Stepping Stones Living, LLC

Essential oils for dogs?  Really?  Yes!  I became interested in the usage of oils for my dog when I heard a podcast by a veterinarian who calls herself “The Oily Vet” – Melissa Shelton, DVM .  In June 2012 she will be releasing an Animal Desk Reference guide for those wishing to use oils on their animals.  It is $55 in the pre-release sale.

The cute puppy you see pictured is of our beloved pet “Snickers”.  He is a PooChin (poodle / Japanese Chin mix).  Since I am a Naturopath, care for my animals is in the holistic form as well.  He is fed a raw food diet (or B.A.R.F. – Biologically Appropriate Raw Food) which is the natural diet for dogs.  His food contains raw meats, bones, vegetables and fruits as well as healthy omega fatty acids.  He is a very healthy dog.

But on occasions he gets into something that upsets his stomach.  There is nothing worse that hearing that gagging / heaving sound that a dog makes when they are about to empty the contents of their stomach all over your light colored carpet.

Through listening to Dr. Shelton, I learned that I could use the essential oil Di-Gize on my dog.  Since getting it into the dog when they are about to vomit is not an option, I use the same technique on my dog that I do on my children.  I apply it to the pads of his feet.  Just 2 drops on each paw will stop him from gagging in 30 seconds to one minute.  I have been able to stop the vomiting all but one time!  It is a miracle oil for my dog.

What is in this wonderful blend?

Tarragon (Artemisia dracunculus), ginger (Zingiber officinale), peppermint (Mentha piperita), juniper (Juniperus osteosperma and J. scopulorum), fennel (Foeniculum vulgare), lemongrass (Cymbopogon flexuosus), anise (Pimpinella anisum), and patchouli (Pogostemon cablin).

We keep this oil on hand at all times for children tummy troubles.  I take V-6 oil, place it in the palm of my hand, add a few drops of oil and mix well.  I place the mixture directly on their stomach area and within minutes their stomach upset is eliminated.

I love my oils and you will too!  There are two ways you can obtain them.

Customer – Go to the Young Living website and sign up with my sponsor ID 1249433 – Stephanie Buist.  You will be able to purchase at full retail cost and have them shipped to you.

Distributor – Don’t be scared off by the term.  You don’t have to distribute to anyone but yourself if you choose this option.  The benefit of selecting this status is that you are able to receive 24% off the retail  price of the items.  This in itself is a great benefit.

What do you have to do to maintain this?

Nothing special.  When you sign up you can select from one of the distributor kits.  I recommend the Everyday Oils kit which gives you the basic oils to begin your journey to wellness.  This fulfills your requirements for purchase to remain a distributor for ONE YEAR.

After the first year you must purchase $50 worth of product to remain as a distributor status.  This $50 purchase will be under the 24% off retail pricing.

If you want to take it a step beyond the basics, you can sign up for the Essential rewards program.  This is great for those who are purchasing at least $50 per month.  Joining the program is free and you will receive discounted shipping as well as earn points toward free product!

If you are interested in learning more about Young Living Oils please contact me!  info@steppingstonesliving.com

To those looking to schedule a consultation with me, this post is for you.

I have been offering consultations via the phone since December 2011. While I have had some good client consultations my overall experience has been frustrating.  So I am writing this to inform you that I suspending the service of phone consultations for the next few months.

Many potential clients have scheduling consultation appointments and then do not follow through by returning paperwork prior to the scheduled appointment or connecting at the scheduled time. While some may feel this is OK because it is only a phone consultation, it is not.  Because of the request, I have blocked off this time specifically for the individual and this means no one else can schedule. So each time someone schedules and does not follow through I have lost potential income. This has not been an isolated event and has become a chronic issue  that has caused me a lot of frustration.  I had hoped that individuals would treat the flexibility of online scheduling with respect.  They have not.

So in an effort to remedy this, I will be working on some procedural changes. These will include but are not limited to:

1. PAYMENT – All consultations wiil be paid in advance and no consultation will be scheduled before payment is received.

2. PAPERWORK – All new client forms must be submitted prior to the scheduling of a consultation.

3. CONSULTATION TIME – New client consultations will be a 60 minute minimum consultation with 30 minutes available for follow ups. I have found that most 30 minute new consult appointments are running over and I am not being compensated for this time.

4. FEES – New client consultation fees will be increasing. While my desire is to help others obtain health, I also want to maintain ongoing relationships.  Many are calling me to “pick my brain” and do not wish to continue to work together.  I do not wish to be the “help desk” of thyroid issues or iodine supplementation.  I do not desire to make phone consultations the backbone of my practice.  By increasing my rate, I will attract those that are serious about working hard to improve their condition.  It will also allow me to work with a few clients which will increase the level of quality I can offer to them rather than a little support to many.  Being a single practitioner office it is difficult to handle all of the aspects of running a practice.   For my current clients, fees will remain at the same rates.

I have a unique experience with  healing from thyroid cancer naturally after 3 failed RAI treatments.  This is something I have always wanted to help others do.  I have spent hours and hours of research and continue to do so.  My passion is in teaching and writing and for this reason I must also be selective in who and how many I take on as a clients.  Ensuring a balance of consultations to working on my educational materials is key to my effectiveness and success.

So for these reasons I have decided to step back and evaluate my priorities, focus on my target market and follow my true passions. I will be posting the new plan in the next few months. Please visit my website for details. Thank you to all the clients who have continued to work with me. I am encouraged by your commitment to health.

Stephanie Buist, ND HC 

Sleep is one of the most important parts of our day.  While we sleep our body can take the time to repair itself and take a break from the stressors of the day.

Have you ever heard the term “Sleeping like a baby?”   It seems that babies can fall asleep in the most uncomfortable places.  But what happens when you have a child that has sleep issues as they get older.  This happened to me.  My daughter was never a great sleeper.  She seemed to struggle to stay asleep and could not wind down and fall asleep.  This only got worse as she got older and by the time she was 3 yrs old we were struggling to get her to sleep by 10 pm.  This worried me.  We started her bedtime routine by 7:30 pm, read stories in the rocker and tried to lessen any stimulation prior to bed.  Our doctors had no suggestions as to why she would not sleep.  Most of the time I was told “some children are just like this”.  But I didn’t agree.  I knew how important sleep was and refused to believe that she was “made” this way.  Something was out of balance and I intended to find it.

We tolerated the long times to falling asleep and constant waking to come to get us in the middle of the night to tuck her back in and turn on some music so she wouldn’t be scared.  This phase continued until she was 8 yrs old.  But then things shifted again.  Just before her 9th birthday she went to a friends house for a sleep over.  She had done this many times without issue.  But on this particular night my girlfriend called me at almost 10 pm telling me that my daughter was crying uncontrollably.  She couldn’t pry the reason out of her – only that she wanted to come home.  I figured she was sick and too scared to tell her.  So off I went to pick her up and bring her home.  On the way home I managed to find out why she was so hysterical.  She was afraid….. afraid that she would never fall asleep and that she would have a bad day the next day because of it.  She was beginning to feel the impact of her sleep deprivation.  My heart ached that as a mom and a Naturopath I could not find answers for her.  We had been giving her melatonin for around 1 year and while this took the edge off, it did not correct the problem.  She had severe anxiety and would cry and not fall asleep until midnight most nights.  She needed sleep and I was worried.

Then a blessing was brought into my life.  A gift was given to me by my friend Catherine (a fellow naturopath) who shared the gift of essential oils with me.  I have to admit that I was a bit skeptical that something as simple as oils could help my daughter.  Especially since I had tried eliminating foods, adding supplements, changing bedtime routines and more.  Could this really be the answer I wondered.  But I was desperate.  My daughter was at the point where bedtimes were emotionally charged with so much anxiety that we could hardly get to allow us to leave her room at night.

I purchased the Young Living Everyday Oils kit for my starter oils.  Included in this kit were two oils that I started with.  Peace & Calming and Lavender.  Both are calming oils and work with the brain and body to create a sense of relaxation and ease the anxiety.  I applied these oils to her feet, wrists and had her breath them in.  To our amazement her anxieties eased.  She began to sleep through the night more often.  I was so excited to see improvement when nothing had helped before.  Then my friend shared the Essential Pocket Reference Guide with me.  I searched the book looking for oils that would help her with the lingering anxiety and inability to fall asleep.  I found them… or so I thought.  I eagerly purchased them and waited for them to arrived.  What were these oils?  Joy and Cedarwood.

Joy is used to create a sense of happiness.  We applied the oil along the hairline of my daughter each night.  An amazing thing happened.  On the first night she had no anxiety.  No crying.  Could this be a fluke or had the oil really worked?  It was the oil.  Why do I know.  Because being a scientific person I test things.  I used the other oils yet eliminated this one a few nights and each night she would have anxiety.

The other oil, Cedarwood, is an intriguing oil.  When diffused it helps to increase natural melatonin levels.  Since adding melatonin as a supplement to my daughters protocol had helped take the edge off, I hoped that this would help.   So each night we used 5 drops of Cedarwood in the travel diffuser in her room.

A miracle occurred within a week.  My daughter was asleep by 9 pm each night and she was sleeping through the night.  No more anxiety at night.  Bedtimes were peaceful.  The application of oils began last summer and has continued each night since then.  We apply lavender to her big toes to correspond to the glands that control sleep hormones (see vitaflex chart for feet) as well as to her wrists.  We put 5 drops of Cedarwood on the diffuser pad and run the diffuser for a few hours in her room from the time she goes to bed until I go to bed (when I turn it off).  We were able to eliminate the application of Joy around Christmas time after I tested not using it for several days and discovered that her anxiety had disappeared.

The essential oils have been a blessing to our family.  This is one of the ways I used the many oils now contained in my home.  I am glad that I chose Young Living Oils.  Why?  Because they are truly therapeutic grade.  You can ingest all of the oils without fear.  This is not the case for other oils.  The processing of the oils in many cases makes them toxic to the body.  Second, YL offers excellent education to its distributors.  I have learned so much from Gary Young and David Stewart and I continue to learn each month as they continue to offer more and more podcasts to listen to.  Lastly, the integrity of the company in the market place is important to me. They do not talk negatively about other companies to elevate their own.  They are secure in the product they offer and let it speak for itself.

If you are interested in trying some oils or wonder what may be right for you, please contact me at info@steppingstonesliving.com.

If you are interested in joining the Young Living team just go to the Sign Up page and Enter my sponsor number:   1249433  – Stephanie Buist and you will automatically receive the wholesale pricing of 24% off (after purchasing your kit)!  After you have purchased your starter kit with an investment as low as $40, you will only have to purchase $50 / year to maintain your status.  No monthly requirements.  If you purchase more than this per month the Essential Rewards program may be for you.  It allows you to earn points toward free products.  This requires a $50 /month purchase.