How to Work Essential Oils Into Your Daily Routine



Spring is officially here! And since spring is the season for change (or renewal, is probably the better word), I want to share a discovery that has seriously changed my life over the course of the past year.

In the summer of 2014, I began having migraines for the first time in my life. Like... really bad, emergency-room-trip-level migraines. While it was an awful experience, I am grateful for the fact that it introduced me to doTERRA Essential Oils. A family friend who swears by essential oils heard about my issues, and recommended them to me, highlighting a handful of specific remedies for migraines (more on those later).

To get started, I purchased what's basically the EO (essential oils) starter pack, but only really used the few oils that directly applied to my immediate needs at the time. A few months later though, after my medical issues were long-gone, I started to research use-cases for the other 75% of oils left in the box; surely these could be useful too! Turns out, there are hundreds of uses for essential oils out there, and there's no short supply of resources for helping you learn about them (you can check out my roundup of resources on my Health Pinterest Board here).

Essential oils can help relieve migraines, ease digestion, fight acne, even be used as a natural cleaning alternative! But let's start with the basics. Here are four ways you can work essential oils into your daily routine.

1. Lemon

Lemon essential oil has a variety of uses (opening sinuses, combating allergies, cleaning agent), but one of the easiest ways to start using it is as an addition to your water. You may have seen those articles floating around your social media pages, "She drank warm water with lemon every morning for a year and THIS happened!" Total click-bait, but the end-point is valid: drinking water with lemon has a multitude of health benefits, from providing natural electrolytes to aiding digestion, even helping to lower blood pressure. Just adding one drop of lemon EO to a glass of water each day can help put you on a healthier path.

2. Lavender

Lavender is probably my number one essential oil must-have. After my migraine issues subsided last year, I began to have severe issues with anxiety (which probably is what helped trigger the migraines in the first place!) Many nights, I would lie awake in bed, just worrying; my mind racing about all the things in the world I can't control, torturing myself with worst-case scenarios of every variety. When our family-friend-EO-expert heard this, she advised using lavender as a sleep aid. On nights where I feel more anxious than usual, I rub a few drops on each temple, on the soles of my feet, and often put a few drops on my pillowcase. The scent of it is calming, and it has become a bit of a psychological trigger for me at this point as well. Though I haven't used it as much, another essential oil, vetiver, is a good sleep aid as well. You can read more about vetiver via Cajun over at Blooming in Bedlam in this post.

3. Melaleuca

This one is probably going to sound a little weird; rubbing oil on your face to combat pimples? No way. But stay with me-- melaleuca is a tea tree oil with restorative and rejuvenating properties, which is great for use on blemishes and acne. It's antimicrobial, so it kills bacteria on contact; great as a spot treatment. I'm still experimenting with this remedy, but so far, the results have been positive!

4. Oregano

Feeling a cold coming on? This recommendation is a little weird, but my mom's friend and EO expert swears by it. When your throat starts to feel scratchy, or you can feel the early onset of a cold, massage a couple drops or oregano onto the soles of your feet, and if you are able to, take a nap; I guarantee you will feel drastically better when you wake up! Oregano is an excellent source of powerful antioxidants, and was originally used by Hippocrates, the father of medicine. It's a great resource if you're looking to boost your immune system.

If you're new to essential oils like I was, these four simple oils are great ones to start off with! For more information on the different oils sold by doTERRA, check out their full list and description of oils here.

PS: Dara over at The Southern Thing is a great resource for essential oil recipes and uses! Plus she's super friendly-- she even sent me a personal email when I mentioned my migraines and EO experimentation to her!

This is not a sponsored post. Opinions on my own.

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