The Benefits of Aromatherapy

The holidays are now in the rearview mirror, and the excitement is over, even if you dealt with much stress and grief from last year’s losses. However, now that the hustle and bustle from the holidays are gone while coping with the post-holiday blues, it affects your mood. You may be down and sluggish, and if you live in a colder climate, you will be affected much more. You will feel it the most around Blue Monday, January 15th. However, there is an easy way to help pick up your mood, and that is by utilizing aromatherapy.

What Is Aromatherapy?

Aromatherapy is a holistic healing treatment using essential oils from plants to promote your well-being, and it can be good to help lift you out of low moods. The fragrances from essential oils can help nurture your mind, body, and spirit, which can also help improve your emotional health. Doctors are beginning to recognize aromatherapy as a supplement treatment for many ailments such as anxiety, depression, chronic pain, and so on. However, it is believed to be both an art and a science.

Aromatherapy has existed since ancient cultures in India, Egypt, and China as practitioners would create mixtures of plant components containing fragrances in oils, balms, and resins for religious and medicinal purposes. During ancient times, practitioners believed that they had psychological and physical benefits.

The Persians in the 10th century were known to distill essential oils, though that practice was around before then. However, it was known to the general public in the 16th century as German practitioners would publish information about it. The recognition for treating many ailments happened in the 19th century when French physicians published work about it.

It was not until 1937 that the term aromatherapy was coined by French chemist and perfumer Rene-Maurice Gattefosse as he wrote a book about how lavender was used to treat burns. Even though Western modern medicine was on the rise, plenty of holistic practitioners utilized aromatherapy for treatments.

How Does Aromatherapy Work?

Aromatherapy works through smelling fragrances from essential oils and skin absorption if you apply them to your skin. There are many methods to utilize this holistic treatment, whether a diffuser, inhaler, facial steamer, hot and cold compress, bathing salts, clay masks, body oils or creams, or lotions for massage or applying them topically.

You want to remember that these essential oils are potent and use only a tiny amount, whether diffuse or topically. For example, if you use a diffuser, fill it with water and only add a small amount of essential oil. If you want to use essential oils as a topical lotion or cream, you will want to take a carrier oil, shea butter, or coconut oil and mix a few drops of essential oils into it. Putting essential oils alone on your skin will burn it.

Hundreds of essential oils are around, and they have many healing properties. You will want the correct essential oil for whatever ailment you wish to treat with a holistic practitioner specializing in aromatherapy.

For example, if you are looking for an essential oil to help you sleep because you struggle with anxiety, you will want to utilize one like chamomile or lavender, which has properties known to relax you. You do not want to use an essential oil known to invigorate you, such as peppermint, which would defeat the purpose. Now, let’s discuss many of the benefits of aromatherapy.

Aromatherapy Can Help Reduce Stress and Anxiety

Unfortunately, when it comes to life, there are only a few guarantees, which are death, taxes, heartbreak, and stress. Therefore, you cannot avoid stress. Stress can be good for you in moderate amounts because it keeps you motivated. However, when there is too much stress, it can be problematic if you cannot manage it properly. Too much stress can kick up your anxiety and cause you to have poor sleep.

However, using aromatherapy can help you manage stress and reduce anxiety by calming the nervous system, which can also help lower blood pressure and heart rate. Aromatherapy can rewire brain waves to relax you. The ideal anxiety and stress-reduction essential oils are lavender, chamomile, jasmine, geranium, and lemongrass. Stress and anxiety can also reduce your energy, making you sluggish. Therefore, when you need to calm down later in the day by utilizing these essential oils, there are other essential oils for aromatherapy you will want to utilize for energy-boosting in the morning or if you are struggling with the afternoon slump.

Aromatherapy Can Help With an Energy Boost

Are you struggling with finding your mojo each morning, or do you have it from a cup of coffee only to deal with a slump in the afternoon? You know that having coffee later in the afternoon will put you at risk of keeping you up at night, even if you utilize calming aromatherapy for the evening because the caffeine in the system will keep you up. The good news is aromatherapy can help you…