The Role Of Essential Oils In Your Menopause

Jodi Sternoff Cohen

Oh my God, it’s so fun to connect with you and talk.

Sharon Stills, ND

I love your bio. I’m so inspired by you so much and put out so much good information and helped so many people. So tell us a little bit about you and why you’re shifting and you have all these new oils and doing things for menopause. Is this just because that’s where you’re at in your life, or how did that happen?

Jodi Sternoff Cohen

Yes, I mean, my whole trajectory. My whole life has been like a problem comes up. I decide this is going to take me down; how am I going to solve it? And I do a bunch of research, use myself as a guinea pig, and figure stuff out. And I’m 54. I’m actually having a hot flash at the moment, but you’ll see me smelling an oil because it helps. It’s amazing. I feel pretty lucky that I’m super healthy. My hair is still good. My skin’s a little dry, and I’m gaining a little bit of weight, but I don’t feel like there’s great information out there. Like, I feel so blessed to have friends like you and resources like our community because most of what they put out there, most of my friends they’re going back on the birth control pill because they’re like, What else can I do? They don’t know that there are tests they can take. They don’t really know that they don’t have to just best guess it or suffer. So I’m so excited that we’re doing this together and that I can share that oils are not a magic bullet in themselves. You have to combine them with other things. But I can tell you exactly how I’ve been using oils through menopause and how it’s been helping.

Sharon Stills, ND

Well, the first question is, What were you smelling? What oil was that? I’m inquiring? Just want to know this.

Jodi Sternoff Cohen

This one is circulation. I don’t know why it’s very cooling for me. It has like peppermint. And so when I feel myself heating up, and I actually think it’s great, like in the summer too, when I get overheated, I smell it or I put it on the back of my neck. I’m living part time in Idaho now, which is super warm. It’s crazy hot here. So when it’s super hot outside, it just helps cool me down. We also have one that has a lot of Geranium, called a pancreas. And I don’t know why, but Rose Geranium really seems to kind of alleviate the hot flashes and alleviate a lot of the symptoms.

Sharon Stills, ND

I love that. Well, I need a bucket of that here in Arizona, where the everyday average temperature in the summer is 115 degrees. So we’re going to dive in. You are doing some really amazing stuff with the hypothalamus, with the adrenals, with the liver, and with the gallbladder. And I’m such a nerd. I’m like, Oh my God, those are all my favorite organs. I’m so excited. So why don’t we talk about the hypothalamus first, since that’s kind of the master orchestrator, and tell us what you’ve got going on with that?

Jodi Sternoff Cohen

The way I got into oils was because my husband was basically suicidal, and we had to move him into a residential treatment facility. And the minute I knew that he was safe and that it wasn’t my job to keep him safe, it was like I had been Sisyphus. I’ve been pushing that boulder up the hill for a decade, and suddenly I could relax, but I couldn’t get out of bed. My kids were five and seven, and I was overwhelmed and exhausted, and nothing was working. And fortunately, a friend came by with oils and said, These might help because you’ve been so stressed and have so much cortisol. I bet you’re really inflamed, and everything you’re ingesting is maybe not getting assimilated. but oils—you can smell them, and you can put them on reflex points. These work differently. And so I made up my first blend, which was Adrenal. And I used that for a long time. It kind of helped me get out of that hole, and it helped me for a long time until it didn’t. And then I realized, Oh, it’s because the hypothalamus is slightly dysregulated, so I’m sure you can do a great job explaining this. But the way I explain it is that the hypothalamus is kind of the CEO, and it then kind of communicates multidimensionally well in two directions. It communicates down to all the endocrine organs, and then they communicate back up. And so, a little bit like that game of telephone, if the communication goes haywire, suddenly the hypothalamus doesn’t realize that you are producing too much cortisol and that it’s sending the wrong signals. And so, in order to really clean up endocrine signaling, it’s great to work on the hypothalamus as well. And there aren’t a lot of great remedies for the hypothalamus. There’s a lot you can do for the adrenals—a lot of adaptogenic herbs, a lot of glandular. But for the hypothalamus, I couldn’t really find anything. So I created something that you literally just put on your forehead, and it’s almost like rebooting the phone to factory settings. It’s just the right frequency to kind of calibrate the hypothalamus so that it is better able to send and receive the appropriate signals.

Sharon Stills, ND

I love that. Yes, it’s so important that we really are always looking upstream and downstream because the body works in a symphony, and in it is often a hypothalamic or pituitary issue. We’ve probably all heard of the HPA axis, where H stands for hypothalamic and A is for adrenals, which we all focus on. And God knows we need to focus on them because that’s part of why menopause can be a struggle if your adrenals are struggling, which let’s face it, we’re women, and we’re women in our forties, fifties, sixties, or beyond. Who hasn’t had stress in their life? Just being alive is a stressful situation. And then we have all these other situations that occur. So it’s not something to feel bad about. It’s just something that we need to pay attention to and nurture. So what is actually in the hypothalamic blend?

Jodi Sternoff Cohen

It’s a combination of a bunch of things, actually; it seems like I’m having my brain fog moment. Let me actually make sure I have all the right ingredients. I’ll tell you exactly what’s in it. It’s. I know it’s Bayram and Hein, and they run pine, frankincense, patchouli, and Mandarin.

Sharon Stills, ND

Oh, this sounds like it must smell good, too.

Jodi Sternoff Cohen

Nice, really?  What’s really interesting about oils is that, if you need them, they smell good. If you don’t eat them, they’re less desirable. Like frankincense. I go in and out of it. Sometimes it smells amazing, and sometimes I’m like, It’s a little bit like intuitive eating, right? When you are low in iron, you might crave meat. So I think it smells good because I need it at the moment.

Sharon Stills, ND

Need it at the moment. That’s so interesting. I didn’t know that about oils and I was just putting some oils in my distiller. The other day I had that feeling. I was like, Ooh, no, that is not what I want to be smelling all day. So very interesting.

Jodi Sternoff Cohen

And people always they always ask me like, if I don’t like the way it smells, should I do it anyway? I’m like, No, why? , it’s like, if I don’t. Like the way you’re going to eat it. Absolutely not. Trust your intuition.

Sharon Stills, ND

Yes, we don’t pay enough attention to our smell, which is such an important sense.

Jodi Sternoff Cohen

Yes. This is actually why I think oils work so well. Smell is critical to survival. You smell food and water; you smell predator odor; and you smell fire. And because of its priority in our survival and safety, it has unique access to our brain, like being the only scent that goes directly to the amygdala. All of the other ones are routed through the thalamus first. So, you might have had that moment. For me, it’s like blackberries. I smell blackberries. And suddenly, I’m in grade school at my family’s cabin. It just transports us through time because it allows us to need that kind of quick emotional recall for survival.

Sharon Stills, ND

And even I think of like pheromones, right? When you’re attracted to someone like you have to just like the way your partner smells or it’s just repelling.

Jodi Sternoff Cohen

Yes. Yes, exactly.

Sharon Stills, ND

And so I love that. And I do not know that now I’m going to be smelling all my oils and make sure. But I like the way they smell when you.

Jodi Sternoff Cohen

Know it can change every day. Like give yourself a little flexibility.

Sharon Stills, ND

So talk about the adrenals, the gallbladder, the liver, maybe take one at a time. These are all such important organs and I do think the adrenals and the liver get a lot of air time. I think the gallbladder is starting to come up a little. It’s kind of been forgotten about, but whichever one you want to start with.

Jodi Sternoff Cohen

Yes, I mean, I think the adrenal glands produce all of these important hormones that help you have energy and recover from pain, including cortisol. And I think what happens to a lot of us, like me, is that I always had a kind of low back pain because the two adrenals sit on your low back. And sometimes, when they’re exhausted or working too hard, it’s usually one that’s working harder than the other. And it kind of twists your pelvis a little bit. And so your back can start to bother you. You can have crazy periods. Sometimes you can be craving salt, tired all the time, or really anxious and ajar. And that was often what I felt like—I would have crazy, crazy period cramps my whole life. I would stay home sometimes and probably take way too many Advils at one time.

But when I started working on my adrenals, when I really started healing them, all of a sudden I would have to carry a tampon with me because I wouldn’t get cramps and I wouldn’t eat chocolate. I would just have a period one day. And I had none of those warning signals because my adrenals were now in balance. And so that’s what we’re really trying to do. That’s why I like working with plants. I think plants are very natural, and they’re kind of adaptogenic, meaning that, sometimes, if you’re a couple, you assume that your cortisol is too low and you’re trying to bring it up, or vice versa, it’s too high and you’re trying to bring it down. You’re really best guessing, and anyone who’s done a 24-hour saliva test can tell you it’s not a flat line. It changes throughout the day. So what I love about plants and herbs is that they’re adaptogenic, meaning that they meet you where you are. If your cortisol is way too high, it kind of calms you down. If it’s way too low, it brings it up. You’re not guessing. You’re just kind of constantly balancing. And so that’s really what I’ve been trying to do with oils because, as we know, when we get into menopause, the ovaries stop producing estrogen. So the adrenals need to take over. And if the adrenals are weak or depleted, they’re not as strong. And so there’s a little bit of a gap, and you’re not necessarily getting the smooth transition that you need.

Sharon Stills, ND

Exactly. And I do 24-hour saliva tests on all my patients. And it’s very interesting because a lot of times it is a guessing game. And if you don’t really see the data, then you don’t know. And sometimes you’re putting out enough cortisol, but you’re putting it out at the wrong time. That’s when, at 7:00 at night, all of a sudden you’re like, Oh, I’m going to go tap dance and clean the kitchen floor. I have so much energy now that I can’t fall asleep. And so cortisol needs to be shifted. And what does that go back to? It goes back to hypothalamic-pituitary access. And so it’s all kind of this big, beautiful dance that needs to be tuned to be massaged. And so the adrenals are, I mean, I think that’s part of it, and I love what you said because when we think it’s normal to have premenstrual symptoms, we’ve been taught that. Oh, of course I hear it from patients even still, and I have to reeducate them and change their thought process. Oh, no, my periods are normal.

I have bloating, cramps, and cravings. And, but that’s normal. I’m like, No, no, no. That’s your body saying hello. There are things out of balance. And so it’s the same thing with menopause—it’s not a disease. I wish there was no ICD-10 code for menopause. It’s a normal, natural process. And when things are out of balance, that’s the body saying, Hey, I need a little TLC; I need a little love here. And often, that cry comes from the adrenal glands. I check every single patient’s adrenal function because it’s really hard to heal if you don’t have your adrenals on board. And I speak from experience like you do. I mean, I try to think I can stay up for hours on my toes, and I’m so cool that I get that badge of honor. And will that backfire? By the time I was in my late twenties, my adrenals from going to medical school and raising two kids on my own were just trashed. And it’s a lifetime commitment to love your adrenals because if you don’t, once you trash them, if you don’t love them, they let you say, Hey, you committed to loving me; get back on board here?

Jodi Sternoff Cohen

I know. That’s why, honestly, I love oils—because, you can carry them everywhere. And when you feel like you need it, you can just put a little bit on. It’s so simple.

Sharon Stills, ND

I have your oils right here. It’s an addition to my desk. I love what we have to talk about. I know I said the gallbladder and the liver, and we will talk about those. But I just adore that you have the Fascia Parasympathetic Blend. To me, this is like the trifecta of health in this little bag. And I put them on every day.

Jodi Sternoff Cohen

You should talk about that because the adrenals—why are they putting out cortisol? Why do they think the body needs energy to survive an emergency? It’s because they’re getting that dangerous signal, right? So your autonomic nervous system controls your automatic functions, such as breathing, heart rate, and respiration, designed to keep you alive. So if it senses danger, be it like the tiger chasing you down the street, which never happens, or you turn on the news and think that you might die or someone else might die, or you’re in a stressful relationship and you’re worried about a conflict with someone you love, All of these things help your body differentiate between physical danger and emotional danger. And so, what happens? Your sympathetic fight or flight nervous system gets kicked on, and that kind of tells the whole body to prioritize safety. And your adrenals are releasing all this cortisol. So the more you can tell your body it’s safe, the less the body needs to respond by releasing cortisol. So the parasympathetic system is designed to do that. It stimulates the vagus nerve. The vagus nerve is the gearshift between danger and safety. And then it kind of sends that whole safety signal through the body.

Sharon Stills, ND

Yes. I’m always putting it behind my ear. Where you can kind of hit it. and that truly is the foundation of healing. You can’t heal if you’re stuck in sympathetic, and what you were saying, like the transition, isn’t that you just want to constantly be in parasympathetic; that’s not healthy either. It’s being able to flow through and to start to distinguish what really is an emergency from what is just too many emails that you haven’t gotten to. When is that really an emergency? I mean, maybe it is if you have a deadline that you need to meet the next day. But we tend to—I think we’re just so busy—and I love that in menopause we can kind of pause and start to come home to ourselves. Sometimes I think, We just have these to-do lists, right? And even the good things changed, so even just a mind shift changed, and someone said this to me, and I was like, Yes, oh, my God. I was like, I’ve got a busy day. I’ve got to go hiking. I’ve got to do this. And she was like, Not I got to, I get to, and shifting that is like, Oh, Yes, I get to, wow, this is, it just changes everything and puts it from sympathetic mode to parasympathetic mode, like, Yes, I get to do this, I’m blessed. This is something I enjoy, and I’ve made time for it. And so it’s really important that we get out of the stress response. And it’s very easy to say, but it is something that takes a lot of time and attention over and over and over again until we really retrain ourselves because life is full of stress. It’s just not about getting rid of it. It’s about dancing with it and understanding how to really relate to it. And so, why the lymph and the fascia in here, if you could?

Jodi Sternoff Cohen

Well, I’ve kind of realized that one of the bottlenecks to healing is the neck, right? The neck is the gateway between the brain and the body. And it’s incredibly hard to get remedies into the brain. This could be one reason that we’re seeing this prevalence of brain-related issues, including mental fatigue and brain fog. And so the more, part of the problem is that there’s a lot going on in the neck. We have our nerves, we have our structure, we have our fascia, we have our limbs, and we have our vascular system. Even the circulation blend that I was showing you helps increase oxygen flow to the brain because it helps vasodilation, giving you more space to carry more blood. But one of the things with the vagus nerve that a lot of my colleagues who work with the chronically ill are finding is that the vagus nerve is somewhat compromised because the fascia is pressing against it. Imagine if you’ve ever been in the middle seat in an airplane, and maybe you’re between two linebackers and you can’t even get your arms on the armrest. Can you even read a book? because there’s no space. Now, that could be the vagus nerve and the fascia. We brace for impact. This is the first thing babies do when they’re little. If there’s danger, they just brace, and then the danger passes, and we don’t unravel it.

So that scaffolding that kind of surrounds everything is clenched, and the fascia constricts the vagus nerve, and then the lymph is congested, and so it’s pushing against it. So the more we kind of allow for flow and allow more space and unraveling, all of a sudden all the good things can get into the brain: the blood, the nutrients, and all of the toxins can drain out so they don’t hang out and turn on the immune system in the brain and then trigger inflammation, which presents as fatigue, brain fog, or other issues. So I like to combine them together because you’re stimulating the vagus nerve, but then you’re also making sure that you want to open up the lymph at the clavicles first, but then the lymph is flowing and the fascia is unraveling. And it’s just like giving you expansion; like, kind of to your point, your day is so jam packed, maybe you just want 20 minutes to have a wonderful conversation with a friend, enjoy a cup of coffee, or walk your dogs without worrying. I’ve got to be back in, like, 10 minutes or whatever. It just gives you that kind of space and relaxation to really enjoy your life.

Sharon Stills, ND

I hope you are all listening, rewinding, and listening to that again, because that is such a beautiful nugget there, because that really is where our lives end. I don’t have a dog; I program dogs, but taking the dog for a walk with a friend and just enjoying and really being clear and present in the moment. These are the experiences that really make for a well-lived life and give you joy and beauty. There’s so much beauty in these mundane experiences we have. And so I love that you’ve created these oils that can really help you to drain and flow, and that’s funny because I do prescribe a lot of supplements and bioidentical hormones and things, but I’m also really obsessed with that. Not all medicine comes in a pill bottle. It’s my self-made hashtag. It’s a long one, but it hasn’t caught on yet. But I love that it’s just that there are all these tools and oils that are these beautiful tools that just the act of stopping and saying, I’m going to approach my nervous system, I’m going to put some oils on, and I’m going to open up and allow flow. That in itself is healing. So I think they’re such a beautiful tool to have as part of your health care program.

Jodi Sternoff Cohen

I think one of the reasons people like coffee is because they like the smell. They like it because it’s familiar. It’s something that they do every day that brings them joy.

Sharon Stills, ND

That is a good point. Exactly. So, there are benefits to having your cup of coffee, but there are also benefits to having your essential oil. Your essential oil coffee. I love that. So why do you have a focus on the gallbladder and the liver as well?

Jodi Sternoff Cohen

Yes, I think that the way I kind of look at hormones is that you want to make sure that the adrenals and the organs that are supposed to produce new hormones are kind of working optimally. And then the organs that are supposed to make sure that the old hormones are detoxified and leave the body are working properly. And what can happen if garbage basically drains from the cell to the fascia, to the lymph, to the blood, to the liver, to the gallbladder, to the gut, and to the toilet? Ideally, and at any point in that drainage pathway, things can get congested. The gallbladder and the liver seem to be the big bottlenecks. Things sit too long, and then they can get reabsorbed. Like estrogen, this is a really good example of estrogen dominance. The body has detoxified these old hormones, and then there’s the gallbladder; it’s the bile that’s supposed to carry them from the gut out of the body, and if it’s not, if it’s stagnant, if it’s more like molasses than water, it doesn’t necessarily leave as much as it should. And so if these old hormones are kind of staying in the body, then they throw off the symphony; it’s almost like everyone’s playing in the wrong key.

Sharon Stills, ND

Exactly. It is. It’s crucial to open up the alimentary organs no matter what you’re dealing with, and certainly with hormones. I run a really tight ship. I won’t even let patients refill their hormones unless I know they’re taking all their liver and gallbladder support and that they’re doing that because, sometimes, we want to cut corners and we just won’t take the hormones. But we have to again look at the big picture, as Jodi just so beautifully explained. So, essential oils for menopause. I have to ask that. Do you have some favorites? What would you recommend to the ladies listening—that’s like an essential oil cup of coffee down here?

Jodi Sternoff Cohen

Yes. I mean, I’m a huge fan of the hypothalamus blend. I do that at least three times a day, just right on the forehead, kind of the third eye. I use the parasympathetic and the adrenals. I actually kind of feel like they work together, like to really manage my stress throughout the day and to make everything I get to, or I’m grateful that I get to because it really is a mindset. I mean, you can, there is some workshop I went to where they’re like, tell me a story where where you were really unhappy and then flip it and say like how happy you where you can look at any situation can be like fabulous glasses half full or you can complain about it and it’s better to just let when you start looking at it in a positive way, it makes everything easier and less stressful. 

I do use my liver and gallbladder blends mostly before bed because that’s when, have that 3 a.m. wake up, it’s usually because, in Chinese medicine, they say that’s when the liver and gallbladder are the most active. I feel like my toxification load is heavier than my organs can handle. And so I feel like using those blends gives it a little bit more vitality throughout the night. And so I have it increases my capacity and to process toxins and eliminate them. And when I don’t, like the kind of hormonal headache that some people get, like right between like around the forehead or pain between the shoulder blades. Those are often those are the gallbladder meridians. So that is an indication to me like, Oh, my gallbladder needs more love and support.

Sharon Stills, ND

So do you put the oils right on your liver?

Jodi Sternoff Cohen

I do. Right on the liver and the gallbladder. And sometimes I combine it with castor oil, just because I think it’s an amazing tool. But Yes, I just think the whole goal is this idea that everything has some kind of frequency or resonance, a little bit like what Regina Bridge talks about. And I feel like it’s almost like you can combine colors; there are three primary colors, but with them you can combine them with black and white and make a whole array. I feel like you can combine plants. Plants and humans are biologically familiar and kind of match the frequency of a healthy organ system. And so by overlaying it on the organ, it’s almost like, when your kids are little in the water, you give them little water rings so that they don’t drown and they kind of get a sense of what it feels like, or, with bikes, you give them training wheels because biking, you’re moving forward, you’re balancing. And it’s an odd combination of things. And it’s almost like once your body knows that frequency, it’s like, Oh Yes, I got this. So you remind the body what a healthy frequency for the gallbladder and the liver feels like.

Sharon Stills, ND

I love that. So, what does a day in the life of Jodi and the oils look like? Do you do certain ones in the morning, like taking us through a day just so we can get an idea of what’s possible?

Jodi Sternoff Cohen

No, I wake up, and I’m a big fan of movement. It doesn’t necessarily need to be an aggressive exercise. I walk, I run, I do yoga, and sometimes I do pilates, but before I do exercise, I do parasympathetic with coffee. And then I definitely do the lymph, the fascia, and the circulation. In fact, I love to put lymph on. Sometimes my hips are a little tight, so I put lymph and fascia on my hips, and that changes my whole yoga practice. It allows me to be much more open and flowing. And then I always try to do parasympathetic before meals because digestion is really designed to occur in the parasympathetic state. When you’re stressed, your stomach doesn’t release hydrochloric acid, your gallbladder doesn’t release bile, and the pancreas doesn’t release enzymes. It really just helps your digestive tract; it doesn’t necessarily have the housekeeping way. And so it just helps improve digestion and assimilation, including the digestion of supplements. I typically have Hashimoto’s. I take a thyroid supplement when I first wake up, and then I take my other supplements with breakfast, but I tend to use the parasympathetic before I ingest them. And then before bed, we have a blend that’s really great. It’s called circadian rhythm, and it’s kind of a nice balance for the adrenals because it helps with the natural release of melatonin. And melatonin and cortisol work a little bit like a teeter-totter. If there’s danger and you need energy, you don’t necessarily want to go to sleep. But if you’re wired, tired, and worried about something at night, that’s a lot of cortisol. And so sometimes naturally increasing the melatonin helps to kind of calm the nighttime anxiety down and help us really fall asleep. And then I also put the liver and gallbladder on before bed.

Sharon Stills, ND

I love the parasympathetic. I’m often going to keep my desk because I spend a lot of time here. But now I want to put it on the kitchen table because I didn’t. And now, when you’re applying them or just doing one little drop,

Jodi Sternoff Cohen

So with the parasympathetic it is, and the hypothalamus, one little drop. So I literally put my thumb on the bottom and my finger on the top and just flip the bottle, and that’s enough. With the lymph, I use a little bit more because I do it more generously. So like I’ll show you with circulation, I’ll just let it come out like a drop or two, and I’ll put it on the back of the neck or on the sides of the neck.

Sharon Stills, ND

That’s okay. And what about ingesting essential oils? You hear a lot of pros, but then you hear cons. And so, what’s the lowdown on that? Should we be ingesting essential oils?

Jodi Sternoff Cohen

I never take coffee away from someone. If someone swears by it, I’m not taking it away from them. I think that there are more efficient ways to use it. I actually think smelling it out of the bottle goes directly into the brain. I think that topical application, especially on reflex points, can kind of affect the system systemically. When you ingest it, it has to go through the whole digestive process and then go to the heart to be pumped systemically through the body. So I just don’t think it’s efficient.

Sharon Stills, ND

Is it dangerous?

Jodi Sternoff Cohen

There are varying opinions on that. I mean, certain things, like the idea that a little good is a lot better, like using a very small amount. These are very, very concentrated essences. One drop of peppermint is like 15 cups of peppermint tea. Don’t go crazy. There are certain oils that aren’t great and are slightly contraindicated, but it seems to me that the people that are ingesting them are kind of using, just by common sense, a small amount. Don’t go bananas. I think oregano can be a little dangerous. I don’t recommend it. Well, let me caveat this. If someone is working with you or another practitioner who is helping you use oregano, that’s fabulous. But I think oregano can kill a lot of things. And then you get that. And if your drainage pathways are clogged, it can cause more problems than it solves. So, I think you should just consult your practitioner and be thoughtful.

Sharon Stills, ND

Right? So don’t just start drinking them on your own.

Jodi Sternoff Cohen

I mean there is benefit and I know a lot of people who’ve had a huge benefit with their oregno, but they’ve worked with the practitioner.

Sharon Stills, ND

Gotcha. Yes. That’s even with , I use oregano capsules and you just have to because it will kill a lot, it’s part of the benefit of it. But then you have to be thinking downstream. You always have to be thinking downstream. Upstream. It’s, the body is a beautiful, complicated and somewhat not complicated place. But we have to be thinking about all these thing. What goes in, how is it going to come out exactly like you were saying. So is there anything else that you to share that I didn’t ask you yet?

Jodi Sternoff Cohen

The only thing I kind of want to share is this idea that none of us are victims and that we all basically have the power to kind of control our lives. And there’s a great quote by Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl. Between the stimulus and the response, there is a space. And in that space is our power to choose our response, and in our responses are our growth and our freedom. And so I know that sometimes, I think, no one really wants to be uncomfortable or necessarily go through some of the growing pains that may be happening as we age. And I just want to remind you that before you react and if something comes up, when you apply parasympathetic, it allows you to ground yourself, to kind of center yourself, to access your higher cognitive function, and to see more options. And so, if you’re feeling overwhelmed, anxious, or just having a grumpy day, there are a lot of ways you can calm your nervous system. You can tap, and you can do breathing exercises. Just give yourself that moment to pause and access your parasympathetic nervous system. And I think that will go a long way toward changing your perspective and your life.

Sharon Stills, ND

Very, very wise, and very, very important. There’s so much that you can do on your own to help yourself, and it’s really changing that perspective of, What do I need from out there? What do I need to take? What can I do? How can I flow, grow, change, and do what my body is asking of me? And so I love the use of oils. I love what you’re doing. I love that your oils are so perfectly medically orientated because you don’t really see a lot of flow and parasympathetic, and these are crucial areas for your body to heal, for you to grow and age, and a healthy process for you to go through the hormonal changes. And so it’s such a beautiful, easy, and self-empowering tool. So I just love what you’re doing and what you’re all about. It’s just so beautiful.

Jodi Sternoff Cohen

Well, thank you. And I love how you’re helping women by just giving them information so that they have more options.

Sharon Stills, ND

Yes, because what I have learned is that women are really kept in the dark, especially in mainstream medicine, and they’re not. Oh, I’ve been doing this for over 21 years, and it still blows my mind when patients come in and tell me what their traditional doctor or their traditional OB/GYN did or didn’t do for them. And it’s like, Oh my God, it just drives me crazy.

And of course, there are doctors who go get training outside the box and are really on that journey to help. And then there are others who are just kind of stuck in that old school of thought. That’s how they were trained, and that’s what they do. And so it’s really up to you to seek out other answers. And there are so many different answers. We’re all so individual. I have thousands and thousands of patients, and there are no two, even if they have the same diagnoses and are on the same exact plan.

And so we really have to experience, experiment, and learn. And, for someone, oils can be a major game changer. And for another woman, it may just be a smaller piece—an important piece—but not as big a piece of the puzzle. And so just knowing all these things empowers you. I think the women who watch the summits and take this time, which is precious, to educate and learn—I was just writing about this in my newsletter—feel like I have patients nowadays who are smarter than some of the doctors out there because they’re getting educated. And that’s why we are women. Hear us roar. We do what we’ve got to do. And so thank you, Jodi, for all that you do. And thank you, everyone, for being here and taking the time to learn and help yourself on your healing journey. And I said your email and your website at the beginning, but can you just say it again? Because I’m sure people are going to go check it out.

Jodi Sternoff Cohen

vibrantblueoils.com

Sharon Stills, ND

vibrantblueoils.com. So it’s oils. I’m going to go smell my oils as soon as we get over and dab myself and do the whole thing. So thanks, everyone, for being here. And we’ll be back with another fabulous interview for you soon.

Jodi Sternoff Cohen

Thank you.