What Is Essential Oil? Essential Oil Benefits

What is Essential Oil? The Power Of Flowers

What is essential oil? Many have heard of the term essential oil, but what exactly is it and what does it do?

An essential oil is the concentrated aroma compounds extracted from plants in the form of an oil. This aroma compound is called an essential oil because is has a scent derived from the essence of the plant, that is distinctive to each plant because of its nutrient makeup.

To gain all essential oil benefits, the essential oil is extracted from different parts of a plant which include: the bark, berries, flowers, leaves, peel, resin, rhizome, root, seeds, and wood.

Essential Oil Benefits

When I learned the answer to “what is essential oil” my first thought was that I could use it as a natural air freshener. Once I adopted a plant based life it became very important to me to use as many natural products as possible to reduce the amount a chemical toxins I would introduce into my body. When you take a look at label of most air fresheners on the market they are full of chemicals, substances unnatural to the body.

Our bodies are part of this ecosystem of life, that produces sunlight, water, air, nutrients, plant life, animal life, and human life, and our bodies work in a synergistic way with the nutrients of plant life.

The nutrients our bodies are made of and the nutrients plants are made of both come from the earth. Both have balanced electrical and nutrient makeup, and our bodies benefit from the balance that exists in plant life, and its essential oil benefits.

Essential Oil Benefits: Therapeutic Smell

I bought some essential oils since I wanted my place to smell nice, without introducing toxins into my body. There is something to the smell of natural flower scents inside your home. It is like being outside in the fresh air, but you are inside. Just this in itself is one of essential oil benefits, to be surrounded by these the different scents in your home.

I used to burn incense but I find using essential oils I don’t get the smokiness of the incense all over the place. I found subtle differences in the way different oils effected me. One would make my mind more attentive, another would open up my chest, and another would be more soothing.

Since the different essential oils effected me differently, I started to look deeper into what essential oils did, and found out they offered more than just nice scents. Essential oils have been used traditionally for their medicinal properties, which is another one of the essential oil benefits.

Essential oils have been used in traditional medicine in a practice called aromatherapy, where the scents are inhaled for the purpose of treating illnesses, and essential oils have also been used in massage therapy, and ingested to treat illnesses.

Essential Oil Benefits: Traditional Medicine

What is essential oil? Cultures have understood what essential oil is for thousands of years, and its essential oil benefits going as far back as Ancient Egypt and ancient India.

The earliest recorded mention of the techniques and methods used to produce essential oils was by Ibn al-Baitar (1188–1248), an Andalusian physician, according to E. J. Brill’s First Encyclopaedia of Islam, 1913-1936, Volume 4.

Modern medicine dismisses traditional medicine until it can scientifically prove its claims, any many people have followed right along with the thinking that the practices are primitive and unfounded, belonging to the backwardness of third world countries.

As the understanding of the benefits of a plant based diet are now being recognized for its ability to heal, traditional medicine which is strongly rooted in plant based material is now being looked upon differently by many people.

Modern medicine and the pharmaceutical industry would be on the losing end if people become aware of the power of traditional medicine and a plant based diet, so the industries are designed to devalue traditional medicine.

The difficulty in accessing the validity of traditional medicine is that the are some practices do not work very well, and it may be hard to tell which ones do. I say look a the ones that have a long history of practice.

Essential Oil Benefits: Aromatherapy

You can’t go wrong with aromatherapy. Whether the medicinal properties are true or not, using aromatherapy in your home will make it smell good. Aromatherapy is the process of breathing in the aroma compounds to benefit from its healing properties.

Essential Oil Benefits: What Essential Oils Do What?

Bergamot: Soothes nerves and anxiety
Eucalyptus: Used to fight inflammation and mucus buildup. Used to treat bronchitis, colds, flu, and sinus issues. When I use eucalyptus my sinuses and chest immediately opens up
Geranium Rose: Balances the nervous system, relieves depression and anxiety, and it used as and antiseptic
Lavender Oil: Has antibacterial properties and is used for relaxation, to promote sleep, and to treat headaches. Lavender is definitely a relaxing essential oil
Lemon Grass: Relieves muscle pain, antidepressant, antimicrobial, and antibacterial

To gain the essential oil benefits during aromatherapy, undiluted oils must be diffused into the air.

There are various types of essential oil diffusers ranging from a couple of dollars to hundreds of dollars. The more expensive essential oil diffusers are electronic diffusers.

The less expensive essential oil diffusers are ceramic and stone diffusers that are heated with a candle to make the essential oil evaporate/difuse into the air.

I use a ceramic ring that sits on top of my sixty watt lightbulb lamp. It puts out less heat than higher wattage bulbs so it doesn’t diffuse the essential oil into the air as quickly, so it lasts longer. I drop a couple of drops of essential oil into the diffuser ring, sit it on top of the bulb, and turn the the light on. It is that simple.

Essential Oil Benefits: Massage Therapy And Internal Use

I have only diffused essential oils into the air, but essential oils are are massaged directly into the skin to provide healing. The pure essentials have to be diluted because their concentration is too strong to be applied directly to the skin. They are diluted with carrier oils which could be almond oil, coconut oil, hazelnut oil, etc.

Essential oils are also ingested but this is very dangerous because of the high concentration of the essential oil.

Where To Buy Essential Oils

You can buy from a selection of essential oils here.

I hope you have a better understanding of “what is essential oil” and I hope you give essential oils a try even if essential oil benefits you are interested in are only the beautiful scents, they will still support your healthy living.

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