Natural Ways To Improve Your Health:

Better Living Through Massage, Bodywork, Aromatherapy, Hydrotherapy, Acupressure, Reflexology and Other Healthy Therapies

 

Why Should You Learn About Aromatherapy?

You don’t have to look far to find media about epidemics like H1N1, Ebola, MRSA, Tuberculosis, whooping cough, etc. It’s also a topic of many suspense movies. The whole world is worried about a pandemic.

• Would it be valuable to you to strengthen your body to activate its own natural healing responses to deal with environmental pathogens or internal imbalances?

• What if I could show you how to access powerful substances that have extremely potent antibacterial, antiviral, antiseptic, and immune strengthening properties– without the side effects common with prescription drugs?

That is what I’d like to focus on in these series of articles.

I believe that anytime you can support your body’s natural healing response; instead of masking symptoms with over the counter remedies, and pharmaceuticals ( which actually curb the body’s natural healing response) you are helping your body to work more efficiently for years.

My purpose in these articles is to help you be an informed consumer and to increase your knowledge of aromatherapy and how it works. I’ll also focus in on some key essential oils, and teach you how they work so that you can use them in your everyday life– to enhance the quality of your life. I also want you to understand the potent and powerful properties of aromatherapy so you can protect yourself and your loved ones in first aid applications, and to stimulate your body’s natural healing responses. Aromatherapy can help in virtually every health situation except broken bones, and tears in the soft tissues. Aromatherapy would have powerful application in the event of an epidemic or pandemic because you now have a viable way to strengthen your immune system for the best possible chance of staying healthy.

How I was introduced to Aromatherapy:

In 1990 I was introduced to aromatherapy in a seated massage class at a continuing education workshop. The instructor used a blend made by Aveda to massage into our scalp as part of the treatment. I was fascinated. Soon after my sister who is a cosmetologist arranged for me to attend Aromatherapy training with Aveda. I then began buying books and essential oils and researching their uses and gaining a general knowledge of Aromatherapy. I then bought an expensive home study course which included a thesis. Soon after I went for certification training in California with prominent Aromatherapists offering the first credentialing course I had heard of. It has been a love affair with essential oils ever since then. Decades later my knowledge has grown substantially but I still love learning more and using aromatherapy daily in my spa, and in my beauty routine. I make my own face oils with aromatherapy and use it in many other ways daily. I made custom massage blends for my children to give them massage when they were little. Growing up my children gained a knowledge of Aromatherapy and use it now in their own homes.

Benefits of Aromatherapy:

• Reduce stress

• Reduce fatigue

• Increase alertness and concentration

• Reduce pain and spasm

• Improve immune response

• Increase relaxation and calmness

• Change perceptions and feelings

• Improve sleep and wake patterns

• Help reduce excess water retention

• Increase creativity and imagination

• Improve mood and emotional balance

• Change psychological and physical states

• Increase awareness of self and emotions

• Reduce depression, anxiety, and mood swings

• Stimulate the body’s natural healing response

• Increase self-esteem and feelings of well being

• Increase your endurance and athletic performance

Aromatherapy History:

The use of plants for therapeutic and medicinal purposes has been around for centuries. Historically many ancient cultures have used essential oils and aromatic plants for healing, in religion and ceremony, and in skin care and perfumery.

Neanderthal man found in Iraq estimated to be living 60,000 BC was buried with medicinal plants and pollens from flowers. Clearly the plants held significance, and the man may have been a medicine man or botanist. This is the earliest known use of medicinal plants.

Ayurvedic medicine began in India 8,000 BC and continuously practiced even today. It is the oldest form of medicine using aromatic plants and infusions, and essential oils.

There are many more examples. But let’s skip to what we know today as Aromatherapy.

The word “aromatherapy” was coined by Rene Maurice Gattefosse a French chemist, in 1920’s. He was  studying the properties of plant oils (essential oils) in his lab. There was a fire in the lab and he burned his arm badly. In a panic to stop the burning, he plunged his arm into a vat of the nearest of liquid. To his great benefit it was lavender oil. His arm healed astonishingly quickly with no scarring. Because of the nearly miraculous healing, he devoted the rest of his life to the study of the benefits and properties of essential oils. He decided to call this science of using plant essential oils “Aromatherapy”.

Aromatherapy Today:

Essential oils are extremely effective against antibiotic resistant bacteria—Why would that be?

Because essential oils vary from year to year based on the changes in temperature, rainfall, and environmental influences such as disease, pests, and even where the plant is grown, the essential oil is constantly changing and adapting. Antibiotics are made to be completely standard which allows the bacteria to adapt and become resistant quickly. This has caused the current problems with MRSA, and Tuberculosis –which has recently become a huge health problem again.

 Aromatherapy is a Global Business and Good For the Whole Planet:

We need plants from all around the world for our aroma apothecary. Where the plant grows naturally is where it is best suited for its development, energetically and environmentally. Basically that’s where it evolved because that’s where it belongs. Or said another way, that’s where God put it and that’s where it has the best therapeutic qualities. You want plants grown where it’s natural.

Lavender grown in the hills of France, where it is native, has different chemical properties than one grown near power lines or near the freeway where it’s exposed to pollutants and negative energy—( May I just say there is seriously, lots of negative energy is vented at people on the freeway.). Young Living Oils grows their lavender next to the freeways in Utah, think about the implications of that for a while. The higher therapeutic properties are found where the plant naturally occurs and is make it more potent.

When you use essential oils, you are taking in all of the vibrational energy of the plant absorbed from the environment. You want it to be from a good environment. You can’t just take aromatic plants from across the world and plant them in Los Angeles and expect that they will have the same quality and therapeutic properties as ones grown in the wild hills of France or the rose fields in Bulgaria.

Some of the Most Common Health Concerns and Essential Oils That Have Been Used To Treat Them:

• Chronic Fatigue:” Chamomile, Geranium, Peppermint, Lavender, Lemon, and Marjoram can be helpful, when used appropriately, for boosting the immune system, promoting relaxation, easing muscle pain, lifting mood, and improving sleep quality.” Joie Power PHd “Aromatherapy for Chronic Fatigue”

• Migraine and headaches: Peppermint Lavender, Rosemary, Chamomile, and Marjoram

• Low Testosterone: Clary sage

• Diabetes: (Lowers blood glucose) Clary Sage, Eucalyptus, Clove, and Geranium

• Anxiety: Orange, Lavender, Cedarwood, Chamomile, Clary Sage, and Marjoram

• MRSA, TB, and other Epidemics: Clove, Cinnamon, Orange. Use in a room spray.

• High Blood Pressure: Lavender, Ylang Ylang and Bergamot.

• ADD/HD: Vetiver, Cedarwood, Lavender

• Hair Loss: Cedarwood, Ylang Ylang

• Insomnia: Chamomile, Lavender, Marjoram.

• Depression: Chamomile, Clary Sage, Ylang Ylang, Orange

• Weight loss: Eucalyptus, Cedarwood, Peppermint, Grapefruit, Lemon, Cypress

Learn More About Aromatherapy Here

Contact Phoenix at: 253-838-3336

AlpineTherapeuticMassage@gmail.com

copyright 2014 Phoenix Alexander