Pocket Guide to Essential Oils

What are essental oils?

Essential oils are potent aromatic substances extracted from fragrant plants for physical and emotional healing. Today, herbalists, body workers, cosmetologists, chiropractors, and other holistic healers are discovering how using these oils in a multifaceted and versatile healing art called aromatherapy can enrich their practices. You can use the same principles of aromatherapy as a natural remedy in your home.

Interest in therapeutic essential oils continues to grow. They are pumped into offices, stores, and even some hospitals to make the atmosphere more relaxing. Large corporations are turning to fragrance to keep their workers alert and more content on the job now that certain scents have been shown to lower blood pressure, relieve anxiety, and improve mental focus.

There are many approaches to using essential oils. Applied externally, they penetrate through the skin into underlying tissues to reach the bloodstream: compounds from lavender oil have been detected in the blood only twenty minutes after it was rubbed on the skin. As a result, one can treat a wide range of physical conditions using essential oils. For example, rubbing an aromatic vapor balm containing eucalyptus on the chest relieves lung congestion and fights infection through inhalation deep into air passages and also through absorption of the oils into the chest.

The beauty of essential oils is that you can take advantage of both their physical and emotional effects in the same treatment. A chamomile body oil massaged on the abdomen to soothe indigestion can also calm nervous conditions. A body lotion that improves your complexion can also contain essential oils that relieve depression.

In this book, I describe these methods, providing recipes along the way to get you started with essential oils. For even more detail about using essential oils and making your own products, look for Aromatherapy: A Complete Guide to the Healing Art.