You may be aware that I've been working with and studying essential oils and their chemistry for nearly 40 years. I've also personally experienced a few setbacks with my health that moved me to focus on genomics. However, it's impossible to isolate the genetics of nature, given that the DNA throughout nature is made up of the same 4 peptides, with varying placements. Hence, a wide range of organisms and species What has this got to do with essential oils? Plenty! They are produced by the plant genome in response to stressors. In turn, when selected with attention to the individual, they support the body's natural ability to detox. And in a world with nearly 80,000 manmade chemicals potentially acting as stressors, it's fair to say, our systems could use a bit more support. However, the essential oil industry is growing, which means there is a good chance of unethical 'cost-cutting' practices. This matters to me for more reasons than just my health. As our environmental concerns grow, so do our mental, emotional, and physical health issues. This is where I come in with my newest endeavor... As an independent essential oil supplier (not MLM) ... because the chemistry of an oil means everything to the person buying it, whether they know it or not ... the latter being the biggest concern To give you an idea, I'm including a list of oils to demonstrate a few with more than one variety, even though they are frequently marketed and recognized as 'the' oil i.e. Rosemary, Eucalyptus, Frankincense, etc I'm consistently asking people which oil they're using. The answer is frequently a pause followed by 'there's more than one?' Mind you, there's nothing wrong with this ... it simply shows us where there's a gap in the field. One I'm ready to bridge ... That said, contact me directly with questions, and if you'd like to order oils!

Good morning! I couldn’t sleep. Somewhere between 2 and 3 am, something I didn’t know existed clocked me so hard I couldn’t ignore giving it some attention. For years, I’ve been publishing work on essential oil constituents: - the specific molecular components that explain why one chemotype of thyme behaves differently in the body than another - why a particular fraction of rosewood interacts with one receptor and not its neighbor - why biochemical individuality means that the same oil produces different effects in different people This is the work I invested in doing throughout my adult life. It sits at the intersection of pharmacology, neuroscience, epigenetics, and aromatic chemistry, and it highlights, I believe, the most honest answer to questions like what actually helps and what actually changes. And it has, with one exception, struggled to find an audience. The exception is the addiction work. That material has connected with people. They’ve written to me, enrolled in programs, asked harder questions, and kept reading. The constituent-level work on inflammation, on hormone regulation, on neuroplasticity — work I consider equally rigorous and arguably more useful — has not produced the same response. For a long time, I assumed this was a communication problem. I’ve spent considerable energy trying to make the science more accessible, the writing more inviting, the entry points more numerous. Last night I understood it isn’t a communication problem. It’s that the people who responded to the addiction work had already, often through great suffering, been forced to recognize that something essential had gone missing in them. They weren’t looking for a better intervention. They were looking for themselves. The readers who came to the constituent work, by contrast, were still — most of them, most of the time — asking a different question. They were asking, ‘What do I take for this?’ And no amount of refinement in my answers changed the fact that the question itself was the problem.

Frankincense (Boswellia carterii) and Cardamom (Elettaria cardamomum). Why Frankincense: It supports the long exhale — physiologically, emotionally, and energetically. Constituents, including α-pinene, support parasympathetic shift and have documented effects on limbic and ectopic olfactory receptor pathways involved in interoceptive awareness. Frankincense is the aromatic equivalent of putting down what you've been holding all day. Why Cardamom: Cardamom is the gentle counterweight. Its primary constituents — 1,8-cineole and α-terpinyl acetate — support clarity and gentle arousal of the sensing state without overstimulation. Where Frankincense softens, Cardamom invites. Together, they create the specific nervous-system signature of settled but awake — exactly what threshold work requires. How to use: - Inhaler: Frankincense and Cardamom together, 8 drops Frankincense + 4 drops Cardamom on the wick. - Diffuser: 3 drops Frankincense, 2 drops Cardamom in a small room. - Topically: One drop behind the ears or under nose. A note on sourcing: Constituent quality matters here. If you're unsure of your supplier, this is a worth-the-investment month — you'll be using these oils as a nervous system anchor for some time to come, and adulterated or low-quality oils will not produce the receptor-level effects we're working with.

Not what you want to work on. Not what you want to fix. Just: what are you carrying right now that you'd like to put down before we begin? It can be specific (a hard week, a conversation that's looping) or general (the feeling that you're always behind). Share as much or as little as you want.

A 90-second daily practice: This is our foundational practice. Don't let the simplicity fool you — it does real work in the nervous system. - When: Any threshold in your day. Waking. Walking into your kitchen. Sitting at your desk. Pulling into the driveway after work. Before bed. You don't need to do it at all of them — pick one. - What you need: Frankincense or Cardamom essential oil (one drop on the palms, or an inhaler). Nothing else. How: 1. Pause at the threshold. Literally — at the doorway, the chair, the moment. Don't move through it yet. 2. One slow breath in through the nose, with the aromatic close. Long exhale through slightly parted lips. 3. Ask one question, silently: What am I carrying into this next moment that isn't mine or necessary? 4. Don't look for an answer. Just notice what comes up. Let the answer arrive in your body rather than your mind. 5. One more breath. Then move through. That's the whole practice. Ninety seconds. Why it works: You're doing three things at once — interrupting the 'appetitive' momentum, pairing an aromatic anchor with a nervous system state (this is classical conditioning, in the most useful sense), and asking your body to sense rather than think. After three weeks of daily practice, the aroma alone will begin to elicit the sensing state, regardless. Essentially, the scent you consistently choose brings you back to being ... a place of ease A note: some days the question will land hard. Some days nothing will come. Both are correct.