101 Emotions
Like the phoenix, this is about the power of rising — no matter how many times your spirit is crushed.
I didn't come to essential oils through wellness trends, a desire to "go natural", or because someone convinced me they could solve all of life's problems.
I came to them through exhaustion.
I wasn't looking for another product. I was looking for one less thing to fight.
When my youngest was a baby, life became a relentless cycle of illness, specialist appointments and hospital visits. Every few weeks we seemed to be back at the doctor, back on antibiotics and back in crisis mode. There were seizures, hospital stays, countless tests that ruled things out but didn't explain anything, and a constant feeling that we were treating symptoms without ever understanding the bigger picture.
I did everything I thought a good parent should do. This was my second baby. I followed medical advice. I asked questions. I tried harder. I listened to every mother, auntie and grandmother on both sides of our family—anyone who offered suggestions. It was before social media, so advice travelled through conversations, not algorithms, and I was willing to try almost anything that might help. This went on for years, not mere months.
Yet the harder I worked, the more overwhelmed I became.
The only way my daughter would reliably settle was in the car with Lady Gaga playing through the speakers. At home she wanted to be rocked constantly while I sang I'm a Little Teapot. The new electric baby rocker sadly did not work. Very little did. Sleep became something I remembered rather than something I experienced.
For the first three years of her life, we searched for answers. We travelled regularly to Perth, juggling paediatricians, tests, medications and alternative practitioners. Every appointment seemed to come with another opinion, another expense and another thing to try. Nothing felt settled. Nothing felt sustainable. During those years she was prescribed repeated courses of antibiotics and eventually developed an anaphylactic allergy to penicillin, adding yet another layer of complexity to an already overwhelming situation.
Eventually, a friend suggested I visit a naturopath in Perth. During that appointment, the naturopath said something simple that changed the way I looked at everything.
My daughter's body was inflamed, and perhaps it always had been. The goal wasn't to fix her overnight. It was to reduce the overall load on her body and give it time to recover.
That shift in thinking mattered.
By then, I had reached a point where I was willing to try gentle, low-risk approaches that could sit alongside the medical care we were already receiving.
Around that time, Doterra essential oils quietly became part of our lives.
Not as a cure.
Not as a replacement for medical care.
Simply as another form of support.
They didn't add another battle. They didn't require convincing an exhausted child to take something she didn't want. Instead, they became part of a calm bedtime routine.
She loved her nightly foot massage. She also loved having her own coloured roller bottles, which made the routine feel special. Even now, at almost sixteen, she still asks, "Can I have the oil for...?"
That simple ritual created a peaceful moment at the end of difficult days. Looking back, I realise I benefited just as much as she did. During those same years I developed a persistent cough and found myself struggling with my own health for the first time in my life. Slowing down for those few minutes each evening became something we both needed.
I still can't remember exactly where I met the woman who first handed me a sample bottle. I don't remember what conversation led her to walk over and introduce herself. What I do remember is her kindness.
She expected nothing in return.
She simply shared something that had helped her.
I'll always be grateful that she did.
Over time, essential oils stayed in our home—not because of dramatic overnight changes, but because they quietly fitted into our daily routines. They became part of how we supported our family through ordinary life.
We still visited doctors.
We still used medication whenever it was needed.
This was never an either/or decision.
It was simply about reducing the overall load where we could and adding small routines that brought a little more calm to an otherwise chaotic season.
As the years passed, I also became more aware of the products we used every day. I found myself reading ingredient labels, asking more questions and gradually replacing some household products with alternatives that better suited our family.
Not because I believed everything needed replacing.
Not because I was chasing perfection.
Just one small change at a time, when it made sense.
Toothpaste.
Deodorant.
Skin care.
Quiet changes that felt right for us.
People often asked why I never became a seller.
The truth is, I easily could have. I work in sales, and plenty of people encouraged me to turn my experience into a business.
But the oils were never my identity.
They were simply something our family used.
I happily shared my experiences when people asked, but I never wanted those conversations to become transactional. That boundary always felt important to me, and it still does.
What's changed isn't the oils.
It's my life.
My youngest is nearly grown now. I'm almost out of crisis mode. For the first time in many years, I have space to look back, reflect and recognise the things that genuinely helped us through an incredibly difficult season.
I've always shared these stories one conversation at a time. Sharing what worked often left me emotionally exhausted because every conversation meant revisiting one of the hardest periods of our lives.
I'm simply no longer doing it in the cracks between surviving. I still want to help people, but I've realised I need to do it in a way that doesn't leave me depleted. Writing allows me to share our family's experiences honestly while protecting the energy I still need for the people I love.
This isn't about selling.
It's about sharing lived experience honestly, without hype or pressure.
We didn't have an easy journey.
Not everything helped.
Some things genuinely helped.
For our family, this was one of them.
If something here resonates with you, take what you need.
If it doesn't, that's okay too.
Living, making, raging and healing—one week at a time.
If you're curious about the oils we've used over the years, why we chose them, and how they've become part of our family's routines, I'll be sharing those stories in future posts.
Read more about the 101 Emotions project →
Thank you for spending a little time here today.
I hope something in these words helped you feel seen, understood or a littleless alone.
I’m not a therapist. I’m sharing my lived experience and what I’ve learnedalong the way, because the more honestly we talk about our emotions andexperiences, the more chance we have of understanding ourselves — andprotecting future generations.
Take care of yourself.
— Shyloh 🌿
About 101 Emotions
101 Emotions was created to help people better understand their emotionalworld through lived experience, practical tools and compassionate storytelling.
Read more about the 101 Emotions project →