Learn to Discern (know your oils, part one)

Many people today have experienced essential oils in bodycare products, candles and sachets, even as perfumes. As aromatherapy becomes increasingly popular, the choices expand and it’s easy to get confused about what oils are ok to put on your skin, what you can take internally, whether it matters what brand you use (it does), and what kinds of things you can safely use them for.

We’ll answer these questions in a kind of a backward direction. First, essential oils are used for about a jillion things. Here are a few of our favorites:

Body to ease pain, to help wounds heal faster, to fight infection and protect from illness
Mind to achieve clarity and focus, to release old trauma, to ease depression or anxiety
Spirit to align with your spiritual self, to go deeper in spiritual practices
Environment (home, office, play space) to replace toxic cleaning and bodycare products, to eliminate mold, to create an environment with whatever “mood” you want to convey

We acknowledge the union of body/mind/spirit (and think the environment should be included too, in a way). There are ways in which these systems overlap and we like to use essential oils for all of them.

When you choose the right essential oil for a given situation, you are rewarded with desired results. The lynchpin around this decision starts with the big-picture question, “Who is making your oils?”. The answer to this question can, in some cases, be the deciding factor in whether you get the results you want.

We use and teach exclusively about Young Living Therapeutic Grade Essential Oils, and we have sound reasons for our loyalty to them (starting with the fact that they work, encompassing matters of experience and purity, and not excluding the fact that teaching about them is part of our livelihood!).

The questions of what oils can be used for which applications, which ones can be taken internally, and so forth, can be answered only after the manufacturer is known. Here’s why:

When essential oils were first used as medicine, it was a simpler time. To get lavender essential oil, for example, you first had to grow the lavender. There were no pesticides, so what was grown would equate to organic today. The lavender would be harvested when it was at its height of potency, distilled over a low heat for as long as it took to release the precious oil, and then separated from the water that carried it out of the plant in the form of steam. This is the manner in which our founder was taught to extract oils. When we use Young Living oils, we know that it is the result if the same process at work today; the company is involved in the production process from the planting of the seed through the final seal on the bottle.

Since the Industrial Revolution, it is no longer necessary to grow lavender to produce an essential oil. A manufacturer can purchase a hybrid that smells the same but produces more oil, then get rid of unwanted constituents with extreme heat or a chemical process. This destroys desirable constituents which can then be replaced by adding them back in chemically.

Or, a manufacturer could buy a synthetic lavender smell-alike from an essential oil supply-house, whose industrial-grade oils are typically stretched further with even more chemicals (some of which are banned in the health food store where I work).

There are two compelling reasons a manufacturer of essential oils would engage in these practices: First, it is cheaper than crafting oils with the ingtegrity, plant-appropriate technology, and first-hand experience that Young Living's approach requires. Companies can maximize profit and minimize production costs by turning out a product that smells nice but may lack reliable health benefits.
The second reason they would do this is simply that they can. Since essential oils are a non-regulated industry, there is nothing saying that a bottle labeled “essential oil” even needs to contain plant material. Even terms like “Pure”, “Natural”, and “Therapeutic Grade” mean little more than that the marketing team thought it would help them sell more.
A little side-note to illustrate this: The term “Therapeutic Grade” was actually coined by Young Living’s founder to help us distinguish our oils from others by describing the great lengths they go to in order to assure optimal, reliable therapeutic value in their oils. Since then, several other manufacturers have begun to use this term freely in their marketing or labeling (but you can’t take their peppermint internally... hmmmm.)

When a manufacturer does not have to tell you what they’ve done to produce a scented oil, they nonetheless have to protect themselves in case you use it in a way that is dangerous to your well-being. As a general rule, you will find warnings like “may cause skin irritation” (even on those oils traditionally used to soothe skin conditions), or “not for internal use” (even when the plant in its original form has been used for stomach upset over centuries). Our bottles of Young Living Lavender and Peppermint have supplement serving size label on the back, telling us we are welcome to swallow a drop or two.

The truth is, that with the growing interest in essential oils and natural health, there are many companies that rely on chemistry to produce oils. They sidestep the expense and decades of experience necessary to produce oils of the highest quality, because uneducated consumers don't know the difference.

Young Living chooses to make their oils the “seed to seal” way, overseeing the cultivation, growth and harvest of the plants. The picture at the top of this post is from our visit to the Young Living Lavender Farm in St Maries Idaho. The distillery is in the distance; Gary gave us the tour himself. They use a patented distillation technique and then utilise the benefits of technology (in-house and third party) to exhaustively test, validate, and verify the therapeutic value of their oils.

Lastly, Young Living oils come to the consumer directly from the company - usually on the recommendation of someone the consumer already knows and has a relationship with. That trusted relationship and the co-supportive community that's behind it, offer the education that no retail-bought oil can.

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Right Livelihood and Young Living

I’m going to come right out and say something radical from the start: Much of the good ol’ American work ethic is based on a false premise.

Not that we shouldn’t earn the things that come to us by our own efforts, not that we should not consistently be engaged in some endeavor that adds value to our lives, but rather that that value should also extend to the members of our family, the greater circle of our community, and in some important way keep us connected to the well-being of the planet on which we live.

It’s about working not to survive, but to thrive - in a way that allows us and all with whom we contact to maintain our dignity, our values, and our sanity. Right livelihood finds us in harmony with our true purpose in life - which, whatever outward form it takes, usually has something to do with a certain longing all of us share to be of service to the world around us - to do something meaningful and useful.

The premise I’m challenging here is the notion that meaningful work must be done without pay, and that the work that brings home the bucks has generally got to be onerous, isolating, unsavory, or compromising of one’s inner ethics - or at the very least that we must put work ahead of the other things that give our lives the value that enriches and enlivens us - our families, our passions, our time for rest, relaxation, and recuperation. Ultimately this work ethic compromises our well-being physically, mentally, and emotionally.

Even if we use our Young Living oils for no other reason than to cope with the strain of working in the work-a-day world, we are doing ourselves a tremendous favor.

If, however, we embrace the compensation option and share our oils (and face it, we’re going to share them because they work and we will want to show off), and we start seeing a little check here and there - well, sooner or later the realization hits that we’ve just been paid to make the world a better place.

What’s wild about Young Living is that the compensation part is an option - not an obligation - so that you can use the products at the cheapest price whether or not you ever uncap a bottle under another person’s whiffer. All you do is choose the distributor option when you sign up, choose whichever kit appeals to you (we like the Everyday Oils because there’s lots of printed and linkable material to teach you how to use them right off the bat), and when you are ready to link into the action we will show you how.

We’ve been at it for years now, and one of Young Living’s founding members (a Crown Diamond, nonetheless) has totally got our back. We can get you set up with all the materials you need to host successful gatherings in your home from the day you open your first box - (or simply friend to friend just like you would share a great movie you saw) and the coolest thing is, while we will show you how to make yourself duplicatable, we are not the scripty sort. We believe that authenticity accomplishes far more than hype. We’ll give you the tools you need to share in your own voice, while also giving you the benefit of countless mistakes that the fearless ones who’ve walked before you have already made (so that you, dear pilgrim, don’t have to).

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How to Use Essential Oils

There are three main ways to use essential oils: by topical application, by inhalation, and by ingestion (don’t do this with just any oils though! Read on for more). Please keep in mind we are talking about Young Living oils. The information might not be applicable to other brands.

Topical~

Putting the oils directly onto the skin of the affected body part. It’s kind of a no-brainer... we put the oil where the problem is. We choose this method for scrapes, burns, wounds, bug bites and other skin irritations. For this kind of application we might choose Lavender, Thieves, Purification, Melrose, Melaleuca Alternifolia (“tea tree”), or Frankincense. Some of these oils exhibit soothing properties, others are naturally high in anti-infectious compounds.

Muscle and joint pain is another strong indicator for topical application. We use oils such as PanAway, Wintergreen, Peppermint, Aroma Seize and Valor for muscle aches, Helichrysum for nerve pain, and Lemongrass for ligaments.

When people are starting out using oils topically, we suggest they start with small amounts at a time and dilute as necessary. The Essential Oils Desk Reference has a number of charts with recommended dilution ratios, which make a great starting point. The User’s Guide brochure has a starter chart as well.
We are a little bit fearless in our topical applications; we’ve been using the oils for a while and have a good sense of how much we need in a situation.

When diluting, use a fatty oil such as Young Living’s V-6 blend (our fave) or whatever pure oil you might have in the kitchen (coconut, olive and almond work well). Don’t dilute with water for topical use; it actually drives the oils in further instead of dispersing them evenly.


Inhalation and Diffusing~

Yum! This is the method of choice when you want to influence the mood, atmosphere, and/or emotions. We are hardwired in such a way that scent affects our emotional experience in real, tangible ways. This is the application method where we can get really creative. I have a friend who starts each day with her “Never Have A Bad Day” ritual of Valor, Harmony, Joy and White Angelica (she added Stress Away when it came out at Convention last year). She has challenged many of us to try having a bad day when we start off slathered in mood supportive oils.

I love this method of “personal inhalation” for a quick fix: I put a drop or two of my chosen oil in the palm of my left hand. With the fingertips of my right hand, I make three clockwise circles then rub the palms together. Then I cup both hands over my nose and inhale deeply several times. I re-remembered the three circles when I was at a conference with Gary Young recently. We always did it that way in the early days, and I’d fallen out of the practice. I was reminded that with this simple gesture we imbue the process with our intention and activate the healing centers of our mind.

We use the oils this way for so many reasons. Whether we are doing a complete emotional release protocol with the Feelings kit, rubbing Clarity on our temples while we study, or putting Peace & Calming on the kids before bedtime, we are using inhalation to our benefit. Some kids who are labeled as being on the autistic spectrum do really well carrying an oil or two that they can smell throughout the day.

While inhalation does not require a diffuser, for filling a room nothing else compares. Young Living has several styles which we love for different reasons.

There are strong indicators for diffusing when you want to disperse the anti-infectious properties of an oil throughout an entire house or room. The Theives blend in particular has been studied for its effectiveness in eradicating toxic black mold in environments where other, harsher methods failed (we would use the TheraPro diffuser for this). When someone in our house is fighting off a cold or flu, we alternate diffusing between Thieves, Immupower, Raven and RC.


Internal~

We should start by saying that we do not recommend this with oils other than Young Living. If you are using Young Living oils, consult the bottle before consuming. Look for the “supplement serving size” section on the label. If it’s not there, it means the oil contains plants that the FDA has not signed off on as edible. As a general rule, if you can eat the plant (peppermint, lavender, rosemary, etc - and yes, all the oils in the Thieves blend are edible) you can ingest the oil.

For the most part it is recommended (we refer to the Essential Oils Desk Reference here) to dilute oils prior to ingestion. They work best in a fatty base, so a carrier oil like Young Living’s V6 (or olive, coconut, etc. oil from the kitchen). The recommended oil can be added to an empty capsule (starting with a drop or two) and the capsule then filled with oil before swallowing.

To make matters simple, Young Living has gone ahead and encapsulated a couple of targeted-result blends for easy ingestion: SleepEssence, Digest and Cleanse, Longevity, and Inner Defense (Thieves plus Oregano, Thyme, and Citronella- hello, immune system!) are a few examples.

There are some oils we take orally “straight up”. They are surprisingly strong to the uninitiated, so again- start small. We like peppermint to freshen breath, Thieves if we’re feeling depleted, lavender or frankincense if we burn our tongue.

Other oils we add to water for a cool beverage or hot tea. We always bring lemon to restaurants (our oil is a lot cleaner than that lemon wedge, I’d wager) and people traveling overseas have used it to kill bacteria in water that might compromise their health otherwise. We make tea from Peppermint, Lavender, Frankincense, Orange... you name it.

Cooking with the oils is another great option. We suggest (you guessed it) starting small (these are potent!) and add your oils after the main cooking has taken place.

There’s so much more to share! Thank goodness we’re a-blogging now.

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Integrative Healing

The word integrate comes from the latin word meaning both “whole” and “holy”.
It implies the bringing together of different or disparate parts to form a cooperative, cohesive whole.

So when we use it in relation to healing, we are really saying two things. One is that the person is being brought into a state of wellness in which all the varied systems are unified. We are saying that, while the body is one important means of expressing health, that the mind and spirit (or heart) also play a role in authentic well-being and must be addressed as well.

The other thing “Integrative Healing” implies is that the methods being used to bring about healing are chosen from a broad range of disciplines and applications. Typically “Integrative” modalities have the aim of addressing the trio of body/mind/spirit as the single whole being that is the patient.

Integrative modalities include massage (in all its forms from cranio-sacral to rolfing, energy-muscle technique to zero balancing and polarity) or physical therapy, acupuncture, homeopathy, talk therapy, reiki, chiropractic, sound or color therapy, yoga (and its counterparts, chanting and meditation), movement therapy, emotional release work, kinesiology, art therapy, and more.

What is significant from the perspective of an essential oils user is that each of these modes of healing can be amplified and hastened by integrating oils into the treatment.

There are situations in which a physical complaint might respond best to an oil applied topically for physical benefit. For instance, if I strain my knee doing yoga I get PanAway on it right away. The wintergreen eases the pain, the helichrysum protects the nerves and I don’t have to manifest an actual injury because the healing’s already underway.

It’s pretty rare that any one aspect of body/mind/spirit requires healing independent of the others. Physical suffering weighs on the mind and spirit, mental suffering can manifest in the body and alienate the spirit, spiritual suffering can make us miserable through and through. The beauty of essential oils is that they travel along the pathway in the body that unifies these elements and encourages healing on a truly holistic (integrated) way.

Here’s the science bit:
When we encounter a scent, its message travels through the nose to the olfactory bulb, which is the bundle of sensory nerves that interprets it. This is tied into the amygdala, which is the part of the brain that takes care the processing of the scent.
Here’s where it gets interesting: the amygdala is part of the limbic (or emotional) system of the brain. It is thought to associate scent with memory. Catching on?
Ever notice how you can get a whiff of some scent from the past and be transported to that bygone time (think: patchouli and leather. Uh-huh. Were we at the same party?)?
Add to this that the limbic system, in its turn, influences the endocrine system (hormones, anyone?) as well as the immune system in the physical body... and you may come to the startling conclusion that how you feel actually does affect how you feel.

And here’s an insight from the desk of my inner geek:
Assuming you’re using Young Living, you are working with essential oils in which the integrity (wholeness) of the original plant has been kept intact. Because of their involvement at every step of the way and their insistence that nothing ever be added or taken away, the make-up of the plant’s compounds is unaltered. When I’m healing, that’s the stuff I want on my side!

Young Living has formulated dozens of oil blends with the goal of helping to facilitate emotional healing and overcome beliefs that limit us in achieving our full potential. There is even a collection of oils dubbed the “Feelings Kit” which includes a well-thought out protocol we can do with others or for ourselves. The names of the blends are so evocative that they often serve as contemplation exercises in themselves.
I like to select a few at random and consider their connections as I apply them. Today: Abundance, Forgiveness and Valor. Hmmm.

I often say that when you use the right oil the right way you will get results.
It’s often helpful to experiment with a variety of oils to choose the one(s) you want to work with at a certain time (of course, observe proper application and dilution methods)

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Yoga and Essential Oils

The last time I had a steady yoga practice (and I’ll admit it was only four days in a row, but at the time it was revolutionary), I was traveling to attend the annual convention of the essential oil company with which I’m aligned for my health and livelihood (ok, cat out of the bag- it's Young Living).

I was heavier than the previous year, attending without my partner and rooming with someone I’d never met before (who was a delight as it turned out). I was a bundle of insecurity on a mission to untangle myself by engaging fully in all the sessions and “putting myself out there” socially (NOT my forte! I’m a recluse in the disguise of a gregarious teacher type).

Since the Convention experience (3,000 people heading to keynote engagements, expo demonstrations, and trying to choose 6 of the 12 available breakout sessions) is pretty much an exercise in distractibility and busy-ness, you’d think I’d have my whole “not-gonna-do-yoga” excuse in top form.

Ah, but not so. All of the equanimity, stamina, and focused attention that expressed itself through me I attributed to the the 6 am yoga classes taught by other Convention attendees who were also yoga instructors, and who were using essential oils in their personal practices as well as in their classes.

The whole thing probably came into being because Rodney Yee was teaching one of the break-out sessions; a 90 minute on-the-mat yoga class which incorporated essential oils throughout.

In the hustle and bustle I never made it to Yee’s class. But I did make it out the door, across the street, down the block and up a formidable set of stairs to class by 6 am each day to stretch, honor, and care for my being. We were a diverse bunch; from the fit and toned to the brave unfit, and never was there a better smelling bunch of sweaty people!

We began by sanctifying our practice with intention and frankincense, which heightens spiritual receptivity. Each participant duly anointed, the entire energy in the space shifted in a matter of 90 seconds. Suddenly we were on holy ground.

There’s a lot I can say about essential oils, and a lot of reasons I only use and teach about Young Living’s oils... matters of purity and integrity and authenticity and validation, and so on. I could (and do sometimes) go on for days. It’s all on the upcoming site.

What it came down to for me in that moment, was that because the integrity of the plant is honored and never distorted with all the chemical alterations that other companies do, the holy component of this oil is still intact. It doesn’t just impart the smell, it actually has the mojo. It’s the closest thing you can get to when the yogis of old would simply rub the resin on themselves in preparation for meditation.

This stunning moment was mine to cherish each of the four days of Convention. It was followed every morning by an experience of Valor when we did a more challenging pose, Peace & Calming with Savasana, and Deep Relief when I paid later for having gone deeper than good sense would have indicated.

Of all the astounding amount of information imparted to me those four days, what struck me most deeply was the impact of using the oils during yoga practice. Every day I looked forward to putting my body through a difficult challenge with the subtle emotional-spiritual support of the oils chosen to compliment the day’s routine. Once home and asked to declare what one thing stood out the most from the entire experience, I could only point to the pouch in which I carry my oils about and declare, "this stuff is holy!"

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