Jimm Harrison - 11 Jun

I began my study, experimentation, and obsession with essential oils 20-plus years ago. And still, every day is almost a new experience. You never become jaded studying, learning about, or using essential oils. The cool thing about them is that they are useful for so many reasons, following the holistic tendencies of body, mind, and spirit. As a medicine goes, they work extremely well. The pain-relieving, anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, and antiviral properties of essential oils are well known and documented, and they are considered a very effective treatment by those who have utilized them.

Emotionally, they are amazing for bringing stability to thought (mind) and reducing anxiety, tension, and stressand all the disease that results from negative emotions. Essential oils are a lifestyle, not just a remedy for when sick. Use them every day for any reason, or no reason at all. The reputation of essential oils for as long as Ive been using them has been skewed, confusing, and contradictory. This state can make it challenging for people trying to truly understand them. Ive been teaching essential oil therapy since 1991, and my approach is to actually address the confusion and contradictory information as a benefit to knowing the truth about essential oils.

The reason that people find them contradictory and confusing is due to educators, people selling oils, and the books and blogs written about them trying to fit them into a mold similar to drugs. Essential oils are not drugs. They dont work like drugs and cant be understood from a this oil for that condition drug-like mentality. They are nature. We are nature. Nature is complex, and we need to view essential oils as nature treating nature.

Sometimes an oil is said to be calming by one source and energizing by another. This may seem contradictory, though the duality can be understood through nature. On a spring day the air can be chilling while the sun is quite warm. This is not a contradiction; its a synergy. You can stand in the shade and feel the cold or out in the sun away from the wind for the warmth. So, too, can certain oils have two sides to their therapeutic effects.

This is nature. We also need to understand that we, as animals, evolved with plants already doing their thing on this planet. That means we must have mechanisms for communicating with essential oils. Much of the communication with essential oils is in the atmosphere, inhaling them. Dont discount the healing impact essential oils have when we smell them. Beyond an emotional impact, essential oils change our physical body, they regulate respiration, heart rate, and digestion, and even affect weight loss, just from inhaling them.

And, just to acknowledge a bit more essential oil awesomeness, we communicate with essential oils when used topically as well. We have olfactory nerve endings in our skin. Okay, Im getting into my teacher mode here and thats not my intention. The message here is that essential oils need to be understood for what they areand what they are not. Theyre not drugs. They dont cure everything and often dont even work on the issues you thought they were supposed to fix.

Thats not a bad thing and doesnt mean essential oils dont work. It just means you werent using the right oils for you or for the holistic aspect of the condition being treated. Essential oils are unique in how they work and treat the body and mind. Just use them. Try different oils when the one you used didnt give you what you wanted. Experiment.

The style of this book is different for me. My approach tends to be much more complex, intense, and in-depth in science and explanation. Come to my classes or one of my webinars, or read one of my other books for that. This book is designed for a this for that use of oils. Yes, I know, I said thats not the way to think of how the oils work. Im contradictory just like the essential oils.

Thats okay, because this book is about getting you on the way to an essential oil lifestyle. People tend to stop using oils, or never start, because it seems complicated. And it is if you let it. Dont overthink this. Follow the guidelines and recipes in this book, and focus on the adventure of using these oils. Before I turn you loose on your healing journey, I do want to explain one more important aspect to understanding essential oils.

They are like a diamond with many facets. Most information available tells you about a few facets, thinking its the whole diamond. Just to mess with your mind a bit, often what each is saying may contradict what others say. One of the reasons for this, besides the drug-mentality issue, is that essential oils work on three levels that seem separate but are understood as one thing, a whole diamond. The three categories of how oils work are smell (olfactory), drug-like (pharmacology), and spiritual (metaphysical). Every time you use an essential oil there is a simultaneous olfactory response, a physical pharmacology-like response, and a lot of unknowns, or what I call metaphysical.

Youll need to take my class or webinar on this topic to truly understand. However, its not necessary to understand, its more important to experience. Remember the importance of experience as you discover the essential oils throughout this book. In writing it, I wanted to be sure it was an easy do-it-yourself manual, designed to give you some very simple and direct guidelines to using essential oils. But as you use the oils, go deeper to truly experience and feel them and their complexity in potential for healing. If one of the recipes fails to do what you want, try something else.

You can even try a recipe from a different condition that may be related or similar to the one youre treating. If you use essential oils, and experiment on your own, you will not be disappointed.

Essential oils have the potential to support immunity, soothe inflammation and digestion, improve sleep, balance hormones, provide all-natural pain relief, and much more. They are an integrative answer to many everyday conditions and concerns and a powerful path to optimizing health and wellness. While the science behind essential oils is complex, learning how to use them to improve your everyday life doesnt need to be.