Commercial aromatherapy uses essential oils, or natural concentrates and distillates of botanics such as flowers, roots, leaves, seeds, bark, rinds, and resins. Within each of the oils are more than one hundred constituents including antibiotics, minerals, hormones & enzymes.
Extremely potent to the point of becoming toxic, they must be diluted by mixing with another substance, such as oil, and used very sparingly. One half ounce of essential oil is the equivalent of five pounds of plant material. Hence both its potency and high price. One vial of oil can cost more than $60!
There are three ways to use or administer the natural botanical essences of aromatherapy--ingestion, absorption, or inhalation. Used together or individually, each method has its own value.
The most recognized use is ingestion. How many people wouldn't feel the morning started right without the distinctive aroma of coffee brewing? Is it purely taste? Or does aroma have everything to do with enjoyment of a good cup of coffee? When you want to wind down at the end of a day, it's the herbal tea to which you turn. Inhaling the gentle aroma is just as much a part of the experience as drinking the hot brew. Spices and distillations such as vanilla are used virtually every day to enhance flavour, provide aroma, and stimulate the appetite.
And, although you may not have recognized it as such, topical application and absorption is just as common. Every time you bathe or rub on skin softener, you are administering your own aromatherapy. Fragrance is used to enhance and add appeal to just about every cosmetic product on the market today, from deodorants to skin lotion, bubble bath, and even make up.
The skin is actually your body's largest organ. Highly porous, it absorbs and eliminates moisture, toxins, minerals and chemicals twenty-four hours a day. Whatever you put on or next to your skin will be almost instantly absorbed into the capillaries or central nervous system.
Don't believe it? Try putting a little DMSO linament on your finger. Within thirty seconds you'll taste it on your tongue. Spread some crushed garlic on the bottom of your feet and within minutes your breath will reek of garlic. This realized, you may want to read the label on anything you apply to your body in the future! Nasty chemicals and toxins, although larger in molecular structure can be absorbed almost as readily!
To use as a topical treatment, place a drop or two of essential oil into olive, sweet almond, sesame, safflower, wheat germ or soya oil. Rose essential is soothing, peppermint is stimulating, thyme is fortifying, and lavender relaxes and induces sleep. Gently warm over a candle. Massage into hands, feet, neck or the entire body to relieve stress and tension.
Many aromatherapy treatments are sold already prepared. Linaments and vapour rubs stimulate by penetrating deeply into tissue. At home you can make your own essences by steeping fresh or dried plant materials and fruit rinds or berries in hot water for at least fifteen minutes to draw out the fragrance and beneficial elements. Hair rinses and treatments can also be prepared. Experiment with rosemary, sage, chamomile, and cedarwood. Add them to your shampoo, or use as a hot oil treatment.
Herbal baths can rejuvinate, relax, or become sensual experiences. Fifteen drops of essence diluted in unscented bubble bath or oil increases the moisturizing effect and makes it easier to clean out the tub. You can also pick fresh herbs and flowers, and either hang them in a cheesecloth bag under the running tap, or steep them in boiling water for fifteen minutes and then pour the "tea" into your bath water. We recommend lavender, thyme, sage, roses, chamomile, and rosemary. Follow up with a simple bath powder made from arrowroot powder or cornstarch infused with a few drops of your favorite scent.
Unlike the physiological effects of skin absorption, the aromatic, or inhaled benefits of aromatherapy derive from stimulation of the senses. Scent can act as a sedative, euphoric, depressant, stimulant, or aphrodesiac. Since the olfactory sense produces the strongest impressions through its primitive link to the right brain, or memory, it can induce positive or negative emotional and physical responses.
That is why aroma is the most commonly used marketing tool today. Try to resist buying when you walk into a bakery with the scent of fresh cinnamon rolls wafting through the air. What happens when you pass a coffee grinding machine in the supermarket? Catch a whiff of gingerbread pot pourri in a shop at Christmas time and you'll automatically recall pleasant feelings and memories.
To prove the effects of scent on your psyche, gather several entirely different fragrant items. Try a lemon peel, a cinnamon stick, some herbal tea, a fresh rose, a stem of eucalyptus, and a spice of some kind. Place them in front of you and close your eyes. One by one, chose an item. Rub it between your palms & then hold your hand up to your nose and inhale deeply. Savour the aroma and allow its effect to wash over you. Did you experience feelings, memories, or even a physical response such as increased heart rate, sharper attention, or cleared sinuses? Can just thinking about these scents trigger a response?
Whether added to a hot bath, placed under a pillow at night, rubbed on the skin to let body heat release the fragrance, or emanating from incense, candles or pot pourri, fragrance makes us feel more alive and connected to our bodies. It activates the temporal hemisphere of the brain, stimulating creativity, intuitive impressions, and heightening the senses. That is why incense is a popular tool for meditation.
But aromatherapy is also used to promote healing in addition to well-being. In therapeutic massage, specific essentials such as peppermint are used as anti-inflammatories. Rosemary and lavender together treat muscular aches, arthritis and depression. Herbal wraps are used in lymphatic drainage treatments to stimulate blood circulation and to rid the body of toxins and cellulite.
Eucalyptus inhaled clears sinuses and breathing passages. Australian Tea Tree oil is one of the world's most effective antiseptics, anti-fungals and astringents. Use it to treat athelete's foot, infections, or cold sores. A few drops of peppermint oil rubbed on the tummy aids digestion. On the temples it stops a migraine. Lavender burned will kill germs and viruses in the air. Its oil promotes healing of burns, including sunburn and will prevent scarring.
Lemon, garlic, lavender, savory and thyme have antitoxic and antivenomous properties, making them useful on insect bites and stings. Sandalwood paste can also be applied. North American Indians smolder sage or sweet grass passing the pungent smoke over and around the body and the room to clear out negative energy and thoughts. And the list goes on....
To add a little aromatherapy to your daily regimen, try putting a few drops of orange essential on cotton balls and placing them in your vacuum cleaner bag. Cotton balls can also be placed in cupboards and drawers. A few drops of your favorite scent added to the humidifier will disperse the fragrance nicely.
Make a "simmer sack" of apple pie spices, citrus, bay, and anise, or a Christmas blend of needles, berries, vanilla and cloves. Gently simmer in water for hours of mood-enhancing aroma. Keep a garden patch of lemon balm, catnip, mint and feverfew for a supply of fresh-brewed caffeine-free tea. Three fresh leaves will make one cup of fragrant tea. Experiment by adding a little ginger, honey, fruit, or citrus slices before pouring in the boiling water. Or chill for iced tea.
Fresh herbs can also be dried or frozen for use in the winter. Essential oils should be stored away from air, light, heat or heavy metals. Carefully maintained, they can last for years. If allowed to deteriorate they become less fragrant, more viscous, and darker. Citrus oils are particularly succeptible, and should not be stored longer than six months.
For more information on specific botanicals and their uses contact a local aromatherapy practitioner or pick up one of the many books now available on the subject.~~
