Iritating critters

Aromatherapy can also help out with those irritating flying critters that buzz in your ears and up your nose. They absolutely HATE citrus. So if you get out your burner and put in a citrus oil - lemon for best results and set it burning, watch the critters head for the doors and the windows.

I'm here

We I haven't had much to say in this blog for a while. Now I'm going on to be a mobile aromatherapist. Have most of the things from th shop and it's all fairly portable. Just waiting for the phone to ring!

The lousy cold

I'll start off being honest. Aromatherapy can (on occasion with luck) stop the development of a cold, if you have a warm bath with Tea Tree and Eucalyptus. Failing that you're stuck with the usual symptoms. Aromatherapy can help. Eucalyptus is useful for a stuffy nose as is peppermint. You can get a mixture to gargle with, but for that I would have to recommend you visit an aromatherapist. If you're having trouble sleeping, again trey good old lavender. I have a hot whiskey toddy, but I can't recommend that you drink! Over all a cold is just the pits and you can manage the symptoms, but that's about it.

Sensible sheep

The content of my latest painting ish!

Pain

Just come out of hospital having had a wisdom truth with a cyst on it removed and several other teeth. For some reason thought it woulnt hurt but it was like being hit in the face with a bat, so not much to say. Did anyone look up Vermeer.?

Zen

I'm quite heavily into Zen Buddhism, have been since I used to do martial arts, when I got involved in eastern philosophy. Before you stop reading because you aren't into religion let me stop you, Zen isn't a religion, it's a philosophy and you don't even need to take any notice of the philosophy to benefit.   I'm going to chat a little about meditation.


This isn't as esoteric as some would have you believe. It's basically emptying your mind of clutter. Pause now and see what's going on in your mind. I bet it's like Central Station up their. This is fair enough and quite normal. Thing is if you can calm this clutter, even just for a few minutes each day you will feel more relaxed and capable of dealing with things.


There are many forms of meditation, but the most straightforward is counting your breath. Take a comfortable seat and make sure you won't be disturbed. Let the central station clatter then start counting your out breaths. Count up to four then start at one again and if your mind wanders, which it will, jst gently bring it back, try not to get frustrated, it is after all a difficult thing you are trying to do.


Alternatively, as we use our phones for everything else, so there is an app for guided meditation and if you find one that works for you then use that. If Zen is one thing it is open to change and can bring fantastic peace. Good luck with your practise.

Vermeer

Just a quick note. Searcc out the work of Vermeer (I love his work) ans see how often he uses a very similar model and the light is usually coming from the left of the subject

Clove oil

This one is quite an important one to me. It is the oil to use if you have toothache. Pour some onto a piece of cotton wool and put it against the sore area. Eventually you'll have to swallow and the clove will fill your mouth, tasting pretty bad and making you want to spit it out. Try to avoid this and leave the oil covered cotton wool in your mouth. I once mixed eucalyptus with clove and made the whole side of my face numb! PLEASE DO NOT TRY THIS WITHOUT MEDICAL SUPERVISION. But clove can give you a bit of a break.


You can also get wheat pillows that go in the microwave. They're designed for muscle pain, but if you put one against the area of the pain on the outside of your face it can give some relief. If you can bear it slosh your mouth out, as any sugar caught in the sore tooth will make it ten times worse.

Orange

Orange oil is a beautifully tangy and uplifting oil. It's good if you're feeling a bit down or lethargic. If you burn it in the house it is a good frageriser and deodorant. 

One thing to be careful of though is that you must avoid sunbathing after using orange. This is because it increases the effects of the sun and you are more likely to burn.

You will also find orange an effective fly repellant either in the house or when it comes round to barbecue time...I can't wait...the smell of coals and charring food!

Art

Relaxation. This post kind of overlaps my art blog, but it's more about making yourself feel good. You may think an art gallery isn't the place for you, but you'never know unless you give it a try. I go to themgallery and sit, soaking up the atmosphere and everytime I see the same pictures I spot something new. The stories behind the paintings may even be quite harrowing, but just feel the piece. I bet you'll want to go back more and more. There  are also some wonderful gallery apps that collect together paintings from national galleries and you can look whenever you feel like it. The other good thinhbis the apps are free- just search for art gallery,

Lavender

Lavender is an oil that anyone who is even vaguely interested in aromatherapy ought to have in their cupboard. It is one of the safest oils and one of the only ones recommended to be applied directly to the skin without being diluted (please carry out the test as described previously though).

Lavender has a lot of uses. It is antiseptic, so can be applied to closed wounds, especially cat scratches as it gets rid of that irritating stinging pain that follows a scratch. It is also beneficial to burns and reduces the pain and increases the healing time.

Mentally it can have two effects, depending on the dosage. A small amount will help you sleep while a large amount will keep you awake, so take care not to use too much if you want a good night's sleep. For sleeping a good way to use it is to put a little on a tissue and tuck it under your pillow.

It has a lovely flowery smell and is relatively inexpensive, so I would advise you to get some for your medicine cabinet, especially cat lovers who get that accidental scratch now and then. (I have six and always put some lavender or tea tree on a scratch). Even my father is a convert to these two oils.

Clary Sage

It's a while since I promised to write about some more oils. My apologies for that...

Clary Sage is a fantastic oil if you're feeling low. Its woody, tangy smell is very warm. It does take some getting used to but it's worthwhile. 

It will lift your mood and in high doses is lightly narcotic, so take care especially as overdoing it will probably give you a headache.

Again, like most oils it can be burned in a vaporizer or hot surface or you can take a warm bath with about 8 drops in. Your muscles will relax more than you could think. Again like any oil put a little on part of your body such as the inside of your elbow, just to make sure you don't have any negative reaction and keep it away from your eyes. Another word of warning if you are having an alcoholic drink take care because Clary Sage can enhance the effects of alcohol. I hope you get something out of this and hopefully I'll be back soon with more oils. Enjoy..

Glad it helped

Thank you for getting in touch and leaving such positive feedback. I hope the remedies work well for you and you find my future ramblings of interest...Tony

Happy Christmas

Well I hope you had a great Christmas and are looking forward to new year. If you find this time of year difficult for whatever reason then my thoughts are with you. Having suffered from depression for a number of years and many of the reasons based around the holidays I can relate to you. It is almost a time of enforced fun. Try to remember there will be good times coming uup. I know it sounds like an empty promise, but it is true. I've just stopped crying cos I'm overweight and my teeth are falling out and why didn't I do things differently? Well I didn't and I'm here. My dad said that I have lived fiur lives alreadyand I know where he's coming from. Even negatives can be learned from. Accept my best wishes and feel good that you are who you are because you are unique.

Weird

This blogging is a funny old game. It gives you a wonderful chance to talk about yourself and what is going on. You can rattle on about your favourite things or condemn the things that really bug you. If you've read any of my stuff you'll know I'm a bit of a traditionalist. This doesn't mean I'm a stick in the mud. I like to get drunk and put the world to rights or ride my off road bike into ditches. There is a point to this honestly. This is about making yourself feel good. Well taking part in social media or having a blog can make you feel better. We have all this technology at hand and we concentrate it on work. Have a bit of fun - share a joke on Twitter or put your amusing holiday videos on you tube. I know it's not the same as socializing and I'd rather be down the pub chatting to you about this but this is the best way cos. we all probably live a long way apart but that just gives us more to share! Go on post something start a discussion!

Cold

Just a quick little post. If you get the seemingly inevitable December cold then have a warm (not hot because the oils will evaporate too quickly) bath with 4 drops Eucalyptus and 4 drops TeaTree. As always put a little of the oils on your skin to ensure you are not allergic to them. You can also put some on a tissue and put it by your pillow,

Teeth

Sorry about the hiatus in my ramblings. I have not had the best of weeks. I am no longer going to make plans because it tempts problems. It was just a little plan - I was going to visit the local art gallery and a tooth that had been giving me problems finally exploded into tooth ache. After sitting in the waiting room for two hours, I was booked in for a root canal the following morning.

It wasn't as bad as I thought and the pain had gone. My comfort was not to last long as there are - apparently - three roots on each tooth. So one remained open to pain and it took its opportunity. Back to the hospital and another root canal. This time it really hurt, but he found the root and killed it off.

For the pain I used a little clove oil, that you can get at pharmacies and health food shops. It does numb the pain foor a while, but smells and tastes disgusting, but if you have toothache you'll try anything won't you. I once made a mixture of clove oil and some other oils and managed to make the side of my head completely numb.

So aromatherapy can help with toothache, but the bottom line is that you have to get yourself to your dentist!

The Best

PooThe single most useful, adaptable, effective and commonly used is the oil of Lavender. It calms a restless mind, lifts a bad mood, helps you sleep, takes the pain and helps with cuts and burns. It is also the only oil an aromatherapist would suggest application to the skin without a mixer oil. We'll come to mixers later.

Even lavender ought to be tested on a small piece of skin to check for allergies.. It is number 1 and the first oil to get

Aromatherapy

It's amazing how we are affected by smell, often without even realising it. This time in Autumn is when some bad things happen to me and I find myself being brought down because of the smell in the air.

On the other hand certain smells have the opposite effects and make us happy, like the first day of spring or a fryig breakfast. This has good memories for me because a friend of mind and I would go out early on our motorcycles and as we drifted through villages you could smell food frying.

This is by way of an introduction to aromatherapy. Unless you have used oils before you are unlikely to have any reminiscenses to them. However they do work on a very deep level.

There are a few ain ways to use the oils: put it in a purpose built burner with a candle, some drips on a light bulb (make sure the bulb is cool to start with or it might shatter). \you can drip some on a radiator or pour some into a cloth and put it under your pillow or even sniff it straight out of the bottle. Many drip some in the bath, though the best way is to have a trained aromatherapist massage the oil into your back.

Next Post we'll mentiona few oils and what we use them for..

Exercise

A regular form of exercise is also useful in  the battle against stress. You don't have to run for miles or get tied into a gym membership.

Martial arts are good because you don't get the chance to dwell on any thing because you are concentrating. If you get into it you don't get bored because you are learning something. Yoga is fantastic for stress being low impact. You will only be expected to do what you can withou hurting yourself. Also, you will usually do a guided meditation at the end. More bits and bobs to come..