The pandemic showed us how quickly our lives and health could be turned inside out. It may be in the rearview mirror for the most part now, but its virus variations are still challenging our physical, mental, and emotional well-being. Regardless of the health challenges, there are natural ways to support your health worth your attention. One such method is by utilizing nature’s healing properties of essential oils.
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What Are Essential Oils?
Essential oils are extracted from plants through varying methods, such as distillation or cold press. They are not only known for their refreshing aromas but also for their health benefits. Plants produce these oils to boost their defense mechanism; you can benefit from their healing properties to support your immune system.
Essential oils, like eucalyptus or lavender oil, are not only fledged with antimicrobial, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory properties but also help in improving the freshness of the environment.
Benefits of Essential Oils: Try Them to Support You in Your Health
Essential oils have healing powers and the potential to enhance your overall well-being. Let’s have a look at some of these oils and their benefits:
Eucalyptus Essential Oil
Eucalyptus oil has a sharp and soothing smell that instantaneously soothes the respiratory tract. It has also been shown to minimize flu symptoms. It is an immune-stimulant, meaning that it helps activate the immune system.
How to use?
You can use eucalyptus oil by taking a few drops on your palm or a piece of cotton and then inhaling the oil taking deep breaths. You can also add it to a steamer or diffuser for a gentler and longer-lasting effect.
Eucalyptus Essential Oil Benefits
- Helps open the airways in your chest.
- Soothing to a cough.
- Beneficial for the skin.
- Assists in maintaining blood sugar.
Lavender Essential Oil
Lavender oil is known for its calming effect, as a mood freshener, and for creating positive vibes around you. But did you know that lavender oil is the ultimate stress buster, too? So, even if you are working full-time, a stay-at-home mom, or a homemaker, this essential oil will help you unwind and reduce your stress. Well, now, you know! It also helps improve sleep quality and possesses anti-viral properties.
How to use?
You can add drops to an essential oil diffuser to disseminate the oil in your surroundings and freshen the air instantly. One of the best ways to use lavender oil is to massage your body adding lavender to a base oil, such as coconut, sweet almond, or Jojoba. These are known as carrier oils and dilute the oil for application. You can also add some drops in the water before bathing or a drop to your pillow at night for a relaxing sleep.
Lavender Essential Oil Benefits:
- Helps relieve stress.
- Improves stamina.
- Enhances skin health
- Soothes skin irritations (skin is the first defense against microbes).
- Improves sleep quality and sleep hygiene.
Basil Essential Oil
Basil oil comes from the basil plant and has healing properties. The essential oil is also well-known for its anti-viral properties.
How to use?
You can mix a drop or two in a cup of water and sip it slowly. Try starting off your day by sipping basil water; it's energizing. Even your garden can benefit by adding basil oil to your watering can to improve growth and help in keeping away pests. You can also use it by adding a few drops to coconut oil and massaging sore or tired muscles.
Basil Essential Oil Benefits:
- Enhances moods and, thus, can improve productivity throughout the day.
- Improves digestion and helps in gaining intestinal microflora.
- Promotes alertness.
Rosemary Essential Oil
Rosemary oil is an evergreen extract with a pleasant and energizing scent. People have used it for aromatic purposes for years, and it’s a culinary delight. But did you know that rosemary also has immunity-enhancing properties? It’s often a much-overlooked quality. It also helps in respiration.
How to use?
Uses can include diffusing rosemary oil in your home with a diffuser or massaging it directly on your body or scalp. Rosemary is very strong so be sure and test a tiny amount for skin sensitivity before using it generously. It can also be diluted with a carrier oil such as coconut or almond oil for a more gentle application, too.
Rosemary Essential Oil Benefits:
- Acts as an insect repellent.
- Known to improve blood circulation in the body.
- Helps to relieve stress and calm anxiety.
- Promotes healthy respiratory function.
- Supports healthy digestion when taken internally.
Peppermint Essential Oil
Peppermint oil has a distinctive smell that is refreshing and has a cooling effect wherever applied. It has been timelessly used for freshening and purifying the surrounding air. It is really popular because of its antimicrobial properties, as well as helping digestion and relieving intestinal discomfort. Peppermint oil has positively affected various problems like colds, sinus infections, vomiting, nausea, mouth, and throat inflammation.
How to use it?
Peppermint oil comes in a concentrated form with a high menthol content, so do not consume it without substantially diluting it. You can use it in your oil diffuser to induce freshness. Or try cutting it; then inhale to get the fresh and soothing relief in your throat and windpipe.
Peppermint Essential Oil Benefits:
- Helps to relieve headaches, muscle pain, and itching.
- Soothing and regenerative for stomach upset and colon irritation.
- Promotes healthy respiratory function.
- Naturally repels bugs.
- You can also use it as a mouthwash. (Don’t forget to dilute it! 1 drop for every 4 ounces.)
Cajuput Essential Oil
Cajuput oil smells a lot like turpentine oil. It has been used to treat headaches, colds, and toothaches. It is popular all over the world for its antimicrobial and antiviral properties.
Like eucalyptus oil, it is an immune-stimulant and expectorant that promotes phlegm production by the lungs, which can assist in the treatment of a cough.
How to use it?
You can use Cajuput oil as a massaging oil for your skin when diluted and mixed with a base oil and other essential oils, or it can also be diffused in a room for a positive ambiance. Cajuput oil has a compound called cineole, which gives specific warmth and a slight burning sensation when applied to the skin that can result in pain relief. Cajuput oil is not recommended for direct oral consumption.
Cajuput Essential Oil Benefits:
- Excellent expectorant.
- Helpful in inflammation, sore throats, and muscle aches.
- Helps insect bites and assists to prevent fungal infections.
Select your favorite or try a new scent of the above essential oils and experience the difference for yourself.
Related reading: "Back to School Essential Oils to Support Your Kid's Health"
Where to Buy Essential Oils?
Not every essential oil you buy is natural; some are synthetically produced. Therefore, do sufficient research before buying them.
And if you're looking for a recommendation, we have done our homework to save you time; check out DoTerra and Organic Aromas. Their high standards and quality have captured our commendation.
For a versatile essential oil, try lavender.
In Conclusion
These have been difficult times that come with their own lessons. Essential oils are not only valuable for overall physical health but also assist emotional and mental health, too. They act as a mood booster, either stabilizing, stimulating, or relaxing—you choose by selecting the oil that is most useful to you. Their fresh aroma creates an ambiance that everyone loves while making you feel as if you are out in nature, breathing fresh air.
* None of the statements in this blog have been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. None of the above recommendations are intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any condition or disease. Essential oils are naturally produced substances that can assist the body in its own healing process, but we make no claims whatsoever. Use with moderation and discretion.
