My Best Friends Frank And Myrrh

For a long time I have been meaning to write a post called "My Best Friend Frank," about essential oils and how awesome they are for healing (physical and emotional) and for protection. I love the sacred relationship between God and plants, which unconditionally obey and love Him. I think this obedience and love is what gives essential oils their power. But rather than write all about essential oils, I thought I would share this story, from Mandi, which was sent to me after my most recent retreat, where we used the oils combined with meditation with amazing results. Here is her story:

I just got back from the most wonderful retreat. My friend Felice came here to teach us Kundalini Meditation.  It was a spiritual weekend, full of learning, healing, and spiritual guidance. God spoke to my heart many times, and taught me what I needed to know.

I have been an avid user of essential oils for over two years. I was excited to share some of my knowledge with the ladies at the retreat. In preparation I listened to a CD by Daniel McDonald about emotional healing with essential oils. It was a powerful message, and so timely. He explains two particular ways to use the oils to facilitate emotional healing. I knew that I was supposed to share these two methods with the women at the retreat. The first activity was to select three oils that you are drawn to. After reading their descriptions in the Emotions and Essential Oils book, you are to read and ponder the messages that your body is giving you. He asks you to consider the physical ailments that are manifesting in your body, and how they are  communicating some emotional pain.

The second activity was to select the oil that repulses you, the smell of which you cannot tolerate. After consulting the book, you are to consider the emotions associated with that oil.  Which emotions have you avoided, ignored, or repressed?  He suggests that you journal, pray and meditate until you have an understanding of this emotion, and what it is that you need to release. 

On Saturday the five of us sat around the dining table and did these two exercises. Each of us had a powerful experience with our “Oil of Avoidance.”  I knew that my oil was Myrrh. I had always disliked the smell of Myrrh. It nauseated me. I knew that I was avoiding something big.

I read from Daniel's book about Myrrh.  This oil is known for healing the relationship between mother and child when it has been severed. It heals the disturbance and feelings of abandonment. "Myrrh assists individuals in letting go of fear. Through reestablishing a healthy connection to the earth and to one's own mother , Myrrh rekindles trust within the soul.  As the individual learns to once again live in trust, confidence in the goodness of life returns and the soul feels more safe and at home in the earth."

I have never had a close connection with my mother. She was a good mom, and she always took good care of us. I love her… but have always felt some resentment and anger towards her, without understanding why.  I blame her for many of my faults, even my body issues and weight gain. I am not proud of these feelings, but I feel them nonetheless. Clearly, I had some things to release.

So there I was, reading about Myrrh, and contemplating my relationship with my mother. I applied some Myrrh to my hands, cupped them around my nose and mouth, and breathed deeply. Yuck! I kept breathing. After 1 minute, I started some Alternate Nostril Breathing, and could still smell the Myrrh on my hands as I did so.  I continued for about 3 minutes. I felt an immediate shift.

I began to write in my journal. “Dear Mom- I forgive you. I accept you exactly where you are. I came to you at the right time. I take the best you gave me and I let the rest go. I can move on in peace. I love you how you are right now. You are enough. I am enough. We have lessons to teach each other.”

Although the five of us were sitting at the table together, we were each having a powerful experience of our own. We were each letting our special oil teach us about our emotional pain, then journaling about our thoughts. Many quiet tears were shed.

At that point,  Felice suggested that we do a Rebirthing Meditation—where she would help us do some mental guided imagery.  She had us go to our yoga mats, and then journal about our birth story, as we wished it was, in the most positive and beautiful way.  Then we lay down on our mats, and closed our eyes. She had us imagine that we were in heaven, preparing to come to earth for our mortal experience. We imagined our joy and excitement about coming to earth. We imagined ourselves coming into our mother’s womb, and how wonderful it was to have a body. We felt safe and secure in the womb, we felt loved. We also imagined what our mother was experiencing during the pregnancy, and how she felt to be carrying us. This was a beautiful and powerful experience for me. I started to feel greater love for my mother, and to understand her a little more. I began to accept her, and to accept my own body.

During this experience I was given some new knowledge. God spoke to my heart and helped me understand an important part of my life story. I was a cast-away; A spirit that had been sent into a mother’s womb, but had not been born, because of an elective abortion. My spirit returned to heaven, and was “reassigned” to another body, in another womb. This gave me many feelings of abandonment, and fear. Also, I was angry that I got this body, instead of the body I was meant to have. I was meant to have a better, more thin and beautiful and healthy body. I was meant to have a better, more thin and beautiful mother.  In an instant, I understood why I harbored such anger and resentment towards my mother, and my own body. It was both disturbing and enlightening.

God showed me a glimpse of what I felt in my mother’s womb- the confusion, the anger, the feelings of abandonment.  He also explained to me that I didn’t want to come out, that I wasn’t ready to be born. The OB doctor, who thought I was overdue, had actually induced labor- even though I was really 6 weeks premature!   They delivered me, and I weighed just over 4 lbs, so I was bottle fed and in an incubator for the first few weeks of my life. I think this only added to my feelings of abandonment and separation.  The words I had read in the book about Myrrh came flooding into my mind: “ Myrrh helps the soul to feel the love and nurturing presence of mother. Similar to the nutrient-rich colostrum found in mother’s milk, Myrrh oil inoculates individuals from the adverse and harmful effects of the world. Like the warmth of a mother’s love for her child, Myrrh assists individuals in feeling safe and secure.”

In that moment, God told me to start rubbing Myrrh on my stomach daily- that this would heal and repair my digestion- as if I was getting the colostrum I needed after my birth. He told me that it would help me to release the anger, heal emotionally, and would strengthen my relationship with my mother.

I could not contain the emotion that I felt at that moment. Tears poured from my eyes, and ran down the sides of my face. This was a revelation. A message straight from God.  I felt so connected to Him, and so loved. I was overwhelmed with gratitude and humility.

That night, as I prepared for bed, I applied some Myrrh oil to my stomach, as God had told me to. Then, He instructed me one more time... “Put it on your tongue, and suck your thumb.”  

I did so, and crawled into bed. Myrrh was the “colostrum” that I needed at that moment. Words cannot describe how amazing it felt. I felt soothed and consoled in a way that I never had before.  It filled a hole in my soul that had been there for 40 years. I wept with joy, and felt the love of God surrounding me.

I awoke the next day feeling like a brand new person. I now feel comfortable in THIS body, the body I had resisted and resented for most of my life. I am now reprogramming my brain and treating my body like the precious gift it is. I praise God for guiding me that day, and for the knowledge He gave me. I am so grateful for the gifts of essential oils, prayer, journaling and meditation that helped me to receive that knowledge.