natural options

Essential Oils

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Essential oils are concentrated plant extracts used for various purposes, including aromatherapy, skincare, and overall wellness. Using essential oils for your physical and emotion health is such a great way to empower yourself. Here’s a beginner’s guide to using essential oils safely and effectively:

1. Understand Essential Oils

  • What Are They?: Highly concentrated extracts from plants, capturing their scents and beneficial properties.
  • Common Uses:
    • Aromatherapy (stress relief, energy boost)
    • Topical application (skin care, massage)
    • Household cleaning (natural cleaning solutions)

2. Popular Essential Oils

  • Lavender: Relaxation, sleep aid, skin-soothing.
  • Peppermint: Energy boost, headache relief, digestion.
  • Tea Tree: Antimicrobial, acne treatment, cleaning.
  • Eucalyptus: Respiratory support, deodorizing.
  • Lemon: Uplifting, cleaning, immune support.

3. Methods of Use

Aromatherapy

  • Diffusion: Use a diffuser to disperse oils into the air for inhalation.
  • Inhalation: Add a drop to a tissue or your palms, then inhale deeply.

Topical Application

  • Dilution: Mix with a carrier oil (like coconut, jojoba, or almond oil) to avoid skin irritation. Common ratio: 1-2 drops of essential oil per teaspoon of carrier oil.
  • Spot Treatment: Apply to areas like wrists, temples, or soles of feet.

Baths

  • Add 3-5 drops to bathwater with a dispersant (like a tablespoon of carrier oil or Epsom salts) to avoid direct skin contact.

Household Use

  • Add to cleaning solutions for a natural, pleasant scent.
  • Use in DIY room sprays or linen mists.

4. Safety Guidelines

  • Dilution is Key: Never apply undiluted oils directly to your skin unless specified as safe by the manufacturer.
  • Patch Test: Test on a small area of skin before regular use.
  • Internal Use: Only consume oils if labeled as food-grade and advised by a healthcare professional.
  • Storage: Keep oils in dark glass bottles, away from heat and light.
  • Keep Away from Children and Pets: Some oils can be toxic to pets (like tea tree, eucalyptus, and citrus oils) and harmful if ingested.

5. Choosing Quality Oils

  • Look for labels like “100% pure” or “therapeutic grade.”
  • Check the Latin botanical name to confirm authenticity.
  • Purchase from reputable brands.

When I was first using essential oils I was so overwhelmed. I wasn’t sure what did what, if I was going to mess up or if I was going to make a horrible concoction, so I got a great resource book and starting learning. In no time I gained confidence and was able to learn how to use them safely and effectively. 

Learning new things is exciting to me and this topic still excites me. When I am helping new people get started I often say, “remember when you had to learn how to cook?? You needed a recipe or cookbook, right?”…..Oils are so similar! We all need the equivalent to the Joy of Cooking when it comes to using essential oils. Here is my fave resource book to learn from.

Grab your resource book and commit to learning 1-2 oils a week! In no time you will be making up remedies, creating fabulous diffuser blends to switch up the mood in your space, tossing together a cool DIY and probably sharing your new knowledge with just about anyone!

The most important thing to remember is to choose your preferred company based on the ethics that align with you and your vision for life. I personally chose doTERRA. Here are three key reasons why doTERRA is often considered a great choice:

1. High-Quality Standards

  • CPTG® Certification: doTERRA uses a proprietary Certified Pure Tested Grade® (CPTG) process to ensure its oils are pure, potent, and free of contaminants. Each batch undergoes rigorous third-party testing.
  • Sourcing Transparency: The company shares detailed sourcing and testing results with consumers, emphasizing their commitment to quality and accountability.

2. Ethical and Sustainable Sourcing

  • Co-Impact Sourcing®: doTERRA partners with farmers and distillers worldwide to create sustainable and ethical sourcing relationships. They focus on fair wages and community development.
  • Environmental Commitment: doTERRA emphasizes environmentally responsible practices, ensuring their sourcing and production do not harm ecosystems.

3. Holistic Wellness and Education

Education and Support: The company provides extensive resources, including training for wellness advocates, usage guides, and customer support, to help users maximize the benefits of essential oils.

Product Variety: Beyond essential oils, doTERRA offers wellness products, including supplements, personal care, and cleaning solutions, promoting a holistic approach to health.

Keep this handy chart because it really can be as a simple as this, too. 

Applying Essential Oils

/ embracingspirit / Leave a comment

When I first started using essential oils, I mostly used a diffuser or I would slap the oils on my body with random intent.  I liked how good the essential oils made my house smell, and I loved the aromatherapeutic benefits I was experiencing, like lavender helping me sleep better at night, or peppermint helping soothe a headache. I loved how my body smelled, also. At that time, I had no idea that there are benefits to using essentials in a physical well-being way. Once I dug deeper into the natural world and had been using essential oils over time I learned that it is beneficial to apply essential oils directly on the body, like when trying to ease an upset stomach or when treating thinning hair. Once I realized that plant medicine came long before drug-store medicine I was hooked on learning more. I got a giant resource book and began learning everything I could and started to swap out over the counter stuff for these precious little plants.

I needed to learn when to put essential oils on the body, where to apply them, and how to dilute oils properly so they are effective without causing harm. I committed to learning about essential oils much like a person grabs a cookbook and learns how to cook. In time, it became intuitive, much like cooking.

Where Is the Best Place on the Body to Apply Essential Oils?

There is no single perfect place on the body to apply essential oils.

  • If it’s a localized issue like stomachache or sore muscles, then apply the essential oils directly to the part of the body where the issue is occurring.
  • However, if it’s a more generalized issue like lack of focus, trouble sleeping, or anxiety, then apply essential oils at your pulse points: wrists, temples, behind the ears, neck, chest, or inner elbow.  Pulse points are the parts of the body where major arteries run closest to the skin. Applying essential oils at pulse points gets the essential oils into the bloodstream the fastest, and you start feeling the benefits of the essential oils sooner.  This is because pulse points of the body are like roots of a plant.  When feeding or watering a plant, you target the roots because that is where the plant absorbs nutrients and distributes them to the rest of the plant.

If you’ve been researching aromatherapy, you might have come across pulse points. These are places on the body that provide a direct route for essential oils to access your bloodstream and, in turn, your brain. 

Pulse points in aromatherapy refer to a few specific locations on the body where major arteries run closest to the surface of the skin. This means that anything applied to the skin at these points diffuses more quickly into the bloodstream than anywhere else. 

So, if you’re planning to apply essential oils topically, it’s best to do so at one of your pulse points.

How Do You Apply Essential Oils Directly to the Skin?

When applying essential oils topically to skin, always dilute them with a carrier oil ( coconut oil, sweet almond oil, jojoba, or olive oil).  Essential oils are very powerful, so it’s better to be safe than sorry. My favorite carrier oil is generally fractionated coconut oil, but for my face I love rosehip oil. Recently I had a horrific stomach bug and in my desperation for relief I was dumping oils straight on my skin and I sure paid the price. On day two of the stomach bug, my belly had broke out in a horrible rash. So, USE a carrier! Believe me, I know this and I still screw up.

I came across this chart and it is a must have.

Using essential oils with intention has been a part of my practice (aside from the desperate stomach bug mishap) for many years. I try to tune into what my body is wanting to feel, and then choose the plants accordingly. Once you have a general idea of which essential oils support which area of our body then we can choose which oils more deliberately. You grab the essential oil that most closely fits what you are wanting to feel and then apply!

For people just getting started using essential oils, I recommend this gorgeous ebook and then I supply education and mentoring along the way as part of my VIP community.

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