From seeds, bark, roots, herbs, flowers and fruits come nature’s cornucopia of healing essential oils. Essential oils can be particularly helpful for menstruating and menopausal women to boost wellness. A woman’s unique biological makeup and hormones can affect mood, skin health, stress levels and sleep, and essential oils can offer a myriad of natural health benefits.
With this easy guide, any woman can experiment with her own essential oils, unique scents, and healing combinations to target your specific health and wellness concerns:
Clary Sage
Clary Sage helps to soothe period cramps and mood swings while supporting your hormones, reducing physical stress and hot flushes. Steam distilled from the flower of the clary sage plant, this aromatherapy oil is also said to help with postpartum depression. Blend with a carrier oil of choice then apply it down the spine, over the abdomen, at your temples and on areas needing attention. For fast relief, add a few drops to a handkerchief and inhale and exhale the aroma softly.
Lavender
Fragrant purple lavender essential oils are steam distilled from the buds of the flower, bringing calm and balance to your hormone levels, promoting emotional balance and relaxing you, so you can enjoy a healthy night’s sleep. Lavender can also help to reduce signs of ageing and is helpful with skin imperfections. Gentle enough to be used on sensitive skin, carry a lavender-infused roller bottle with you in your handbag and apply it during the day or add a few drops to your diffuser to create a calm and relaxing environment.
Improves sleep
Ginger
Warm, stimulating and known as the ‘tonic root’ for over 5,000 years, the Indians and Chinese produced ginger to treat many ailments. Combined with a carrier oil for a homemade massage oil, use it to aid digestion and joint discomfort and to help eliminate motion sickness and nausea.
Sweet Orange
Citrus oils are invigorating mood lifters when you need an extra boost to your morning. Its crisp, fresh aroma purifies the air with an essential oils diffuser or uses an essential oils roller on touch points on your body to ease anxiety and nervous tension. Helpful for symptoms of menopause, researchers in a 2014 study found that postmenopausal women who inhaled this essential oil experienced fewer physical symptoms, an increased pulse rate, and a rise in sexual desire.
Sweet Basil
Not just for cooking, basil can be blended into a carrier oil to massage tired, sore muscles. For memory, focus, and relief from migraines, and headaches, diffuse basil essential oils throughout your home or office. When you add basil to your daily regimen, applying it to your feet and across the back of your neck, could help alleviate hot flashes, at the same time lifting your mood.
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