LIFESTYLE
Do your cleaning and hygiene products make you depressed?
Maria Gaian, Ecotherapist & Proud Ecowarrior!
Are your cleaning and hygiene products making you depressed?
We’re already discovering that eating highly processed and fast food contributes to brain fog and makes us feel sluggish and depressed.
Doctors and nutritionists (quite rightly) are always encouraging us to ditch the sugar and highly processed treats if we’re to overcome depression and improve general brain health.
I have to admit, if I eat sugar or too many carbs, my brain seems to melt.
But is toxin laden food the only thing that’s overloading our bodies and contributing to our poor mental and physical health?
What about our cleaning and hygiene products?
Bleach, disinfectant, antibacterial sprays, air fresheners, shampoos, soaps, toothpastes – we all use them on a daily basis
Are these cleaning and hygiene products making us lose our focus, or even worse, making us feel depressed?
Take a look at your bathroom shelves.
What products are you using on your body, hair, teeth?
Which feminine hygiene products are you using?
What makeup do you wear?
When you clean your house, what do you use?
What do you wash your clothes in?
Spray your surfaces with?
Wash your dishes in?
What do you use to make your home smell nice?
I’ll take a guess that, just like me, you’ve got a whole load of cleaning and hygiene products in your home.
What are they made of?
Many of them will be packed full of horrible things like parabens, ammonia and chlorine.
Lots of them will have labels on that state they’re hazardous to animals and humans!
And they’re all getting into your body on a daily basis.
YIKES!
Why does it matter?
Everything we put on our body gets absorbed by the skin.
You aren’t just putting lipstick on your lips, but in your lips.
And when we spray cleaner on the kitchen worktops, we’re breathing that into our lungs.
Our houses are full of chemicals, including our floor coverings, paint, carpets, furnishings, and the air fresheners we use. They’re all releasing toxins into our environment.
We go into town and breathe in yet more pollution. In the countryside we’re breathing in pesticides and agri chemicals used by farmers.
It’s estimated by the Environmental Protection Agency that we’re in contact with 80,000 toxins every day!
It feels like it’s difficult to escape from them all.
Our bodies were never meant to deal with this bombardment of toxic and foreign chemicals.
We can’t process them, so the body isn’t sure what to do with all these toxins.
They sit around in our bodies waiting to be eliminated.
Some traces don’t get eliminated at all.
They just fester.
These chemicals cause all sorts of damage and can lead to cancer, obesity, heart problems, respiratory illnesses and you’ve guessed it – depression and brain fog!
When we’re filled with toxins, our minds are foggy and we feel gross and depressed.
It also means that instead of doing the job of repairing themselves due to normal wear and tear, our bodies are on overdrive trying to fix the damage we’re doing to ourselves every day.
Toxic cleaning and hygiene products are making us feel sluggish. How can we be happy, healthy and whole when we feel so blah?
“Our bodies need to use energy wisely…. we are constantly gorging on bad food, slathering our bodies with hazardous chemicals, and coloring our hair with lethal dyes… our body spends all of its time just trying to alleviate the damage we are putting on it and in it.
If we reduce the amount of toxins we use, then the body can use it’s precious energy to do what it’s designed to do – repair tissues, clean the blood, assimilate nutrients, eliminate waste, andrejuvenate the mind, body and spirit.
…your energy is being wasted just trying to get rid of what you intentionally added…you are not efficiently using your vehicle to help yourself move forward in the world and heal yourself and others.”
Ayurvedic Beginners Guide by Susan Weis-Bohlen
It seems the answer to the question of whether your cleaning and hygiene products block you from making smart decisions, stop you focusing, steal your energy and even make you depressed is YES!!!
Reducing our exposure to these chemicals will have an effect on our physical health, which will lead to an improvement in our mental health.
So what can we do?
Don’t feel pressured to go chucking everything out!
It can be tempting, but replacing all your cleaning products, makeup etc can be an expensive job and could be too much to do in one go.
When we feel fragile mentally, this is way too big a job for us.
Take baby steps! (You’ll be so sick of me saying that soon!)
Look at one thing at a time, maybe your toothpaste, moisturiser, lip gloss, or your washing powder. When it’s close to running out, search for alternatives.
Your washing powder or liquid can be one of the worst products! These products contain synthetic fragrances that are neurotoxins and badly affect our brains.
And we wear clothes that are washed in them ALL. DAY. LONG.
We sleep in pajamas and under sheets that are soaked in them.
So start there.
Choose products that are scented with wildcrafted, organic essential oils instead.
I’ve only just begun this process for myself so bear with me whilst I try a few things. I’ll let you know how I get on with changing my products.
I’m finding that it doesn’t need to be difficult, or expensive.
(I am very practical about the cost of things. I’m not willing to throw money about willy nilly, so don’t worry if you’re on a budget, you can find reasonable alternatives.)
You’d be amazed how much cleaning you can do with lemon juice, bicarb of soda, white vinegar and a couple of drops of essential oil*.
(*check it’s safe for pets and people before chucking essential oils about.)
I started using soap nuts to wash my clothes.
These options are cheap, effective and non toxic.
Some things require a bit more input and you might prefer to buy a ready made alternative.
Do your research before you buy, though.
Just because a company claims its products are safe and non toxic doesn’t mean they are.
There are some unscrupulous businesses out there that claim to be natural, but still have divisions that test on animals or hide icky chemicals in their products.
There’s a lot of legislation that allows companies to hide nasties in plain sight. Many products that are labelled as non-toxic contain harmful chemicals such as methylisothiazolinone.
This product is banned in the EU as it’s believed to be a neurotoxin. At the very least, it causes allergic reactions in many people.
“Specifically methlisothiazolinone can be found in cleansers such as liquid dish soap, liquid laundry soap, all purpose spray cleaners and window cleaning solutions. This substance can also be found in products labeled “natural”. Corporations trying to sell “green” (but not so green) cleaners often use this as a preservative.”
https://www.contactdermatitisinstitute.com/methylisothiazolinone.php
I’ve stopped using some products altogether, saving myself time, money and chemical overkill.
There’s a brilliant side effect to clearing out your cleaning and hygiene products.
On my way to trying to detox my life, I discovered a bonus!
When you become a person with a mission to clean up toxins, it leads to you helping to clean up the planet as whole.
You’ll feel like you’re making a difference and becoming an eco-warrior can give you purpose.
It gives you more connection to your physical self, your environment and to nature.
Connection with a purpose, along with contributing to helping the planet, are two ways that can help us if we suffer from depression.
I feel so much better already!
Not to mention, I’m doing my kids a massive favour and reducing their risks of cancer, heart disease, asthma, infertility and obesity, too.
I’d love to know what your ideas are for toxin free cleaning and hygiene products. If you’re a business owner and you make green cleaning or beauty products, please tell us about them so we can give them a try!
Come over to the Ditch the Black Dog Community over on Substack and let’s chat.
I also have boards on Pinterest for ecofriendly beauty, personal hygiene and cleaning product ideas if you want to take a look.
The Challenge:
Take a moment to look at what products you have in your home and give some thought to how you could replace the toxic ones.
You’d be amazed how much cleaning you can do with lemon juice, bicarb of soda, white vinegar and a couple of drops of essential oil.
OR
Spend a bit of time window shopping for soap and cosmetic products and choose some really lovely ones. (This will have the bonus of making you feel good about yourself. Self care is always good!)
There are so many fabulous non toxic and natural products out there, but just make sure you read the labels carefully.
Cleaning doesn’t have to cost the Earth.
So what do you think? Are your cleaning and hygiene products making you depressed?
Let me know how you get on over in the Ditch the Black Dog Community over on Substack where we can chat and share tips.
(Comments are disabled on my posts to avoid the barrage of spam I get.)
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Maria Gaian
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