by Regina Smite
Another beautiful holiday season is upon us, and this time we’d like to do a little something different. A different decor, a different meal, maybe a whole different attitude…What simple thing can one do to make the season special? Bring a little extra cheer to the family? Perhaps even sneak it in to the festivities so they don’t even know it’s happening, but they’re a little happier and healthier? A naturopath’s suggestion: consider aromatherapy. With the chaos of shopping, cooking, cleaning and visiting family, bringing an uplifting, warming atmosphere to your home with the touch of lovely aromas can really make a difference. And pure, real essential oils are a truly effective way to do this - natural aromatics can have a profoundly positive effect on our spirits and the spirits of those around us.
Natural aromatics have been used as mood lifters and to create warm and comfortable atmospheres for many years. Thousands, even. The methods are tried and true. Our olfactory sense and our psyche have an affinity for things that smell nice. Science says they even make us healthier - essential oils have been shown to lower stress levels, blood pressure, help us get better rest and even make us stop fighting - well, they’ve been shown to stop rats from fighting, anyway. We can hope for the best when using them in our own homes!
Bringing the positive effects of essential oils into your home is very simple to do; you only need select the scent or scents you’d like to diffuse into the air, and an essential oil diffuser to make this happen. There is an incredible variety of aromas from which to chose, and you may want more than one to mix and match depending on your taste and mood (we’ll look at several popular seasonal aromas in a moment). Then there are a few diffuser styles to select from: a warmer, either electric or with a candle; a fan style; a nebulizer and an ultrasonic nebulizer. These are not nearly as complex as they sound!
Warming diffusers do just that - warm the essential oils either from a cotton pad, or evaporate them from the surface of small bowl of water using a candle. These are inexpensive, easy to use, and make a smaller space smell wonderful. For a little larger area, a fan diffuser passes air over the oils and evaporates them more effectively. A little bit fancier still is an ultrasonic nebulizing diffuser, which is really a small humidifier specially made to make a mist of essential oils along with water. These are nice in dry areas or in homes with forced-air heat. Top-of-the-line are the cold-air nebulizing diffusers which make a mist of the pure essential oils themselves. Cold-air nebulizers can diffuse oils into a very large open area or at high concentrations if your therapeutic needs are such in the future.
And now for the fun part - the essential oils. There are SO many to choose from, and you may start by just browsing sites on the internet which will often have listings of over a hundred oils available. Here we’ll have a look at just a few of the favorites for this time of year. Perhaps the most popular are the ‘needle’ oils, distilled from the needles and twigs of evergreen trees. Balsam Fir is especially nice, with a lightly complex aroma of both high and middle notes. Black Spruce is another favorite, much for the same reason - their sweetness is quite uplifting, and their complexity keeps us interested. Juniper berry, while not strictly a ‘needle’ oil is also wonderfully bright and uplifting. While some find it a bit strong on its own, it blends very well with other essential oils distilled from evergreens.
If you’re wishing to bring a little more exotic scents into your home, the oils of Frankincense, Myrrh and Sandalwood are perfect choices - aromas that have been used extensively for both their psychological and physiological health benefits for ages. These are grounding oils, one’s that are known for bringing peace and stillness. Frankincense is both bright and earthy at the same time, with its citrus and woody notes. Myrrh is more hypnotic and mysterious, useful in small amounts. Sandalwood is a classic favorite with both sweet and woody notes, with lovely varieties coming from India, Australia and the South Pacific. These oils can be blended together, or added in small amounts to one or more of the evergreen oils for a pleasant combination.
If you really want to get creative, there are many brilliant aromatics from which to choose. Lavender is well-known for its calming scent; citrus oils like Bergamot, Orange and Grapefruit are lively can easily brighten your space. Spice oils can be added to blends or used on their own in small amounts (they can be potent, and should be used cautiously)…these include Cinnamon, Clove, Peppermint, Cardamom and the like. If you’re not familiar with blending, try using these oils singly, or in combinations of two or three at most. Or get enough to make small batches to test your formula, then a just as your nose desires.
You’ll really only need one essential oil, or maybe a just a few if you’re feeling adventurous, to get you started. About one-half ounce (15 milliliters) of any pure essential oil will last several days, and you won’t be sorry you have some left over if you don’t use it all by the end of the year. A little pure essential oil goes a long way; it’s always better to get a little hint of aroma than to be overwhelmed by it, so start slowly if this is your first time. With a little intuition, you can create a warm, comfortable, calm and/or happy atmosphere naturally with essential oils - and you’ll have added that extra little something that can bring bigger smiles to your family’s faces this season.
