Essential Oils

I love essential oils!  I use them a lot in my clinic, because I find that acupressure points balance a lot more quickly with them, and add an extra layer to the healing process. I also make up some blends that are highly effective for various conditions.

Choose a quality oil 

The most important point with using essential oils is to ensure that you are using a good quality pure oil that has not been diluted with other ingredients, and price will be a good indicator of this in a lot of cases.  Effectiveness will also be another excellent indicator.

There are several excellent quality oils on the market, and I spent months doing research on which oils I liked, and in the end, I decided that doTerra were the oils for me, mostly because I liked their blends better.  I also liked that doTerra source their plants where they grow indigenously, which is thought to increase the efficacy of the oil. This is not to say that other oils on the market are not as good – like all decisions, it is a highly personal choice with what resonates with you, and I liked doTerra best.

How Do Essential Oils Work?

How the oils work depends on the body system that they affect.  Oils are inhaled, applied or ingested.  Please read my note of caution further down this page under ingestion BEFORE you ingest any essential oil.

INHALATION

Oils are inhaled mostly when they are diffused into the air, although they can be inhaled directly from the bottle or on other materials.

Inhaled oils affect several body systems, but the most important and predominant body system affected is the olfactory system, which is all things related to the sense of smell.  The most important thing to note here is that the olfactory system is directly linked to the limbic system, which is the emotional centre of your brain, bypassing all of the thought and reasoning processes in your brain.  This pathway explains why smells trigger emotions.  The limbic system then plugs straight into other areas of the brain that control breathing, heart rate, blood pressure, hormones, memory and stress levels.  So it stands to reason then that if smell can affect the limbic system, it can also affect many other body systems as well.

APPLICATION

Essential oils can be applied topically to the skin.  Oils that are applied to the skin should be diluted in a carrier oil such as jojoba, fractionated coconut oil or similar to reduce the possibility of skin irritation in some individuals.  Please seek advice before using on children and infants. The wrists and the bottoms of the feet are two excellent absorption points, so I often recommend applying oils in these locations, but they can be used pretty much anywhere.  Oils applied topically work on a cellular level to some degree, and muscular.  Effects of application can be increased by massaging the area prior to use to increase blood flow, and also by using heat.

INGESTION

Pure grade oils can in theory be ingested.  However, my word of caution is to seek the advice of a qualified aromatherapist BEFORE ingesting any essential oil.  It is a lot more common in countries such as France to ingest essential oils than it is here.  It is possible to suffer gastric upset, burns, and interactions with pharmaceuticals when ingesting essential oils, which is why it is important to seek advice from a qualified aromatherapist first.  I have ingested essential oils myself, but it is not something I would widely recommend without the proper advice regarding your specific circumstances.  Secondary to this, it is important that you are using a good quality product if you are going to put it in, or even on, your body.

Purchasing Essential Oils

If you would like to purchase essential oils, please view my page regarding the uses of essential oils and you can purchase the oils from my page here.  My personal blends will be available on this site soon.