How should Essential Oils be used?
Essential Oils are designed by nature to either be topically applied on the skin or inhaled. A good rule of thumb is to inhale Essential Oils when the problem is mental or emotional and to use topical application when the issue is physical. Both methods will get into the bloodstream and go where it is needed – however inhalation provides a quicker fix than topical application for things like anxiety, memory, stress…
Inhaling Essential Oils
When you inhale an Essential Oil the molecules travel from the olfactory system directly to the nervous system in the brain. You can use a few drops on a cotton ball or Kleenex, put oils in a diffuser, or apply the oil blend on your wrists. Wrists are a good place to get the Essential Oils into the bloodstream via topical application and it is a location where you can easily inhale the oils once you apply them.
Applying Essential Oils
All but 3 Essential Oils must be diluted with a carrier oil when you use them. The three Essential Oils that do not require a carrier oil (can be used neat) are:
- Tea Tree
- Lavender
- Frangonia
When using these 3 Essential Oils neat remember that they are very concentrated and a drop or 2 is all that is needed to get the desired effect.
Note:
Always test Essential Oils on your skin to make sure that you do not get an allergic reaction. Every person’s body chemistry is unique and different so some people are allergic to some Essential Oils.
All other oils must be diluted in a carrier.
Best places to topically apply Essential Oils
Most of the time the best places to topically apply Essential Oils and blends are the pulse points – inside of wrist, temples, carotid artery area on the neck. All of these areas have thinner skin and are close to blood vessels. Essential oil molecules are very tiny and are absorbed through the skin directly to the blood stream. It takes Essential Oils approximately 2 minutes to get into the blood stream and start having an effect. Compare that to 15-30 minutes for a pill like ibuprofen.
My favorite place to put Essential Oils is the soles of the feet. The soles of our feet have more pores than any other place in our body, around 2000. That is why feet sweat so much. So slip off a sandal and rub some oils on your feet in the summer time.
For skin irritations and burns put the Essential Oils or blends directly on the irritated place. I put “no itch” directly on my bug bites. I put lavender directly on my sunburns or when I have burned myself in the kitchen. If you are using Essential Oils for gastric issues rub the essential oils on the belly where the problem is (Do not ingest the oils, as tempting as it may be!).
Experiment because you know your body better than anyone else and experimenting is the best way to learn more about your body and what it needs.
How Often do you apply Essential Oils?
Our bodies know how to process Essential Oils so applying them 2-4 times a day is recommended until no longer needed. Some Essential Oils for chronic issues will become part of the daily routine; my daughter uses her lavender every day for her ganglion cysts and possibly will for the rest of her life. I recently got a burn and applied lavender for two days 2-4 times a day till the burn was completely healed.
Can you overuse an Essential Oil?
You can overuse an Essential Oil. If you overuse it (use it more than 2-4 times a day or use excessive amounts on your body), you typically will get the opposite effect that you were trying to get. An example, if you use lavender at bedtime to help you sleep – too much and it will keep you awake instead of soothing you.
Tolerance
Our bodies do not build tolerance to Essential Oils like we do medication because Essential Oils are so complex – one Essential Oil can have 350 individual naturally forming chemicals. Also Essential Oils are botanicals, so every crop is slightly different because every season the weather is going to be different and this results in Essential Oils that vary slightly each time.
What if I am allergic to an Essential Oil?
One of the amazing things about Essential Oils is that many oils have the same healing properties. This means that if you are allergic to one Essential Oil you can find another that will provide the same healing response from the body.
Cost of Essential Oils also varies which means that you can typically find an Essential Oil that matches your budget.
Should I Ingest Essential Oils?
There is never a reason to ingest an Essential Oil.
The goal is to get the Essential Oil into the blood stream so that it can travel where it needs to be. Inhaling and applying topically does that very effectively.
When we ingest pills the pills need to travel through the digestive system and be metabolized and not be destroyed by all the acids in our digestive tract. Because of this digestive adventure it takes pills 15-30 minutes to take effect. I have had doctors tell me this.
Because we evolved with Essential Oils their molecules are small enough to be absorbed through our skin and the pores in our olfactory system. They go straight to the places where they will be most effective. One of the great advantages of this is that Essential Oils can be used on people who medically have issues taking medications or on children who don’t want to take medications. Essential Oils are non-invasive.
One last thing to remember…
Essential Oils work with the body to evoke a healing response directly from the body. This is why I use the phrase “Wellness from Within.”
Medications, on the other hand, are designed to attack a symptom. Sometimes this is a good thing like when you have an allergic reaction and begin swelling like a balloon. Medication will attack the symptom of swelling and that is what is needed. But there is no true healing involved, so in other instances, pharmaceutical medication is less ideal.