I’ve been a fan of aromatherapy since I learned about essential oils in a workshop at my local yoga studio awhile back. I’d been using scented candles and those plug-in air fresheners to keep my home smelling good, but I wasn’t comfortable with the ingredients in those products.
Aromatherapy with pure essential oils soon replaced my candles and air fresheners. The benefits turned out to be more than I expected, especially when I discovered uplifting essential oils.
Diffusing essential oils does more than keep my home smelling great. Each oil has specific properties as well. I learned that aromas travel through the capillaries in our sinuses and trigger nerves that send direct signals to the brain. Many of these signals have to do with emotions.
A number of uplifting essential oils can boost mood and even alleviate depression. And you can go a step further to target specific kinds of depression.
For example, do you tend to feel tired when you’re feeling down? You can lift both your mood and your energy level with geranium, lavender, peppermint, basil, or rosemary. Anxiety can be calmed with clary sage, frankincense, patchouli, ylang ylang, or chamomile.
How to use uplifting essential oils to lift your mood
There are many ways to use essential oils. Start by simply opening the bottle and inhaling the aroma! Some other great uses include:
Diffuse them. Place a few drops in a room diffuser and the aroma will last for hours. There are many types of room diffusers on the market. You can also make your own aromatherapy reed diffuser.
Bathe in them. Add your favorite oil to warm bath water and soak your way to good mood. Scented water is extremely relaxing and very therapeutic.
Use them in lotions or bath products. You can make aromatherapy products yourself by adding essential oils to unscented bath products, or you can buy them already made.
Spray them in your room or car. Essential oils can be added to pure water in a spray bottle and sprayed anywhere to instantly fill your space with pleasing aromas.
Sleep with them. Put a few drops of essential oil on a tissue or piece of cotton that you slip under your pillow case. You can even put a drop of relaxing oil inside each nostril at bedtime. If you choose the latter, make sure to use oils that won’t irritate your skin. The labels on most essential oil bottles will tell you if you can use them directly on skin.
Use them for a relaxing massage. You can add essential oils to unscented massage oil. Another option is to buy aromatherapy massage oils infused with essential oils.
Once you discover the benefits of aromatherapy with essential oils, you may wonder how you ever lived without it!
I like my home to be filled with pleasing aromas, but I’m wary of the ingredients in air fresheners, scented candles and other common items people use to mask odors in their homes. So, I was excited to come across an easy way to make homemade reed diffusers from pure essential oils! All you need is mineral oil, vodka, the essential oil (or oils) of your choice, a small vase, and some diffuser reeds, which you can buy in any craft store.
Here’s what you do:
Pour ¼ cup mineral oil and 2-3 tablespoons of vodka into the vase. Then add a 15-ml bottle of essential oil (or a total of 15 ml of the the oils you decide to blend). I chose geranium and lemongrass in mine.
Stir everything with the reeds and then let it go to work. It’s that easy! You can flip the reeds every once in a while to diffuse the oil better.
The fragrance you’ll enjoy will not comprise your health! In fact, it will probably improve it since essential oils have so many wonderful properties and benefits.
Trees are awesome. I know this but was happy to be reminded of why trees are awesome at a recent tree-themed yoga and aromatherapy workshop. On this March afternoon, yoga teachers Jan Jeremias and Dee Andalkar led us in a discussion about the gift of trees. We then considered ways we can be more like them.
Why would a person want to be like a tree? Well, here are some words we associated with trees at the beginning of the workshop:
Grounded
Strong
Branches
Flexibility
Roots
The Many Gifts of Trees
Beyond the admirable qualities they represent, trees offer many tangible gifts, most notable the oxygen that keeps us alive. Trees also give us fruit, shade, and the gift of aromatherapy.
There are many tree essential oils, including the one Jan and Dee diffused during the workshop, Douglas fir. The oil has a light, citrus-like quality. It’s a clean, purifying scent that’s good for the respiratory system. It’s also uplifting and can help with focus.
Get Grounded, Branch Out, Ask a Tree
One great thing about trees is they are strongly and firmly connected to their source, the earth. Yet they are flexible and able to sway in the wind. This gives trees a foundation from which to weather storms, something thing I’d like to have in common with these beautiful beings.
I was especially struck by Dee’s description of the conversations she has with trees. Now before you start thinking she’s a bit crazy, let me explain. Better yet, try it! I’ve had a few chats with trees myself.
If you’re stressed, confused, overwhelmed, sad, or feeling any other emotion you’d like some help with, go outside and sit with a tree! Watch its branches sway. Watch its leaves rustle in the wind. Notice the beauty and strength of its trunk, the color of its leaves, and the uniqueness of its branches. I promise if you do this long enough, answers will come. Just listen; don’t overthink it.
Whether the answers come from the trees or from within us is irrelevant. Trees, after all, don’t look to others to solve their problems. Perhaps they serve as reminders that when we need answers, we can find them within if get grounded, strong, and quiet. When we align with our higher selves, we can navigate what comes our way.
How to Be More Like a Tree
If you’re a yogi, you can be more treelike with a grounding yoga practice. Jan led us through a series of poses that were both grounding and expansive. Tree pose, of course, was one of them. In fact, we did a few variations of tree pose built upon the basic pose.
Poses like crescent lunge and warrior are treelike as well. We practiced a wonderful flow in which we more or less became trees, moving from an acorn to a full-grown tree with branches.
My Chat with Trees
As Jan noted, seeking answers is part of the human condition. We all want answers; we want to be guided, and we hope we’re able to be guides for ourselves.
But we all also need help. With this in mind, I spoke to the trees in my yard the next morning. I had to listen carefully to hear their reply since the branches are still mostly bare. But on that morning, the first day of spring, as I watched the swaying seed pods, the trees whispered these words: patience, hope, and renewal.
I urge you to speak with trees as often as possible.
Last weekend, I attended the second of a year-long series of monthly yoga and aromatherapy workshops at a local studio. The theme this time was passion, so I decided to prepare myself to explore this theme by asking myself the obvious question.
What, exactly, is passion?
After some thought, I decided passion is a strong connection to someone or something—so strong that you lose yourself in the object of your passion. I have a passion for writing, yoga, and The New York Mets, for example. I also have a passion for certain relationships.
The type of passion I’m describing isn’t always there, of course. Sometimes I’m not lost in my writing or I’m watching the clock in yoga class or I turn off the game because the Mets are losing.
And of course there are times when I need a bit of space between myself and a loved one. I was excited about the workshop because, I thought it would be great to discover some tools for cultivating more passion for the people and things I love.
Passion for Everything
To my surprise, Jan Jeremias and Dee Andalkar, the workshop presenters, went a step further with their take on passion. In fact, Jan described something that in a way was the reverse of what I was thinking. She suggested that, rather than think about passion as coming from the things we’re drawn to, we can be passionate about everything.
Really? Everything? Can I really be passionate about doing the laundry or the tedious job of editing a technical document or listening to a loved one rehash a problem for the sixteenth time this week?
Maybe I can. It turns out passion is presence. And when we do things with passion (that is, when we are compassionate), we are simply there to experience those things fully. And when we do that, we come alive.
Here are some ways to cultivate passion for everything in your life:
1. Practice yoga, of course.
To make your yoga practice more about living with passion, do the poses with more presence than ever. Of course, we yogis know being present is a key aspect of the practice, but we really do need to be reminded of this often. So when Jan led us through poses, she made sure we were present by cuing us to slow down, breathe first, and even to add movements purposefully—for instance stretching our arms out to a “T” position and pausing there before reaching them up in high lunge.
Try this when you practice, and you’ll begin to appreciate each pose even more. Then take that off the mat and into your everyday life.
2. Use essential oils.
We were treated to a beautiful essential oil blend called Passion, which is a combination of cardamom, ginger, cinnamon, clove, sandalwood, jasmine, vanilla, and damiana leaf.
I couldn’t help noticing most of those ingredients are the comfort spices I associate with autumn. I don’t know if there’s a connection, but I do notice an extra energy for life in the early part of that season. Another oil combination we sampled was ylang ylang and wild orange. This is a simple blend, but its effect is amazing.
3. Chant the mantra “Ang Sang Wahe Guru.”
Dee led workshop participants in this Kundalini Yoga chant that celebrates passion for life. According to Spirit Voyage, the translation of the mantra is, “The dynamic, loving energy of the Infinite Source of All is dancing within my every cell, and is present in my every limb. My individual consciousness merges with the Universal consciousness.”
Every cell. Every limb. It’s hard to think about that and not to have more passion for your life!
4. Be present!
You can’t be passionate about a life you’re not there for. So to connect with this simple truth, we did a short mindful eating exercise. I’ve done this before, and although I usually do make an effort to eat mindfully, it never hurts to be reminded of the power of attention to the simple things in life.
I chose a slice of juicy tangerine and noticed the not-too-sweet burst of citrus flavor that filled my senses when I bit into it, then very slowly chewed it until only the pulp remained to swallow.
A few days after the workshop, as I finish writing about it, I realize I’ve gone through the first part of the week with a noticeable boost in my passion for life. I’ve started two new exciting projects, so that helps, but it’s more the overall feeling of connection to my life that I’m noticing.
When passion begins to wane (I’m human; I know it will), I have these awesome tools of yoga, essential oils, mantra, and mindfulness to turn to. And for that I’m grateful.
I’ve been interested in therapeutic uses of essential oils for a while, so I was happy to have the opportunity to sign up for a free webinar on the topic. Dorene Peterson, a trained naturopath from New Zealand and current president of the American College of Healthcare Sciences (ACHS), led the event.
I discovered ACHS recently while searching for places to learn about essential oils. The school in Oregon and offers accredited training in herbal medicine, holistic nutrition, aromatherapy, and other wellness modalities.
The webinar was titled “Harnessing the Herbal Powers of Essential Oils.” At first, I wasn’t sure about the phrase “herbal powers” in relation to oils. I’ve always thought of herbs as stems and leaves of plants. But essential oils are also derived from plants, and they have therapeutic properties like other plant constituents.
The therapeutic herbal properties of essential oils
I was happy to learn there are many studies to back up claims about the therapeutic uses of essential oils. Of course, there’s also a lot of anecdotal evidence. I’ve personally experienced a number of therapeutic benefits from using essential oils; ylang ylang, lime, lemongrass, frankincense, and lavender are among my favorites.
Lavender, I was not surprised to learn, is the most popular essential oil by far. If you’ve used essential oils for any purpose, you’ve probably had some experience with lavender. I’ve used it as a sleep remedy, to de-stress, and even to help reduce swelling.
Peterson went on to discuss four of the most popular oils. In addition to lavender, we learned about peppermint, frankincense, and eucalyptus. Here’s a rundown on the uses of each:
• anti-inflammatory (great for arthritis and IBS, among other conditions) • helps enhance memory
Eucalyptus (globulus & E. smithii)
• antimicrobial • antibacterial • enhances absorption and penetration of topical remedies
Choosing essential oils for their herbal properties
Peterson pointed out there are a lot of essential oils on the market, but for an oil to be therapeutically effective, it must meet certain quality standards.
Some oils have interesting labels like “therapeutic grade” and “all natural,” but, according to Peterson, these labels are mostly marketing tools. The terms themselves are not regulated. That doesn’t mean the products that use these labels are ineffective; it just means the labels themselves don’t distinguish one product from another in any meaningful way.
So, I asked, what should you look for when choosing an essential oil for therapeutic use? As it turns out, there’s no simple answer to that question. The only way to ensure the quality of an essential oil is to research the product and make a decision about its quality after gathering as much information as possible.
Here are some tips recommended by ACHS:
1. Find out if the oil was tested for purity (and what the results were).
Gas chromatography and mass spectrometry are the methods used to test essential oils for purity. While they are somewhat expensive tests, they provide essential (no pun intended) evidence that an oil is pure (or not).
You can contact a manufacturer or distributor and ask about gas chromatography and mass spectrometry. Some companies provide this information on their website or as part of their marketing materials.
2. Look for the product’s Latin name and know what it means.
You don’t have to be fluent in Latin to know which oils are therapeutically useful, but it’s important to understand that many oils have more than one variety, and the one you choose may make a significant difference in the oil’s effectiveness.
For example, many lavender products are made with lavandin (Lavenula intermedia), which, according to ACHS, is not as effective as true lavender (Lavendula agustifolia).
When you read or hear about a study about an essential oil’s effectiveness in treating a certain condition, make sure you know which variety of the oil was used in the study.
3. Remember that most of the time, you get what you pay for.
We all love to save money, and it’s certainly possible to purchase good quality essential oils without emptying your wallet, but don’t expect to buy safe and effective products at bargain basement prices.
Remember quality oils must be tested; the process costs money. In addition, pure oils cost more than oils with additives and extenders. Spending a bit more for products that work can be a wise investment. In the long run, it will be a lot less expensive than prescription drugs and visits to a doctor.
The bottom line is that most inexpensive essential oils have little use beyond the pleasant fragrance they may provide, so if you’re interested in health benefits, you’ll probably need to invest a bit more money.
But before you choose the most expensive product on the market, do some research; compare prices and ask for recommendations from health care providers who have experience with these products, and perhaps be wary of any company that claims to have the only oils worth buying.
4. Find a supplier or practitioner you trust.
Once you find a supplier that meets the criteria for quality, you can return to that source for all your essential oil needs. Many companies have rewards programs or offer free products and other incentives to regular customers, which can be a benefit of having a go-to company.
Just be sure to choose a company based on the quality of its products, not the cleverness of its marketing campaign. If you’re not sure you can do this on your own, ask someone trained in aromatherapy or contact an aromatherapy school for recommendations.
Essential oils are a true gift of nature, and there are many ways to incorporate them into your healthy, happy life. They can be used to calm the mind, help you sleep, heal the body, sanitize your home, and even to improve the health of your pets!
But don’t take my word for it. First, spend some time learning for yourself. Find out as much as possible about the science behind essential oils from experienced people who know the facts so you can be sure you’re choosing products carefully and using them safely.
Recently, a knowledgeable essential oil practitioner recommended a refreshing way to drink water. It’s simple: add a drop of peppermint essential oil and a drop of lemon essential oil to a full glass and enjoy.
Before I read this tip, I hadn’t found a blend of essential oils I liked in my drinking water, but I tried this, loved it, and have been drinking it ever since. If you’ve been looking for a refreshing way to drink water, this might be the blend for you too!
Since I didn’t have any lemon essential oil the first time I tried the blend, I used lime instead. Whether you use lime or lemon, the combination of citrus and peppermint really hits the spot! It’s not only refreshing but it’s also energizing, and you’ll feel the effects for quite a while after you drink it!
Beyond the great taste, you’ll get some wonderful health benefits from both the peppermint and the lemon (or lime).
Peppermint Essential Oil Benefits
Peppermint oil is great for digestion and for headaches. If you’re prone to tension headaches, you may know that drinking water and staying hydrated will help. Adding a few drops of peppermint oil to your water will help even more!
Peppermint’s digestive benefits go beyond calming an upset stomach. It will also help curb your appetite, especially when combined with lime, lemon or other citrus oils. So if you’re trying to lose weight or if you want to keep your stomach from grumbling in between meals, carrying a water bottle with this tasty combination of peppermint and citrus will keep you hydrated and happy all day!
Lemon Essential Oil Benefits
Lemon and other citrus essential oils are excellent natural detoxifiers. This is one reason you’ll often see lemons or limes in drinking water, and holistic health care providers often recommended drinking water with lemon or lime every day.
Lemon is also great for colds, flu and respiratory problems, so drinking water with a few drops of lemon essential oil will help you breathe better if you’re experiencing any kind of respiratory issue. Lemon essential oil will also boost your immune system and help you recover from any kind of infection faster.
How to choose Essential Oils for your Drinking Water
The most important thing to keep in mind when choosing essential oils for drinking water is that the oils you choose are pure, therapeutic grade and suitable for internal use.
If you’re not sure about the quality of an oil, check with the company that makes it and ask if it’s safe for internal use. Oils vary in quality, so you’ll want to be sure to choose a product that is not only safe to use internally but is tasty as well.
In a recent post about natural ways to get a good night’s sleep, I mentioned ylang ylang essential oil. I’ve been diffusing this oil every night lately, and I’ve noticed I sleep better when I do. In fact, ylang ylang is quickly become one of my favorite oils for any situation that requires calm!
Ylang ylang is a fascinating gift of nature. The oil is steam distilled from the flowers of the ylang ylang tree, which is native to rain forest climates. The sight of the tree itself will make you feel calm and relaxed. It has small unusually-shaped flowers that blend beautifully with the leaves of the tree. The flowers have a very sweet, almost fruity floral scent.
Ylang Ylang Distillation
When ylang ylang essential oil is produced, the flowers are distilled in three steps. That’s why you might notice your bottle of ylang ylang essential oil has a Roman numeral following the name. An oil labeled “ylang ylang I” is the result of only the first distillation of the flowers. The most effective type of ylang ylang is labeled “ylang ylang complete,” which means it contains oil from all three distillations.
Ylang Ylang Benefits
Ylang ylang essential oil is used in aromatherapy for its soothing and relaxing qualities. It helps to calm the nervous system, so it’s excellent as a remedy for insomnia. It’s also a good choice when you’re anxious, angry or stressed. The uplifting aroma of ylang ylang can help lift a low mood in people with depression. Likewise, it can boost libido, making it effective as an aphrodisiac. The oil’s relaxing properties may also help lower blood pressure.
For those interested in chakra balancing, ylang ylang essential oil is a good tonic for the third (solar plexus) chakra. This makes sense, since the third chakra is our center of creativity and personal power, qualities that shine when we’re not tense, anxious or depressed.
Blending ylang ylang
If you have an essential oil blend intended for any kind of calming effect, check the label. It’s likely that ylang ylang is included in the mix. Ylang ylang blends well with cedarwood, bergamot, lavender and grapefruit.
So if you’ve never heard of ylang ylang, or if you just haven’t tried it yet, be look for it next time you need an essential oil to help you relax!
Third Eye 