Читать книгу Aromatherapy for Women: How to use essential oils for health, beauty and your emotions - Maggie Tisserand - Страница 7

Chapter One

GETTING THROUGH THE DAY

DEPRESSION

A big black cloud, blotting out the light from the sun, is how I describe depression when it happens to me. But as depression is something that affects most of us at one time or another, the way in which it manifests itself will vary from one person to another. One friend of mine describes it as like ‘wandering through thick fog, not knowing in which direction I am walking, and not knowing when or if the fog will lift’.

Another friend describes depression as being like an invisible, suffocating weight which she has to carry, and which makes her so exhausted that she feels tired all of the time. She told me that when recently depressed, and lying on her bed in the middle of the day thinking about her dire financial problems and wallowing in self-pity, a thought came into her head ‘like a distress flare at sea’, to turn to aromatherapy for help. Knowing that certain essences are beneficial in lifting depression she got up off the bed, sorted through her oil collection, and put three drops of clary sage onto her fragrancer, closed the door and window and again lay down on her bed, thinking that although she was beyond help, she ought to give it a try. This is how she described the following half hour:

‘It was incredible. Within minutes I was feeling lighter. I began to feel happier and less worried. The money problem was still there, but somehow I felt detached from it, as though it had been put into a balloon, which was floating above my head even though it was still attached to me by a string. The stifling weight which had robbed me of my energy and inner harmony was not there any more, and after 30 minutes I felt like getting up and getting on with things.

She experienced more energy than she had had for several days, and began to function normally again. Contrast this with the stories of women who have become addicted to tranquillizers, having been prescribed them for depression.

Some people find clary sage to be euphoric, and will not use the essence in their working environment for fear of becoming too light-headed. I like to use clary sage in my office occasionally, possibly because I don’t really like paper work, and doing it makes me feel moody. I have a theory about clary sage. Imagine that our emotions are like an elevator or lift, and that our normal state is the ground floor; when depressed we travel down to the lower ground floor, and when euphoric, we are on the first floor. Imagine that clary sage has the ability to take us up one floor level. If we are depressed, it returns us to the ground floor, but if we are already normal then it takes us to the first floor. This would explain why different people have different experiences with this essence. But the common denominator is that clary sage is emotionally uplifting.

JET-LAG

My three children arrived back from a two-week stay in Michigan absolutely exhausted. It was their first transatlantic flight since they were babies, so they were not at all ‘seasoned travellers’. On arriving home at 10 in the morning after an 11-hour journey, they each had a bowl of cereal and went to bed. I wasn’t sure whether to wake them up later in the day, or let them continue to sleep in the vain hope that they might sleep for 24 hours. Unfortunately they only managed 14 hours, which meant that by midnight they were wide awake and remained so until 6.30 the following morning. I did not want the strange sleeping pattern to continue for too long, so I woke them up at midday. To say that they were tired would be an understatement, so each had a bath with rosemary and geranium oils, after which their vitality seemed to be increased.

Over the next few hours they all seemed to be in a depressive, lethargic state, and so I decided to conduct an experiment. I sent one child off to bed for an hour’s nap, as a ‘control’. One daughter had dilute rose oil rubbed onto her neck, hands and wrist. My third child (who had been the most grumpy) was given some oils to smell. I put drops of jasmine, lemon and bergamot oils onto a tissue and wafted this under his nose. Of course he protested, saying that it was horrible, but the reaction was remarkable. Within two minutes he smiled and said ‘I feel better already.’ Every so often he would shiver slightly, as if he were very cold, and described these sensations as being like ripples going through his muscles. It seemed to me that his body was letting go of the stress and tension encountered by most air travellers. His sleep patterns returned to normal much faster than that of his sisters, who needed a nightly massage to get them off to sleep.

I have my own way of coping with jet-lag; I don’t allow myself to have it. When flying back from the west coast of America, I try to get a flight which arrives mid-morning UK-time. This means that I can drive home and be in bed by about 1 p.m., having set my alarm for 6 p.m. Sometimes it seems hard, but at 6 p.m. I force myself out of bed, and into a rosemary and geranium bath. Then I go to the supermarket to re-stock my groceries, followed by a light meal in a restaurant. Ten o’clock is when I allow myself to go to bed, and just to make sure that I have a deep sleep, I unplug the phones and put some marjoram oil onto a tissue or on the ceramic burner. Next morning, at about 9 a.m., I get up, have another rosemary and lemongrass bath, and tell myself that it’s just a normal day. Then I just go ahead and have a normal day (although I can’t handle anything which requires mental dexterity). As long as I continue the morning rosemary baths, and make sure I am in bed by 10 p.m. then I find that my body rhythms very quickly become readjusted, and I can truthfully say that I do not suffer from jet-lag.

TRAVEL SICKNESS

When my children were younger travel sickness was something I tried hard to guard against, because vomit is one aroma which I am not partial to! My eldest daughter would often complain of feeling sick while travelling on motorways. If she had been eating I would give her peppermint oil to smell, as peppermint is renowned for its stomachic properties (calming the stomach). Nervous tension is also a cause of travel sickness, and in this case the aroma of lavender would be more beneficial, as it is soothing and calming. The easiest way to use these essences without fear of spillage is to put one drop of either peppermint or lavender onto a tissue, and breathe in the vapours. Only on one occasion have I needed to clean up the back seat of my car, and then it was my fault for allowing my daughter to eat a huge cream-cake in a motorway service station. If a child (or adult for that matter) is prone to feeling car sick, the choice of foods taken before and during travel should be given careful consideration.

Lavender and peppermint oil on a tissue is the easiest way of breathing in the soothing vapours. A tissue impregnated with these oils can be placed inside a small plastic bag (sandwich-bag-sized) and popped into the glove compartment. When needed, just tear open a small hole in the bag and inhale.

TRAVELLER’S FATIGUE

Adults often have difficulty in sleeping during a long journey, even though they may be completely exhausted, but at least adults can rationalize that they have a sleep problem, and either read a book, watch the scenery or start up a conversation with a fellow passenger. Not so for a young baby or small child. Rational thinking is beyond them, and so their frustration and anger will manifest itself in crying and screaming. Once, whilst travelling by air to San Francisco, I experienced the desperate frustration of a child who could not get to sleep. The little girl was just over one year old, and very cute. For the first four hours she crawled around and played quite happily, until she was too tired to play any more; then the grizzling started. This turned to progressively louder cries until the mother administered a dose of Fenergen (a proprietary sedative for babies). The Fenergen did not send the child to sleep, but merely induced a sort of a ‘high’ which lasted for an hour. Then the screaming started. If you have ever been on a plane with a screaming child you know how it feels. You can’t go out for a walk. There is nowhere to go to escape the noise, and sleep is impossible. I’m rather shy, but when I could not bear to see and hear the distress any longer, I offered to hold the child for a while to give the mother a break. Prior to doing this, I rubbed some lavender oil down the sides of my neck. Walking up and down the galley with a beautiful baby girl in my arms reminded me of the time when my own children were babies, and how incredible babies are. Less than five minutes had gone by before the child was fast asleep and, much to the surprise of the parents, I was able to lay her down in the carrycot, where she slept peacefully until awoken by an air stewardess on our approach to San Francisco airport.

MENTAL FATIGUE

Several oils are mentally stimulating, but I have not found one which surpasses basil oil. A drop or two of basil on a source of heat such as a bowl of hot water, or specially designed fragrancer is, for me, as good as going for a walk along the sea front. Not only do I feel mentally alert, but refreshed also. I would recommend that office workers keep a bottle of basil in their desk for use mid-afternoon, when 5 o’clock seems so far away; or when the job demands that you work overtime, but your brain doesn’t quite feel able to cope.

I have often thought – on reading newspaper reports about overworked hospital doctors struggling to keep awake – that if only they could have a whiff of basil oil, it would perk up their brain cells just as coffee does, but without causing any strain on the kidneys.

Other oils which are stimulating and are perfect to use in any situation where tiredness is becoming a problem, whether in the workplace, home or car, are: rosemary, rosewood, lemongrass and the citrus oils – lemon, orange, bergamot and grapefruit.

Basil oil came to my rescue quite by accident one day. Taking my youngest child with me, I decided to drive to Paris to collect her sister who had been staying with friends. We arrived in Calais at dusk, and decided to stay the night, rather than try to drive on the ‘wrong’ side of the road while tired. I checked in to a nice-looking hotel overlooking a quiet square, but had not realized that the quiet square was going to turn into a noisy fairground at precisely the moment we wanted to take an early night. The loud music and shrieks of the happy customers continued until 2 o’clock in the morning, when I was finally able to go to sleep. This was not for long though, as the dustmen (garbage collectors) arrived before dawn, and made so much noise that I gave up trying to sleep. I decided to have a rosemary bath, as I usually do when I need revitalizing, but finding that I had forgotten my rosemary oil, I settled for a basil bath. Basil must be used with caution, as the ingredient which makes it a brain stimulant can also be irritating to the skin. I used just two drops to a full bath, and mixed it thoroughly. I got into the bath feeling absolutely wretched, and convinced that I would never be able to negotiate my way out of Calais, let alone navigate around the Périphérique and find my way to a remote town on the outskirts of Paris. However, half an hour later, I stepped out of the bath feeling as though I could happily undertake Le Mans!

WHEN CHILDREN CAN’T SLEEP

Lavender is widely accepted as being a sedative, and is a great help when someone has a difficult time in getting off to sleep.

I have used lavender in many ways when my children have complained about not being able to sleep. Sometimes I have given them a lavender bath, but this is not always convenient. Sometimes a drop of lavender on the edge of the pillow, sometimes on a tissue. Recently I invented a ‘lavender tube’, which works better than anything else. When the essence is dropped onto a tissue, it evaporates straight up into the atmosphere, but with a lavender tube, the vapour is trapped, and forced out at the end only. I take a sheet of kitchen towel (one of the stiffer types of paper) and put one or two drops of lavender on one edge. I then roll the paper into a sausage shape with the lavender in the middle. The tube can then be held in the hand by the child, without the essence coming into contact with the skin, and when the child falls asleep, the tube automatically falls from the hand. My daughters think it’s great!

ENVIRONMENTAL FRAGRANCE

Offices and other workplaces can become very stuffy, with the air full of everybody else’s smells – aftershave, coffee, strong perfumes, cigarette smoke, photocopier chemicals – and this can contribute to a lack of efficiency as the day wears on. Very often in air-conditioned buildings the windows are sealed shut and it is impossible to open them even though you may be craving for some fresh air, but you can freshen the atmosphere quite considerably by sprinkling a few drops of an essential oil around you. Essential oils give off their aromas that much quicker if they are in contact with heat; if there is no source of heat nearby, the most accessible item to most people would probably be a mug of hot water to drop the oils in. Light citrus oils like rosewood, lemon or bergamot, and fresh herbal aromas such as rosemary, not only scent the atmosphere but bring a freshness and clarity. Because all essential oils have antiseptic properties, their use will also offer you some measure of protection from the airborne bacteria with which we are surrounded. Tests in air-conditioned buildings in which staff suffer recurrent illness and lethargy have shown that the atmosphere can indeed become very unhealthy; this pattern of ill-health caused by a working environment is known as ‘sick building syndrome’. A Japanese company is now incorporating aromatic vapours into the air-conditioning systems of offices and banks, and finds that lemon oil increases efficiency and reduces error. Until the time when all buildings are so equipped, we can carry our own ‘environmental fragrance’ in our handbag or briefcase, to use as and when required.

NERVOUS DIARRHOEA

Have you ever had to keep rushing to the loo with an upset stomach just before an important occasion? You know you haven’t eaten anything terrible, so it must just be ‘nerves’. But how can you stop it from happening? Geranium oil is sedative and uplifting at the same time, and is used by doctors in Italy to treat anxiety states. One or two drops of the oil, on brown sugar or in honey water, and taken an hour or two prior to the event, will soon bring relief whether you are going for a job interview, preparing dinner for someone important, or receiving an Oscar for ‘best supporting actress’. Neroli oil, which is also used to treat nervous tension and anxiety states, will soothe and calm the central nervous system when worn as a perfume. When neroli oil is diluted in jojoba, it will ‘keep’ for a long time, and is a good standby to have in your handbag for those moments when the butterflies threaten to take over.

MUSCULAR ACHES

Physical activity has become more popular, both with men and women, and whether you are a regular exercise freak or a complete beginner, there will be occasions when you may overdo it. This is when every muscle in your legs aches, and walking up a flight of stairs becomes an endurance test. It is at such times that I would recommend a massage of the affected part (calf, thigh, upper arm and so on) to bring relief from pain, and to speed up the repair process.

Athletes and professional sports people always have a massage after their training sessions, but few of us are privileged to have our own personal physiotherapist. With a little confidence and some practical experience, however, we can take care of our minor aches and pains, as well as give comfort to a friend in discomfort. Massage of the legs should always be in a circular movement, and always upwards towards the heart. The pain experienced in the muscles is caused by a build-up of lactic acid, and by massaging the affected muscle, or groups of muscles, beginning gently and gradually applying more pressure as the pain can be tolerated, the lactic acid is encouraged to disperse.

Massage alone will ease the pain and stiffness, and help to restore suppleness to the limbs, but for an even more effective treatment I would always recommend the addition of essential oils into a base oil, and in the recipe section (Chapter 12) you will find a recipe of lavender, rosemary and juniper which has been found to be of great help.

ACHING FEET

Women’s feet have a lot of weight to carry around, and often are forced into narrow and uncomfortable shoes. But standing on a crowded tube train, or running for a bus seem inappropriate times to be concerned with appearances! Every part of our body has a corresponding reflex zone on the foot, and what happens to our feet can easily have an adverse affect on our well-being. Irritability, nausea, headaches, even migraines can occur by forcing our feet to endure hours of torture and mistreatment.

However, I am as guilty as anyone for following fashion dictates, and the way in which I say ‘sorry’ to my feet and revive myself quickly is to have a footbath as soon as I reach home. Just ten minutes with your feet in a bowl of water, or sitting on the edge of your bath with your feet in a few inches of water to which you have first added a few drops of oil, will work wonders. Gentle massaging of the many reflex zones of the feet will greatly enhance your recuperation. Peppermint in cool water is the perfect footbath for a hot summer’s day, whilst myrtle or geranium are warming and comforting aromas when used in warm water on a wintry day.

FOOT ODOUR

Smelly feet can be embarrassing to their owners as well as unpleasant to other people. The habit of wearing nylon socks inside tightly-laced shoes means men suffer from this problem more than women do. Aromatherapy cannot ‘cure’ foot odour but the use of certain essential oils can bring about a great improvement. Cypress oil is a natural deodorant and can be used in a footbath or diluted into a fatty-oil base and massaged into the feet. A daily footbath is very beneficial, with perhaps the addition of a weekly foot massage.

UNWINDING AFTER A TIRING DAY

Many things can ‘wind us up’. Driving, coping with children, attending to countless customers in shops or banks, commuting on packed trains, or partaking in whatever stressful activity is part of our lifestyle. Cigarettes, alcohol and tranquillizers have become the methods of relaxation employed by people in the Western world. A healthy and safe alternative to these measures is to take an aromatic bath each day. Even if you prefer showering for its speed and economy, think of bathing as a therapy and try to take one or two aromatic baths every week. Just as swimming in a warm sea is mentally and physically therapeutic, so too is lying in a warm bath, doing absolutely nothing except to inhale the vapours as they are released into the air. A few drops of your favourite essential oil (particularly good are neroli, rosewood, myrtle, geranium or lavender) will soothe and gently ease away the mental and physical tensions of the day. The day’s events register as physical tension, which is the reason why we get tight neck muscles, headaches, irritability or insomnia. It may seem easier to reach for an analgesic tablet or tranquillizer, but if we stop to think about the effect that the drug is having on our body on an immediate level, and then think about the possible long-term problems associated with those drugs, we may decide that it is much better to opt for a safe alternative, such as an aromatic bath, even if it takes a little more time and effort. Stress, if allowed to build up over a period of weeks, months or years will eventually lead to a breakdown in health; this could manifest itself in the form of a serious health problem such as cancer, ME, MS or some other disease of our time. Daily letting-go of stress and tension could be and should be as routine as brushing our teeth.

INSOMNIA

Anyone who has a busy lifestyle which sometimes overburdens him or her with worries and responsibilities, may experience the occasional night when sleep is elusive.

While preparing for my exams at school, many years ago, my sleep patterns became very disturbed due to my constant fear of failure. Once the stressful situation was removed – in my case, after I had received the examination results – I was again able to go to bed and fall asleep.

Nowadays, it is a rare occurrence for me to lie awake at night but such is the power of the mind that when a strong thought pattern has been established, and continues to go round in circles, I find that I have to take practical steps to break the circle. If my problem is that I am thinking negative thoughts about someone who has upset me, or I strongly disagree with a decision over which I have no control, then I reach for pen and paper, and write down my thoughts until I have ‘got it off my chest’. I may write a letter to someone who has been causing me to feel very negatively, and in my letter I express myself in a very forthright way, imagining the effect it will have on the recipient as he or she reads it. When I feel satisfied that I have unburdened myself, then I sprinkle some marjoram oil onto my electric burner, and with the aromas of sweet herbs floating through my mind, I fall asleep. I always find on those nights when I have used marjoram, I sleep deeper than normal. Of course, in the morning, I tear up the letter. I don’t need to send it: it is enough that I have written down the destructive thoughts, and rid myself of the unpleasant emotions that were robbing me of my rest.

Many people suffer from chronic insomnia, and find that their body’s natural rhythms have been so disturbed that the only way in which to fall asleep is to take a nightly tranquillizing drug. It is possible to substitute essential oils for tranquillizers, and to enjoy a good night’s sleep without feeling ‘hung over’ the next morning. Lavender is a very strong sedative which, when used in a night-time bath, dissolves away mental and physical tension, and induces a restful night’s sleep. Add five or six drops of lavender to a comfortably hot bath. Don’t wash and scrub – this bath is not for cleanliness but for rest and relaxation – just lie back and wallow; and don’t set a time limit on yourself – stay as long as you feel comfortable, adding more hot water as necessary. Some relatives of mine of retirement age swear by their lavender baths to help them to sleep at night. Because of the deep sleep they enjoy at night, they are full of vitality during the day.

Common sense must play a part in treating insomnia, and eating the main meal of the day at lunchtime, instead of in the evening, may help considerably. Foods which are known stimulants should be avoided, such as coffee and chocolate, as they could aggravate the inability to ‘switch off’. For any insomniac who does not like the aroma of lavender or marjoram, then a completely different type of aroma is neroli (orange blossom). Although very light and floral, neroli is still very sedative, and may be used alone or in combination with either lavender or marjoram. All of these oils can be used in the bath, on the edge of the pillow or in a room fragrancer.

WAKING UP AT NIGHT

Sometimes the day’s events or a particular worry are so strongly entrenched in our minds that even when asleep, the slightest provocation (a cat fight in the garden, or a car door slamming) can awaken us, and it becomes impossible to go back to sleep again. A glance at the clock may tell us that 3 a.m. is far too early to get up, but the mind is chattering away as though it was the middle of the day. This has happened to me on occasions, especially when staying in hotels where everything is unfamiliar (and sometimes uncomfortable). I write down any thoughts that are going through my mind, and then put some lavender or marjoram oil on a tissue, place the tissue across my face and breathe in the aromatic vapours until sleep comes.

REVITALIZE BEFORE A NIGHT OUT

Occasionally our energy levels can be so depleted at the end of a busy day that there seems to be no enthusiasm to go out socially and enjoy oneself. Sometimes it feels as though you are a car with a flat battery, and without some sort of a boost, there is no way that the car will start. At times like these a half-hour aromatic bath could be just the boost you need. One or two drops of oil, in any of these combinations, will help to revitalize you for the evening ahead; rosemary and rosewood; rosemary and geranium; rosewood and bergamot; or whichever essence you find to be beneficial. If exhaustion has depressed your emotions slightly, then add a drop or two of clary sage oil to your bath water. Alternatively, a drop or two of clary sage oil may be taken internally, on a little brown sugar or in honey water.

HANGOVER

Most adults have, at some time or another, experienced a hangover: that unique combination of heavy head, unbelievable pain, nausea, sensitivity to noise and light, and generally feeling like death. This is hardly surprising when you consider that alcohol is actually a poison when taken in excess, disturbing the body chemistry and robbing it of vital fluids. According to one scientist, for every glass of whisky we drink, 1 million brain cells are killed; and if alcohol were invented today, it would never pass the government safety tests on new products.

Nobody ever wants a hangover, but we all overindulge occasionally, and need to recover. Firstly drink a large glass of water, preferably still, bottled water, as alcohol causes dehydration which in turn gives rise to severe headaches. Follow this by a long aromatic bath with rosemary or juniper (see recipe section). To combat nausea there is nothing finer than a drop of peppermint in warm honey water. Peppermint can also be taken on a little brown sugar, but I find that hot water increases the speed at which the essential oils reach the bloodstream. If you do not have access to a bath, then you should massage a little lavender oil into the nape of the neck and lie down with a lavender or geranium compress across your forehead. Jojoba oil is virtually indigestible, and will coat the lining of the stomach. A teaspoonful taken before going out drinking, may slow down the rate of absorption of the alcohol, but will also interfere with digestion of food, and is only a temporary measure. I still prefer to ‘mix’ my drinks; one glass of wine or other alcohol, followed by one glass of water.

On occasions I have drunk too much alcohol, as I have a very low tolerance level, and find that the following day I have a dull ache in the middle of my back, as alcohol adversely affects the kidneys. By rubbing sandalwood oil (which is extraordinarily good for helping with kidney problems) into this area, I always find that the ache is soothed away, which means that I can get on with the business of the day without discomfort.

AROMATIC TEAS

Flavoured teas make a welcome alternative to the taste of black tea, and for a while I was a regular user of Earl Grey tea until I became bored with it. As this is just tea flavoured with essential oil of bergamot there is no reason why you cannot make your own aromatic teas with essential oils that you have in your collection. Next to bergamot, the most obvious choice of oil for a tea would be peppermint. You can make your own Earl Grey tea by adding one drop of bergamot oil to tea in a pot and adding 3–4 cups of hot water. Either Japanese green tea or Indian black tea may be used, but some essential oils work better with green tea and others with black tea. Black tea should be used with peppermint and bergamot. Put tea into a pot, add one drop of oil and then add 3–4 cups of hot water. Drink while fresh.

Lemon and orange oil may be added to either type of tea and make a delightfully refreshing tea any time of the day; to a teapot add tea, one drop of oil and 1–2 cups of hot water. Jasmine oil makes such a wonderful tea that I have put it in the chapter on sex and sexuality (Chapter 3)!

How to make tea with your essential oils