How Aromatherapy Can Give You Alertness and Focus

Hi Everyone!  Nice to be back!  I went away for a few days camping with my daughter and six of my grandkids and two of their friends.  Sounds like lots of fun if you like lots of little ones in a confined space...which I do, thankfully.  Oh, it had its moments, but overall we all had fun and hopefully made some memories.  Yes, we packed two adults and seven kids from age 6 to 14 in an OLD camper and a big tent!!

Now that I am home, I am dead tired though.  Relaxation was part of every day, but relaxation is not part of the preparation for camping, nor is it in the packing up, dragging home, washing everything and putting it away.  I really need a week to recover when I come back because of all the packing and unpacking!!

I seemed to have enough stamina when I got home, but my mind was in la-la land.  I had no focus, a hard time remembering things I had to do, and I was so un-alert that someone could have walked away with my house and I probably wouldn't have noticed until it rained. 

Thankfully I had the solution on hand.  Stimulant drugs were a desperate off-hand thought, but besides being illegal, they are poison to a human body.  No, I had aromatherapy.  Nice, pleasant smelling, essential oils were within reach in my kitchen.  There are a ton of essential oils that are helpful for alertness.  Basil, Cardamom, Eucalyptus, Rosemary, Grapefruit, Lime, Peppermint, Spearmint, Bergamot, Thyme, and Black Pepper are among the most popular oils for waking up the mind and becoming alert and highly focused.

I whipped up an alertness/focusing blend solution of 10 drops of grapefruit oil, 10 drops of lime oil, 5 drops of black pepper oil, and 5 drops of peppermint oil in an ounce of extra virgin olive oil.  I massaged the oil into my neck muscles, shoulder muscles, and jaw muscles.  I sat in my chair and let the aroma stimulate my olfactory system and let the oils be absorbed into my blood stream through my skin and up to my brain.  It wasn't fifteen minutes, and I was feeling alert and focused and not walking through my life like a zombie anymore.  I made lists of what needed to be done, I wrote out a few bills that I realized needed to be mailed out, and I wrote out this blog which was my most pressing matter of business at the time. 

Long ago, being alert and focused kept us from danger.  Alert to the sounds of being trailed by a wild animal in caveman times meant life or death.  We don't really have the need to be alert to save our lives anymore, but we have the need to focus and be alert for our many tasks that we must do in a day.  We have to watch our kids at the playground.  We have to drive the carpool.  We have to study for exams.  We have to present our ideas to our bosses at business meetings.  Activities such as these are necessary for a successful day at home, at school, and at the office. 

So when you find you are at a point where you are overwhelmed by having too much to do, but you need to stay focused and alert to do the tasks at hand or to just listen to your kids when they have a problem to discuss, grab yourself a few of these oils, mix them with an ounce of olive oil, jojoba, grapeseed oil and massage them into your skin. You can use just one of these oils if you don't have lots of oils available, but most times, try to use at least two.   After a few minutes, you will feel more like yourself, more like the person you want to be.  When you feel like you have had your focus and alertness restored, then shower away the oils and go about your business. 

 Will be talking to you again real soon.  Stay alert and stay focused!