Raising Children Wisely: A Natural Mothers' Perspective

We are delighted to welcome Joanne Gibson from Heart Centred Health sharing her thoughts on raising children wisely. Joanne is a trained Reiki master and expert user of essential oils plus a mum of a beautiful daughter. You can find more advice on using essential oils in your home at Joanne's Facebook page here

Raising children wisely

This can mean very different things to different people. We all have those days where we do whatever we can just to get through, and it's a miracle everyone survived. Here's a few things that, on a good day, mean raising children wisely to me.

Raising children wisely to me means a pretty clean diet. Very low refined sugar, mostly organic and mostly wholefoods, such as fruit, vegetables, nuts, fish, meat and eggs. Food that has not been made into something else and put in a packet. If it is in a packet, it's better if the ingredient list is 3 items or less. If I don't know what an ingredient is I generally don't want to eat it.

It means managing wellness, illness and emotional health in a holistic way. My little girl, nearly 3, has not been to the doctor for an illness, other than a sticky eye I panicked about when she was a newborn. Part of this is luck, I know. Part of it though is good diet, getting out in nature a lot, breastfeeding til she was over 2 years old, partly because I used to be a nurse, and also using natural remedies including essential oils.

Even though I love them, sometimes I forget about using my oils. But wow am I grateful they're there when I really need them. My daughter had a viral illness yesterday with some vomiting. It feels really good to rub Digestzen on her tummy and feet, knowing it will help her symptoms and wellbeing. The On Guard protective blend was also my saviour to ensure I stayed well and was being diffused, applied topically and ingested by myself.

Raising children wisely also means going chemical free as much as possible. I have replaced my cleaning products, hair care, and personal care products with essential oil products or other no or low tox products. You can just start by replacing one item, it's that easy.

It also means radical self love and self care. Because if I don't look after me, I can't look after anyone else. For me this usually looks like making sure I get some exercise each day or a walk in nature, and regular treatments such as a massage. It's also little daily practices to nurture myself such as using my oils, a bath, reading, or some meditation or yoga stretches.

Self love is also loving myself when I'm not being the perfect parent. This week has been pretty spiritually intense for me and I've raised my voice, sworn, banished the television to under the house- where it might just stay, and screamed into a pillow when it all got too much! Then hated myself for all the above, except the TV part. Then realised I have to love and accept my feminine chaos. And that it may even be good for my daughter to see, so she knows she can love and accept her imperfections and not suppress her inner wild woman, as so many of us have been taught to do.

Needless to say I have been applying Clary Calm, the monthly blend and 'Oil of Vulnerability', liberally all week. It helps me ride the emotional waves a little easier, and I've also just learnt how to apply it on my reflexology points which has been amazing. I don't believe there's a woman on the planet who doesn't need this oil blend in her life.

Most of all though raising children wisely, to me, means following my intuition. It means tuning out to society and others opinions, and tuning in to my wisdom as a mother. It is, after all, what has helped every animal on the planet survive. The more I listen to the teachings of my Soul the more I learn to trust my instincts. Because knowledge is learnt but wisdom is remembered.

If you want to share some of your wisdom on raising children I would love to hear it.

From my heart to yours,
Jo xo