Self-Care: How to Use Essential Oils for Self-Care

I’ve always loved scents. After I got my first job at Taco Bell when I was fifteen, I couldn’t wait to use some of my first paycheck to purchase perfume from the neighborhood CVS. I loved how the scent of flowers, fruits or powder not only allured the opposite sex, but also made me feel fresh, confident and happy. When I graduated from high school, I graduated from Victoria’s Secrets mists like Love Spell, Pear Glace and Champagne and Strawberries to perfumes like Sunflowers, Curve and Clinique Happy. While in college, I began to fill my first apartment with candles and plugins. Unbeknownst to me, I was starting to delve into aromatherapy, the use of scents for their therapeutic qualities. By the time I was in my mid-twenties, I’d researched the power of scents and started purchasing scented wax melters to create specific vibes in my home and office spaces.

I still have a love and deep appreciation for aromatherapy and over the past five years, I’ve been obsessed with essential oils and the different ways they can aid in self-care.

What are Essential Oils?

Essential oils are basically plant extracts. They're made by steaming or pressing various parts of a plant (flowers, bark, leaves or fruit) to capture the compounds that produce fragrance. It can take several pounds of a plant to produce a single bottle of essential oil. In addition to creating scent, essential oils perform other functions in plants, too.

How Can You Use Essential Oils for Self-Care?

There are many ways you can use essential oils for self-care, but the main ways I use them are for aromatherapy and during meditation. I have a large diffuser I keep in my bedroom or take down to my living room and fill with water and my favorite essential oil. I will do this to create a scent that lifts and invigorates me, or an oil that relaxes me. I also recently purchased wearable diffusers: a locket and a bracelet that have little pads in them for you to drop essential oils onto to inhale while you are out and about.

My Favorite Essential Oils and Their Benefits:

Lavender- This subtly floral scent can help people to relax and sleep. Moreover, breathing it in has been found to help with alleviating headaches, while the use of the oil topically may help reduce the itching and swelling from bug bites.

Eucalyptus- used as a medicine to treat a variety of common diseases and conditions including nasal congestion, asthma, and as a tick repellant. 

Lemon- This citrusy oil is loaded with antioxidants that can help reduce inflammation, fight against anemia, boost energy levels, and relieve nausea.

Peppermint- When applied topically, you’ll immediately sense a cooling effect. This can help with things like muscle pain (and potentially help to increase exercise performance, sunburn relief, and itchy skin conditions like poison ivy or insect bites.

Tea Tree- along with its easy to identify medicinal scent. It’s typically used as an antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, and antiviral treatment, in addition to treating hypersensitivity.

Many people believe essential oils can help with headaches, nausea, depression and anxiety. I can attest that inhaling the oils when I am anxious, helps me, but be sure to do your research and follow the guidelines for using these wonderful gifts from nature.