Aromatherapy

Aromatherapy : Essential Oil Dos and Dont’s For Your Health

Are you looking for a pleasant way to help you to make positive changes in your life? Aromatherapy is an excellent way to achieve them.

There are many ways to make use of essential oils, and aromatherapy is one of them. The most important thing to remember, however, is you must choose an essential oil that’s well-made. Steam-distilled oils are the best.

“Once you find an essential oil brand that’s well made, there are many ways to use them.”

Some brands of essential oil are extracted using chemicals. Those chemicals, unfortunately, end up in the little bottle along with the fragrance. Should you choose to put the oil on your skin (always diluted by a carrier oil, such a olive, coconut, or castor), you’re also putting the chemicals on your skin.

Further, if there are artificial additives or preservatives in the essential oil, it’s not a great idea to use them, especially if you intend to apply them to your skin, because, again, the artificial additives will also be applied to your skin.

Your skin is your largest organ, it will absorb whatever you massage into it, and it’s unhealthy to absorb chemicals and artificial additives.

Once you find an essential oil brand that’s well made (Revive is my favorite brand and very reasonably-priced), there are many ways to use them.

Purchase a diffuser and release the fragrance(s) into the air.
Rub the oil into the back of your neck or your pulse points, first diluting it with a carrier oil.
Put a drop onto a cotton ball, and place it near you.
If you happen to like massage and essential oils, you can bring your favorite one to your massage therapist, and ask him/her/them to use your oil along with the massage lotion or oil.
Some essential oil companies make mini-diffusers for your desk or car, which can help with your mood while you work and drive.

As mentioned earlier, essential oils should not be massaged into your skin alone. Always dilute them with a carrier oil. Carriers are called that, because, in addition to diluting the essential oil, they “carry” it to your skin. Because some brands of essential oil are quite unnecessarily expensive, using a carrier will help extend the length of the oil’s life, thereby keeping you from frequently having to replace it.

Pure, hexane-free, extra-virgin, expeller pressed, organic golden castor oil in an amber glass bottle is your best bet to use as a carrier. (Queen of the Thrones is my favorite.) Castor oil does some pretty miraculous things for your skin all by itself. Please look on YouTube for a few video recordings on that subject.

Some other choices of unscented or lightly-scented carrier oils are jojoba, olive, apricot kernel, coconut, argan, or rosehip. Please also ascertain that the carrier oil is of high-quality. This is especially important if the skin receiving the oil is sensitive in any way.

Essential oils don’t only smell lovely (although, if you get a good brand, they certainly do!). According to an About.Com Psychology article by author and educator Kendra Cherry:

[T]he olfactory nerve is located very close to the amygdala, the area of the brain that is connected to the experience of emotion as well as emotional memory. In addition, the olfactory nerve is very close to the hippocampus, which is associated with memory.

That means it isn’t just your imagination that fragrance affects you emotionally, there is an actual biological connection.

Frances O’Brien