Stress Free Mama

By ;

How to Massage Your Foot — Part 1: Supplies

To massage your foot, there are no special supplies needed, however there are some supplies to make it expecially nice. Find out how to give yourself a wonderful foot massage.

Foot massage. It feels so good.

Our feet are often forgotten.

We do carry a lot of stress in our feet, but really, few of us would notice. Yet when we get a foot massage, it feels so good that it can relax our whole body.

Supplies to Massage Your Feet

When you give yourself a foot massage, you don’t need any special supplies at all.

However, many people like to use a massage oil because they can stroke their skin without pulling. If you like oil, try a pure vegetable oil like sweet almond or jojoba. Even olive oil will do in a pinch. Add a few drops of essential oils–try lavender or geranium–to make it especially nice. Be sure to rub all of it in so you don’t slip.

An alternative to oil is lotion. As a lubricant for massage, lotions are perfectly fine. However, I encourage you to read the label. You will probably be surprised at the chemical list! Pre-made lotions and oils often smelll nice and have a nice consistency, but it is at a cost to your health. If you love your lotion, use it. If you can make a change, change to something more pure and natural.

Some people do not like to have their feet “slimed up” with oil. If you still would like something to smooth over your skin, try corn starch or cornmeal. Corn starch feels soft and slick. Corn meal gives a little extra zing from the coarseness, like walking on a sandy beach. An added bonus is that it exfoliates as well. Either is a good alternative to oil.

A cornmeal foot massage

To use cornmeal in a foot massage, place a towel on the floor to collect the mess. Find some container which is roughly foot sized. Pour some cornmeal in and start massaging.

For added pleasure, heat the cornmeal in the oven before using. And for even more luxury, put a couple of drops of essential oils in the corn meal and mix.

To use cornstarch, put the cornstarch in a shaker and shake!

Rolling a tennis ball for a foot massage

Finally, sometimes it is nice to special massage toys to pamper your feet. One of the simplest is a tennis ball. You can stand on it and roll it around. Don’t forget to focus on the arches.

The next step is the fun part. Move on to “Part 2: Techniques to Massage Your Foot” to find out some nice spots that have you sighing “Ahhh” after a hard day.

By ;

How to Use Essential Oils Therapeutically — Part 1: Topical Use

There are a few simple tips to learn how to use essential oils for their potent healing properties. After learning these guidelines, aromatherapy is an excellent way for us to treat our stress symptoms at home, and to control the long term hazards of chronic stress.

There are three main ways to use essential oils: topically, by inhalation, and by ingestion. In this part of the series, we will discuss topical use.

How to Use Essential Oils Topically

When you use essential oils topically, you simply rub them on your body. Take a drop of oil on the palm of your hand, rub your palms together and rub them on your skin.

Topical application is very well suited for relieving pain, aches, sore muscles and injuries–in other words, getting the oils to your physical body. The healing molecules in the essential oils permeate the skin and enter the blood stream and bring almost immediate relief.

Using Oils Undiluted??

Many sources in aromatherapy will caution that essential oils should not be applied neat, or undiluted, on the skin. This is excellent advice if you are not sure of the quality of your essential oils.

Most essential oils are produced for the perfume industry, and this is even true of essential oils from a health food store. They may be adulterated, or extended with chemicals. They may have mixtures of various species of a plant, if the smell is similar. This means that you can not be sure of the purity, the efficacy, or the reliability of the essential oil when using it for its therapeutic benefits.

Be sure you trust the source of your oils. If you have any doubts, use them cautiously.

If you trust your oils, it’s not hard to learn how to use essential oils topically. There are a few simple cautions which can be summed up with “Use Common Sense”:

Common Sense Precautions for Essential Oils:

  • Some oils are hot (those high in phenols)–oregano, thyme, cinnamon, clove, lemongrass and bergamot. Do not put them in your eyes, mouth or “tender” skin or they may burn. Even not-so-tender skin may turn red with these hot oils.
  • If an oil turns your skin red, dilute the essential oil with a vegetable oil (like olive oil or almond oil)–not water. Water is used to increase the effects of the oil. Only vegetable oil will reduce the effects of the essential oil.
  • If an oil turns your skin red, it will probably be a detox reaction, not an allergy. Back off. Use less oil and less frequently. If it is a detox, the reaction will gradually become less as your body detoxes. If it is an allergy, the symptoms will stay the same or worsen.
  • Some oils are photosensitive and may cause a rash or darkened skin if used before sun exposure–angelica, bergamot, grapefruit, lemon, orange, tangerine and other citrus oils.
  • Pregnant women should avoid sage, fennel and hyssop.
  • Epileptics and people with high blood pressure should be cautious with high ketone oils like basil, rosemary, sage, hyssop, wintergreen, nutmeg, rosemary, tarragon and tansy.
  • Be aware that children, older people, very sick people or very sensitive people may feel the effects of the oils intensely. Be gentle!
  • A very good safe place to start with topical use is the soles of your feet. The oils absorb well and the skin is not very sensitive.

Common Topical Uses of Essential Oils

  • Rub a drop or two of basil or marjoram on your sore muscles.
  • Put a drop of peppermint on the base or your skull or on your temples to relieve a headache.
  • Rub some fennel or peppermint on your belly to relieve a stomachache.
  • When your immune system is depleted and you have a fever from the flu, rub some peppermint on the soles of your feet to bring your temperature down.
  • Rub some eucalyptus or RC on your chest to relieve congestion, and support your immune system.
  • Rub some RutaVaLA blend on the soles of your feet to bring your parasympathetic nervous system back into balance.

Using essential oils topically gives excellent support to our tired, stressed bodies.

To learn how to use essential oils completely, the next part of our series discusses inhalation. Inhalation provides deep emotional balance to regain our prospective, and regain our more easy-going nature.

By ;

Essential Oil Use: Practical, Everyday Ways to Use Essential Oils

Need a great stress relief tool? Try using essential oil. Use them everyday and they will revive your spirit, replenish your body, and even balance your hormones. Their potent plant medicine works to relax your physical body, calm your emotions and lift your spirit.

Essential oils can be used many ways. It is easy and quite beneficial to begin casually, using them in our everyday life and with little fretting about the therapeutic benefits of the plants. The plants will support your body, but by using the oils practically, you can avoid the “I don’t know about these things” overwhelm.

There is really only one thing to remember when using the oils this way:

Use your Essential Oils!

Thinking about essential oils, or buying them and leaving them on the shelf will not get the desired long-term effects. Even a drop in your bath once in a while is better than nothing.

The trick to everyday oil use is to use the oils in your normal daily routines, slipping them into what you already do, or substituting them for other more toxic products. Add a drop of lemon oil to your drinking water. Lemon lifts your mood, and is anti-tumoral, but who needs to know that when your water tastes good? You drink your water like normal, but now it’s better for you.

Benefits of Using Essential Oils Everyday:

  • You get the wonderful therapeutic qualities of the oils but don’t need a vast amount of aromatherapy knowledge.
  • You reduce your dependence on other more toxic products.
  • You enjoy the aromas! I have a hard time being morose and stressed when slathering on my favorite oils–they are just too much fun.

Some Everyday Oil Uses

  • Put a drop of lemon oil in your drinking water.
  • Put a drop of lavender on a cotton ball and put it in your drawer. Your clothing will smell nice, the lavender will relax you, and the moths and insects will be repelled from your drawer.
  • Diffuse the blend Peace & Calming, lavender or frankincense instead of using a toxic room freshener.
  • Use the blend Purification to repel mosquitoes and other insects.
  • Put a drop of the blend Thieves on your hands to kill germs instead of using a hand sanitizer.
  • Put a drop of lavender on a cloth and throw it in your dryer to freshen your laundry.
  • Put a drop of lemon in your dishwater or dishwasher to cut grease.
  • Spritz the blend Purification to kill mildew, and neutralize cigarette smoke and other odors.
  • Use a drop of lemon to remove the gummy labels from containers. Be careful if the container is plastic–test it first.
  • Use a drop of lemon, oregano, basil, thyme or black pepper in recipes as seasonings.

Anyway that you can incorporate essential oil use into your routines will increase your health. Using lemon oil to cut grease in your dishwater will not prevent the lemon molecules from stimulating the limbic part of your brain and lifting your spirits too.

When you are ready to focus more specifically on the therapeutic use of essential oils, please find more information at Essential Oil Use: Therapeutics or find out my essential oil recommendations.

By ;

Daily Essential Oils: Banish Stress, Restore your Health, Regain your Sanity

When using essential oils to banish stress, you take advantage of the essential oil’s unique ability to enter the blood stream and go directly to the emotional center of the brain. There they can reverse the sympathetic nervous system’s stress response and restore a more restful “rest and digest” state. Hormone levels return to normal, the cardiac system slows, digestion regulates and your body can resume its normal functioning.

Learn a stress treatment which uses oils daily.

The Cycle of Chronic Stress

Chronic stress involves a cycle of metabolic destruction. Stressors cause a reaction. A prolonged, major reaction to stress can cause wear and tear on all our body systems and this reduces their overall ability to function. Our weakened condition leads to increased sensitivity to stress and the cycle repeats.

This cycle can be interrupted at any point.

The most long term solution is to decrease or eliminate stressors. In our modern life, the may not be possible.

The next most root solution is to readjust our reaction to stress. Not all stressors are a “red alert” situation.

And finally, we can support our bodies so that they are in peak condition to handle what stresses come.

Aromatherapy interrupts this cycle in two important ways. Essential oils readjust our reaction to stressors by calming our nerves and clearing our head. And aromatherapy supports out body to maintain its optimum health, regardless of stress.

To use essential oils to banish stress, follow this routine of aromatherapy and essential oil enhanced supplements everyday. This routine relieved my stress and even more importantly, restored my sense of well-being.

Vital Essentials

6 Key steps for More Energy and Vibrant Health

Do these steps everyday and you will feel a subtle, deep blossoming of your inner strength and well-being. Following this list will build a healthier body, a happier and more stable emotional body, and will prepare you to reach your highest potential.

The steps are divided into two parts:

The Oils

Step 1: Put 1 drop of VALOR on the bottoms of your feet and rub it in. If you can’t get to your feet, put the drops on your wrists and hold your wrists together for a few seconds. Notice if you feel any different.

Step 2: Put 1 drop of HARMONY on your solar plexus, above the belly button.

Step 3: Put 1 drop of JOY over your heart. Take a deep breath and smell the lovely aroma.

Step 4: Put 1 drop of WHITE ANGELICA in one hand, rub your hands together and brush over your head, face, chest, shoulders, down the body, as though you are creating an angelic shield-because you are!

These four oils balance, uplift and ground.  They are excellent for stress relief.

The Supplements

Step 5: Drink 1-6 oz. of NINGXIA RED. 1-3 oz is appropriate if you are in good health and are maintaining it. If you are healing, recovering from illness or under a large amount of stress, 4-6 oz. is appropriate.

Step 6: Take the Core Supplements as recommended three times daily. Each pack contains the supplements you need for morning, noon and night, and is pre-labeled so it is easy to tell what to take when.

The Core Supplements include Longevity, an all essential oil capsule containing thyme, orange, clove and frankincense essential oils. Thyme oil supports brain function and cardiovascular health. Clove oil is a powerful antioxidant, useful for repairing damage caused by stress. Orange has been shown to be anti-tumoral in the laboratory. And Frankincense oil supports cell regeneration and healthy immune function.

True Source is an food-based supplement which provides the vitamins and minerals. Because it is food based, your body can easily absorb the nutrients.

Omega-Blue is an Omega-3 supplement with essential oils to both keep the omega-3 oil fresh, and to boost the effect of the omega-3.

Life 5 is probiotic which builds intestinal health, improves immunity, reduces yeast and increases your energy.

Thank you to Vicki Opfer for teaching me this routine.

If someone asked for a the single best, easiest treatment for stress–something which would benefit anyone and which uses essential oils to banish stress–Vital Essentials would be the routine.

By ;

The Body Back Buddy: Stress Relief for your Sore Back

When you can’t be massaged by someone else, the Body Back Buddy is a great tool. You can use it to reach your back and relax tight muscles for great stress relief.

Massage is great for stress relief. But sometimes it is difficult to get a massage. When your muscles feel so tight that you can hardly move your head, and your head is pounding with a stress headache, the Back Buddy can provide stress relief. You can apply pressure to the tender spots in your muscles and relieve the tension.

What is a Back Buddy?

  • The Body Back Buddy is made for direct pressure on points that are tender and sore. It is not easy to rub or stroke with it. You apply pressure and then move to the next spot. When pressure is applied to these sore spots, the muscle releases and there is relief from the pain.
  • The Back Buddy is made of very hard plastic. It is not “comforting”, and can even be painful if you use too much pressure. This makes it excellent for applying pressure to sore spots until they release. It is not good for a massage that is soothing and soft. You could solve problem by putting some padding on the knobs, but it is made for pressure.
  • There are many different knobs which can give you a great deal of uses. Use your imagination and you can figure out lots of ways to massage your body.
  • You can use the “S” shape in many angles. The “S” gives great leverage and you can easily reach difficult places with little strain on your hands, wrists or arms.
  • The BBB comes in 3 sizes for small, medium and large people.

How to Use the Body Back Buddy

The use of the BBB is limited only by your imagination. In general, you are looking for sore, tight spots and applying gentle but firm pressure for 10-30 seconds until the muscle relaxes.

The Body Back Buddy: Trapezius massage
Using the Back Buddy (affiliate link) on your upper back is easy.
The Body Back Buddy: pressure points on neck The Body Back Buddy: pressure points on upper shoulders
You can reach 2 spots at once with the double knobs. The can be positioned right by your cervicals or nearer your upper trapezius.
The Body Back Buddy: Pressure points on mid back
Use the double knobs to get right below your shoulder blades.
The Body Back Buddy: Pressure point on outer thigh
You can easily get your outer thigh without tiring your fingers.
The Body Back Buddy: Pressure points on outer shins
This is a very interesting technique. You get both outer shins at once, and the pressure is increased or decreased by spreading your legs and pushing against the knobs.
The Body Back Buddy: pressure points on upper back while lying down The Body Back Buddy: pressure points in mid back while lying down
You can use the Back Buddy while lying down.
The Body Back Buddy: pressure points in foot
It’s easy to reach your feet and get really good pressure on them.

If your neck is screaming in pain, a massage is a nice solution. But if you can’t get a massage, try this nifty massager.

The Body Back Buddy (affiliate link) is great for giving pressure to your back and neck muscles. It is not a soothing treatment. Think of it as therapeutic pain relief.