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Essential Oils work differently from any other natural substance.
Their unique features are that they:
• Pass easily through our skin and cells membranes.
• Diffuse through the entire body within half an hour.
• Go directly to the brain through the olfactory bulb.
• Affect our feelings and thoughts because smell is our most emotional sense.
• Perform multiple functions because of their structural complexity.
This is why one essential oil can do so many different things for you all at once--physically, emotionally, and mentally--with just a few drops in the air or on your skin.
Here's a picture of how the aroma of essential oils affects us:
The olfactory bulb carries molecules and impulses into the brain area where our emotional memory is stored.
Scent stimulates nerves to fire in the emotional center of the brain, but it also stimulates the master gland to release hormones. Hormones affect the fight/flight response, as well as digestion and heart rate. In this way, essential oils can affect us in many ways all at once, just through their fragrance.
But essential oils also have a complex chemical structure, designed and produced by nature, which makes the use of essential oils uniquely economical! For example, when lavender oil is applied to a wound, over sore muscles, a broken bone, or a burn, it can support the body's natural self-healing processes in all those areas. Or it might stimulate the immune system or balance blood pressure, or relieve a tension headache, or help you go to sleep.
And finally, essential oils can affect us just through their subtle energy. They have a presence that touches us deeply, and can change our feelings and our thoughts in an instant. This you have to experience to believe! ©
copyright 2002-2006 younglivingworld.com
Methods of Application
Aromatherapy is called by that name because the fragrances of essential oils can themselves often be therapeutic. So, diffusing the oils in the air is the first means of using them. Opening a bottle and holding it up to your nose while breathing deeply is not the best way to do this. Rather, use a diffuser (without heat--no candles, please!) or put some oil on a cotton ball and wedge it into the grille of a fan or vent. You can also put oil into water in a misting bottle and, when covering your eyes, spray the mist around yourself. You can also spray a whole room, or your clothing, or your pillow.
The second way to use the oils is topically, on your skin. The best place to start is with your feet. A Vita-Flex foot chart will show how different parts of the body are represented on the feet. These diagrams appear in Gary Young's book, "Aromatherapy, The Essential Beginning." If you're not sure about where to place the oils on your feet, don't worry. You can just cover the whole bottom of your feet with three drops of oil or so on each and know that the oil is getting everywhere you might want or need it to go throughout your body. You can get remarkable effects just by putting the oils on your feet. So, this is a good way to start.
Diffusing:
You can purchase a Diffuser from Young Living Essential Oils that sends the oils into the air in an extremely fine mist that will hang in the air for several hours. This is certainly the best way to diffuse essential oils. However, the economy method works well, too. The economy method is to put a few drops (5-10) on a cotton ball and wedge the ball into the grill of an ordinary fan or the vent of a forced-air system in your home/office/car, etc. You can start with just a few drops and add more based on how much scent you like in the air. If you stop smelling it after a few minutes, it's not because there's no more in the air. You're just getting used to it. Try going out of the room/office/car for a half hour and coming back in. You'll smell it again!
In general, we recommend starting with no more than 10 minutes the first day. Let your body get used to the infusion of oxygen. After a few days you might diffuse more often or for longer. Find out your own level of sensitivity. Once you feel comfortable with 15 minutes, that is generally a minimum amount for purifying the air of germs, etc.
Applying on the skin:
The four types of topical application are 1) on the feet, 2) on the ears, 3) on the fingers, and 4) anywhere else (including using them in a bath or with a compress).
The first three are set apart because they have places on them that relate to the rest of the body. In other words, if you have a headache, you could try to help reduce the discomfort by putting oil on the points on the feet that relate to the head (the pad of the big toe for the brain, the other toes for eyes and ears ,etc.). Or you could put it on the places on the ears that relate to the head, etc. There are various charts, mostly deriving from Chinese medicine, that depict these points on the feet, ears, and hands. You might be familiar with reflexology charts. (See the Vita Flex Foot Charts for a picture of Gary Young's approach to points on the feet.) Helping the body heal by addressing these points is an ancient tradition. D. Gary Young's diagram is based on his own research in measuring electrical frequency changes at different places on the body when oil was placed on the specific points on the feet.
Using the example of the headache, you could choose to support your body with essential oils on the feet (on the pad of the big toe) or right on location: across the forehead, on the temples, on the crown of the head, etc. Similarly, for discomfort in other areas, you can apply oils locally. Cuts, burns, bruises, insect bites, rashes infections, etc. can all respond well to the topical use of essential oils right on location.
Which oils to use is always an individual matter. There is no one oil for headaches or muscle pain. This is because the cause of the symptoms can be different from person to person. One headache might be from indigestion, or an allergic reaction, or hormonal changes, or stress, etc. Look at the list of oils and the descriptions of their properties. Think about your symptoms and what might be the underlying cause. Take a guess or use your intuition about what oil might be appropriate for you.
Try one. If it doesn't do the trick, try another. Even if the oil you choose doesn't help your body turn off your headache, it will have other beneficial effects if only because of the increased oxygenation, antiseptic and anti-inflammatory properties, etc. Get to know your oils, discover how they affect you, and know that someone else may respond to those oils in a completely different way. Honor the discovery process in yourself and others.
Taking a bath with a few drops of your chosen oil can be a peak experience. Even a short bath with the exquisite fragrances of your Young Living Essential Oils floating up from the water and sailing into your nose and skin can be profoundly relaxing or energizing, depending on which oils you use. One reason that people soak in baths is to relieve achy, sore muscles. By adding a few drops of oils that are known to aid in muscle relaxation, such as Marjoram, Lavender, or Basil, you can enhance that process. Of course, some of the blends made by Young Living are also very relaxing--like Peace & Calming. In any case, you only need a few drops, and they work best when dropped on to the surface of the bath once it's been drawn. Then, you get to climb in and enjoy.
TO PURCHASE YOUNG LIVING ESSENTIAL OILS - CLICK HERE www.aromamastery.com/jean
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