The origin! start of Just Breathe Body and Bubbles!

Trigger Warning - Mention of Childhood Sexual Assault, Complex Health Disorders, and Self-harm

From the age of four until I was seven, I was sexually assaulted by someone close to our family. Someone we trusted.Due to the years of abuse, and then the stress of a court case, I developed Complex PTSD, and a few years ago was diagnosed with Dissociative Identity Disorder, which used to be known as Multiple Personality Disorder.I want to take a quick moment to say that my family was nothing but supportive and helped me through the entire process. They believed me straight away when I disclosed, and helped me through the entire process, and have continued to support me through all my struggles, as well as accepted and acknowledge my diagnosis.

A little over a year ago, we met Seven. We had heard of her multiple times already, and knew of her existence, but we hadn’t had the chance to properly meet her. Seven held a lot of that early childhood trauma. She struggled to understand my parents, and even me. She struggled to understand why this would happen to her, and why we were different.Without going into too much detail, it has taken us a long time to help Seven get her to where she is now. She has struggled and she really has come along way.We have another littlie who is very close to Seven, we will call her “Four”, again, for safety reasons. Four originally had a big fear of showers, due to certain traumatic experiences she holds. Four would also eat and drink soap, as she felt “dirty” both inside and out and thought that since soap cleaned the outside, it could clean the inside as well. (We don’t recommend this. It does not taste as good as it smells.)Another alter, who we will call Danny, also has traumatic experiences with showers, more typically involving men. My mum has to sit in the bathroom with me while I shower, to make sure I don’t pass out and hit my head, as this is a large risk. Often times while in the shower, I will switch, due to triggers of some kind as showers can be extremely triggering and traumatising for us.

Originally, both Danny and Four were very scared of showers. They were not enjoyable experiences and they often made them feel uncomfortable and very vulnerable, but due to being triggered, they would be locked in the front position, meaning they couldn’t switch with another alter until the trigger had been removed, in this case, the trigger was the shower and we couldn’t avoid showers forever.Eventually, my mum found a good solution. Sweet smelling soaps and bright colours, to help the shower be less scary. We started making our own liquid soap bases and sweet scents like musk sticks and bubble-gum, bright soap colours light bright purples, pinks and blues, and we bought lots of rainbow coloured sponges to wash with. This really helped them see the shower as positive experiences, and we further evolved our bright colours and sweet smells around the house, using it in foaming hand washes, floor and bench cleaner, oil diffusers, and room sprays.We further used these scents and bright colours to help others in our system feel safe, by buying a wax melt burner for the hallway that lights up, so that at night, the hallway outside our room wasn’t so dark, and we used the sweet smells to make everyone find comfort in familiar smells.

Soon after this all started, Seven began showing an interest in helping make the soaps. She had some amazing ideas that she wanted to share with us. Originally it started with just the body wash and the foaming hand soap she would make, and she was actually the one who figured out the proper measurements for the foaming hand soap. She started offering these products to family and friends, and would give them as Christmas gifts.

In the last few months, she wanted to start experimenting with other types of products.

Our sister in law suffers from pretty severe eczema on her hands, and my dad often ends up with dry hands, especially after wood working outside. She did some research, and after getting the pricing and saving up, she bought some Shea butter and made her own moisturiser. Originally it felt quite oily, which wasn’t too bad for dry skin, but it made it hard to do anything unless you let your skin soak the oils in for about an hour. Through some trial and error, she came up with a nice, smooth moisturiser, that feels oil for about five minutes MAX, and my sister in law as well as my dad love it!

She also began experimenting with a whipped shaving soap for my mums dad, our grandfather, as he was the only one we knew that didn’t use electric razors. He still lathers up his face and uses a razor to get a real clean cut.So, she decided to name a shaving soap after him, and gift it to him to trial for her.She has further been experimenting with foot scrubs and shampoos and conditioners, especially to help me as I suffer with terrible psoriasis, so much so that sometimes I scratch my head so badly I split the skin, which she is considering selling in the future once she perfects her formula.

She also began making some amazing shower fizzies! My younger brother gets pretty terribly sick throughout the year, so she tried to make little tablets that he can use in the bottom of the shower to help clear his nose when he is sick.These things have become a “MUST HAVE” in our house as when one of us gets sick, we often all get sick. She also made some to assist in sleep, as I suffer with insomnia, and also some to help us get a kick start in the morning with some energy!

Recently, my dad took some samples to work to share with colleagues, as he was so proud of us all, and his work mates loved it so much, they asked if she was selling it. My dad excitedly rushed home and told us the news, and Seven got started building her business right away.After much deliberation, she decided she wanted to use her soaps to help others the same way she had been able to help Four and Danny. We all understand that even if you don’t have similar traumas to us, showers can be extremely tricky when you struggle with any kind of mental health disorders. Showers can be overwhelming, or even just extremely tiring. You have to understand that although Seven is mentally only seven (7) years old, she does have the added knowledge from me at the age of twenty three (23)She has the mental understanding of someone much older than seven, but the emotional control and understanding of a traumatised seven year old. She does understand those struggles that many in my system face with fears of the shower, or the desperate need to feel clean all the time. She understands what its like feeling dirty, as she sometimes struggles with showers as well, scrubbing our skin until it is red and sometimes bleeding, trying to remove the dirt she thinks is on our skin.

She wanted our business to represent the struggles our entire family has gone through. My mum has a tattoo on the back of her neck saying “Just Breathe.” A personal mantra she would repeat to herself in times of great stress and discomfort.

“Just breathe, you will get through this.”

“Just breathe, you can do this.”

“Just breathe, it will be okay.”

Mums "Just Breathe" Tattoo

My "Semi-Colon" Tattoo

When designing our logo, she wanted it to represent mental health with more than just the words “Just Breathe.”, so in another stroke of genius, she took inspiration from the tattoo on my wrist of a semi-colon, and decided to replace the “J” in Just breathe, with a semi-colon, to represent our stand with mental health a little bit more. The design from our logo came from our inner world. An inner world is where all my alters live when they are not fronting. Inside we have a castle, and a dragon that guards some of our littlies, so we wanted to represent this other world in a bubble, not only to represent the system as a whole, but also to show that these products offer an escape to a better place for all who use them!

We are still learning to communicate affectively, which makes running a business quite tricky, as we are having to rely on passing messages through my family, keeping notes to pass between each other, and I have to trust that Seven is keeping accurate records on what she is using, so I can keep accurate records of what we’re using in the products and when I need to buy more for her.This is an ongoing process and it is going to take a long time for us to get to a place where we can all communicate affectively, but we are going to therapy and seeking help from professionals so that we can better communicate and function together.We have an amazing family, who are very supportive of us, and accepting of the system as a whole. All my family, and friends have been apart of this process, testing out products and giving accurate feedback. We will be launching very soon, as we are just getting enough products and packaging together and making sure everything is ready to go! We would really appreciate you sharing our facebook page and spreading the word. We are so excited for this new chapter in our life, and we hope you will join us as we continue this journey! You can find our facebook page below, or you can go to our website and see what will be available very soon! Don’t forget to spread the word!

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Just Breathe Body and Bubbles

Much love from us all!

We See You.

We Hear You.

You Matter In This World.

Just Breathe;