You know the worst way to wake up in the morning? Not an alarm. Not a pet wanting food or a walk. (Both of these things wake me up on a regular basis.) Not a crying baby. No, waking up to a terrible Charlie horse in your calf is THE worst way to wake up.
Yes, that’s how I woke up Friday morning, to the extreme pain of the muscle spasm in my right calf. Absolutely, the worst. I didn’t help that it was at 5:15 in the morning either, about fifteen minutes before my alarm was going to go off to get me up for the day.
After I have a Charlie horse, I always have residual tightness in my calf, which leads to the fear that it will happen again! But not anymore.
Almost two years ago now (I am amazed it’s been that long!), a coworker of mine introduced me to essential oils. At that time, everyone in the office was sick/sniffly. He brought in a small container of peppermint oil and q-tips, and those of us interested in trying, he put some oil on the q-tip to rub under our noses. I was one of the people brave enough to try, and was shocked. I put the oil under my nose, and it felt like the airways in my nose opened up. I knew then was hooked. As he told me more stories of how the oils worked on him and his family, I knew I wanted to dive in and learn more.
All the oils have different properties that can help support your well-being in different ways. For me, the most common uses I’ve had for them have been in relation to exercise and muscle tension. (I’ll go over the routine I have for when I go running outside later!) So in the instance of my muscle tightness, lemongrass oil is suggested to help alleviate that tightness and soreness. I use a couple of different tools to help me understand the different functions of the different oils, including this book and an app distributed by the same company. When I woke up so abruptly to the pain, I opened the app on my phone right away, and found out what I could use to help relieve the tightness. It suggested Lemongrass, followed by Peppermint. So I put some coconut oil in my hand (coconut oil is a great way to help distribute the essential oil over a bigger area, because you only need ONE drop of the essential oil!), then put the Lemongrass in the coconut oil, rubbed my hands together, and rubbed it on my calf. Then I put a drop of peppermint in my hand, and put that right on top. The tightness I felt went away, and I could stretch out my calf without the fear of having the muscle tense up again. I continued to stretch my calf as much as I could throughout the day to avoid the tightness again. Doing a couple of downward dog stretches in the PiYo routine that day helped too.
Essential oils have become a vital part of my journey towards well-being. There are so many other applications I use them for that have all helped me learn how to care for my body!
So let me know, have you ever used essential oils before? How do you use them?
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For more information on the science behind essential oils, check out this website, http://www.aromaticscience.com.
If you are interested in learning more about essential oils in a one-on-one setting, feel free to reach out to me at journeytoloving@gmail.com!
journeytoloving.me 