Essential oil meets human

Essential oils are great, but how do you get them to where you need them?

The main idea here is to get essential oils into or onto your body.

If you think of your body as a box with inputs and outputs, you get a bigger picture of the idea behind essential oil application.

To get oils in you, you can breathe them in, eat them, and absorb them through the skin.

How you apply your essential oil can have an effect on how the body uses it.  Sometimes, this even changes how the essential may benefit you.  For example Sandalwood applied on your skin may have a calming effect, but when applied by inhaling it, the effect can be energizing.

Most importantly, the way you apply the essential oil can influence where the therapeutic benefit is enjoyed.

The effect can be either Localized or Systemic.

• Localized means that you experience the therapeutic benefit in the target area (usually the area of first contact).
• Systemic means that the oil will enter the circulation system and be distributed to the entire body or system.

Topically means applying your essential oil to the skin to be absorbed.  This is ideal for a localized effect (put it where you want the therapeutic benefit).  However, it can also enter the blood system through capillaries, veins, and arteries of the skin and travel throughout the body giving you a systemic therapeutic benefit.

Internally means ingesting the essential oil.  This can have a localized effect on the mouth, throat, stomach or intestine.  If you take your essential oils with food, you have a more localized therapeutic effect on your digestive system as the amount of essential oils absorbed into the body decrease.

Aromatically means breathing the essential oil in.  It enters the body through the olfactory sensors in the nose (which are your smell detectors), or the body through the lungs.  Generally this creates a systemic effect.  However, the aroma of essential oils can seem to interact directly with the part of your nervous system and brain which controls emotions and memories.  This can seem to some people to be a localized effect.

So, here are the three ways you can use essential oils:

• Aromatically – Breathe them in
  -Cup hands: put a drop in your hands and inhale
  -Diffuser: add a drop or two to a diffuser
• Internally – Drink or eat them (only the world’s purest!)
  -Water: add a drop to your water bottle
  -Capsule: you can put some in a Veggie Cap
• Topically – put it on your skin
  -NEAT: place directly on your skin
  -Dilute: dilute with oil or body lotion

We will review each in turn:

Check out these blogs on each application mode:

• AROMATIC: https://jadebalden.com/aromatic/
• INTERNAL: https://jadebalden.com/internal/
• TOPICAL: https://jadebalden.com/topical/