How To Strengthen Your Resolve With Essential Oils & Aromatherapy
By Patricia Betty, Pioneering Aromatherapist & Educator
Essential Oils are truly amazing! Decades after my first introduction to these volatile substances, they still have the power to surprise and awe me. As a committed Aromatherapist, my own preference is to reach for essential oils first in almost any situation presented, challenging or not.
In fact, many years ago, I used to advise my students and clients to always carry a small selection of undiluted essential oils in a pouch to meet head on any challenges presented for these Wonder Oils to address!
Essential Oils and Aromatherapy go hand in hand with health, fitness, weight control and strengthening your resolve. Say for example, you are a little lazy or uncommitted one morning and you are trying to will yourself to “up and at ‘em” in your gym class, or to wow your Personal Trainer. Reach for Peppermint Oil! Peppermint oil, when inhaled in a focused, one nostril at a time fashion, can immediately jolt the brain awake!
Wow! Your eyes popped open, didn’t they? What I also love about Peppermint Oil is the fact that through focused inhalation, you immediately flood your brain and your various systems with usable oxygen.
Our lungs, circulation and hard-working skeletal muscles need oxygen to do their jobs properly, especially during stressful workouts and Peppermint Oil certainly facilitates this. Peppermint Oil helps increase stamina and endurance. I’ve had clients use Peppermint Oil to help them sing through challenging and prolonged arias!
Unfortunately, there are some sad individuals that are highly allergic to Peppermint/menthol, so these individuals might be aghast at the thought of inhaling Peppermint Oil for increased anything.
Might I suggest as alternatives Fir Needle (Pine) Oil or French Lavender Oil? The jolt won’t be as startling but the wake-up and endurance effect of the oxygen inflow will be much the same, just gentler.
I constantly mention the oxygen benefit of essential oils because it is an important point seldom stressed by many “aromatherapists”. You can get this oxygen benefit through focused inhalation or via transdermal absorption through the pores of the skin.
You know the “oxygen debt” incurred by overworked skeletal muscles? Lactic Acid, the result of this “debt” causes severe pain and stiffness. Massaging affected areas with an Aromatherapy Blend containing, for example, Geranium, Birch, Pine and Lavender, helps repay this “oxygen debt” in a jiffy!
Essential Oils contain various compounds of oxygen so topical application of Aromatherapy Blends, releases oxygen immediately, bypassing slower lung respiration. This is huge.
Another coping mechanism I taught was to put a drop of Cinnamon, Peppermint or Lemon Oils on the tongue when faced with an overwhelming desire for something like fast-food after a workout! This trick fools the brain into thinking you’ve had something to eat, taking the edge off your cravings.
My mission in life is to continuously unlock the wonders of essential oils for everyone.
For more info on essential olis visit the NMFIT blog for more articles.