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Dilution of essential oils

The correct dilution of essential oils is really important, especially for babies and children as well as people with sensitive skin / bodies.

Robert Tisserant is one one of the most well known aromatherapists in the world. You can find his dilution chart HERE.

Dr. Mariza Snyder in her book “Smart mom’s guide to essential oils” has the following recommendations:

  • 3-6 months / 1 % dilution / 2 drops per 10 ml carrier oil
  • 6 months to 1 year / 1% – 2% / 2-4 drops per 10 ml carrier oil
  • 1-5 years / 2 % / 4 drops per 10 ml carrier oil
  • 5-11 years / 5 % / 10 drops per 10 ml carrier oil
  • 11-17 years / 10% / 20 drops per 10 ml carrier oil
  • 17 plus years / 10-25% / 20-50 drops per 10 ml carrier oil

Valerie Ann Worwood in her book “Aromatheraphy for your child” recommends the following:

Drops of essential oil diluted in 30 ml of carrier oil

  • Newborn – 1-2 drops
  • 2-6 months – 1-3 drops
  • 6-12 months – 1-4 drops
  • 1-4 years – 5-8 drops
  • 5-7 years – 5-10 drops
  • 8-12 years – 5-12 drops

There are lots of different recommendations for dilutions available. Make sure you dilute really well for very young children and you can always make a small skin test on the inside of the wrist first.

 

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Aromatic benefits of essentials oils

I just love the aromatic benefits of essentials oils, when used in the diffuser or on diffusing jewellery.

The sense of smell is our quickest sense. The olfactory glands in the nose will “transport” the microparticles of the essential oils to your limbic system of the brain. One of the functions of the limbic system of the brain is to regulate emotions. So its a very quick way to manage emotions & moods. Those microparticles arrive in your brain within seconds. Even if I apply an essential oil to the skin for the topical use I always inhale as well to get both the physical and aromatic benefits. I also have several bracelets and necklaces with plain wooden and lava beads, which absorb the oils and can hold the scent for around 4 days with some oils.

With the diffusers, which produce cold steam, the essential oil micro particles can stay in the air for up to 2 hours after the diffuser finished. Also with the diffusers you don’t actually damage the properties of the essential oils, as they are not heated up like in the old tealight diffusers. The essential oils are heat and light sensitive, so you can use them in cooking and in the tealight diffusers but you might knock off some of the healing properties of the oils and only have the aroma left.

I am sharing a passage from Valerie Anne Worwood’s book “the fragrant mind”, who is a well known Aromatherapist:

Hospitals and hospices need all the cheering up they can get, and essential oils are the perfect way to do it. Aside from the fact that they deodorize the clinical and organic smells, and make the place smell fresh and charming, they can (if you use the right ones) cut down cross-infections. Mr Fred Dale of Dale Air Products, who has twelve years experience in installing essential oil diffusion-systems in hospitals, museums and other public building, says that synthethic materials, when interacting with certain other smells, won’t get rid of those smells and you’ll end up with a worse smell than you started with.  Essential oils on the other hand work very well. And they have other benefits. At the Worcester Hospital in Hereford a six-month trial showed that vaporizing lavender through the air caused patients to sleep in a more natural pattern, and made them less aggressive during the day. More than that, over the six months, some patients were weaned off their tranquilizers – simply by substituting lavender in the atmosphere, which has a calming effect on the brain…..

In Japan aroma diffusing systems with essential oils have shown an increase in productivity with office workers. Some aromas reduced typing errors up to 54% with Lemon Essential oil!

This is a passage from Nadine Artemis’ book “Renegade Beauty”

The scientific findings of forest bathing teach us that it is beneficial for people to spend time in nature. Fortunately, phytoncides and essential oils share a similar constituent – those precious terpenes. Essential oils can provide forest therapy for us at home, every day, all year long regardless of the temperature or location. All essential oils are antibacterial, antimicrobial, and anti fungal, and they all have a concentration of a terpene. Forest bathe at home by filing it with these lovely, aromatic molecules by diffusing or steaming the particles into the air.

There are thousands of articles and studies on the benefits of diffusing essential oils. They can help you sleep better, focus better, calm moods, uplift moods. You can also create aromatic anchors for example by diffusing a little Lavender when you get your baby to sleep. Baby will know Lavender means sleep time if you do it every time. That will carry on throughout their lives as they grow – they have an aromatic anchor of Lavender meaning sleep support. You can start creating new aromatic anchors anytime for yourself and your children.

Here is a short extract of the emotional properties of essential oils from the book “Emotions & essential oils”:

  • Basil – Oil of Renewal. Brings strength to heart and relaxation to mind. Great for nervousness, anxiousness and despair. Strengthens adrenals, gives hope, helps in recovery from negative habits. Indicated for those who are weary in mind and body and in need of strength and renewal.
  • Bergamot – Oils of Self Acceptance. Helps to let go of self judgement and learn to love themselves unconditionally. Cleansing with stagnant feelings. Awakens hope.
  • Cedarwood – Oil of Community. Supports people who struggle to form bonds or social roots.
  • Cinnamon – Oil of Sexuality. Supports reproductive system and helps heal sexual issues.
  • Clary Sage – Oils of Clarity & Vision. Helps getting a clear vision & open to new ideas. Opening creative channels and clearing blocks.
  • Clove – Oil of Boundaries. Support in letting go of Victim Mentality. Helps to stand up for yourself, be proactive, feel capable and builds appropriate boundaries & defenses.
  • Copaiba – Oil of Unveiling. Copaiba offers assistance to those caught in lower vibrations of shame, blame , fear and self-loathing and other unconsciously internalized emotion. It summons them to begin the unraveling and restoration process process necessary for lasting healing and further awareness or inside.
  • Cypress – Oil of Motion & Flow. Cypress shows how to have perfect trust in the flow of life.
  • Eucalyptus – Oil of Wellness. Supports the person who constantly facing illness. Claiming wholeness and heal.
  • Fennel – Oil of Responsibility. Support if weakened sense of Self. Fennel reignites passion for life.
  • Geranium – Oil of Love & Trust. Fosters receptivity to human love and connection. Aids in healing broken heart. “The emotional Healer”
  • Ginger – Oil of Empowerment. Helps to be fully present and participate in life.
  • Grapefruit – Oil of honoring the body. Teaches true respect and appreciation for ones physical body. Helps when body image issues are present.
  • Jasmin – The oils of sexual purity and balance – helps with unresolved sexual trauma, sexual repression, sexual fixation, encourages safety within intimate relationships, invites purest intentions to the sexual experience.
  • Lavender – Oil of Communication. Lavender encourages honesty and insists that one speak their innermost thoughts and desires. .
  • Lemon – Oil of Focus. Nourishes mind aids concentration helps with Confusion, inability to focus lack of joy and energy.
  • Lemongrass – Oil of Cleansing. clears negative energy
  • Lime – Oil for Zest for Life. Dispels apathy and resignation
  • Majoram – Oil of Connection. If unable to trust others or form meaningful relationships
  • Manuka – Oil of being upheld. Powerful plant to heal and bless humanity. Manuka invites the heart to open and offers powerful healing energy to bind up wounds, soothe troubled hearts and nurture souls back into a state of centeredness. Helps transmuting suffering into transcendence.
  • Melaleuca – Oil of Energetic Boundaries. Clears negative energy baggage. Use if problems with parasitic or codependent relationships.
  • Neroli – oil of shared purpose and partnership. Unifying and stabilizing oil. Calming troubled hearts in relationship conflict. Promotes harmony in changing dynamics of long-term relationships. Neroli invites individuals to develop the character traits of fidelity, empathy, patience, forgiveness, and resilience to ease these relationship challenges.
  • Oregano – Oil of Humility & Non attachment. If overly attached, pride, opinionated.
  • Peppermint – Oil of a Buoyant Heart. To rediscover the joy of being alive.
  • Rose – the oil of divine love. Hold higher vibration than any other oil on the planet. Powerful healer of the heart.
  • Rosemary – Oil of Knowledge & Transition. Helps with focus, concentration & development of true knowledge & intellect.
  • Thyme – Oil of Releasing and Forgiving. Powerful cleanser of the emotional body & addressing trapped feelings
  • Wild Orange – Oil of Abundance. When struggling with scarcity mindset.
  • Ylang Ylang – Oil of the Inner Child. Supportive in emotional healing, releasing trauma from past. Restores playful & childlike nature and innocence.

doTERRA, the company I am working with have a range of essential oil blends, that have been specifically formulated to manage moods and emotions. The emotional therapy kit and mood management kit. If you are interested to learn more about those blends you can contact me on [email protected].

Here are a few articles you can explore

6 essential oils for stress relief and sleep

top essential oils for depression

top essential oils for anxiety

 

 

 

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Don’t touch the toxins – NZ Listener

I just bought the NZ listener this week 1-7th September, because the headline was “Don’t touch the toxins – Alarming new evidence about the chemicals & plastics we use at home”.

I have been passionate about reducing toxic loads for many years. We all have toxic loads these days, even new born babies, because they grow in bodies that are already in an unhealthy state. Every 3 rd person faces a cancer diagnosis, even more people chronic illness. These statistics are real and we have to learn to prevent rather than treat illness, to find causes, rather than suppressing symptoms.

I do recommend to grab yourself the Listener this week. Here are just a few snippets from the article

  • Humans use over 100,000 chemical elements and compounds, many of which have not been assessed for their effects on human health. (And even if they have been assessed as fairly save separately nobody has ever done long term studies on how the chemical cocktails we put in and on our bodies every day interact together…)
  • Triclosan is an anti-bacterial and anti-fungal agent used in more than 2,000 consumer products including soaps, toothpaste, detergents, mouthwashes and toys. Scientists have called for it to be banned, as it can affect hormone function, damage the liver and kidneys and is a suspected carcinogen. It has been shown to promote growth  of human breast cancer cells in lab dishes and breast cancer tumors in mice!
  • There is evidence by the University of Massachusetts on adverse effects on our gut health, focusing on inflammatory bowel disease and colon cancer. Lead author Guadong Zhang found that feeding tricolosan to mice changed the composition of their gut microbiome, causing colon inflammation and accelerating the rate of colitis and the growth of tumors.
  • Triclosan has been named one of the top-10 pllutants in US rivers and been detected in the urine of 75% of the people tested.
  • The NZ Environmental protection authority is currently reviewing 300 chemicals of concern it would like banned or restricted (mainly herbicides and pesticides). Triclosan is not even on this list.
  • Bruce Blumberg of the University of California has evidence that chemical use is also contributing to the obesity epidemic. Blumberg has recently published a book The obesogen Effect – Why we eat less and exercise more but still struggle to loose weight.
  • The world health organisation has recognised that glyphosate (main ingredient of Roundup) is a possible carcinogen. There is also a possiblity that other additives in roundup may be reacting with the active ingredient, glyphosate, to accelerate carcinogenic effects. (Yet soooo many people are still spraying this all over their gardens, around their fruit trees….) Glyphosate is now even being found in breakfast cereals which are promoted to children.
  • Check out Alexx Stuart Low Tox Life website. She is also on facebook and instagram.

It is obviously not possible to cut all chemicals out of our lives, as over lots of them we don’t have any control. But we can clean up our houses and our bodycare products, we can switch to organic food, we can be mindful where our clothes come from and what they are made of, we can be mindful of the paints we use in our house, the sprays and fertilisers in our gardens. There are countless, easy ways to reduce your toxic load. The main thing is to take one step at the time, change one thing at the time and inform yourself.