Something’s been unsettling me lately. I’ve been seeing quite a few posts on social media making fun of those of us who use essential oils. It’s pretty sucky because we all get lumped into the same bucket of people who think that ’natural solutions can cure everything’. Just to be clear, I don’t think that.
I’m not stupid. If I break my arm, I’m going to the hospital for treatment. If I am diagnosed with a medical condition, I’m going to seek advice from medical professionals and follow their prescribed treatment.
❗️ But if I get a paper cut, if I have a blister, if I have sore muscles, if my skin is dry or pimply, if I feel run down, then I’m turning to my essential oils to support my body.
When I know my mental health needs it, I see a psychologist. And if I ever required medication, I would follow the advice of the relevant professional.
❗️ But if I’m feeling a bit low and want a pick up, or I feel anxious and I want something to ground me, I’m going to turn to my essential oils to support my moods.
❓ Maybe the people making fun of us don’t realise that the essential oils I use are pure and potent (a drop of peppermint oil is the equivalent of 28 cups of peppermint tea). Maybe they don’t realise that some synthetically-made drugs are attempting to replicate the compounds found naturally in essential oils—and that a lot of new drugs being discovered can’t actually cross the blood-brain barrier or penetrate cells of the body. Or that a single essential oil can contain hundreds of chemical constituents and that many are yet to be identified. It’s a little like taking a vitamin pill compared to eating the food in which the vitamin is naturally found (along with other vitamins and minerals that help the body absorb and use that vitamin).
❓ Maybe these critics don’t know that when you inhale an aroma, it sends a signal to the brain in seconds. Ever had a smell bring back a memory or a certain emotion? That’s because smells are processed in the limbic system, which also contains the amygdala—the centre for emotions that stores and releases emotional trauma, and can be stimulated with smell in order to help us learn emotionally. So even when oil molecules can’t cross the blood-brain barrier, they can activate the olfactory bulb in the brain and transmit a ‘message’ of the complex chemistry they contain, and the olfactory bulb can communicate that message with other brain structures.
⁉️ Above all, I guess these people have never opened their mind and tried essential oils for themselves.
It doesn’t have to be difficult or complex to use essential oils. If you want to use them aromatically, you don’t even have to have a diffuser. You can actually sniff the oil straight from the bottle. If you want to use it directly on your skin, there are some that don’t even need dilution. And for those that do, you can choose a carrier oil that works for you. And you don’t have to be some kind of alchemist or expert in what each oil does. You can buy books and apps that will help educate you, but there’s also good old Google that can help you find plenty of information contained on reputable websites.
And you have to excuse us for babbling on about essential oils. We talk about them because we know what a difference they have made to our lives. Yes, for some of us, educating people about oils is part of our business, but we share information because we believe in the product and want to help others if we can. If a dear friend hadn’t talked about oils when she first got her kit, I might never have discovered them. And my life would be very different now.
If you want to know more, please ask me. I’m no expert, but I do a bit of reading and I know a lot from my personal experiences. Feel free to share this post if you are so inclined. And please, if you are one of those people who are tempted to make fun of us, just don’t. We’re not all neck deep in conspiracies about big Pharma and the business of cancer. Some of us just want to keep our lives as natural and free of toxins as we can, while supporting our physical and emotional wellbeing.
🌸 And I don’t think it hurts to walk around smelling like flowers either.
