Aromatherapy Massage Course

Description

What is Aromatherapy?

Aromatherapy is the science of healing by the means of using essential oils. It's based on the premise of using natural plant extracts to promote and improve the health of the body, mind, and spirit. Put another way, aromatherapy is a holistic or alternative therapy that uses essential oils to enhance both physical and mental health. Speaking of which, essential oils have been used since time immemorial (dating back nearly 6000 years) for the same purpose enhancing a person's mood or overall health. For thousands of years, ancient cultures in Egypt, China, and India harnessed the healing powers of essential oils to treat a variety of ailments (both physical and psychological).

Generally speaking, aromatherapy works on two main levels — via the sense of smell and absorption through the skin. As you rightly guessed, the former has to do with breathing in aromas of essential oils to improve one's physical and emotional well-being. Besides filling the air with a pleasant smell, aromatherapy oils provide respiratory disinfection and decongestion; both of which are great for a person's overall well-being. The latter (skin absorption) is done using massage oil that contains quality essential oils. Essentially, during an aromatherapy massage, you breathe in essential oil molecules or absorb them through your skin — a process that affects the limbic system to bring about positive changes in the mind and body.

Aromatherapy offers an impressive array of benefits that can take one's health to the next level. It improves sleep quality, manages pain, soothes sore joints, improves digestion, boosts immunity, relieves stress and anxiety, treats headaches and migraines just to name a few. In a nutshell, aromatherapy has benefits for physical, mental and emotional problems. Aromatherapy massage has shown to be effective in treating aches and pains as a result of depression. For example, people suffering from such conditions can opt for orange essential oil to alleviate the pain and boost their mood significantly.

At this point, it's worth mentioning that there are quite a number of essential oils used in aromatherapy. But of course, it's crucial to ensure that they are all pure plant-based oils — free of fragrances or synthetic ingredients. Some of the best essential oils used in aromatherapy include lavender, chamomile, eucalyptus, bergamot, cedarwood, lemon, tea tree, orange, rosemary, geranium, orange, and peppermint essential oil. It's also worth noting that essential oils are concentrated; as such it's ill-advised to apply them directly to the skin. To be safe, it's recommended to mix your choice essential oil with a carrier oil such as jojoba oil, olive oil or coconut oil before massaging it into the skin.