10 Benefits of Using Essential Oils
In this day and age, you most likely have heard about the wonders of essential oils from a friend or neighbor, but may be unsure how you can use these oils in your everyday life. Thankfully, essential oils are extremely flexible and can be applied in a wide variety of situations to meet your needs. To help familiarize you with the general perks of essential oils, check out the following ten benefits of these natural products — along with some common uses.
1. Plant-Based Health Alternatives
For any individual, staying healthy is a top concern, but it can be a bit overwhelming when faced with purchasing the many ointments or medicines to help with specific health issues. Thankfully, our ancestors have used plants for their unique properties for centuries, and essential oils offer a wide range of benefits when it comes to our health.
For instance, some essential oils, such as Tea Tree, are shown to have antibacterial and antiviral properties, and can be added into your facial cleansing routine to help combat unwanted blemishes. Other essential oils, such as Eucalyptus Radiata, are great for aromatherapy as a way to relieve symptoms of sinus headaches or congestion.
2. Natural Cleaning Solutions
When you think of many household cleaners, you probably see a lot of common scents coming through: Lemon, Pine, Orange… This is because these plants have natural antiseptic and/or antibacterial properties. Utilizing these essential oils in our everyday cleaning routines makes for a more natural and effective cleaning experience.
If you’re worried about the effects of harsh chemicals in your cleaning supplies, consider the benefits of creating your own products using natural ingredients that not only smell incredible but also offer the same germ-fighting action as leading household cleaners.
3. Providing an Energy Boost
Sudden grogginess in the middle of your day can be extremely frustrating — especially when you have a lot of work you still need to get done. Thankfully, there are a wide range of essential oils available to help wake up your mind and get you back into boss-mode.
Next time you feel that familiar brain fog settle over your mind, diffuse or inhale some Tangerine or Clove Bud essential oil to add focus and energy to your day.
4. Offering Relaxation Opportunities
In our day-to-day lives, we carry around a lot of stress, which is why it’s so important to find time to relax and focus on ourselves. Whether you’re in the workplace or at home, make an effort to treat yourself to a few moments of ‘You’ time each day — whether that’s by taking a walk around the block or stepping into a hot bath. Providing yourself with the ability to reflect, relax, and decompress is entirely beneficial to your overall health, and by pairing these moments with aromatherapy, you can help make the experience much more enjoyable and effective in the long-run.
Diffuse Bergamot during your next meditation session for a bright and uplifting aroma, or consider applying Vetiver topically before settling down with your favorite book.
5. Helping to Lift Your Mood
Feeling a wide range of emotions is a natural part of life, but sometimes, sudden experiences of crankiness, frustration, or worry can creep up on us and hinder our ability to function properly at work, home, or in social settings. This makes it important to find a way to quickly and effectively boost your mood so you can get back to a more calm and clear headspace.
Make your space more lively and joyful by adding a few drops of Lime essential oil to a spray bottle of distilled water, and spritz throughout the room.
6. Effective Motivational Support
It can be incredibly difficult to stay on track with your goals, which is why it is important to find some sort of strategy to help you be more mindful and aware so that you can more easily reap the benefits of any lifestyle changes.
If you’re looking to encourage feelings of progression and increase your motivation, consider the emotional effects of aromatherapy. Simply diffuse some Black Pepper or Basil essential oil when you need a little extra boost to get you moving.
7. Augment Your Beauty Routine
We all love the added boost of confidence that comes from viable beauty habits, but while we enjoy the benefits of our many self-care products, keeping things as natural as possible can make a great deal of difference in our appearance. Many beauty enthusiasts prefer making their own hair, skin, and hygiene products to ensure they only use the most natural ingredients in their beauty routine.
Consider using essential oils to replace your current commercial products. Consider adding our Hair Support blend to your shampoo for more luscious, stronger locks, or try your hand at creating a DIY natural deodorant.
8. Simplifying Aromatherapy Experiences
As one of our major senses, smell is incredibly important in our daily lives. We put a lot of effort in masking odors in our homes, at our workplace, and on our bodies. Unfortunately, this journey has pushed us to fill our lives and living spaces with many unnecessary products such as scented candles, room sprays, car fresheners, and much, much more. Wouldn’t it be nice to remove all the extra clutter while still keeping a wide variety available?
One of the best aspects of essential oils is that they are highly versatile in their application, and are extremely accessible for all of your aromatherapy needs. Now, you can say goodbye to your many cans of air fresheners, and say hello to your new diffuser.
9. Getting More Restful Sleep
It’s recommended that adults receive between 7 to 9 hours of sleep each night in order to maintain a healthy and functional lifestyle. However, some individuals may find it hard to catch those elusive Z’s if they are stressed or have a lot on their mind.
Tired of counting sheep? Next time you find yourself unable to drift into dreamland, consider adding aromatherapy to your sleep schedule. Add Lavender to a carrier oil and apply topically to promote feelings of peace and encourage restful sleep.
10. Kick-Starting Your Memory
Have you ever experienced a moment where you smell a unique scent and immediately are transported back in time? Does the scent of honeysuckle remind you of your great grandmother’s garden, or the smell of hay make you think of a fourth-grade field trip to the petting zoo?
This spontaneous trigger of nostalgia is due to the close link between smell and memory. Our brains are quick to conjure up recollections of long-past memories or emotions when faced with the olfactory bulb (the brain’s smell-center, if you will), due to the isolated information stored in the amygdala and hippocampus from our olfactory senses.
Using this information, we can attempt to ‘hack’ our brains to enhance memory recall through aromatherapy. For example: You have a big test coming up and are searching for effective ways to memorize difficult concepts. Diffuse a particular essential oil, such as Peppermint or Coriander, during your study session to solidify ideas in your mind. Then kick-start your memory when you most need it with an aromatherapy inhaler for instant recollection.