I heard the term aromatherapy years ago. I was curious but did not pay much attention to it. Having not read, heard or know of anyone practicing it I simply formed the idea in my mind that it involves inhaling or being surrounded by sweet fragrances and its primary use is in helping reduce stress.
Towards the end of 1997 I happened upon a message on the existence of an aromatherapy list. I could see no harm in subscribing so I found myself in aromatherapy@idma.com. Little did I know how it has and is changing my life.
After being on the list for a few weeks, and being mystified and overwhelmed by the language, I found that many people talked about oils and blends and eos. The feeling is similar to being in a foreign country where I see people having very involved and passionate conversations but I have no idea what they are talking about.
But even from the lifelessness of the computer screen I felt the aura of several individuals. I've never seen any mail before addressed to "Dear Gentlepeople" and ending with "Stay warm" or "Namaste". I must learn more about this lingo.
Browsing some of the web sites that people attach in their signatures, I began to discover more about essential oils. I found that lavender is a must have. I also found that people make synergistic blends for all sorts of uses.
One day walking in a local health food store I passed a counter with several dozens of little bottles with names that I recognize people discussing -- lavender, tangerine, ylang ylang. I must have passed this area hundreds of times before but never stopped and looked. I was very happy I found the essential oils.
I had high anticipation when I started sniffing the bottles. But soon felt disappointed. Many smelled pungent or acrid or mediciny. I was expecting sweet aromas of perfumes and flowers and herbs and none of them are like that. I was depressed. There were also several brands with great range in prices and I really don't know what I should buy. Then I read that we are conditioned for years by artificial fragrances that the aromas of the real oils can be a culture shock. It was shocking but not enough to put me off. Perhaps there are some vibes in the oils calling me back :-)
Further email exchanges with a few listmembers convinced me I should buy from people on the list. I also learned that there are things called salt scrubs. My youngest daughter has some callouses and corns on her toes due to using the wrong shoe size for a long time. I felt sorry because I had not paid attention to this before and I was hoping a scrub would help minimize the discomfort or remove the callouses.
I bought a wonderful starter kit from a nice and knowledgeable person. It has a number of little bottles of essential oils and some larger bottles of carrier oils. There are also plenty of instructions to help with understanding and get started.
So I even have a plan. My initial goals for using aromatherapy includes stress reduction, taking care of my daughter's feet, and perhaps blending some oils together to create a fragrance for the house, for various moods.
About this time I also bought Valerie Worwood's book, The Complete Book of Essential Oils & Aromatherapy, since I read that is one of the books to get. For beginners anyway. And did I learn! It's easy to read for someone starting out on the aromatherapy path. Since then I've seen people mentioning that there are a number of errors in the book but it's still useful for general reference.
And so the journey begins.
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Notes relevant to this article will go here.
-Michel Vanhove
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