Aromatherapy for Women: How to use essential oils for health, beauty and your emotions. Maggie Tisserand

of Paris. However, half an hour later, I stepped out of the bath feeling as though I could happily undertake Le Mans!

      WHEN CHILDREN CAN’T SLEEP

      Lavender is widely accepted as being a sedative, and is a great help when someone has a difficult time in getting off to sleep.

      I have used lavender in many ways when my children have complained about not being able to sleep. Sometimes I have given them a lavender bath, but this is not always convenient. Sometimes a drop of lavender on the edge of the pillow, sometimes on a tissue. Recently I invented a ‘lavender tube’, which works better than anything else. When the essence is dropped onto a tissue, it evaporates straight up into the atmosphere, but with a lavender tube, the vapour is trapped, and forced out at the end only. I take a sheet of kitchen towel (one of the stiffer types of paper) and put one or two drops of lavender on one edge. I then roll the paper into a sausage shape with the lavender in the middle. The tube can then be held in the hand by the child, without the essence coming into contact with the skin, and when the child falls asleep, the tube automatically falls from the hand. My daughters think it’s great!

      ENVIRONMENTAL FRAGRANCE

      Offices and other workplaces can become very stuffy, with the air full of everybody else’s smells – aftershave, coffee, strong perfumes, cigarette smoke, photocopier chemicals – and this can contribute to a lack of efficiency as the day wears on. Very often in air-conditioned buildings the windows are sealed shut and it is impossible to open them even though you may be craving for some fresh air, but you can freshen the atmosphere quite considerably by sprinkling a few drops of an essential oil around you. Essential oils give off their aromas that much quicker if they are in contact with heat; if there is no source of heat nearby, the most accessible item to most people would probably be a mug of hot water to drop the oils in. Light citrus oils like rosewood, lemon or bergamot, and fresh herbal aromas such as rosemary, not only scent the atmosphere but bring a freshness and clarity. Because all essential oils have antiseptic properties, their use will also offer you some measure of protection from the airborne bacteria with which we are surrounded. Tests in air-conditioned buildings in which staff suffer recurrent illness and lethargy have shown that the atmosphere can indeed become very unhealthy; this pattern of ill-health caused by a working environment is known as ‘sick building syndrome’. A Japanese company is now incorporating aromatic vapours into the air-conditioning systems of offices and banks, and finds that lemon oil increases efficiency and reduces error. Until the time when all buildings are so equipped, we can carry our own ‘environmental fragrance’ in our handbag or briefcase, to use as and when required.

      NERVOUS DIARRHOEA

      Have you ever had to keep rushing to the loo with an upset stomach just before an important occasion? You know you haven’t eaten anything terrible, so it must just be ‘nerves’. But how can you stop it from happening? Geranium oil is sedative and uplifting at the same time, and is used by doctors in Italy to treat anxiety states. One or two drops of the oil, on brown sugar or in honey water, and taken an hour or two prior to the event, will soon bring relief whether you are going for a job interview, preparing dinner for someone important, or receiving an Oscar for ‘best supporting actress’. Neroli oil, which is also used to treat nervous tension and anxiety states, will soothe and calm the central nervous system when worn as a perfume. When neroli oil is diluted in jojoba, it will ‘keep’ for a long time, and is a good standby to have in your handbag for those moments when the butterflies threaten to take over.

      MUSCULAR ACHES

      Physical activity has become more popular, both with men and women, and whether you are a regular exercise freak or a complete beginner, there will be occasions when you may overdo it. This is when every muscle in your legs aches, and walking up a flight of stairs becomes an endurance test. It is at such times that I would recommend a massage of the affected part (calf, thigh, upper arm and so on) to bring relief from pain, and to speed up the repair process.

      Athletes and professional sports people always have a massage after their training sessions, but few of us are privileged to have our own personal physiotherapist. With a little confidence and some practical experience, however, we can take care of our minor aches and pains, as well as give comfort to a friend in discomfort. Massage of the legs should always be in a circular movement, and always upwards towards the heart. The pain experienced in the muscles is caused by a build-up of lactic acid, and by massaging the affected muscle, or groups of muscles, beginning gently and gradually applying more pressure as the pain can be tolerated, the lactic acid is encouraged to disperse.

      Massage alone will ease the pain and stiffness, and help to restore suppleness to the limbs, but for an even more effective treatment I would always recommend the addition of essential oils into a base oil, and in the recipe section (Chapter 12) you will find a recipe of lavender, rosemary and juniper which has been found to be of great help.

      ACHING FEET

      Women’s feet have a lot of weight to carry around, and often are forced into narrow and uncomfortable shoes. But standing on a crowded tube train, or running for a bus seem inappropriate times to be concerned with appearances! Every part of our body has a corresponding reflex zone on the foot, and what happens to our feet can easily have an adverse affect on our well-being. Irritability, nausea, headaches, even migraines can occur by forcing our feet to endure hours of torture and mistreatment.

      However, I am as guilty as anyone for following fashion dictates, and the way in which I say ‘sorry’ to my feet and revive myself quickly is to have a footbath as soon as I reach home. Just ten minutes with your feet in a bowl of water, or sitting on the edge of your bath with your feet in a few inches of water to which you have first added a few drops of oil, will work wonders. Gentle massaging of the many reflex zones of the feet will greatly enhance your recuperation. Peppermint in cool water is the perfect footbath for a hot summer’s day, whilst myrtle or geranium are warming and comforting aromas when used in warm water on a wintry day.

      FOOT ODOUR

      Smelly feet can be embarrassing to their owners as well as unpleasant to other people. The habit of wearing nylon socks inside tightly-laced shoes means men suffer from this problem more than women do. Aromatherapy cannot ‘cure’ foot odour but the use of certain essential oils can bring about a great improvement. Cypress oil is a natural deodorant and can be used in a footbath or diluted into a fatty-oil base and massaged into the feet. A daily footbath is very beneficial, with perhaps the addition of a weekly foot massage.

      UNWINDING AFTER A TIRING DAY

      Many things can ‘wind us up’. Driving, coping with children, attending to countless customers in shops or banks, commuting on packed trains, or partaking in whatever stressful activity is part of our lifestyle. Cigarettes, alcohol and tranquillizers have become the methods of relaxation employed by people in the Western world. A healthy and safe alternative to these measures is to take an aromatic bath each day. Even if you prefer showering for its speed and economy, think of bathing as a therapy and try to take one or two aromatic baths every week. Just as swimming in a warm sea is mentally and physically therapeutic, so too is lying in a warm bath, doing absolutely nothing except to inhale the vapours as they are released into the air. A few drops of your favourite essential oil (particularly good are neroli, rosewood, myrtle, geranium or lavender) will soothe and gently ease away the mental and physical tensions of the day. The day’s events register as physical tension, which is the reason why we get tight neck muscles, headaches, irritability or insomnia. It may seem easier to reach for an analgesic tablet or tranquillizer, but if we stop to think about the effect that the drug is having on our body on an immediate level, and then think about the possible long-term problems associated with those drugs, we may decide that it is much better to opt for a safe alternative, such as an aromatic bath, even if it takes a little more time