Wednesday, October 31, 2012

How much oil should I use?

I hear it all the time...
“How much oil do I use?”
“How often should I use it?”
“Where do I put it?”

The answers are straightforward, yet not well defined.

Essential oils are not like medications. More often is almost always better. For simplicity we will imagine essential oils as if they were food (cinnamon, basil, oregano, lemon... hmmm.. not too far off!). When we are hungry: we eat. When we are full: we stop. At first, it might be hard to know when you reach that point with an essential oil. But I promise, you will get there eventually!

The quantity of each application is not as important as the frequency of putting it on. Just like during our day, we don’t begin with a huge meal and call it good. We must take one bite at a time, and eat throughout our day. In fact, a new trend in dieting is to eat mini-meals for losing weight AND staying healthy.
It is important to note that 1 drop of peppermint essential oil is equivalent to 28 cups of peppermint tea. 1 drop goes a LONG way.

General guide for my family:
1 drop or less, topically (diluting is wonderful for my sensitive skinned boys)
Every 1-2 hours if we are sick (until better).
Every 2-3 hours for anything chronic we are working on (until symptoms abate).
1-2 times a day for our daily oils that help us feel good (citrus oils, calming oils, concentrations oils).

2-3 drops in a capsule
Every 1-2 hours if we are sick (until better).
Every 2-3 hours for anything chronic or routine we are working on (until symptoms abate).

We love back rubs (especially at night right down the spine) and we end up using 3-10 drops for those.

Where to put them? Where to put them! Well that’s just up to you! I’ve told you how often we use them, and even how I use them. But we switch it around quite a bit. There are all kinds of different reasons to do one over the other (internal, topical, or aromatic), but in reality, you want it in your bloodstream and its going to get there any of those three ways.

Topically, use them: on location, bottom of the feet, down the spine (my favorite), on the chest (over heart), or around the ears.
Internally: let’s keep AWAY from in the ears, and in the eyes. Empty veggie capsules are great for getting doTERRA CPTG oils internally.
Aromatically: you can create a personally inhaler with the palms of your hands, diffuse in the air with a diffuser, use a personal inhaler (or “sniffy” is what I like to call it), or spritz it in the air with a mist bottle.

Using essential oils needs to become very intuitive for you. So as you use them, and follow friends and mentors suggestions, start to think about how YOU like to use them best, and how YOU feel after each use.

Karen Abeggle (doTERRA IPC)

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