Once I realised just some of the benefits of essential oils – from supporting my immune system, sleep, hormones & emotions – it was like a whole new world came alive for me! I believe many of the benefits of essential oils are still yet to be realised despite being researched for decades.
Essential oils have enhanced lives for thousands of years, offering a variety of benefits from cosmetic and emotional purposes to spiritual and religious use. Young Living has always been at the forefront of bringing this ancient tradition to modern users, introducing millions to emotional, physical, and spiritual wellness that can be truly life-changing.
Extracted through careful steam distillation, resin tapping, and cold pressing, the purest essential oils are far more powerful than the botanicals from which they come. Any time you hold a bottle of Young Living’s powerful essential oils, you hold nature’s pure essence.
A good place to start when thinking about the benefits of a particular essential oil is to think about the plant they come from. While the essential oil is a much more concentrated version of the plant they share many similarities. However this does depend on the quality of the essential oil and how it was distilled. If an essential oil company is purely interested in producing an essential oil for its aroma then it is unlikely to contain the same constituents as the plant does.
This is why I use and recommend Young Living essential oils. Their distillation methods ensure as many of the key constituents from the plant come across into the essential oil during the distillation process. This varies from plant to plant and requires the right distillation time, pressure and temperature for that particular plant material. You can read more about this here.
Stress management is just one of the benefits of essential oils
Since plants can’t move they need to be able to protect themselves from infections, damage, predators and weather variations. Environmental adapting chemicals help them adapt to stressors.
Do we have stressors that we need to adapt to? Absolutely. That’s why I love using essential oils that are as close to the plant they come from, to help me adapt to stress. We can trust the plant – we can’t always trust the people who sell them in their essential oil form however.
In general plants that have been responding to some pretty major threats and even death. Plants use their very last glucose to protect themselves when they are under stress and they produce antioxidants to protect their DNA from damage. For example Frankincense – if the tree is wounded it produces sap for wound healing and protection for the tree. The sap even has anti scarring properties. It is truly an amazing plant.
Chemistry contributes to the benefits of essential oils
There is a shared chemistry in all life forms. It is why we are able to easily digest plants but are increasingly reacting to genetically modified foods such as wheat and even milk.
We all share the chemistry of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen etc. The essential chemical makeup of essential oils should be the same – carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. Plants have the ability to build many different compounds out of these same building blocks. For example geraniol, menthol and pinene have the same building blocks but they are stuck together in different ways due to an enzyme in the plant. So when we smell essential oils such as geranium, peppermint and pine they all smell different. They also all have different benefits when you use them.
You may have heard Lavender essential oil referred to as the Swiss Army knife of essential oils because it has so many uses. Lavender is known for its relaxing aroma that can calm the body and mind. It also has benefits the skin including reducing the appearance of blemishes, cleanses and soothes minor skin irritations, supports ageing skin, and does wonders when applied to the skin after a day in the sun.
Why can lavender do all these different things? Because it has 150 compounds and each one of these does different things in the body. What a great essential oil to have in your tool belt with its many constituents providing multiple benefits for the body. That’s why one essential oil can help with many different health issues.
How to maximise the benefits of essential oils
Use whatever you have. I know that seems crazy but if you are wanting to experience the benefits of essential oils for health and wellbeing but you have to wait for an order to arrive in the mail or you have to go out to the shops and buy them then this is going to take time.
You may have researched a particular issue you want to address and it recommended a particular essential oil you don’t have. Sure you can order it and use it when it comes. However in the meantime while you wait your body could have benefited from the essential oils you already have on hand. Look for essential oils that have similar chemical constituents and those which benefit the same body system you are wanting to support (for example skin, respiratory, circulation etc).
Often the best way to learn about the benefits of essential oils is to use a particular essential oil for a few days and see what it does for your body.
Dilute your essential oils. Essential oils are fat soluble. This means they prefer to dissolve into fat. It is why we dilute essential oils in a vegetable oil not water. The small aromatic compounds that make up essential oils penetrate the skin quickly and leave quickly as they have a low vapour point. When we dilute them they stay on the skin longer and don’t go in quite as fast.
The brain is 80% fat and essential oil molecules travel to the brain very quickly. For this reason be careful what you smell as it goes into the brain quite quickly. For example glue, nail polish, nail polish remover and even adulterated essential oils with synthetics can all effect the brain.
How an essential oil is produced impacts on the benefits of essential oils
Do you know what the difference is between olive oil and extra virgin olive oil? Some say it is the extra care taken to produce it. One is the first oil squeezed from the olives while the other is the left over from second, third and fourth squeezing. People are happy to pay more for extra virgin olive oil as they believe it is a better quality with more health benefits. Yet when it comes to essential oils people seem to question the price difference between brands.
Young Living care so much about quality that they have even rejected their own essential oils. One year they grew peppermint, harvested it at the right time and distilled properly. Yet Young Living rejected it as it didn’t meet their strict guidelines when it was tested. The right constituents weren’t in the right ratios. They sold it to the company down the road who sold it on to unsuspecting buyers. That company sold it as pure peppermint oil but it doesn’t give the same benefits as a bottle of Young Living peppermint.
Just say no to recreational fragrancing. Pure essential oils are natural – synthetic oils are not. You won’t get the same benefits from synthetic essential oils as you will from 100% pure essential oils.
Quality matters when it comes to the benefits of essential oils. I know I say this a lot but you get what you pay for. If you want an essential oil to work then you have to buy from an essential oil company you can trust. Someone who oversees the process from the time the seeds go in the ground to the sealing of the bottle. If we can trust the plant, we can trust Young living to bring us what’s in the plant and nothing else. No nasty chemicals or synthetic fillers to make a larger profit. If you don’t get the desired result from an essential oil it is a waste of money.
“When the cost of our essential oils is seen as a challenge by our customers, I like to describe for them the work required to run farms around the world without using herbicides or other toxic chemicals. It costs us around $12,000 per acre to weed our Mona, Utah lavender fields by hand, using manual labor. Do you know how much “weeding” costs other companies? $60.00 per acre. Spraying cheap (and toxic) herbicides is faster and much cheaper.”
Jared Turner
Seed To Seal Commitment
Young Living are committed to establishing and maintaining the ultimate, industry-leading standard in essential oil products. Young Living is proud to offer an extensive line of essential oils and essential oil-infused, plant-based products that represent the best of nature—through the standards of our Seed to Seal program.
Young Living embraces a rigorous quality control standard to help ensure our products meet strict specifications. Seed to Seal is our set of standards that helps ensure that with every pure essential oil and Young Living product your family uses, you’re enjoying the benefits of our global resources, industry leadership, and over two decades of innovation. The result? A pristine final product that you know has been created with conscientious Sourcing, Science, and Standards—the three pillars of Seed to Seal.
What if we could teach you how to use essential oils in 3 minutes a day?
I’ve been interested in Essential Oils since I was in high school. I loved the way they smelt and made me feel. These days I’m a Certified Clinical Aromatherapist and I know they are so much more than just great smells. There are so many benefits of essential oils that I can’t cover them all in this article.
I wanted to be able to share with other people the benefits of essential oils are so I developed a free video masterclass called “Oily Bootcamp” to help you go from newbie to essential oil expert into time. You will learn all about the benefits of essential oils and best of all it is delivered straight to your inbox free of charge. I know how hard it is in a busy world to make time to watch or learn anything so I have made all these videos 3 minutes long. You dont have to watch them on the day you receive them. You can just watch one when you have a spare 3 minutes.
To join Oily Bootcamp and learn more about the benefits of essential oils just click the button below and fill in your details.
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