What is Aromatherapy?

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What is Aromatherapy?

"Healing is 80 percent spiritual and 20 percent medicine."

- Papa Henry Auwae

Aromatherapy is the therapeutic use of essential oils to heal and revitalize the body and mind. These essential oils are distilled or cold-pressed from plants and flowers. Essential oils represent what nature prizes most: pure energy and vital force which enlivens the plant. These precious essential oils heal and enliven body, mind and spirit by enchanting your senses!

Aromatherapy is the science and art of using the volatile, non-oily essences of plants in healing. These essences are also used in cosmetics, perfumery and in food flavoring. Aromatherapy is considered by many to be a branch of herbal medicine. It is in fact the use of herbs and flowers in their most concentrated form. Medicinal use of essential oils brings healing on 3 planes; the physical, mental, and the spiritual. Research has shown essential oils to be some of the strongest antimicrobial agents; ridding the body of toxins and fighting infection. Others are known to affect mood and have a historical reputation for increasing libido. While still others are use in ritual and ceremony to open and heighten spiritual awareness.

Aromatherapy is an ancient healing art that has been around since The Pyramids and is as modern as today's natural holistic healing. Essential oils are the life force of plants. Aromatherapy is a complete psychosomatic system of healing, a holistic approach to health and well-being by means of aromas which are scents derived from the plant kingdom. The power of fragrance is used to influence and alter our emotional moods. Their aroma assists in balancing, stimulating, relaxing, invigorating and rejuvenating the body. It is these oils that give plants their fragrance and immunity. Essential oils contain numerous chemicals which have therapeutic properties. Essential oils in their structure have the potential to donate or receive electrons. This energetic exchange is due to the wavelength of the electromagnetic vibrations which are produced by the essential oils.. The recognized healing effect of essential oils is thought to be carried out mainly through tissue stimulation. This quality refers to the healing and regeneration action of certain essential oils. Essential oils have an analgesic neutralizing effect upon the chemicals carried by the sensory nerve endings in response to injury. This is generally felt as pain and the effect of neutralization leads to the absence of pain or discomfort. The anti-inflammatory effect is achieved by the inhibition of the local inflammatory response and neutralization of chemical reactions caused by an injury.

What are Essential Oils?

They are subtle, therapeutic-grade oils distilled from plants, shrubs, flowers, trees, roots, bushes and seeds. They are oxygenating and help transport nutrients to the cells of our body. Without oxygen, nutrients cannot be assimilated; therefore, the oxygenating essential oils can help us maintain our health.

Benefits of Essential Oils One of the most popular applications for essential oils is in the field of aromatherapy. This highly skilled art uses essential oils to assist in the healing of physical, psychological and aesthetic ailments. It is the only therapy that utilizes the most neglected of the senses, smell.

There are many ways to incorporate the benefits of aromatherapy into our daily lives. They may used to stimulate and invigorate us in the morning, and then to calm and restore our peace of mind at the end of the day. Essential oils may soothe inflammation, act as an antiseptic, help dull pain and stimulate digestion. We encourage you to experiment with our full line of essential oil products so that you may discover which uses and fragrances work best for you in any given situation or state of mind. Once you've learned a little about the uses and benefits of essential oils, you'll be amazed at how you can take control of your health, the air you breathe and the food you eat-all in a safe, chemical free manner.

Essential oils have cytophylactic (cell regeneration), antiseptic, and wound healing effects as well as anti-fungal and anti-inflammative properties making them the ultimate active principles for holistic natural skin-care.

How do Essential Oils work?

Essential oils are composed of tiny molecules which are easily dissolved in alcohol, emulsifiers and fats. This allows them to penetrate the skin easily and work into the body by mixing with the fatty tissue.

As these highly volatile essences evaporate they are also inhaled, thus entering the body via the millions of sensitive cells that line the nasal passages. These send messages straight to the brain, and affect the emotions by working on the limbic system, which also controls the major functions of the body. Thus in an aromatherapy treatment the essential oils are able to enhance both your physical and psychological well-being at the same time.

Each oil has a distinct chemical composition which determines its fragrance, color, volatility and the ways in which it affects the system, giving each oil its unique set of beneficial properties.

What are the effects of using Essential Oils?

Oils can directly or indirectly affect the body's physiological systems. For instance, a couple of drops of peppermint taken orally can aid digestion and inhalations of mucolytic oils can relieve respiratory symptoms. Used topically for their antiseptic and soothing effects, essential oils can successfully treat minor skin conditions. It has been demonstrated that the application of certain essential oils to the skin can produce vaso-dilation which in turn causes warming of underlying muscles, however this is an indirect effect of the oil acting on the superficial tissues, it is not a pharmacological effect produced as a result of the oil entering the systemic circulation via the skin. In addition, because of the effect of relaxation on the brain and the subsequent sedating or stimulating of the nervous system, essential oils can also indirectly raise and lower blood pressure and possibly aid in normalization of hormonal secretion.

Because of olfaction's direct connection to the brain, sending electrical messages directly into the limbic system, essential oils can have effects on emotions and mental states. Perception of odors can have a major impact on memory, learning, emotions, thinking and feeling. As therapeutic agents, essential oils work similarly to tranquilizers but in a subtle organic way. Most scents uplift spirits and calm the nervous system. For example, lavender is calming and sedative; basil, rosemary and peppermint are uplifting and stimulating; and jasmine and ylang-ylang are exciting or euphoric.

 
Its's like along the same lines of when you go to a store like Macy's or Ultra you see the little jar of coffee beans. If you love to smell every perfume in the store your nose needs a break after about the 3rd due to overload. A good swiff of coffee beans is like that little piece of cheese at tasting wines.

I am one of those who likes to smell everyone of the new fragances till I find one I might like, I am very picky and I have found that little swiff of coffee beans does it trick.

Essential oils are added to unscented lotions and body butters, thats how you get your really nice smelling ones. I have a body butter that is the best I have ever used and one of the major reasons is because it made with a essential oil of Lily of the Valley. It takes me back to a time and place I can never return too but a good swiff of my favorite body butter takes me back everytime. And puts a smile on my face.

The next time you take a swiff of a lotion or butters or bath salts, think where does it take you? Joy? Love? not so nice? Then think why you buy it?

.Aromatherapy is very powerful indeed.
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