Essentials oils can save you a trip to the doctor’s office and fill your home with a blissful aroma. But they’re not always the safest remedy to use. To get the most benefit, you need to know how to use essential oils. In this post, Lisa shares her tips along with safety precautions to take.
Wondering how to use essential oils and take your health to the next level? The benefits of essential oils are many. Essential oils may help with:
- Immunity and infectious illness
- Wound healing and pain relief
- Sleep, mood, and cognition
What ARE essential oils?
Essential oils are derived from the fragrant essences found in plants.
Oils are the basis for use in aromatherapy. When derived naturally from plants, the use of essential oils provides a high-quality way to support your overall health.
How do you administer essential oils?
Topical Uses
The quickest and easiest way to experience the benefits of essential oils is through topical application. Correctly used, essential oils can uniquely target specific areas of the body to achieve the desired effect. Some topical uses include anointment and gentle massage.
It is important to note that essential oils are powerful. For safety reasons, taking them orally is not recommended. That said, inhaling essential oils can be therapeutic.
Aromatherapy uses
- Relief from anxiety and depression
- Improved quality of life, particularly for people with chronic health conditions
- Improved sleep
- Increased physical and mental energy
How to use essential oils for aromatherapy
The use of essential oils in aromatherapy works to improve physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being. Depending on the oil and the time of day, inhalation of specific oils can positively alter brainwaves. The lasting effects can fluctuate between calming and uplifting.
Diffusing
To diffuse essential oils, add a few drops to water and turn on your diffuser, which distributes essential oil molecules in the air. As the vapor is inhaled it comes into contact with the nerves that send them directly to the brain, providing a safe and quick way to put the oils to work for you.
Besides deodorizing and sanitizing a space, diffusing essential oils can promote a calm and stress-free environment.
We like this inexpensive diffuser.
Inhalation
Another common use of essential oils is direct inhalation. This is done by adding a small drop or two to the palms, rubbing them together, cupping the mouth, and inhaling deeply.
Jewelry
Need to diffuse on the go? There are different types of jewelry that help you benefit from essential oil, even when you’re not at home. These include:
- Locket style pendants with felt pads like this
- Cylindrical silver or gold pendants with wicks
- Stone, crystal, and handblown glass vessels with cork stoppers
- Terracotta aromatherapy necklaces
- Beaded essential oils jewelry
- Leather and rope aromatherapy jewelry
Each of these aromatherapy jewelry pieces serves a different purpose. Because they are so close to the skin it is recommended to take caution when applying or reapplying essential oils. This provides the oil lover with a unique and stylish way to enjoy the aroma throughout the day.
We love lava stone necklaces and bracelets, and leather strap jewelry.
What essential oils can do for you
Immunity and infectious illness
The use of therapeutic grade essential oils to combat infection, such as the influenza virus, has proven to show significant positive impacts.
Many essential oils have anti-viral properties. Commercial essential oil blends have been shown to reduce the severity of the influenza virus by decreasing the direct infection of the cells. Other effective uses for essential oils:
- Skin and foot fungal treatment
- Staph infections
- Bacterial infections
We love this organic germ fighter essential oil for applying, diluted, topically and diffusing. You can buy a pre-diluted roller here, or the Kidsafe Germ Destroyer roller here.
Wound healing and pain relief
When it comes to relieving pain, essential oils can provide a natural way to manage pain without unwanted or uncomfortable side effects. With anti-inflammatory, soothing, and pain relieving properties, there are specific essential oils that can help with the following aches and pains:
- Back pain
- Nerve pain
- Neck pain
- Shoulder pain
- TMJ pain
- Knee pain
- Foot pain
- Kidney pain
- Tendon pain
- Hip pain
- Bone pain
- Leg pain
We like Organic Rapid Relief and Muscle Aid essential oils for pain relief.
Wound healing is another topical application of essential oils; essential oils like lavender, rosemary, and myrrh have antibacterial and healing properties.
Other essential oils can support healing as well, just be sure to use the proper handling and application as many of these oils can be potent and vary in strength.
Essential oils safety concerns
When used properly, most essential oils are safe and free of side effects. As with any addition to your health, essential oils do not come without a certain amount of care and intelligent use.
It is recommended that you never eat or drink essential oils. When used in full strength, they are extremely potent and should be treated as medicines that heal rather than casually ingesting them.
To avoid irritation and sensitization, dilute your essential oils. By using dilution methods, you are lessening the potency of the oils by mixing them with what is called a carrier oil, a base for safely “carrying” the essential oil.
Some common carrier oils are:
- Sweet almond oil (we like this one)
- Fractionated coconut oil (this one is organic!)
- Olive oil
- Grapeseed oil (try this one)
The quality of the essential oils you use is increasingly important. When researching a high-quality product you want to keep in mind these factors:
- Sourcing
- Extracting
- Testing
- Bottling
- Application
Essential oils and children
When used safely, there are some essential oils that can support children, depending on age and sensitivity issues.
As a whole, a child’s immune system is not fully equipped to handle concentrated essential oils through diffusion. It is important to thoroughly research which essential oils are safe to use with children, based on their age.
This holds true for topical use as well. Always use a carrier oil and research which essential oils are more irritating than others.
We love these Kidsafe oils, designed specifically with children’s health and safety in mind.
Which essential oil brand is the best?
We get lots of questions about essential oil brands, and the truth is that there are a lot of good ones out there. As we’ve discussed before, we’re not into MLM essential oil hype… or the price tags that come along with it. We think good essential oils can be found at reasonable prices.
That’s why we use and recommend Plant Therapy. Not only is Plant Therapy super affordable, they offer:
-
- lab-tested, quality essential oils backed by research
- high standards for essential oil development and creation
- a large selection of organic essential oils (check these out)
- a large selection of Kidsafe oils that we feel good about using on and around our kids
- Plant Therapy offers fast, free shipping (in today’s Amazon Prime world, you know that is important!)
(Try Amazon Prime 30-Day Free Trial
Regardless of the brand you choose to use, please know that you don’t have to spend a lot of money in order to get high quality essential oils for your family.
The use of essential oils as part of a holistic lifestyle has many benefits. Essential oils can mean less trips to the doctor’s office and less use of pharmaceutical drugs.
However, it’s important to educate yourself and use the quality essential oils. Also, make sure that you monitor any and all effects, whether they are positive or negative. This will help you put the powerful benefits of essential oils to work for you daily.