If you have gotten a massage with us, chances are you also have some experience with essential oils. We use essential oils as a means to enhance the medical process of our massage, but the benefits are much deeper. They work by themselves by providing varying benefits depending on the type of oil. Lavender oil, for example, is excellent at reducing stress and anxiety. Other oils such as chamomile help you go to sleep. And you can’t brush off their effects to the placebo effect either, there is real scientific evidence to their effectiveness.
How Do Essential Oils Work?
Essential oils work by taking the herb or fruit and condensing it into an oil. This process preserves the natural medicinal effects of these herbs and fruits, which have been used as healing agents for thousands of years.
Aromatherapy
Essential oils are most commonly used for aromatherapy. A form of medicinal and mental health therapy that uses scents and aroma to support your medicinal progress. Along with essential oils, incense and scented candles are also in this category.
For aroma, essential oils are placed in a diffuser, and usually plugged into the wall. You just take the bottle, put it in the diffuser, plug it in, and it should spread throughout the room. The health benefits will still come.
The idea behind aromatherapy is that the natural health benefits of these herbs and fruit. Jasmine, cedarwood, eucalyptus, lemon, all of these ingredients have certain chemicals to support your health. Even smelling these ingredients with the proper medium can lead to stress relief and a stronger mental health.
Even if they don’t provide direct medical benefits, research shows that manipulating the senses can help your mental health. It’s the reason why we listen to good music to feel better or clean our room so that it looks and smells better, or we feel good when eating healthy foods full of natural protein. Scent works much the same way.
Skin Application
The other most common way to use essential oils is by applying it directly to your skin. The idea is to get some of the more medicinal benefits to be more effective by applying it right to your body. You can do this when you’re looking to ease pain more than support your mental health (although that works with this method too). One common example is to use a blend of ginger or black pepper to reduce arthritis pain.
But the best way to get these medical benefits is by combining it with a massage. That way, you fully maximize the physical, mental, and internal benefits when done by a certified massage therapist.
