I’ve been banging on about essential oils for a while now but haven’t went back to basics and given you any information on what these little bottles I add to creams and capsules actually are, and how they can be used?

There are lots of ways you can use essential oils, from helping with skin conditions and minor health problems, to beauty, to hormones to sex (yes I said it). They are so gentle that they can be used on a newborn baby but so powerful that they can support people going throughout major illnesses.

Essential oils are the concentrated collection of a certain plant material. We are all familiar with using herbs and spices for teas and cooking, using those plants for their taste, smell, and health benefits. Essential oils are really no different accept they are much more concentrated. Herbs and spices are dried, in doing this we lose around 96% of the essential oil which is in that plant, which is really where the magic lies. To collect essential oils, we use low steam distillation which captures the complete chemical profile of the plant, so we aren’t losing much, this creates the highly concentrated oil. Studies showed that 1 drop of a good quality peppermint essential oil was the equivalent of 26 cups of peppermint tea! Its strong stuff ladies and gents!

Enough with the process, how can I use these to benefit my life??

There are 3 main ways to use essential oils, today I am going to talk about using oils aromatically. Smelling essential oils is one of the only methods that can reach the limbic system of your brain, this is where your emotions lie in your body, it’s what makes us happy, sad, its where we connect smells to memories. Have you ever smelled something and thought that reminds me of a person or a song?

This is the part of the brain that connects the dots, hopefully we are thinking more like oh that smell of fresh bread reminds me of Granny Hutch, not oh that smell of tequila reminds me of death!  

The power of the essential oil can have reached the Olfactory system and have started supporting our emotions within 22 seconds, either to calm us down, lift our mood or help us sleep. They can help reduce our anxiety, help us feel fresh and ready for the day or set the mood for a romantic evening. The benefits of all these different oils are endless, plus they smell so pure and good for you.

There are a few different ways to do this. You can smell the oils straight from the bottle, but to get the full benefit the best way is to put a few drops of say Lavender in the palm of your hand before you go to bed and take 10 big deep breaths, the breathing will help you to relax in itself but the feeling of breathing in that oil, I can’t explain it! I also put oils into inhalers which are on the website, these can be carried discreetly in your pocket and filled with whatever you like.

Another amazing way to inhale this liquid gold is to use a diffuser, you add the oils into the machine along with some water and this diffuses throughout your whole house. Because the particles are so small, they attach to your curtains, your clothes, anything they can grab a hold of. Diffusing something like Peace and Calming (a Young Living blend) in your home just brings the energy levels into a peaceful and calming atmosphere, funny that! With kids especially this is a good way to get the benefits of the oils into their system without them knowing. A great one my son loves for his room is lavender and orange. The lavender relaxes him, and the orange oil is well known to make kids feel safe and keep them in an uplifted mood… which is beneficial to my wine rack!

We all love our home to smell fresh and homely, imagine having that with added health and wellbeing benefits? Instead of perfumes full of chemicals and toxins, an oil straight from nature that smells incredible but also invokes peace and courage? Or uplifts you when your feeling down? All through smell! Breathtaking when you think about it! (pun intended)