How Essential Oils Work
Essential oils are the aromatic oils distilled from plants; these oils contain the very essence of the plants and as such contain the plant's healing and curative properties.
Essential oils are aromatic essences extracted in a highly concentrated form from parts of trees and plants such as flowers, leaves, roots, fruits and seeds. For example, rose oil from flower petals, neroli oil from blossom, frankincense oil from the gum of a tree, lemongrass oil from grass grown in China, eucalyptus oil from gum trees, ginger oil from roots, cypress oil from needles and pine cones, lemon and other citrus oils from peel, and fennel oil from seeds.
Essential oils can be inhaled or applied to the skin.
When massaged into the skin, essential oils absorb quickly, their aromatic molecules enter our body allowing their natural healing properties to do their work.
When massaged into the skin, essential oils absorb quickly, their aromatic molecules enter our body allowing their natural healing properties to do their work.
When we inhale an essential oil, their aromatic molecules enter our body via the nasal passages and our two olfactory bulbs (one for each brain hemisphere) and travel to the limbic region to the centre of the brain, the group of structures that regulate processes like minds, emotions, mood, thoughts, memories, and our behaviours, as well as the autonomic nervous and endocrine systems. This olfactory highway means that the scent bypasses the cerebral cortex, which is the conscious processing part of the brain.
This is why just a whiff of something can immediately evoke a flash of memory, a memory from the past, and with that may come an emotional response. Think about the delicious aroma of freshly baked bread; the aroma of coffee brewing in the morning; the smell of freshly cut grass; the pungent odours of life on a farm; tobacco smoke, and so on. Smells, whether pleasant or unpleasant, can bring about a lot of different responses in our brain and body, some of these responses can offer us real healing - physical, emotional and mental, as well as spiritual.
Because the limbic system is directly connected to those parts of our brain that control our heart rate, blood pressure, breathing, memory, stress levels, emotions and hormone balance, essential oils can have profound physiological and psychological effects, impacting every cell of our being.
Aromas can influence people, how they feel about themselves, and how they interact.
This is why just a whiff of something can immediately evoke a flash of memory, a memory from the past, and with that may come an emotional response. Think about the delicious aroma of freshly baked bread; the aroma of coffee brewing in the morning; the smell of freshly cut grass; the pungent odours of life on a farm; tobacco smoke, and so on. Smells, whether pleasant or unpleasant, can bring about a lot of different responses in our brain and body, some of these responses can offer us real healing - physical, emotional and mental, as well as spiritual.
Because the limbic system is directly connected to those parts of our brain that control our heart rate, blood pressure, breathing, memory, stress levels, emotions and hormone balance, essential oils can have profound physiological and psychological effects, impacting every cell of our being.
Aromas can influence people, how they feel about themselves, and how they interact.