How to Use Essential Oils in Aromatherapy, Massage, and Self Care

Learning how to use essential oils safely helps you take a whole-person, proactive approach to healthy living. You can enjoy the benefits of natural products by making aromatherapy blends for massage, personal self care, skin care, home care, and more.

If you are new to essential oils, start here: Starting Guide for Essential Oil Use.

How to Use Essential Oils

Essential oils offer benefits and applications that include facial skin care, body and hair care, and healing support. Plus, there are many other ways to use essential oils, and they usually smell great.

When you use the oils with an understanding of basic safety, they’re a practical and enjoyable way to make aromatherapy products that can sometimes replace commercial products containing potentially toxic ingredients.

As in most fields, conflicting information and differences of opinion exist among "experts." Your responsibility in using essential oils is to learn as much as you can, make informed choices based on your individual circumstances, be willing to experiment, and consult a professional as appropriate. Understand the benefits, uses, and cautions for each specific essential you want to use by reading essential oil profiles.

Massage Information

Massage therapy can be an important component of your healthy living plan and works well with essential oils. Massage addresses the soft tissues of your body, mostly your muscles, but also tendons, ligaments, and the connective tissue called fascia, to create changes that release tension and provide many other benefits. 

Massage is only one part of the larger field of bodywork, which includes approaches such as Rolfing, reflexology, and any technique that involves working with the body to support change. Bodywork is a generic way to refer to any technique that promotes well-being through a physical process. This site has many articles discussing the benefits of massage and types of Western massage therapy and Asian massage and bodywork.

Self Care Tips

Self care includes a wide range of topics, including a collection of ways to practice self care and ways to deal with stress.

While most bodywork is about someone manipulating your body to bring about change, somatic practices are about your personal relationship with your body. It's about how you live in your body and developing your awareness to recognize the feelings and sensations of your body. Somatic movement retrains your nervous system in a way that can relieve pain, help your body function better, and help you use your body more efficiently.

About This Aromatherapy and Massage Site

I was a practicing licensed massage therapist from 1997 to 2009. The initial version of this site (bellevuemassagetherapy.com) started in 2003 as a way to market my business. Now I offer this information on how to use essential oils, massage, and self care to help you live a more relaxed, balanced, and pain-free life. I also offer tips for building a successful massage therapy business.

The information on this site is for educational purposes. Always consult a professional healthcare practitioner as appropriate.

Start enjoying more vibrant health and getting more out of life!

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