All of us are under some kind of stress most of the time in our lives. Stress is normal and good to perform our responsibilities. It is when stress turns into distressful states that we need help, Essential oils can relieve and restore you to a balanced state before distress turns into a serious illness.

First let us distinguish between stresses, positive or normal stress, and distress. Normal stress can be described as a “high” it is the excited tension you get when performing a job or task fast and efficiently. It is the kind of energy you feel that increases stimulation and creative flow, it make us feel good about ourselves and what we are accomplishing. Distress is when the healthy or normal stress becomes chronic, when we are overloaded, have no energy, no will, only frustration at the increasing pressure in our lives.

How do we actually become distressed? Threw our thinking! Our thinking about a situation in our life causes emotional stress, most all illness come from our emotions being out of balance. When we have these imbalances it works on us energetically, emotionally and then physically. When we smell Essential oils, the fragrance goes directly into our limbic system in the brain, bypassing our consciousness; the limbic system is the seat of our memory and emotions. This is why Essential oils can work so well with stress related problems.

Many of us feel we need to keep a tight lid on emotions, we fear if we allow them to surface they will cause serious damage. But in reality not feeling our emotions cause illness. If we summon up the courage to truly feel our emotions, we discover they don’t last; in fact they burn themselves out in a matter of minutes. Essential Oils are a subtle non-invasive tool to use to defuse emotions.

Essential oils should be used diluted, unless otherwise prescribed. Use 2 to 5 % Essential oil to 98 to 95% carrier. The carrier’s I prefer are Hydrosol’s (floral waters) or vegetable oils, like a combination of Grape Seed, Almond and Apricot oils.

Good delivery methods of Essential oils are Spritzer’s, Diffuser’s, Massage and Baths.

Time out is one of the most important things we can do for ourselves. Using essential oils to look at your stress situation helps you see things from a different point of view, and to do that we have to get quiet, breath, so we can here our inner wisdom.

Some of this information on these 5 oils was taken from “The Blossoming Heart” by Robbie Zeck 2002. If you have any questions or concerns about using Essential oils you can contact Rhonda D. Whetham