils are often put into some type of weird oil that we don't even know what it is, are often put into some type of weird oil that we don't even know what it is.

Cindy Vallone:

And so it can be really scary, really deep diving into that. I agree, I agree, and adulteration is the term that we use. Most oils on the market are adulterated, whether it means that junk is put in or stuff is pulled out or they're diluted. Whether it means that junk is put in or stuff is pulled out or they're diluted. And so, yeah, you have to be a really, really smart consumer. And, going back to that Kohl's analogy, so not to throw Kohl's under the bus, kohl's is a fine establishment, especially when you have that 30% off coupon, right the best. Yeah, that's the only time to shop there. If I get a 20% off coupon, I'm like not good, anyway, so my point in sharing that is all their essential oils were marked down to $7.98. Lemon was $7.98 and frankincense was $7.98.

Cindy Vallone:

Well, I can tell you why. I knew that they weren't pure. Yeah, because frankincense, if it's pure frankincense, is sourced in Somalia, um, in remote, on remote cliffs. So the Boswellia tree um grows on the on the side of cliffs, in very remote villages, very difficult to get to, and the frankincense comes from the resin of the bark, right, okay? So that's hard to get to, it's hard to source. You need to know what you're doing, and so, um, yeah it. Yeah, it's one of our most precious oils, and a higher price because it's harder to get to.

Nika Lawrie:

Yeah, I think that's a big I mean that's a great example that you give, because essential oils should be different prices depending on you know where they come from and how they're sourced, and if you find essential oils that are all marked down or everything's the same price or, um, you know, finding a lemon and getting frankincense are two different situations, and so I think that's a really good um identifier for people when they're trying to look at. I think the other thing too is just flip the bottle over and look and see does it list perfume, does it list fragrance?

Cindy Vallone:

Those kinds of things are really the red flags, yeah, the red flag and the other thing that I think is really really cool about doTERRA. So we are all about transparency. If you look on the bottom, you're going to see a specialized lot number and then you can go to our website and you can put that number in and you can see everywhere that oil. You know that the process that it's been through, um, nobody else does that because they can't, because so it's pretty cool.

Nika Lawrie:

Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, so you've. You've given us a couple examples already, but can you share some other ideas of how to use the oils? Maybe a couple of your favorite examples?

Cindy Vallone:

Yeah, so um, because we were just coming off the holiday season, um, I like to give um personal gifts that I think people are going to appreciate. So you can very easily make your own sugar scrubs or bath salts, um, just using essential oils, and um, it comes out, you know, beautifully. So that's a really nice DIY. I love to use essential oils as my cleaning products so that I have zero toxins in my home, and so I'll use, maybe, white vinegar and some essential oils or, you know, just distilled water, that kind of thing. So just keeping it really really simple.

Cindy Vallone:

I love to diffuse at night, so I use essential oils very strategically. So what am I trying to accomplish and which oils are going to help me do that? So in my diffuser I typically use three at night. My whole family does that's kind of our blend. So we use an oil called Breathe to help open up the airways. It has peppermint and eucalyptus and several other oils. Our blend. So we use an oil called Breathe to help open up the airways. It has peppermint and eucalyptus and several other oils in it, so it really helps open it up. I call that the marriage saver because it cuts down on snoring.

Nika Lawrie:

Oh awesome.

Cindy Vallone:

Good to know. That's really important. We use another really well-known blend called On Guard, which is our immune booster. It has cinnamon and clove, also wild orange and some other heavy hitters in there, because we want to boost our immunity. And then I use lavender. Lavender is very well known for calming and soothing. It also is a natural antihistamine, which a lot of people don't know, and so that helps with seasonal allergies or you know, kind of anything that's going around like that, and so I use those three in combination. Um, and it's just um. It's pretty great, that is really good.

Nika Lawrie:

Yeah, I mean I love the snoring tip. I think that's a. That's a big one A lot of people, I think, will jump on for sure. Yeah, yeah. So so you've talked a little bit about how kind of essential oils have become intertwined in your family. Can you talk about how it's kind of helped open the door to for your kids to learn more about being healthy and living a toxin-free life? Like, how have you used that as a tool?

Cindy Vallone:

Yeah, so we've been using them for six years. My kids are now 15 and 18. So when they were younger I would now I have two boys and we live in Southern California, so shirts just kind of walk by and I would do what we call a drive-by, Just kind of roll it down. If they were having a freak out moment I maybe would use some balance or lavender or wild orange or something like that. I trained them that's an air quotes where you know, before they went to school they would put on on guard right before, on the bottoms of their feet, um, before they put their shoes and socks on.

Cindy Vallone:

Um, I'm sure a lot of you are like by bottoms of the feet. Um, couple of reasons. One is the skin is not sensitive typically on the bottoms of the feet. Um, our pores are large on the bottoms of the feet, so it's going to get absorbed into the body very quickly. And if my kids didn't like the smell of something, but they know that they still needed it or they didn't want to smell like that, right, Some might have smelled a little too florally for them or whatever it might be on the bottoms of the feet you can't smell it, Nobody can smell it, but it still does its job. And then I guess, because we've been using them for so long.

Cindy Vallone:

So my oldest son just went away to college this year and of course he went with oils and a diffuser and, um he, he texted my husband and me a little. It was like sort of a little bit of a panic text. Uh, it was. Oh no, my diffuser spilled on my keyboard. I am going to need a new keyboard. So my husband's reaction was great, you need a new keyboard. Yeah. My reaction was, yay, you're using your user. That's great. So it was pretty. It was a pretty funny moment. So, um, you know, he, he does use essential oils at school to help, um, you, to help physically, emotionally, mentally, boosting his immunity, for energy and focus when he's studying, to help with sleep, all the things right.

Nika Lawrie:

Yeah, yeah, I love that. I know when I'll be sitting here at the computer for a while working and I have a little bottle of lavender and so sometimes I just stop and I just sniff it a few times and then just go back and it just kind of eases everything. It just makes you feel a little bit more Zen.

Cindy Vallone:

Absolutely, absolutely. These are tools in our toolbox and I think especially little kids are. Really I wish I had these when my kids were little. Like I said, I didn't even know that they existed, and so I think kids, specifically, are really drawn to them. They almost know what they need. And we actually have a kid's kit. Oh, I do have it here. I do have it here for the people who can see, we have a kid's kit and it's so cute and it's really colorful. And there's, like these little flashcards that come with it Um and and um. Yeah, there it's. It's super great option. They're pre-diluted so that moms don't have to think twice about you know, um, any of that. You know kind of mixing and making your own. It's sort of one and done Right, um, I use those two, by the way. That's why they're here on my desk. I pull them out. I love them myself, but, yeah, they're, they're pretty great.

Nika Lawrie:

That's phenomenal. So if people want to learn more about the oils, how to use them and then also how to connect with you too, I guess before you say where they can connect and all those things Like, where are the places to find resources on how to really implement these safely in your life?

Cindy Vallone:

So I think that doTERRA's website is phenomenal. It is a talk full of so much education, there's eBooks, there's how to's, there's videos. I mean that's really a fantastic place to start. And then I'm a huge believer in a high quality resource book, right, a book. I love a book over an app, because I think there are times when we actually need a book, and that's how I got started. So I also was paired with a wellness advocate. That's what my title is now. So I that person to me, was a phenomenal friend and resource.

Cindy Vallone:

But I can I'm happy to give the titles of the books that I love. They're not from doTERRA, I don't write them, I don't earn any money off of them, but there's three that I highly recommend, and they're behind me too. The first one is called Modern Essentials, and I think we're on the 12th edition. The next one is called Essential Life I don't know what edition we are on that and the other one is called Advanced Oil Magic, which is kind of a silly name, but it's a serious book, and we're on the fifth edition of that.

Nika Lawrie:

Very cool, I will look at all three.

Cindy Vallone:

You don't need all three. You know, grab one and get started. And just know that essential oils don't have to be hard. They really don't. Of course, when you're using with kids, you want to dilute. That is something that I didn't really talk about. But that means adding some fractionated coconut oil, which is coconut oil that's in liquid form all the time, doesn't harden, and you know I have dilution ratio guides. The books have dilution ratio guides. The books have dilution ratio guides. So make sure you get a trusted source. And then, in terms of safety, you know never put them in your eyes, up your nose or in your ears. That's really important. There are some that are photosensitive, so you're not going to pour them all over you and then go bake in the sun. But I mean, who does that anyway? Who's doing that anyway? And then, if you have questions too, you know consult your trusted practitioner as well.

Nika Lawrie:

Absolutely so. Where can the listeners connect with you? Where can they find you online? Yeah, so I try to keep it really simple.

Cindy Vallone:

It's just my name. It's cindyvalonecom, which is C-I-N-D-Y V, as in Victor A-L-L-O-N-E. You can go to my website. You can click on the doTERRA tab and you can schedule in a 30-minute complimentary wellness consult where we talk about your specific health and wellness goals. I share some information about doTERRA. I make recommendations on how to get these products into your home in the most economical way and then, if you're in the United States, I'll also send you two custom samples.

Nika Lawrie:

Very cool.

Cindy Vallone:

Awesome. So I am on Facebook and Instagram as well. Do you want me to? Yeah, what are your handles? Okay? So again, super simple. On Facebook, I have an essential oil education group, so it's oil essentials, with Cindy Vallone. Honestly, if you just type my name in, it'll pretty much come up. And then Instagram same thing.

Nika Lawrie:

It's just Cindy Vallone one, two, three, perfect, and I will link to everything in the show notes. I will track down the books you recommended as well. Just make it as easy as possible for the listener to connect with you and find all those cool resources. So, cindy, I have a couple of quick fire questions for you, but before I get to those I want to just thank you and commend you for the work that you're doing. I think you know this is a powerful tool that can help people. It's often overlooked or people sometimes think it's kind of woo, woo. You know they they don't buy into it in the very beginning and then, once they start to learn, it really is a kind of a magical tool in the toolbox to really help them heal their bodies. So I commend you for the work you're doing.

Cindy Vallone:

Oh well, thank you for giving me this platform to share what um what I know and love. I this, it's, it's truly. I know this is my job, but it truly is a labor of love.

Nika Lawrie:

So thank you, awesome, yeah, all right, so are you welcome or ready for the first quick fire question? Maybe they're easy and you kind of have already answered a couple of them, so we'll just add extras. Okay, so what is your favorite or most impactful book, podcast or documentary, and why?

Cindy Vallone:

Oh, okay. So I'm going to say documentary only because we were just talking about it. Can I say two actually? Sure, yes, share away. Okay, so one is called Fed Up and it really. Are you familiar with Fed Up? Yes, so it was the first documentary that just really blew my mind and it really talks about lots of things. But in particular, you know hidden sugars and when, in the 80s, you know sugars started being poured into literally everything, yeah.

Cindy Vallone:

And so so bad. So so that. And then the other documentary I think it's on Netflix is called Pick of the Litter. This has absolutely nothing to do with essential oils, okay. So Pick of the Litter is all about the nonprofit organization called Guide Dogs for the Blind, and our family recently became involved with them and we are puppy raisers for that group called Guide Dogs for the Blind.

Cindy Vallone:

My 15, he was 14 at the time my 14-year-old son came to us and said, hey, he watched the documentary and we watched it together and he was like, hey, can we do this? And our initial reaction was well, I don't know. And then, as a mom, I thought my kid is coming to me and asking me if we can do something that's going to give back and make a huge impact in somebody's life, and we would all be doing this together. Yeah, at a time in his life when teenagers tend to not want to hang out with their parents, yeah. So I pretty quickly said, yeah, I'm in, let's do it. So we have our very first puppy. We got her in September. Her name is Kalimba. She's been really quiet, so that's good. So those are my two.

Nika Lawrie:

Those are my two. That is awesome, man. You're going to tear me up with your son coming to you. That is phenomenal, I think. If you haven't heard of it, too, I was thinking about there's a great documentary it made me think about it with FedUp, but it's called Stink. I think it's. I think it's on it's either Netflix or Hulu, but it's all about the damages from synthetic fragrances and, yeah, I need to know. So it's, it's phenomenal, it's very well done and I think it'll be right up your alley. So definitely check it out. It's called Stink, okay, yeah, so you've also given a bunch of kind of examples here, but what is your best toxin-free or eco-friendly living tip?

Cindy Vallone:

Remove them from your home. Everything I mean candles no, plug-ins, no Even fragrance, no Even fragrance. Perfume, no, I mean our whole medicine cabinet under the sink area really has been replaced by one spray bottle filled with essential oils, and that's how I clean our whole house. And if you have little kids too, get them involved in cleaning up their environment, and you don't want them to hold a bottle. You know you don't want them to hold a bottle of bleach. You don't want them to hold a whole bunch of chemicals, so using essential oils is a much safer option.

Nika Lawrie:

Man I that is my, my favorite one so far that I've heard, because I think it's just get them out of your home. That is the biggest thing I focus on with my clients is getting those toxins out, whether that is a chemical toxin or a food toxin. Getting them out of your house because the damage is causing to your body. You may not understand it in the moment that it's happening, but they build up and they have huge, huge impacts on your health and wellbeing.

Cindy Vallone:

And it's also unfortunate, too that the United States is so far behind Europe and Canada. Gosh, yes, you know, I mean they have a. Yeah, that's a whole other podcast, I know.

Nika Lawrie:

My listeners are probably tired of hearing me say it, but understanding that these rules were created over 100 years ago, before anything was even really capable of being tested for safety. And then the vast majority of these, like 80,000 or so different chemicals, have never been tested for the safety in human use, and that's in our food, that's in our fragrances, that's in our daily products. So, yeah, there's a huge gap of knowledge and safety testing there. That I yeah. Another, another show for sure.

Cindy Vallone:

Agreed.

Nika Lawrie:

Yeah. So my last question for you today is what does living consciously mean to you?

Cindy Vallone:

Okay, this is deep, okay, living consciously, I think, when we wake up, if we can really focus on the things that are important and make sure that your day, your to-do list, goes around those, so the things that are most important to you, you make the time for, versus trying to fit those things into the nooks and crannies of your day.

Nika Lawrie:

I love that. I think we don't do enough of that, so I love it yeah.

Cindy Vallone:

That advice is as much for me as for everybody. It's definitely something that I am trying to work on.

Nika Lawrie:

Isn't that the thing? It's always like you learn from teaching others kind of thing, like you learn what you need by helping others figure it out. So, yeah, absolutely Well, cindy, this has been phenomenal. I'm so grateful for the opportunity to connect with you and your time and knowledge, so thank you for sharing it with us today.

Cindy Vallone:

Thank, you for having me. It's been fun.

Nika Lawrie:

Absolutely.

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