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Calming Anxiety Holistically | The Positively Healthy Mom Podcast with with Karen Jansen |
26 Plays1 month ago
Teen Anxiety, Gut Health & Natural Solutions | Laura Ollinger with Guest Karen Jansen
In this episode of The Positively Healthy Mom, host Laura Ollinger sits down with long-time friend and doTERRA wellness advocate Karen Jansen to talk about a topic so many families are facing—teen anxiety.
From the impact of gut health to the importance of sleep, movement, and reducing toxins at home, Karen walks us through the doTERRA Wellness Lifestyle Pyramid and how small, empowered steps can make a big difference.
🌿 Learn how lifestyle shifts and natural tools like essential oils can support emotional resilience—for both teens and moms.
💬 Don’t miss Karen’s personal healing journey and her tips for raising strong, healthy kids in a busy, modern world.
🔔 Subscribe for more support on raising teens with confidence, calm, and compassion.
Follow us for more:
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📸 Instagram: @karenejansen
#LauraOllinger #KarenJansen #TeenAnxiety #doTERRAWellness #GutHealth #HolisticParenting #PositivelyHealthyMom #NaturalRemedies #EssentialOils #TeenWellness
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Transcript
Introduction to the Podcast and Guest
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to the Positively Healthy Mom podcast, where positive parenting meets wellbeing.
00:00:09
Speaker
Hello everyone, welcome to today's episode of the Positively Healthy Mom. I'm your host, Laura Ollinger, teen and parent wellbeing coach. And today can't wait to introduce you to my good friend, Karen Jansen, who is so funny, just happens to be right down the street in my neighborhood. So it's funny that we're coming to each other virtually, but we are super close and I've known Karen forever. So Karen, say hello.
00:00:31
Speaker
hi to everybody. Hey everybody, thanks for having me on, Laura. i'm looking forward to our chat. I know, know. So Karen is doTERRA wellness advocate. And I love it because you first introduced me to this brand doTERRA Man, I think it's been about four or five years since we first had coffee to talk about it. It's like my my sense of time is is a blur, but I loved how you introduced me to this brand. And I'm just going to, you know, we're not doing a commercial for the brand right now, but I am just going to say I'm excited. I kind of got involved. This is where I get all my ah supplements. I get oils. I just, this is where I buy my products because I just feel really comfortable with the company.
Teenage Anxiety and Healthy Risks
00:01:11
Speaker
so But we decided today we're going to talk about, because this is something I see a lot of in my business, and I know people also go to you for help, with teenage anxiety or feelings of anxiety, feelings of anxiousness. What I get the most is kind of typically described as social anxiety, where I help parents and I help teens like build that confidence and build that skill to face social challenges and put themselves in you know, not necessarily comfortable situations. Like a lot of times they're like, oh, I got invited to this social situation or there's a school dance and it feels like a risk, but it's what I usually typically describe as a healthy risk. Like we don't want our kids to stay at home because they're afraid, right? We want them to go out. We want them to experience things.
00:01:58
Speaker
And a lot of times it's like a teenage mind thinks it has to be perfect, And they're so used to feeling like everybody's watching them. And so they just build up a lot of these like negative thoughts in their minds.
00:02:11
Speaker
But there is, or i should say, and there is so much more that goes into feelings of anxiety. And so
Wellness Lifestyle Pyramid Overview
00:02:20
Speaker
really excited today. We're going to talk about the what we call you call the wellness pyramid. Do I have that right?
00:02:25
Speaker
ah The wellness lifestyle pyramid. Wellness lifestyle pyramid, which I also kind of advocate for in my coaching business because as we'll get into, all these things work together.
00:02:36
Speaker
And so I love that doTERRA has its own formula for this. So why don't you kind of start us off and tell us tell us about it? Yeah, yeah. Thank you, Laura. So yes, this wellness lifestyle pyramid was um such an aha when I saw it for the first time. It is so simple.
00:02:52
Speaker
But it really organizes in a really clear to understand way the lifestyle changes that we can make and that we have power you know to make that can really impact us in all sorts of ways. So physically, mentally, emotionally, um always in it. But it gives us kind of an organizing framework to make sense of all of those things that we know we should be doing to be at our best.
00:03:18
Speaker
But it's kind of overwhelming sometimes so because there are all the things, right? It's like eat, right, sleep, do this, do that, take this, take that. And especially for our children, you know, they, I think it's very helpful if they have some sort of way to look at things to kind of filter through information and apply it to themselves.
00:03:38
Speaker
that's simple and clear. And it's kind of something that they can take with them even when they leave the nest and something they can use for themselves for the rest of their lives. And it's very simple and I'll walk us through it really quickly, but it's something that I had a long health journey myself and spent years and years kind of fixing myself. And I don't say that lightly, it was because I had an issue that um my doctors couldn't figure out. And it was this about 14 years that I was on this journey.
00:04:08
Speaker
in about 17 years total that I was pretty sick. And um if I had had this organizing framework, it would have saved me a lot of time and also helped me to really um make sense of all of the health information that I had been reading in the functional medicine space, again, the Eastern medicine space, in the energy healing space, all the kind of alternative modalities that I was turning to because regular medicine couldn't help.
00:04:35
Speaker
And along that way, what I realized was, A lot of people, no matter what we're dealing with, a lot of times the root cause of our health challenges, whether it's feelings of anxiety, whether it's physical, you know, pain, whether it's lack of energy, lot of times they have very similar root causes.
00:04:54
Speaker
And a lot of times they are root causes that we have power to change. So it's very empowering at the same time.
Nutrition, Digestion, and Microbiome
00:05:02
Speaker
Right. And I love that. I love the idea of a just having something that's organized, something that's visual, visual which I know you're going to walk us through. We're not going to put it up on the screen, but we're going to describe it because it's so simple.
00:05:13
Speaker
And just the idea that we can take control of our own health and that we're not like at the mercy of um getting to a doctor or we're not, I mean, I'm not against... I'm not saying don't go to your doctor. I'm 100% saying go to your doctor, but we don't have to wait for an appointment if we can't get into their office for six weeks or whatever that might be, because there are so many things that we have control over.
00:05:35
Speaker
We can start doing today. And so that's what I think is really cool about this. So why don't you, you know, what's, so what's the first level? Yeah. Yeah. The first level is nutrition and digestion. And so that's a foundation.
00:05:47
Speaker
And I'll say really quickly on that doctor point, I think doctors love when we take more empowered, approaches to our own health, right? yeah If all of their patients could take responsibility for their health um to a greater extent, probably, than what they recommend would work better. And then they probably don't even have to write as many prescriptions. They wouldn't have to write as many prescriptions and so forth.
00:06:10
Speaker
um But nutrition and digestion is the basis. And so if you think about like a pyramid, right? it's a lifestyle pyramid. I'll just run through them really quickly. Nutrition and digestion is the bottom. And then there's movement and metabolism, which is the next level.
00:06:23
Speaker
Then there's resting and managing stress. And the top one is reducing toxicity. so the whole concept of it being the shape as like a pyramid is the bottom is foundational. And we won't talk too much about nutrition and digestion.
00:06:36
Speaker
But we're talking about um our kids, our teens, our tweens, whatever age it might be, who are struggling with like the social anxiety, these feelings of anxious, of of anxious, um these anxious feelings that are beyond what we know to be needed.
00:06:53
Speaker
right um um Oftentimes there's a root in the gut. And so in in our society, we take a lot of antibiotics. We take ah more antibiotics. We take more.
00:07:05
Speaker
And um they that can really disrupt our microbiome. And I really feel like that's a huge part of why there are lot of kids right now struggling with these feelings of of um these anxious feelings.
00:07:18
Speaker
yeah And I have two children myself um and one... um I gave a lot of antibiotics to when she was young and the other one I never did. He's been raised totally differently. And I can see very clear differences. Of course, they have different personalities, but um I can see in their immune health, in their moods, in their um just resilience overall.
00:07:40
Speaker
They're... to the extent that we can keep that gut microbiome healthy, they are in all sorts of ways. And so the relevance here for those feelings of anxiousness is the gut brain connection, which is now very well understood, very well studied.
00:07:55
Speaker
um doTERRA, this company that I represent, I'm a fan of all sorts of botanicals. I spent my, in my long health journey, i I dabbed in many, many different brands because I never found a brand that had kind of all the tools in one.
00:08:12
Speaker
doTERRA was the closest. And when you work in the, when you're, when you're in the natural health world, it's very unregulated. So you've got to really be careful what the, what's on the label actually does not mean much, believe it or not.
00:08:25
Speaker
especially when it comes to the product that doTERRA is most well known for, which is essential oils, really doesn't have to have that much of the actual pure essential oil in it in order to be able to say on their label, they're 100% pure and natural, which is hard to believe, but it's definitely the case.
00:08:41
Speaker
And so with this bottom level of nutrition and digestion, it's not only like our kids eating you know enough vegetables, are they eating vegetables,
00:08:52
Speaker
you know, the right macros, proteins, carbs to fats. um But it's really the micronutrient, like the nutrient density of the foods and then the micronutrient gaps.
00:09:05
Speaker
It's amazing when you start learning about the different micronutrients that kind of our bodies need in order to function optimally. If we are low in one or two, that's all it takes to really shift the entire history of our body. And our bodies are always like aiming for homeostasis.
00:09:22
Speaker
Our bodies know what to do. They know how to heal. But if we're deficient in one area, it's really hard to reach that homeostasis and it can manifest in these mood you know situations where we're overreacting, where it can result in hormonal imbalances, which we know for our teens and tweens, they're dealing with already all that hormone, those hormone changes, which can lead to these feelings of anxiousness. So nutrition and digestion is the bottom rung. And um it's not only like that microbiome, but it's also what are we absorbing?
00:09:56
Speaker
And so I talk to a lot of people about digestive enzymes. um I actually a have ah integrative doctor for one of my children. And one of the first things she recommended for one of my children was digestive enzymes two per meal. Like that's a lot because there was clear indication that she just wasn't absorbing everything that was needed. And enzymes actually help in all sorts of ways. so that's a simple one. When people have a rash on their arms, enzymes actually can be very beneficial because the gut, the skin is a detox organ.
00:10:33
Speaker
um So, you're interesting. So the nutrition and digestion level, that's the foundation. What this graphic is basically with this pyramid is basically saying is if that level isn't um optimal,
00:10:46
Speaker
focus there first. The next one is movement and metabolism. And we all know exercise can change our state of mind so much, right? um And so I think it was proven, I don't have the ah stats or the study with me, but I think it there's a there's ah there's been a lot of research to show that exercise is as effective as antidepressants.
00:11:07
Speaker
Yes. I've read that as well. Yes. Mm-hmm.
Rest, Stress Management, and Sleep Quality
00:11:10
Speaker
So, um and all of these things, I would say this being empowered versus just going to get a prescription for like an anti-anxiety medicine or antidepressant, it takes work, right? And so yeah it's it's because it's up to us. We have to make it happen. So exercise is not always easy. That's actually one of the ones that I fall back on. I prioritize other things, but ah we sure feel better when we prioritize it, right? When we get it done. Yes.
00:11:37
Speaker
so the next level is resting and managing stress. And so the notion here is if you've got your nutrition and digestion pretty well dialed in, and we know teens struggle in that area. So we can only do so much. Yes. yeah um But if we're doing the best we can there, and then we're we're we're moving and we're exercising to some extent, that will make our efforts for rest and managing stress more effective. So resting on the um I know somebody once mentioned, like, are you sleeping enough? Because life is never good if you're overtired. And i was like, yes, that's true. Nothing feels like it's going right when we're tired. And so for our teens and tweens, simple things like, you know, making sure that there's not too much blue light going into their visual space right before bed, that really decreases melatonin production.
00:12:29
Speaker
That's an easy one and a hard one, obviously. my Really making sure that the screen time during the day, and that's challenge right now because our kids are all on computers at school, but blue light blocking glasses is such an easy thing. I know my team really
00:12:47
Speaker
really helped to prevent that blue light from impacting melatonin. um And then on the resting and managing stress side, in the botanical world, there are so many very, very powerful herbs, essential oils that really help us to have more restorative sleep.
00:13:06
Speaker
Even if our teens are sleeping enough, right? They could sleep for eons, it seems sometimes. If it's not a really restorative sleep, it's not going to have as much of an impact. And think about how irritable we feel and how on edge we feel when we miss a few nights of sleep.
00:13:24
Speaker
So that's really one that's really key for helping ah manage those those feelings of sleep. Anxiousness. Yes. I love that you brought that up because what I learned from the book that actually you were the first person that introduced it to me is Why We Sleep by Dr. Matthew Walker. I mean, that thing is a masterpiece. I love it so much.
00:13:44
Speaker
And what I learned from that is that not all sleep is created equal. So we think that sleep is sleep and that what else is there to it? But that there is so many different variations on quality of sleep.
00:13:59
Speaker
And so I think that that is so important in both as moms, the things that we're lacking out are usually quantity, but it's also qua quality, trying to get those words right, quality. And that's important for our teenagers as well, to make sure they're getting quality sleep. And if we're stressed or if we're not eating right or all those other things, then we're not going to get that restorative sleep that you're referring to. Yes, totally, totally.
00:14:21
Speaker
Yes. And for ah talking about moms, so I wear this aura ring And I wear it because sleep and exercise are my two weaknesses. Sleep, not that I don't sleep well, but I will just like to get a lot of things done. And if I haven't gotten them done over the day, course of the day, because of all the distractions as a mom being pulled here and there, um i will push back the time I go to bed till too late.
00:14:43
Speaker
So this helps me. It's kind of like my accountability partner almost. But what's really interesting is um i don't drink anymore. i I did. But when I was sick for all those years, alcohol just made everything worse.
00:14:55
Speaker
But when I do like every now and then, if I do go out and with dinner, if I'm, if I have a drink, my REM is awful. It's the most interesting thing. I can see it when I wake up in the morning and I sync my ring to my phone.
00:15:08
Speaker
Yeah. So, and that actually is an example of something that I'm trying to teach my kids now. They are young, I think to be partaking in the alcohol, I hope.
00:15:19
Speaker
Yeah, hopefully. That's what I'm aware of. But yeah. For me, when we know what things do to our bodies, it's easier to make the right choice, I think.
00:15:30
Speaker
I actually have an acupuncturist who i've had several over the years and um one who actually is here in B Cave, but she once said that she had a child who was in college and he had no interest in alcohol because he understood what it did to you physically and mentally. Wow.
00:15:50
Speaker
And I thought that was really interesting. he that actually, she was also the first person I knew who had raised a child with no antibiotics. And he was in college by the time I met her and that opened up a whole like world for me.
00:16:03
Speaker
um And so this notion of resting and managing stress and being so important Of course, though, we have stressful times. We have stressful moments. I had one today. I was running late and I was thinking, geez, I'm 46 years old and I still have trouble managing my time. yes But we can teach the kids, right? Prepare the night before, be fully prepared, be, you know, study for a test two weeks in, I don't whatever it is, two weeks in advance, if that's possible.
00:16:26
Speaker
So you're not reaching up against like a deadline and feeling that stress. But for when we need some help, um i like to share a quick story of a family member of mine who, who had really, really negative side effects from an anti-anxiety medication, like debilitating, like his life is nothing of what it could have been.
00:16:52
Speaker
So I always try to teach people um if you, a pill is easier. However, really like try like mindfulness, try all the techniques that you're teaching the world, Laura, so
Managing Stress with Essential Oils
00:17:04
Speaker
important.
00:17:04
Speaker
And then if you need extra help or you need some sort of tool to help you kind of focus or kind of shift your mind, essential oils are amazing. And I started using oils mostly for immunity because when I was sick, my immune system was very compromised.
00:17:19
Speaker
um And they did wonders like oregano for me, I used i had two sinus surgeries and oregano is better for sinus issues than anything I've ever done. um But there is a blend in particular that doTERRA has, it's called adaptive.
00:17:34
Speaker
Yes, I have mine right here. good, good, good. It's great. And so I'll just give a quick example of how I use it. Okay, here, gonna do it with you. Cause I know it I like it when you give the lesson. Okay, good, good, good.
00:17:46
Speaker
So you can put one drop in your hand, the palm of your hand. And rub it, rub your hands together and then cut them over your nose and your mouth and take long, slow, deep breaths in and out and just keep it cupped.
00:18:02
Speaker
So you're really just inhaling the oil. It might be a little strong if have too many drops, but what that's doing, there are oils in that blend that are known to uplift and oils that are known to ground. And so the oils actually work.
00:18:16
Speaker
They trigger the olfactory nerve, which is located just about here in your face, and they're linked to the limbic system. The limbic system manages memory, mood, emotion. it also directs the endocrine system.
00:18:27
Speaker
So if this seems kind of far-fetched, because it did to me at first, think about we go into general anesthesia in a surgery, how what we are inhaling, it's a synthetic you know sedative. It literally...
00:18:41
Speaker
makes us fall asleep, right? So what we inhale can be very, very powerful. Also, what we inhale is we know like a smoker, that it goes into your lung, goes into your bloodstreams, right? Those toxins. and So that's another way. The oils actually, the naturally occurring chemical constituents are getting into your bloodstream from your lungs that way.
00:19:01
Speaker
So it's super easy. yeah And I love it when describe that because like, i feel like I'm not capable of describing all that, but I love it when you do because, you know, it's just, it makes so much sense. Right. And I never even thought of the anesthesia example until just now when you shared that, but I've heard you share those other ones before. and it's like, oh yeah.
00:19:19
Speaker
But only if there, if only we had smell a vision because we need people to able to smell this amazing smell, the adaptive blend. Yes. It's awesome. So yeah. So tell us, yeah. Tell us a little more about like how that's working.
00:19:32
Speaker
I tell people don't expect, for me at least, it does not shift me into this like numb, almost like, you know, sedated state. Like I know some more powerful like pharmaceuticals can.
00:19:44
Speaker
Don't expect that. However, it helps us to shift the way we perceive our stressors. It helps us to calm. So the oils also work with the vagus nerve. They can trigger the parasympathetic.
00:19:58
Speaker
So the rest and digest part of our nervous system, which oftentimes if we're life, like a tween or a teen, like, you know, there's a lot, sports, school, they're constantly in this go, go, go mode. It's quite difficult. Sometimes for the nervous system to shift over to that rest and digest those feelings of calm.
00:20:17
Speaker
So these oils can actually really help in that way. It can be as simple as putting a few drops in the diffuser throughout the day. You might have to do it for your teen or tween. um But particularly at night, we diffuse wild orange in the morning because wild orange uplifts mood.
00:20:33
Speaker
You can also apply the third. There's three ways to use the oils. Aromatically, also, just the smell. Also, put them on your your skin. um They absorb into the bloodstream. It sounds strange, but the chemical constituents are actually detectable in the bloodstream.
00:20:49
Speaker
They help with red blood cell movement. It's proven. And then the third way is internally. And so internally, i only recommend doTERRAs because they're that pure, they're medical grade.
Reducing Toxins for Better Health
00:21:00
Speaker
But and actually we can move to the next level. think we're close on time. Moving to the next level, which is reducing toxicity. So it's a nutrition to digestion. Then it's moving to metabolism.
00:21:11
Speaker
Then it's resting and managing stress. And then if all of that is not kind of doing the tricks, along with the mindset, the you know all of the the lifestyle the factors that you teach and the mental models that you help our children to learn.
00:21:26
Speaker
um if none If that's not working, really look at toxicity. So I won't spend much time here at all, but our cleaning products, our beauty products, our food, there are dyes, everything it seems like these days. There are phthalates, there are all these endocrine disruptors in our products.
00:21:45
Speaker
which impact hormone health, right? It's proven. um And so what I like, what I really like about this company that I've i've aligned myself with is they have all these products that are essential oil based that work very, very well without chemicals. so so it's just So talking about teens and tweens, my daughter's bathroom completely transformed a few years ago into like drunk elephant and all these brands of things. And I didn't know what was in them. right
00:22:17
Speaker
And sure enough, she started having respiratory issues. She started having some more mood changes, which is partly just the age, of course, but I helped her to understand what they can be doing and slowly into cleaner products.
00:22:33
Speaker
um And I can tell a difference if she feels it enough that she knows. And so, um She knows what to look at and she knows it's worth kind of monitoring. And like I said, the reducing toxicity part is huge.
00:22:47
Speaker
And actually, um this is just one sentence about my health journey. It turns out 15 years of struggles that I had was actually because of a toxic burden in my body that was too high.
00:22:59
Speaker
which you looked at. um And so that was a good learning for me. We are bombarded with toxins. but I mean, candles as sad as it sounds, cause we love candles, hairspray, our beauty products, our, what we mop our floor with, what we wash our dishes with, what we wash our laundry with.
00:23:17
Speaker
They over time, the body can only handle so much. And so what I love is that you can actually use like essential oils in these products to simplify that transition.
00:23:28
Speaker
to a more and healthy home. And that can, the impacts can be far reaching, um, name and how our moods are and how we respond to stress.
00:23:39
Speaker
Wow. That's so cool. I love it. I love how you describe it. And, you know, um, I think that there's such a, it's almost Pandora's box when it comes to all the chemicals because it's in everything.
00:23:51
Speaker
But if you had one, if you had to start one place to make it simple for moms, where would it be with the toxins? Um, I think, okay, if it had to be a beauty-wise, personal, because... Or anything, anywhere in your life, yep.
00:24:08
Speaker
um Beauty-wise, I would say lotion, like, because if they're putting it on their legs, if they're, you know, face lotion, because our skin is absorbing everything that we put on it. Right, yeah.
00:24:19
Speaker
A lot of our lotions, like a Lubroderm, like a, you know, the things... They're full of chemicals. So that would be there. And if it's the home, I would say what you, um definitely the air freshers, like, like, that of like Febreze or the candles.
00:24:33
Speaker
Yeah. I like the Glade, the Glade plugins. Like they disgust me now. Like I used to, before I knew ah we used to use those, but yeah, now I'm like, no, that's nasty. I know a woman whose daughter had really bad asthma to the point that she would be in the ER several times a year.
00:24:49
Speaker
ah mom was putting talcum powder. So baby powder. in the sheets to make the bed smell fresh when she would make the bed. Yeah. That was what it was. Years ago. There's aluminum.
00:25:00
Speaker
Yeah. Isn't it aluminum? Yeah. Yeah. And so you never know, like actually for me, what was harming me all those years and I suffered so much, was a medical device that I had chosen. It was breast implants that I had chosen. They affected me. They don't affect everybody.
00:25:18
Speaker
But it was my point is, oftentimes, a driver or a root cause of struggles is something that we're unknowingly doing. And so it's worth kind of taking the ego out of the situation and just being totally objective about it and saying, what could I have in my home? Or what could I be doing? Or feeding my children?
00:25:37
Speaker
Or allowing them to you know be exposed to that could be harming there their physical and their mental health. a Okay. Well, this was an amazing like power lesson today on just overall wellness and, you know, specifically feelings of anxiety.
Karen's Wellness Resources
00:25:52
Speaker
So Karen, how can people find you going forward if they want more information about doTERRA or you or anything? Thank you Well, my website is inspirenaturally.com. And that's because I work with, I have a team of of moms basically who are trying to help the world heal in a very natural way. And so we like to inspire others to try nature first.
00:26:13
Speaker
And then doTERRA, if you are many, doTERRA is a really big company. If you're already a doTERRA customer, doTERRA.com is where all of the products are. But yeah, definitely i check my website. I would love that. It's firenaturally.com.
00:26:26
Speaker
And um I just think the more we learn, the more we can pass on to our children, and ah benefit them for their entire lives. Because once you know how to help yourself, you can always help yourself.
00:26:38
Speaker
Exactly. Exactly. That's the perfect wise words t to sign us off on. So Karen, thank you so much. It was so good to see you. And it was an amazing chat as always. Thank you so much.