How Are Essential Oils Used?

How Are Essential Oils Used?
As mentioned earlier, there are several ways to use essential oils. Indeed, depending on how creative you are, you can find enough ways to use them to substantially change the way you do just about anything: cleaning, treating ailments, decorating, relaxing, grooming, spicing up relationships, etc. Most people, when they think of aromatherapy, immediately think of how things smell. Well, this makes sense; not only is the word “aroma” right there in the technique’s name, but the essential oils are often very strongly scented due to their high concentration. But some of the ways to use essential oils rely more on their chemical properties than on their scents. Here, we’ll explore a few methods including diffusion, topical uses, baths, and ingestion.
Diffusion/Vaporizing This is probably the best-known method of using essential oils. This is simply “diffusing” the essential oil into the air by warming it (diluted with water using the 2 – 3% rule above). Most diffusers/vaporizers that I have seen use tea light candles, but there are some that are electric or which are designed to fit around a light bulb, which warms it when turned on. Commercial aromatherapy diffusers are very easy to find and can be fairly inexpensive. (I’ve purchased several for $1 each at local “dollar stores.”)
Diffusion is a great way to use the oils, because you benefit from them in multiple ways. First, the scent fills the room, and can help create an intended atmosphere. This becomes especially important when you’re trying to affect the overall mood of a space. Some essential oils will promote calm, tranquil feelings. Others will help to energize and invigorate. And yes, sometimes all it takes is the appropriate scent in the air!
Second, the “aroma” of aromatherapy is a bridge to very physiological responses. When you breathe in a scent, your olfactory nerve cells send an electrical message to the brain. This information from the olfactory nerve cells is processed by the limbic system, “an area of the brain that initiates mood and memory formation” . Apparently, it may also affect our immune response: “There is new evidence that we may exercise direct control over health and disease through the hypothalamus [part of the limbic system]. The way the immune system and the central nervous system operate is only vaguely understood, but researchers know that
they do communicate with one another. Specific odors provide a pathway through the central nervous system that activates the immune system’s protector cells” .
Third, diffusion is a great way to get some of the more potent, medicinal essential oil vapors into our systems. For example, as we breathe in diffused Eucalyptus oil (which has strong decongestant and antiseptic properties…more on that later), it goes directly into our lungs, where it can start to work its magic, calming inflammation, helping to soothe congested airways, and fighting infection. Add that to the fact that it smells therapeutic (who doesn’t have memories of camphor-like smells surrounding muscle rubs, vapor rubs, cough drops, etc.?) and you have a body/mind therapy at work: physically affecting the ailment as well as boosting your mental association to healing. Great stuff!


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