Tip: Add a festive scent to the fireplace by putting one or two drops of essential oils on the log.

What pops into your head when you think about holidays? Sugarplums? Or do you see yourself trying to balance work and family with gifts, baking and parties?

You’re not alone. But there is a way to both enhance the holidays and comfort yourself during a hectic holiday season — aromatherapy.

Aromatherapy uses pure essential oils to relax, balance and rejuvenate. And some scents can do the double duty of creating a festive holiday atmosphere at the same time.

Surround Yourself With Seasonal Scents
Start with some scents to fill your rooms. Certain essential oils are ideal — clove, cinnamon, pine, fir needle, Texas cedarwood, cypress and juniper berry all lend cheer. Leading aromatherapy brand Aura Cacia even offers a special holiday blend, Orange Pomander, just for the season.

There are numerous options for diffusing the scents into the atmosphere of a room, such as simmering a blend of holiday cheer right on your stove top. Try filling a saucepan full of water and adding 10 drops cassia bark, 5 drops clove, 20 drops sweet orange, and 5 drops of vanilla.

Add a festive scent to the fireplace by putting one or two drops of essential oils on the log. Apply a drop and let it sit for a few minutes before putting the log into the fire. Some oils to try: frankincense, cypress, pine, fir, juniper berry and Texas cedarwood. Diffusing refreshing oils like peppermint and citrus may be just the thing to re-energize your family and guests after a big holiday meal.

And the tree — it’s the original source of holiday aromatherapy! Adding essential oils to the water in your tree stand is a quick way to diffuse holiday scents. Or spray an oil and water blend directly onto both natural and artificial trees for a fresh-cut aroma. Try 20 drops of pine, fir or juniper essential oil in a spritzer with 1 ounce of water.

Give Yourself a Break
You may find yourself on your feet for long periods during the holidays — shopping, cleaning or attending gatherings. To ease your fatigue, add a few drops of essential oil to your bath or try this foot soak:

Revitalizing Foot Soak
2 Tbsp. sea salt
1 Tbsp. Epsom salts
1 Tbsp. sodium bicarbonate or baking soda
1 Tbsp. French white clay powder
12 drops lavender oil
2 drops peppermint oil
1 drop spearmint oil

When you get the chance to sleep or do some serous relaxing, treat yourself to jasmine or vanilla essential oils or a pre-blended nocturnal formula like Aura Cacia’s Pillow Potion.

Share the Gift of Aromatherapy
You can also enhance the holidays by treating your gift recipients to the power of aromatherapy. It’s a thoughtful and creative way to make your gifts truly personal. Offer a festive container filled with coarse sea salt and your favorite essential oil blend. It can be used in the bath, or displayed to scent the air. Try 20 drops of rose, 20 drops of lavender and 10 drops of neroli to about 2 cups of salt. A small pinch of baking soda makes the blend very softening to the skin. To make a bath salt fizz, add a bit of vitamin C powder.

Spritzers are fun gifts. Buy a glass or aluminum spray bottle, blend your favorite oils and add water. To create one with the holiday scent of an orange pomander, use these essential oils: 40 drops orange, 40 drops vanilla, 15 drops clove.

If you want to introduce friends to aromatherapy, give them an Aura Cacia Aromatherapy Deck — it’s filled with enough aromatherapy information and recipes to keep them busy until next Christmas.

For more ideas and recipes, check out www.auracacia.com.

Courtesy of ARAcontent

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Taken from the flowers, bark, leaves, and other parts of plants, essential oils are as natural as fresh air and sunshine. Many have their own properties as disinfectants, grease cutters and deterrents to pests — and they impart fresh and pleasing aromas that linger long after your chores are finished.

Natural cleaning products are increasingly available in stores, but you can also easily and economically make your own mixtures with just a few basic ingredients. Chances are some of these ingredients, such as baking soda, white vinegar and borax, are already in your cupboards. One hundred percent pure essential oils can be found at natural products stores or online at www.auracacia.com.

Homemade natural cleaning products are versatile; many can be used for a variety of tasks. Because essential oils are in a highly concentrated form, often only a few drops are needed for a solution that can take you through several cleaning cycles. Not only do you save money — your homemade cleansers will work just as well as commercially produced cleaners without harming the environment.

“Choices abound,” says Tom Havran, aromatherapy product developer. “From pine or lemon oil, whose essences suggest more traditional cleaning aromas, to tea tree and grapefruit, which people might not think of as cleaning ingredients.”

Not sure which oil to start with? Here are some of Havran’s suggestions:

* Pine is inexpensive and clean smelling. It is effective as both a disinfectant and deodorizer.

* Lavender has a pleasing scent, is anti-bacterial and deters insects such as moths.

* Tea tree oil has a sharp, spicy scent and is a good disinfectant and deodorizer.

* Lemon is fresh and clean smelling. It’s also acidic, providing antibacterial and antiseptic cleaning properties.

* Grapefruit has a clean and uplifting aroma that eliminates odors — even strong pet odors.

Making your own cleaning products with essential oils can be as simple as mixing 15 to 20 drops of any essential oil into a cup of baking soda, letting the mixture stand overnight so the oil can be absorbed, and then sprinkling the powder on carpet before you vacuum.

You can also make a quick and easy disinfecting toilet bowl cleanser by combining one cup of water, one-quarter cup of liquid castile soap and 20 drops of white thyme, lavender or lemon essential oil in a 22-oz. spray bottle.

Spring is a time of renewal that offers a perfect opportunity to replace chemical cleansers with pure and natural essential oils. Your whole family, including your pets, will benefit.

For more spring-cleaning formulas you can make yourself with essential oils visit www.auracacia.com/springcleaning. While you’re there, be sure to get more information about Aura Cacia’s live web chats with host Tim Blakley, and download previous chats to learn more about using essential oils that benefit you and your family, naturally.

Courtesy of ARAcontent

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