Important Update :: Five Allies Essential Oil Blend

Hello,

I am sorry to say that the Wild As The Wind website didn’t go live last week, as scheduled. The go-live date has been somewhat of a ‘moveable beast’ for the last two weeks!

It has tied my hands behind my back in many ways… I can’t update or produce new website content, for example… nor promote the business in any way, etc… It’s been challenging!

However, I have been reliably informed that the final migration will take place overnight tonight. (Thank goodness for that!)

Nevertheless, this also means that I will potentially be very busy over the next few days, performing a mop-up operation. This is especially true as I was served with a ‘cease and desist’ order by an American corporation on Friday afternoon…

Five Allies Essential Oil Blend

The order relates to the products I formulated and began to release after 2020, in response to the health challenges we were all facing at that time. In 2022, I released another, so that we had an alternative to the very hard-hitting 2020 version, moving forward.

These products had the term ‘Thieves’ in the title, as do so many others in the UK.

Nevertheless, my formulations were unique to me, despite the other products, that are currently available in the UK, with Thieves in the title, being identical to each other, in most cases.

I was informed that the US corporation, responsible for the order, hold many patents that permit them intellectual property rights over the naming of products using the word Thieves.

As this term relates to a story, which is presented as historical fact, and because so many other companies have used this word in their product titles, which are given names, like those for the Wild As The Wind products, variations on the same theme, and thus not the same… and finally, because my formulations were different, I was of the understanding that I was not in breach of any law or statute.

The original cease and desist communication is not entirely clear on all points, so I have responded asking for more specific clarification.

Nevertheless, I have, in good faith, set the relevant product pages of the current website to private, so none of the products in this essential oil blend range can be purchased, at present.

This means that the timing of the website going live could not be worse! I will have to redo the work that I have done on the current website, all over again tomorrow, when the new version is available. I will also have to amend all of the content on the product pages, so that the product names, within the product descriptions, will appear as:

• Five Allies 2020 Essential Oil Blend

• Five Allies 2022 Essential Oil Blend

• Five Gentle Allies Essential Oil Blend

I am also going to have to review all content I have ever published to look for references to products containing the word Thieves.

And, I was so looking forward to less intensity to my days, after three months of website development work, which has stretched me to the limit! (But, let’s not go there!)

Sadly, updating all content is going to be a huge commitment… which, is especially challenging, because we are finally having a decent summer! But it must be done… and it must be done as consistently and quickly as possible.

The Upside!

Thankfully, I am an eternal optimist, and genuinely believe that there’s always a silver lining to everything… eventually…

I think all small business owners, and artisan / creators, have to be fathomlessly optimistic, or else we just couldn’t do what we do. Without boundless passion, optimism and determination, we wouldn’t last five minutes.

Running a small business in the pre-digital age was hard enough. Even back then, it was an endlessly time-consuming, and often thankless task. But, since the advent of the internet, the challenges have more than doubled.

Small business owners have to have an incredibly expansive skill set, which is often hard won, courtesy of costly mistakes. And, we have to duplicate all of our efforts, which means translating all the work we do out in the real world, and digitally rendering it for the online space.

Obviously, there are benefits to having the internet to work with, but the ‘creation of leisure time’ and ‘simplification of effort’ are certainly not two of them!

However, I wouldn’t be writing to you now if it weren’t for the internet, and I certainly wouldn’t be researching and publishing all the information I provide, that so many of you have told me you find so helpful.

Anyway… I digress…

What’s the upside to the product renaming issue?

Well… I think the situation has prompted the creation of a much more positive, and life affirming name... one that celebrates nature, rather than applauding dubious human endeavour.

The thieves in question, were grave robbers during the plague, who used natural remedies to protect themselves whilst they relieved corpses of their jewellery. I originally thought the story related to the great plague of London, but when I researched it more thoroughly, I realised that the naming of the Thieves products was not only a tad macabre, but also involved cultural appropriation!

It turns out that the grave robbers were French!

It’s a fascinating story… But, on close inspection, there’s not much to celebrate about the connotations of it, especially when it is so unclear whether the use of herbal and essential oil remedies ever made their way into common use, and actually prevented fatalities, during that time.

Ultimately, there’s a feel of myth and legend to the story, and despite trying my best, I was never able to determine the authenticity of the stated facts. This also never really sat entirely well with me, either.

But, the name Five Allies Essential Oil Blend, and especially the Five Gentle Allies Essential Oil Blend version, just make me smile.

So, there we have it… that’s quite a lot of silver lining, don’t you think!?

But, there’s more…

What the website and this situation, plus a few other recent, deeply challenging events, have done for me is to somehow allow me to develop a much better relationship with stress and disappointment.

I finally seem to have cultivated the ability to face hard realities without endlessly worrying, and feeling intolerable levels of stress.

I’m still aware of all that is concerning me at the moment, and I am aware that things can turn out pretty badly on several counts, but, I’m coping okay.

I feel conscious, not numb, and I’m breathing into the stress, so that it doesn’t make me ill.

Plus, I’m not trying to run away or numb myself, either. Instead, I’m remaining conscious, whilst also choosing to not obsess. It’s a really interesting and ultimately liberating process.

But, this doesn’t amount to even more silver lining…

Being able to do what I am presently seemingly able to do, is all golden!

If you would like to learn how to breathe into your stresses, please read this: Vagal Breathing For Relaxation & Optimal Immunity – get out of ‘fight or flight’ back into ‘rest and digest’ mode

For those of you who want to know which are the best essential oils for dealing with stress, please ask in the comments, and I will provide links to the best aromatherapy oils in my next post.

Much love, as always,

Rachel x x x