Feel Good Everyday: Essential oils for stress management
If the head nuh good how you fi feel good? Feeling good is what we’re all about here on Feel Good Friday’s.
There’s a lot of buzz these days about essential oils and I want to take the time to clear the air as it relates to essential oils.
But first, what are essential oils?
Essential oils are the volatile aromatic compounds found in plants that can be found in the leaves, flowers, stems or bark of various plants.
Every oil extracted has various properties that are beneficial and healing both physically and mentally.
Yep, that’s right it’s not new-age garbage, the particles of essential oils are small enough to cross the brain-blood barrier and actually impact your brain, having a psychological effect.
This is why certain oils when inhaled or diffused actually can change your mood.
What an amazing natural way to manipulate your feelings and feel good? This is especially awesome given the stressful times that we exist in now.
Different Grades of Oils
Not all essential oils are created equally; there are various grades of oils.
Some are authorised for internal use, some for aromatic use, and others only for topical use.
Think about it! If inhaling something allows it to cross the brain-blood barrier or applying a product to the skin gets absorbed into your body so easily, shouldn’t you be applying or inhaling only the best oils?
I mean they’ll all end up inside of you anyway. That’s why in my practice I only recommend the use of therapeutic grade essential oils. Learn about my free oil consultations here.
There are three ways that you can use essential oils:
Topically – Always add your oil to a carrier oil diluting in a ratio based on the age of the person and the oil being used.
Essential oils are too strong to go directly on your skin, also a carrier oil helps you better absorb it and spreads the oil across a greater area of skin for better absorption.
Aromatically – you can add the oil to a mixture of water and alcohol and spray into a room or on fabrics. I find the best way to use essential oils aromatically is with a diffuser.
This is different from an ‘oil burner’ which uses heat. A diffuser spreads the oil droplets with a fine mist of cool water.
This spreads through the air so that you’re inhaling fine droplets of the essential oil – which is my favourite way to use essential oils for emotional benefits.
Internally – Provided that the bottle reads ‘supplement information’ many essential oils can be taken internally for various benefits.
You can put a few drops of the oil in a glass of water and drink it or you can use a capsule designed for this purpose, add the oil to the capsules and take them as you deem fit.
You always want to be working with a qualified professional when taking oils internally.
Here are two great diffuser blends to take away feelings of anxiety.
3 drops, Lavender
3 drops, Geranium
2 drops, Lemon
2 drops, Sandalwood
OR
4 drops, Lavender
4 drops, Frankincense
1 drop, Bergamot
1 drop, Ylang Ylang