What in the World Are We Doing??

I am sure that we are all familiar with the above advertisements selling perfume to the masses (mainly women) ... although men are also becoming regular users of the various fragrances sold by movie stars, musicians and design houses. We are subtly sold the lie that some-how wearing these fragrances will make us more desirable or they will be the crowning glory to the image we ourselves are creating and projecting to the world.
The last 48 hrs have been really trying for me ... I have learned an extremely important lesson, and once again I am grateful to YHVH for His faithfulness and for leading me to a place of taking more off and leaving it far behind :o)

On Monday morning I decided to try a perfume that my mom had given to Rachel, who in turn did not like the fragrance and so she passed it on to me ... it has a really pleasant smell ... so I decided to give it a go. This is where it gets interesting ... within 5 minutes of trying the fragrance I started experiencing heart palpitations and really started feeling quite ill. I immedietely made the association between symptoms and fragrance, but wondered if this was indeed possible ... maybe this was something else?? I decided to wash the fragrance off ... but throughout the day I felt really bad with the heart palpitations constantly there. The palpitaions lasted throughout the night and throughout the whole of Tuesday. I decided to give my GP a visit, only to find out that he will only be back in his rooms as of next year. At this point I was really starting to get concerned. Many people told me that there is no way that perfume could do this including our pharmacist. But we know our bodies, and YHVH kept on witnessing inside of me that it was indeed the perfume that had triggered some kind of allergic response. He urged me to trust Him ... to walk this through ... that He would bring me through this. There were moments that I felt really afraid ...
Praise YHVH ... throughout last night I felt the symptoms lifting and my heart beat returning to normal :o)  This morning I feel soooo much better. But I have definately learned a very big lesson! My husband and I decided to google the effects of perfume entering the blood stream and were REALLY shocked by all that we read. One well known brand is known to contain over 800 compounds that are toxic to the human body!! Rachel and I decided that as an exercise today, we would look up all the individual ingredients in these perfumes ... let me just say .... the result??? We have had a major clean-out!! (Rachel will be doing a more in depth post on these toxic ingredients on her blog Peculiar Treasures). Some of these ingredients are known to cause cancer .. liver and kidney failure... respiratory disorders etc etc etc the list goes on and on. I have now come face to face with the dangers of these various toxins and  have repented to being careless with what I have allowed not only in my body .. but what I use or spray on my body!
This is a lesson I am so grateful for. Not only am I perhaps wiser in an area I was not before - but, my trust in YHVH is refreshed and restored and this morning my heart is stable and in continuous worship!! The only after effect I seem to have today is a headache!! I suppose with the toxins leaving the body this is to be expected.
Here are a couple of links that I found interesting:
Perfumes and chemical sensitivity
chemicals and toxins in cosmetics

I am finding that there are many things that the world has packaged as 'harmless' and 'necessary' that YHVH is busy cleaning and removing out of the lives of His set apart people ... the journey continues :o)

Blessings and Shalom