The essential oils I always keep on hand and my favorite ways to use them
Pain relief, improved sleep and better immunity are just a few of things an essential oil diffuser can help you with.
I’ve had my diffuser for a while now, and while I don’t use it as often as I should, I am always blown away by how effective it is whenever I do use it. In today’s post, I’m sharing the benefits that I’ve experienced using my essential oil diffuser, my preferred ways to use one, the essential oils I always keep on hand and my favorite ways to use them!
Headache Relief
When I’ve got a headache reaching for my essential oil diffuser is at the top of my list of remedies to make me feel better.
When it comes to headaches, mine are always tension-related. For me, that usually means that I tense my muscles as a result of feeling stress. When this happens, my go-to oils are lavender and eucalyptus. Inhaling lavender has major calming effects on the brain and several deep breaths in and out helps to relax me, which is half of the battle when it comes to tension headaches. To further the relaxation process I apply eucalyptus oil directly to my skin, right on the muscles that are feel tense (usually the length of my neck up to the base of my skull), and massage it in to my skin until it is fully absorbed.
The cooling sensation is intense; but until it wears off ( about 30 minutes) it completely overwhelms any feeling of tension or pain that I had before. This combo helps always relieves the pain and helps me relax and is great for when I need to focus on work or go to sleep - two things that can feel almost impossible when experiencing a tension headache.
Cold and Flu Relief
Diffusing essential oils is also great remedy for helping to treat a cold or a flu.
In addition to lots of water, ginger and lemon tea, and hot baths, I use rosemary and peppermint diffused oil to help reduce inflammation in my lungs and break down mucus in my respiratory tract.
Because my cold and flu symptoms tend to get worse at night, I place the diffuser on my nightstand and turn it on 20-30 minutes before I get into bed; as I go through the motions of my nighttime routine in my room, I can feel myself become less congested by the minute - which makes it much easier to fall asleep!
Insect Repellent
I don’t know about you, but I absolutely cannot bear to deal with bugs (of any kind) in my house.
It doesn’t matter how small or harmless it is - seeing or knowing that there’s an insect in the house is the grossest, most unnerving feeling in the world to me.
Living in Los Angeles, the summer months can bring extreme daily temperatures as high as 95 degrees farenheit on a daily basis; on some days, its not uncommon to see temperatures rise to 100 or 110 degrees. When it’s this hot outside, bugs of all kinds are out (or inside!) in full force, so from July to October I do rely on pest control - which, I know, isn’t always the cleanest or healthiest (or nicest) option.
For the rest of the year, I rely on essential oils.
Essential oils are not meant to hurt or kill insects, they’re simply meant to repel them.
To keep spiders away during the day, I’ll use either lemon or tea tree oil; at night, I like to use lavender (right by my bed) because it also soothes me right to sleep.
An even bigger issue for me, perhaps, is mosquitos. Without some sort of repellent, it is not unusual for me to be covered in bites from head to toe during mosquito season. To keep my house mosquito free I diffuse citronella oil, which works like a charm.
If you don’t have a diffuser, you can easily use these same oils to make spray repellent to use on your body or furniture. I do this and it is just as effective if not more effective than using a diffuser.
While essential oils and diffusers can be used many ways, battling headaches, the cold and flu, and repelling insects are what I find them to be most helpful for! I love to learn about ways to incorporate natural remedies into my routine, so feel free to share how you use your diffusers and essential oils in the comments below!
