183: Castor Oil, Fast Shoes, and Fueling Your Kids with Love

Hi everyone. It is call me CEO. This is Camille Walker, and this is a solo episode. I'm starting to do new approach to the podcast here, and I am almost to 200 episodes, and I think the thing that's been missing for me is. Getting a little more personal and opening up my heart a little bit more to you and sharing with you kind of silly things that I'm doing in my life.

This was something that was requested of me and I shied away from it. And I will tell you why I've been creating content online now for almost 14 years. A lot of content that I've shared has been centered around lifestyle, parenting, motherhood, and more recently business. Uh, but one thing that I really Kind of spun my head around was 2020 and reevaluating what I was sharing, especially in regard to my children.

And so as I'm sharing things about motherhood and in things that have worked for me and sharing your stories as well, I want to be very respectful to my inner peace and to my children's privacy. And so I'm doing this with a lot of thought and also the idea of. The best way to get really personal with other people is when you open up your own stories.

So I'll be sharing a lot about what's working for me in regards to balancing home, life balance, motherhood, things that I like. So it's going to be a little bit of just kind of a life or update, like what am I doing and what am I trying? What am I up to? And this episode is going to be fun each week. I'll share with you what's happening in the week and what I'm currently thinking about.

And I'm going to start off this episode with castor oil. Now, I don't know if you've heard about castor oil or the benefits of castor oil, but to me, it's kind of. The new practice of skincare. It kind of reminds me of the trendiness of cold plunging. Like people are doing it. Some people think it's really great.

There are a lot of wonderful health benefits. Does it mean you have to do it? Absolutely not. But I have been using castor oil for about three months and I. I'm loving it. I think that it's a really cost effective deeply nourishing product for your skin. And it's very important that you use a high quality, cold pressed, no extra antioxidants in the packaging.

I will link to the one, and this is where I'm not an expert, but I have researched the best one to get, and I can link to it on Amazon, but some of the benefits here, I'm going to tell you what I've done with it. Now, if you're familiar with castor oil, you'll know that my first understanding of it was you use it to induce labor.

I don't know if you've heard of it before that, but that was my first introduction is you use it to induce labor. Don't ever do it. It's actually really bad for you. Well, the way that I've been using castor oil is topically I've been using it on my skin at night. And what's interesting about castor oil is that it can actually be used to treat acne to help with inflammation of your skin.

To help with age spots and to also help with relieving any redness that you have hyperpigmentation, I've just found that it's a super uber thick oil. And I'm loving it now warning because it's so thick. If you wear your hair down at night, it can like stick to your face, but I've noticed that it's helped really helped.

Because it is so moisturizing, of course, the other effects of that are to reduce fine lines and wrinkles and to help the overall health of your skin. I have also used it for a hair mask, which is It can get a little messy. So because it is so thick and oily, obviously, it's a really good idea to have one of those sleep caps where you put it over your head and then it has like a silk bonnet with it.

I can link to that as well. Uh, the first time my husband saw me in a silk bonnet. He's like, what are you doing? And I said, I'm taking care of my hair and this is what it looks like. And it's not pretty. Isn't it funny that when we are doing all of our self care things, we look absolutely ridiculous, but I don't even care.

I'm in the era of taking care of my hair and skin and not caring. Now with that said. I do not do this every night. I try to, but there are some days I'm just too tired and it's a quick and easy, you know, face wash and hit the pillow. I just don't get too serious about it. However, one thing that I'm doing that is kind of extra, and something that is, you know, Something I never thought I'd be doing before is I am doing a daily, it's a 30 day challenge.

So I'm only like halfway through, but it's fascia and breaking up the fascia that builds up in your skin. And it's a 30 day challenge. So I'm, I bought this course. And it's from this woman called Anastasia, Anastasia. She's Russian, beautiful. And she shares how you can break up fascia buildup in your face.

And by doing, you know, a lot of us have seen the Gua Sha, you know, with doing lymphatic drainage and different things like that. But this is the Gua Sha. Way more than that, because you're actually doing exercises for your neck, your shoulders, your scalp, your skin, your jawline, your TMJ, your neck, your chest, and it's very involved.

I think that in most of the recordings, it's like 20 to 30 minute exercises a day. So some days it's been a lot because I have so much. Fibrosis in my neck and in my, um, tensions that's built there and her, the whole concept with it is that the best way to regenerate the elasticity of our skin, the collagen of our skin is we have to break down the fascia that has built up in our skin, that lactic acid, the rigidity.

And so you have to work. From all the other angles, the skin, the scalp, the neck, the shoulder to help loosen the skin in a way that it can tighten and strengthen the skin. I know it sounds kind of out there, but I've been doing this for a few weeks and I'm already seeing a benefit in. lessening the tension of my skin and increasing the shape of my face.

I know this sounds really different. Um, when my husband sees me doing the exercises at night, he's like, this is so weird. What are you doing? He said, I think you're turning into your mother. And I totally am. My mom is all about holistic approaches to health and I am going there. I'm getting crazy. I'm starting to like Do the sea silver and drinking the greens and taking care of my skin.

I have done Botox a few times and my skin or my body metabolite metabolizes it so quickly that it doesn't even work in my skin. So you can see, like, I have all the movement with that being said. Dysport works okay for me, kind of, and I've done that a few times, but the reason why I'm telling you about this fascia and doing exercises for your face, neck, shoulders is It's supposed to make it so you don't have to use chemicals in your skin.

It like helps lift your skin naturally. So we'll see. I mean, skeptics still out because of course, like a shot works every time, just like a cream is, you know, part of the practice, but it doesn't totally take it, you know, fix it completely. But that's what I'm doing this week. It's kind of different, kind of new.

I'll tell you an update of what I think when it's all done. The course is written so that ultimately you're supposed to have. Your own routine and practice memorized so that you don't have to have access to her course anymore, which I'm like, I don't think that's possible. I need that. I need the help because I don't know what I'm doing, but that's what I'm doing to help maintain my skin.

And at the end of the day, I think that it's a really therapeutic. beautiful self care time to relax and relax my neck and work through the knots in my neck. And I met with a massage therapist and he said, you have so much fascia and strain in your neck that we would need to meet. For 10 to 12 times to work through the stiffness in your neck, which I'm like, oh, that's awful because the first time I got the massage, I actually ended up, um, having a, uh, like a kink to neck for days.

So I thought, well, I'll try this approach and it's a lot cheaper than going to the massage therapist 10 to 12 times. So. That is my update on that. I'm going to let you know how that goes. I would love to know your favorite skincare routines. Listen, I'm 40 now. And so I am open to hearing all of the things I'm trying to do better with taking care of my skin.

Blast those stinking sun tanning beds that I did as a kid where I had so much insecurity about my fair skin. And I envy the kids that are growing up now that have. Either the love and self love of their own fairness, or that can just use drops or tanning or whatever. I just regret spending so much time in the tanning beds.

Oh, if I could go back, that is for sure. One thing I would tell myself, do not do this, but here we are. So. That is my PSA today. Um, what's up this week. Okay. For today's motherhood moments, I'm going to be sharing with you three submissions that came in this week. Now this is new for this community. So if you're just hearing this and you're like, wait, what?

There's motherhood moments and I can contribute. Yes, there is. And there is a link in the description below. This is where you can share questions, a funny story, a confession, um, Any anecdotal story that you want to remember, a funny thing your kid said, whatever. But I love sharing the motherhood aspect too.

So I will share a motherhood moment from my week. And then I would love for you to share a motherhood moment from your week. So. My motherhood moment from this week was visiting the Nike store. And I can tell you having three sons and a daughter that we go through a lot of shoes around here, but thank goodness.

My boys will wear one pair of shoes until it's like ragged and falling apart. And it just so happens that a lot of retailers right now are having really big sales for spring. So spring right now, you get 25 percent off at nike. com. You can do a lot of price matching. If you go to. Dicks or shields, you can, you can ask, like, if there's a style that you like that you don't find somewhere else anyway.

So that's what we were doing. We're getting the cleats and, and the new soccer shoes and flag football and lacrosse. Like we're just in the middle of it. And I went in with my son and we were looking through the aisle and. I had this flashback to when I would go shoe shopping with my mom and how it was always a special time for us because we, I didn't get to go shoe shopping a lot.

I grew up in a family with educators and typically we got new shoes at the beginning of the school year. And maybe if we were lucky, Christmas, but I just remember that moment of being in a shoe store and, and looking at different styles and thinking, what is it that is going to fit? What, what represents me?

How do I feel with these new pair of shoes? And this week I kind of got sentimental about it with what shoes are we putting on and how are we identifying ourself with these shoes? And I was watching my seven year old look at different styles and the way that he. Identified what would be the best for him.

And it was so sweet because it took a long time to decide and it can be kind of frustrating, but thank goodness for us, it was just my husband, myself and my youngest. And so I let him take his time. We weren't in a big hurry, but I let him peruse the aisles and he found A couple of different pairs of shoes that he thought were really cool, but they weren't in his size.

And finally we found this pair of shoes that had a bit of green on them. And I looked at my husband and I was like, Oh, we found these shoes. And he looked at the shoes and he said, well, those are lifestyle shoes. They're not sports shoes. So they're going to be kind of heavy. And immediately my son's face dropped and he was like, Oh, I don't want these.

And I gave my husband the evil eye, because I was like, you have no idea how long it took us to find shoes that fit him, and were the right size, and the style. Anyway, and then he said, but, If, and I, I looked at him and I said, that's not true. I said, look, even on the shoe, it says Nike air. That means that they're light as air.

You can run as fast as you can in these shoes. And he kind of brightened up a bit. And then my husband like clued into what was happening. And he's like, Oh, and guess what? There's a little bit of green on them, which means you'll never have to worry about being pinched on St. Patrick's day again. And the light on his face.

Just like blew up into so much joy because, Oh my gosh, he never has to be worried about being pinched again, since we just celebrated St. Patrick's day. And it was all the shenanigans for a seven year old of hiding it on his underwear and not wanting to be pinched. It was really hilarious. But with that being said, the messages that we're sending to our kids about what They just so easily believe what words we place into their heart and what things they identify with by what we tell them.

And I have heard this before, that our, what we hear in our heads, is the way that our mom, our mom or our dad used to speak to us. Like almost like our self talk is what our parents used to say. And this is a very small example of that, but it was switching from, Oh, those shoes are going to be heavy to no, those are as light as air.

And Oh, those shoes are cool. Oh, but guess what? They're green. You'll never have to worry about being pinched again. And. The stories that we narrate for our kids become so much a fabric of the way that they see themselves or the way that they identify just different ways things work. And this is such a small.

Example. It's a silly example, but I think it's so powerful for us to consider what are the words that you're feeding to your kids in the way that they see themselves, whether it's their behavior or are we correcting them? Are we cheer, cheerleading for them? Are we filling them up in a way that makes them feel.

Like they're running on air that they can be the speed of light. When I was at Disneyland, just a couple of weeks ago, I was wearing checkered shoes that I love. They're the black and white, um, just low for, and now I'm like Converse shoes. And I saw this little boy, he was three or four years old and he had the same shoes on and he saw me with my shoes and he came up to me and he said, Oh my goodness, you're wearing Converse.

You have my fast shoes on. Are you so fast in your fast shoes? And I said, Oh yeah, I am so fast in these fast shoes. And we took turns running back and forth together. And I talked with the mom and we were just. joking about how sweet it is and how cute it is that kids can get so much such a boost out of the shoes that they wear or the stories that they're telling themselves.

And she said, I bought these shoes in three different sizes now because he loves them so much. So with that said, I want you to think about the shoes. Figuratively that you are putting on your kids in the way that you speak to them and the way that you're speaking to yourself. Are you speaking light and speed into your child or are you telling them those shoes are going to be heavy?

And just a thought. Okay, so that's my motherhood moment. Let's get into yours. Okay, so for this first one, this person says, my 2-year-old is screaming all the time. Help. Okay, so 2-year-old screaming I, I feel you, mama. I think that there were between ages two and four that each of my kids took a time when screaming was the way that they wanted to communicate, and it made it really challenging.

One of the things that helped us a lot is we actually did. We had a jar where we got little fuzzy balls that we would reward our children for behavior that we wanted to see. So an example with a child who likes to scream, first, of course, we would try to communicate more effectively, whether that was with sign language, depending on their age or, um, getting on their level and really trying to communicate what it was.

But focusing on when you use a good voice, you earn a fuzzy ball. And it, by the time you get five fuzzy balls or 15 or fill up a tiny little jar, then you get to do this activity or have a prize. And so it was always like we were leading towards that positive behavior that we wanted to see. And on Sundays is when we review how the week went of the positive behavior that we were trying to see from our child.

And I found that with that, it really helped to encourage the positive behavior we wanted to see and saying, Oh, you're doing so good at having a nice voice. And honestly, you might even have to set a timer or, A reminder in your phone so that you're looking to reward that good behavior. Cause sometimes it's easy to forget when you're in the mix of everything else, but I've noticed that that really helped our kids when we focused on the positive that we wanted to see, but heaven help you.

I have been there and one side note that helps keep my calm when I was in a scenario like that is I would sometimes have an AirPod just in one ear playing music that would kind of help me. Stay in perspective and keep happy so that I could, um, not have too much auditory overwhelm from the child, but keeping a little bit of calm for myself.

So I hope that either one of those help. Thank you for submitting it and good luck. I know that that is so challenging. Okay, the next one is I took my daughter to Disneyland for the first time. It was so magical. Oh, I'm so happy for you. As many of you know, I am like a Disney freak. And I say, if you can afford to go when your kids are tiny, honestly, it's not so much about their memory.

It's about yours. And you will never forget when they let you dress them up as a tiny little princess or a little warrior or whatever. Marvel character it is and oh my gosh, I will never forget when we took My baby as, um, we dressed him up as Woody and he had this cute little felt hat and the whole outfit.

And I just loved carrying that little Woody baby everywhere. It was so cute and so fun. I'm so glad you had a good time. And, you know, at the end of the day, when they're little and tiny, if you can hold onto those memories, it is just, it goes so fast. So I'm so happy for you. Okay. This is the last one for today.

My mother in law is coming over. How do I deal? Okay. So from this question statement, I'm guessing it's not a good, not a good deal. Um, I have been blessed with having a very low maintenance, awesome mother in law. So I, I sympathize with you. I can't necessarily empathize because she's great. Um, I also have never had an in law stay over, but what I can tell you from people that I know who have been in this situation is to be really clear on your own boundaries in before the situation comes, comes to fruition.

So for example, Decide before she comes what you would like the time to look like and writing down a list of what is controllable. And what is uncontrollable? So what I mean is, you know, let's say that she's coming over for a weekend and write down a list of all of the things that you're worried about.

Maybe you're worried about the things that she'll say, or the cleanliness of the house or how the kids are going to react or whatever, whatever those things are, write them down and then go through the list and cross off all of the things that are out of your control, which. I'm guessing there could be quite a few because we can only control what we do, right?

And how we respond to things. And then I would look at that and decide, what is it about this situation that I can control and how can I keep my inner peace? And even if that's, you know, taking 30 minutes away for you to go get a special drink by yourself or going for a walk or, um, You know, outlining the day and when you're going to be together and when you're not just on your own, whatever that looks like, find a way to keep your peace and good luck.

I, I really hope it goes well. All right. Well, I wanted to finish up today's episode with encouragement to everyone out there who is listening. I'm so grateful for those of you. You who have reached out submitted your motherhood moments, and also a huge congratulations to those who have signed up for 60 days to VA.

I had a couple of people sign up this week, and it is so exciting to me because it's mothers who are creating their own businesses through my virtual assistant course. And I have so many opportunities that are coming. For people who are looking for help in their businesses. And so thank you for betting on yourself.

Thank you for investing in me and for listening to this episode, please subscribe so that you do not miss. And we have so many awesome interviews and solo shows coming up. Did you like this episode? I'd love to hear, and thank you for being here. Love you guys. See you next time.