Aromatherapy Scents

Plants contain oil. That isn't new information. You probably already knew that. There are more than five hundred essential oils that have been identified and extracted. Each one of these essential oils is thought to have very specific effects on the human body and/or human emotions.

Essential oils are volatile. It is almost always extracted from the non-seed part of a plant. essential oils have been used for centuries by many civilizations. The Chinese, Egyptians, Romans, Greeks, Indians, Arabs, American Indians and others used essential oils as medicine as well as for many other things.

Long before writing had been invented, essential oils were being extracted from plants and flowers. Distillation pots have been found that can be dated to 3500 years in the past. Of course, the earliest method of distillation bore little resemblance to modern methods of distillation.

Aromatherapy was a part of the earliest accounts of herbal medicine. The burning of incense and the anointing of oil were both early forms of what we call aromatherapy today.

Learning to practice herbal medicine (including aromatherapy) was a process that lasted many years in all of the ancient civilizations. Apprentices learned from masters, became masters themselves eventually, and passed their knowledge on to other apprentices.

Modern day instruction in aromatherapy does not include the gathering of plants nor instructions in extracting essential oils from plants. This information is not really necessary for an aromatherapist to know. essential oils are produced by companies today and supplied to aromatherapists ready to be used.

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Aromatherapy can help fight the common cold and a lot more.

There are over 500 different essential oils that are extracted from the leaves, stems, root or bark of various trees, flowers, plants and shrubs. Each essential oil is different. And each has its own therapeutic uses for fighting different diseases or different physical and emotional situations.

Some essential oils, for example, promote healing by reducing swelling. Others are effective for fighting fungal infections. Other essential oils are used to relieve depression, anxiety or fear. Some essential oils calm while other essential oils are stimulative.

Aromatherapy uses therapeutic essential oils to sooth the spirit and heal the body. As implied by the name, the primary vehicle used is through smell and inhalation, although a significant portion of aromatherapy is massage based. In massage, the therapeutic essential oils are blended with a carrier oil and applied to the skin. Oils can be used in other ways as well. Such as in bath water, which combines access to the oils through both skin and nose.

A soothing bath with 4 to 8 drops of an appropriate essential oil can work marvels relieving cold symptoms. Use 4 drops for a ½ tub of water and 8 for a deep luxurious bath. Tea-tree oil is an antiseptic and can help a challenged immune system. It can help fight viral and fungal infections such as colds and athletes foot. With colds it helps to thin mucus and nasal stuffiness.

Rosemary oil added to the tub is also a disinfectant and can help clear nasal passages and help reduce the urge to cough. Thyme is also a strong antibacterial which helpful for flu as well as colds. It also helps to sooth aching muscles that result from colds and the flu.

Therapeutic essential oils should always be diluted and mixed with a carrier oil such as olive oil and a bit of honey and a little vodka or gin. The honey and alcohol help the oils dissolve better in the water. They should be added to the bath just before you get in as they evaporate quickly.

You should never eat or drink an essential oil. While there are some rare exceptions just accept this as a rule unless under the direction of a trained aroma-therapist.

Significant scientific research is being conducted but there is not yet a definitive answer as to just how aromatherapy works or why. The sense of smell is one of the five senses that most humans are born with. But it is also the one that is the most underdeveloped and underused. It may be one of the most primal, possibly predating others in our ancient evolution according to some scientists. Researchers have concluded that certain aromas affect our brains in various ways.

It is easier to see why aromatherapy that is applied by the means of massage into the skin has a direct effect on the body than why inhaling the scents has such a direct effect. But it is a fact that both methods of delivery have proven to be effective, even though the reason and exact process remains elusive.

Unfortunately, we tend to make messes where ever we are. Thus a fair amount of time and effort needs to be spent cleaning up after ourselves on a regular basis. That has been the necessary but pretty unglamorous job that has traditionally fallen to wives and mothers. In recent years a few more husbands and fathers have been getting into the cleaning routine, as more and more wives and mothers are pursuing their own careers outside the home.

Cleaning in the past relied on some very harsh chemicals, which were regularly used to eradicate germs, dirt and odors. Today younger generations are becoming more and more concerned about the toxicity of some of these harsh chemicals and their affect on our families and the environment in which we all live. They have increasingly sought out all natural cleaning mixtures and supplies.

Today many more modern-day households use nothing but 'green' cleaning products. These are products that are made from natural ingredients that are safe for use around kids and pets and are also biodegradable and harmless to the environment. Increasingly, households have quit buying cleaning products that contain harsh chemicals altogether.

Some households have started to make their own cleaning products using natural ingredients using recipes like baking soda and vinegar. While it is true that almost every household cleaning job can be accomplished by using one or the other of these natural products, there isn't a nice clean scent left behind once the cleaning task has been accomplished. That's a trick the commercial cleaners learned some time ago.

Many of the scents of the essential oils are used in commercial cleaning products. They are what give the products the nice clean smells of pine and lemon for example. Once households that are committed to living a green lifestyle discover these essential oils and apply them to their homemade natural cleaning products, they never look back.

Here's some natural cleaning tips. You don't have to give up nice clean smells when you switch to natural cleaning roducts. You can enhance the cleaning and disinfecting properties of natural cleaning products by adding essential oils to them and get that nice clean smell as a bonus.

Tea Tree oil is a good example. Tea tree oil has a medicinal scent that is sharp and practically screams clean AND disinfected. Add just a few drops to that vinegar/water spray that you use to clean the bathroom. Tea Tree oil is a natural disinfectant. It will kill germs in your bathroom and leave a nice clean scent behind.

Eucalyptus is another essential oil that is also a disinfectant. Adding a few drops to your laundry will kill dust mites in sheets and pillowcases and leave behind a nice clean scent as well.

The essential oils of lemon, orange and pine all have natural cleaning properties. Just add a few drops of orange or lemon to a little olive oil and you will have a furniture cleaner that is next to none. And you will have a nice clean scent to boot. Pine essential oil is another of the natural cleaning oils that can be added to water and be used to wash floors and other surfaces. The scent will be wonderful and you get added cleaning and disinfecting as well.

You want to be environmentally sensitive and careful to use products that are natural and safe to use around kids and pets. That doesn't mean that you have to deny yourself the pleasure of clean aromas. Spice up that vinegar and baking soda and get a double whammy of cleanliness and aroma.

Rest, Recover and Revitalize Your Day

Our daily lives can be busy and often hectic. Sometimes it feels like the whole world strives to complicate our lives and make them more difficult. It may seem from time to time that Murphy's law, "If is can go wrong, it will and at the worst possible moment" seems to have been coined just for us.

Morning can arrive way too soon and we after we drag ourselves out of the bed it can take a while to become fully alert and aware. We get ourselves dressed and to work and function pretty well through the morning and the early afternoon.

Sometimes, even when we most need to be awake, alert and at the top of our game, we will suddenly be overcome by a sleepy spell. We feel like we just can't keep our eyes open and they not only need to be open but they need to be WIDE open. We stifle our yawns and head for the nearest coffeepot or start looking for a snack loaded with sugar to get ourselves back in gear.

Then at night when we finally crawl into our beds that sleepy spell disappears and is long gone. About the same time our heads hit the pillow, our eyes pop open, and our minds whirl away, replaying the day in excruciating detail. We spend half the night tossing and turning. We just can't seem to find the off switch. And we once again, we loose that sleep we so badly need.

That perpetually sleepiness scenario is very common. Slow to wake up...afternoon sleepy spell....trouble sleeping at night that is about average. Believe it or not, aromatherapy can help. Aromatherapy can get you started in the morning. You will feel bright-eyed, bushy-tailed and ready to face the world.

Aromatherapy can also help you beat the afternoon slump in about 30 seconds. And aromatherapy can help you to fall into a deep, relaxing sleep that will refresh your mind and body at night.

To start your morning, you need to use a body wash in your morning shower that contains the essential oil of grapefruit. Grapefruit essential oil will open your eyes and add sparkle to your day. You will feel awake, alert and ready to face your day. Aroma Therapy will help you recover and revitalize your day.

To fight the afternoon slump, you need to only spend about 30 seconds inhaling the essential oil peppermint. Peppermint will revitalize you quickly, and get you feeling fully alert and at the top of your game. This can be repeated every 15 minutes as often as required.

In the evening after you come home from work and spent your evening, you are going to be tired but often not relaxed enough to allow you to get the rest that you need. That's when you need to apply some aromatherapy that will induce complete relaxation and allow you to get the really deep sleep that you need in order to awake refreshed.

Make yourself a cup of chamomile tea by using either dried bulk chamomile or a chamomile tea bag. Sit down, take you shoes off and relax. Sip the tea slowly, and as you do, be sure to inhale the aroma.

Then take a nice warm (not hot) bath to which you have added some lavender. Take your time and soak a while. Listen to some soft music and go to bed. You will sleep better and feel stronger and well rested in the morning.

The Uses of Aromatherapy Jar Candles

There is just something about candlelight that attracts us. We will turn off electric light to simply enjoy the ambiance of candle light. The candlelight itself produces a calming a soothing effect on us and when essential oils are added, the effect will become intensified.

The mental and emotional effect of essential oils remains the same whether they are being used in aromatherapy massage, in warm bath water, as compresses or the aroma is simply being inhaled from a tissue or cotton ball that has a few drops of an essential oil on it. The therapeutic effect of the essential oil remains the same no matter what delivery system is used.

Soy candles to which essential oils have been added are readily available.

It should be noted that a scented candle and an aromatherapy jar candles are not one and the same thing. A scented candle is just what it says it is. It is a candle that contains scent and nothing more. An aromatherapy jar candle contains essential oils that will produce scent of course but will also produce the desired therapeutic effects of the essential oil.

The jar, by the way, serves to contain and protect the essential oils, which are volatile and would otherwise escape. It is important to keep your aromatherapy jar candles covered when not in use.

Aromatherapy jar candles that contain the essential oil, lavender, will help to relieve stress and anxiety. Lighting an aromatherapy jar candle after a really stressful day can help to calm and soothe those frayed nerves and relax your tired mind. Lavender promotes a sense of peace and that is just the ticket after a really tough and stress filled day.

If insomnia is a problem, light a small aromatherapy jar candles that contains the essential oil, sage. Make sure that you extinguish the candle before actually falling asleep, though.

An aromatherapy jar candles that contains the essential oil of chamomile is another excellent choice for the purpose of relaxation and unwinding after a hard day.

If you aren't feeling well because you have a cold, try lighting an aromatherapy jar candles that contains the essential oil, eucalyptus. The clean but medicinal scent will soothe you and the therapeutic effects will help you to breathe easier and also boost your immune system.

If you are suffering from muscles aches, headaches or digestive problems, light an aromatherapy jar candle that contains the essential oil of peppermint. The aroma will settle you and the therapeutic effects will calm you stomach and relieve your aching head or your sore muscles.

Aromatherapy jar candles can be purchased that contain many essential oils as well as combinations of essential oils. It is important that you ascertain that the candles that you buy do in fact contain real essential oil and not just scent.

Labor.

The word is exactly what it implies. It is just plain hard and painful work to deliver a child. It is the work that a mother's body does in order to bring her baby into the world. While birthing has been done the same way since time began, the procedures to assist the mother during labor and delivery have varied.

Today many very modern day mid-wives and even hospitals are returning to the use of aromatherapy kits for labor to help the birthing process along....to ease the pain and to lighten the work load. The essential oils used during labor are intended for two distinctly different purposes. They are used to stimulate the uterus to contract. This helps to facilitate the birth of the child. They are also used to relax the mother. This helps to ease her pain.

During labor, essential oils that have been suspended in a carrier oil are massaged into the back of the mother as she lies on her side. They may also be applied to her feet.

The essential oils most often included in the aromatherapy kits for labor are bergamot, clary sage, frankincense, geranium, jasmine, lavender, mandarin, marjoram, neroli, palmarosa, peppermint, petitgrain, rose otto, and yalang yalang. These can also be applied to a tissue or cotton ball and inhaled. Compresses can also be used to deliver these oils to good effect.

There are specific formulas for mixing these oils for delivery. They are always mixed with a carrier oil and are never used undiluted.

After the baby is born, essential oils are used to diminish the mothers stress, anxiety and to alleviate post-partum depression.

Remember that essential oils are never used internally. They are not used to make tea. However, the dry herbs from which the oils are derived can be used to make tea, and are also processed to be used internally in capsule form.

Everybody understands that breast milk is the best possible nutrition for babies. There are hundreds of commercial baby milk products on the market which attempt to imitate mother's mild but none of them come close.

When a mother chooses to breast feed her baby, there are essential oils that can help and dried herbs that can help the process.

Among the dry herbs that can be used to enhance the flow of milk are fennel, clary sage, jasmine and lemon grass. These herbs can be chewed or they can be made into teas.

Fennel, clary sage, jasmine and lemon grass are the essential oils that can be massaged into the breasts to enhance milk flow. Be careful though, these essential oils should not be put on the nipples. Almond oil can be used on the nipples to prevent drying and cracking but it should be completely cleaned off before the baby nurses.

When it is time to decrease or stop the flow of milk completely, cypress, mint and sage can be put into a carrier oil and applied to the breasts.

If after-baby-blues or depression develops, an aromatherapy massage using bergamot, clary sage, frankincense, grapefruit, mandarin, melissa, neroli, or rose weekly can chase the blues away. A few drops of the above in bath water can help keep them away between aromatherapy massages.

Aromawear provides the life enhancing benefits of aromatherapy wherever and whenever you need it. Elegant jewelry and accessories in sterling silver and 18 karat gold vermeil contain and diffuse your choice of therapeutic essential oils. Just a few drops of oil on the disposable wick inside will support your body, mind and spirit. All you have to do is remember to breathe!

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