March is never a good time for me since it is Aries season and I have loads of friends who celebrate their birthdays in that month. While I enjoy sharing the joyous occasion with them and of course the birthday cake, one of the biggest headache I have is the birthday gifting that happens each year. While it is always nice to get a personalised gift, the hours spent shopping for the perfect gift is just not for me. Call me lazy or a lousy friend, but I know of friends who have gone back to the store to return the gifts that I had spent hours shopping for. So I am done with gifts… well not entirely. Ever since I found out the mystical magic of essential oils and how the gift of essential oils is universally accepted, they have always been my go-to gifts.
What Are Essential Oils?
If you have heard of aromatherapy, you must certainly be very well-acquainted with essential oils. Essentially (ha-ha), they are compounds that have been extracted from different plants like rose, lavender and even tea tree and they are what you get when you steam or water-distil the leaves or flower of the plant. Often times, when the chemical that gives off aroma has been extracted, they are mixed together with a carrier oil to create the product that we often see in stores now. What you need to look out for are those essential oils that have been created via chemical means — because of the way they are created, they are not considered to be true essential oils that are steam distilled or through a cold pressing process.
How essential oils can be used is really interesting and there are so many ways in which you can use them. Most of the time, they are used in the practice of aromatherapy by either inhaling them or by diluting them (this prevents the strong essential oils from tainting your gentle skin) before rubbing them onto your skin. One of my favourite things to do each day is to inhale the aromas from essential oils as they can stimulate parts of our limbic system in our brain that has a part in our emotions, behaviours and long-term memory. It is believed that the smelling of these essential oils could have a positive effect on your physical health.
Why Essential Oils Are Great Gifts
Read on to discover why essential oils are great presents to gift to your friends.
Mood Lifter
Essential oils are great as a gift just because of how they could instantly lift your emotions. It has been found that essential oils are actually really popular among those who have stress and anxiety and just by smelling them, it functions as a complementary therapy. Similarly, when you are having a rather bleak day, try giving yourself a nice little massage around your pressure points using essential oils. Essential oils are great for different situations. If relaxation and stress relief is your game, look towards flavours like lavender, lemongrass and ylang-ylang for the quick relief of tension and stress. You will find your stress easily melting away and you will emerge refreshed and recharged.
Treat Insomnia
Let me tell you something, insomnia is nothing to joke about since a night of restless sleep could easily leave you feeling like a plastic bag drifting through the wind the next day. If you find it hard to get to sleep on certain nights, how about starting on a nightly routine of using aromatherapy. How you can do that is by smelling essential oils that get you in the mood for relaxation and sleep like lavender oil. It wouldn’t even take more than 5 minutes! You will find that your sleep quality will be much improved following the minor adjustments and those pesky eye bags and dark eyes circles will be a thing of the past.
Alleviate Your Headaches
Studies have been done and they have proven how peppermint essential oil is effective in alleviating your headaches. Similar effects were garnered when the use of peppermint and lavender essential oil were put together in a mixture onto the skin. If you or your friends are one who suffers from regular headaches, peppermint oil is an absolute essential for them to make their days that much brighter!
Final Note
Thinking of buying essential oils for your girlfriends but don’t know where to start? What you can do is to gift your friends a starter kit that includes a small vial of essential oil and a nice diffuser for them to use in the home. These diffusers can be rather pricey but think of it as a long-term investment. Not only are you value-added their lives with the sweet aroma of essential oils, but you are also turning them into fans of essential oil and chances are that you will be gifted with more vials of essential oils when your birthday is around the corner.