Oct 12, 2015

How do I know if an oil is working for me?

Dear Oily,

I bought about a dozen oils a month ago, and I just jumped right into using them because I loved them so much! Instantly, I felt like my overall health and wellness (which has never been a problem) got even better. I felt stronger, less stressed, and overall more balanced. My problem is, I don’t know which oils are causing me to feel this way.

Is there a way to tell? How can I know if an oil is working for me or not?

Sincerely,

Over-Oiled


Dear Over-Oiled,

My dear dear dear friend. I hate to tell you this, but you are suffering from over-enthusiasm. It’s a very common malady amongst oil users. Fortunately, it is not fatal and there is a cure. Unfortunately, like all treatments, it’s going to take some patience and time.

The prescription: listening to your body.


You want my body to talk to me?

Sorry, there’s no simple fix or an easier way to do this because everyone is different! Suggestions and lists in reference works are just guides. No one can tell you how each oil is going to work for every single person because no oil works exactly the same for every single person.

So you’re going to have to listen to your body to find out how an oil works for you. Not for your sister, your mother, your second-cousin-twice removed who married that hot French guy. You. Your unique, individual body.

Learn to listen to your body to figure out if an oil is working for you | Hot Pink Crunch
I knooooow this goes against everything we are taught by modern, western medicine. We just aren’t taught to listen to our own bodies. We are taught to listen to doctors and what they have to tell us about our bodies (which is still important--don’t start ignoring them!). However, we have to learn to listen to what our bodies are trying to tell us. Once you learn to listen, your body will let you know what is going on with it: what it likes, what it dislikes, what works for it, and what is just meh.

And once you learn to listen, you will be able to know if an oil is working for you. Better still, you will know HOW an oil works for you.

The Method to the Madness

Did you think I was just going to leave you hanging with that? “Go, listen to your body!” and then I take off to go drink margaritas and you’re left sitting there thinking, what the heck?

There is a method you can use that should help make listening and understanding your body (as far as it pertains to essential oil use) easier.

How do I know if an essential oil is working for me method | Hot Pink Crunch

Step One

Stop using the bagillion oils you are using all for the same goal. Stop using ALL of them. Trying ten different oils in your skincare routine? STOP! Using four different blends to help you deal with the annoying people at work? STOP! Put down the bottles crazy and move on to step two.

Step Two

Choose one oil to start. Just one! Which one you choose is up to you. No, you’re not special. You don’t get two. Everyone gets just one.

Step Three

Use the oil you chose at least three times every day for a week. (We'll call it the one-three-one rule)

You can mix up how you use it if you want. Aren’t sure where to start? Read the label on the bottle! The label will give you the oil’s PRIMARY use. If you need more ideas? Look up the oil in one of the many third party reference materials available. Be brave enough to play around with the amount of oil you use, the time of day you use it, and the location you use it on your body when doing topical applications.

Step Four

PAY ATTENTION! Keep track of the changes you are noticing when using the oil throughout the week. This is where an oil journal comes in handy (see below). Some questions to consider as you use the oil:

  • How do I feel emotionally after I use this oil? 
  • How do I feel when I use this oil in the morning? 
  • How do I feel when I use this oil at night? 
  • How do I feel when I use this oil topically/aromatically/internally? 
  • Is this oil helping me reach my goal? 
  • Is this oil working for me in an unexpected way?

You have to listen to your whole body! Maybe you’re using an oil for your skin care routine. It’s not working and your skin looks like crap, but hey, you notice that you’ve been really calm all week. You haven’t yelled at a single person while stuck in traffic. Is there a connection? Probably!

Step Five

Once you determine how an oil works/doesn’t work for you, it’s time to start the process all over again with a different oil.

Lather. Rinse. Repeat.


You Need an Oil Journal

If you have this AMAZING memory where you can keep track of every way in which you tried using an essential oil throughout the week, the effects, and the results you determine at the end of the week,
Why you need to buy an essential oil journal | Hot Pink Crunch
good for you! You should go try out for Jeopardy and share your winnings with me.

If you’re like the rest of us, you need someplace to keep track of which oils you have tried and what you have learned about your body.

Get yourself a little handy-dandy notebook. Write stuff down as you go through the process.

Sure, this may take a few extra minutes of your time now, but do you really want to go through the five-steps again in six months when you can’t remember if it was Release or Lavender that kept you from yelling at your husband and kids. Or was it Frankincense?

StressAway?

Write it down!

Is that it?

Yeah, that’s basically it.

The super cool part is that you probably won’t be stuck going through the whole process over and over again until the end of time. As you learn to listen to your body, you become a better body-listener (I just coined that term. It’s like a horse whisperer only for your body). This should allow you to speed up the process a bit.

Think of it this way. When you’ve been in a dozen different romantic relationships over the last five years, don’t you kind of get a sense of whether “This is going to work!” or “This guy is the biggest creepster ever!” on the first date?

Once you date enough oils, you’ll be able to tell pretty quickly when starting a new relationship whether it’s going to last forever (one true pairing!) or “It’s really not you, it’s me.” Most important: there’s only one brand of oils I’d ever trust enough to have a relationship with and you can get them here. All the other oils have communicable diseases.