Essential Oils For Travel;Your Pharmacy

Your Essential Oil Travel Kit: Avoid 6 Common Vacation Disasters With Your Own Fragrant Pharmacy

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Even the most well planned vacations can turn into disasters quickly. Stressful journeys, sun burn, heatstroke, diarrhea, insect bites and hangovers are just some of the common problems we all experience that can make the most glamorous destinations feel like hell on earth. But all of these problems can be alleviated by using the potent healing properties of nature’s fragrant pharmacy… essential oils.

1. The Journey

The outward journey of any vacation is regularly a stressful experience. Some travellers experience severe anxiety, others severe nausea. No matter what your struggle, here are some essential oils to help you out. Flying Anxiety Fear of flying is common and the anxiety that ensues can make for an uncomfortable journey. Ease your anxiety with a few simple essential oil remedies. - Lavender oil and geranium oil help to calm and relax. Add one drop of each to a handkerchief and inhale deeply when you feel anxious. Travel Sickness Feeling, or in fact being, sick on a plane is one of life’s worst experiences, but here are some measures you can take to alleviate symptoms of nausea while flying.

- Peppermint oil helps to calm the stomach and alleviate feelings of sickness. Add one drop of peppermint oil to hot water and sugar (or honey) to taste and drink before setting off. - Ginger oil is highly effective for reducing the feelings of sea sickness, but is also effective for flyers. Add two drops to a tissue or handkerchief and regularly inhale. Alternatively, dilute one drop of the oil with a vegetable or base oil and massage into the upper abdomen. Jet Lag When you’ve paid all that money for a weeks’ vacation, you don’t want to spend two or three days recovering from jet lag. Valerie Ann Worwood, author of The Complete Book Of Aromatherapy & Essential Oils, says that “essential oils help to bring the two wheels of time together gently and slowly, avoiding fatigue and jarring of nerves”. - The morning before setting out on your journey, take a bath with two drops of peppermint or eucalyptus oil. - Upon arrival, force yourself to stay awake until local bed time, but have a relaxing bath with one drop each of lavender and geranium oil prior to going to sleep. If this is not possible, then massage a mixture of one drop of each oil and a teaspoon of vegetable oil onto your upper body.

2. Sun Burn

So you’ve arrived safely, free of anxiety, travel sickness and jet lag and you decide to hit the pool or the beach and bathe in the blazing hot sun. Don’t forget to apply sunscreen, but avoid the store bought, chemical filled and expensive bottles and instead make your own with essential oils – some of which have powerful sun protective qualities. Homemade Sunscreen Before you travel make up an essential oil infused sunscreen recipe, such as this one from Andrea at Frugally Sustainable, pour it into a roll up dispenser and pack it instead of your regular sunscreen. This recipe includes up to 30 drops of essential oils of your choosing. I suggest using carrot seed oil since it has an SPF level of 30, but lavender, peppermint and myrrh essential oils have also been found to be effective for the prevention of sun burn. After Sun Oil If you forget to apply sunscreen, or if you just spend too long in the sun and start to feel tightness or see redness in the skin, then make up this after sun massage oil and apply to all affected areas. - Dilute ten drops of lavender, five drops of eucalyptus, one drop of bergamot and two drops of geranium oil in two ounces of almond oil and two tablespoons of sesame oil.

3. Heatstroke

Heatstroke, or sunstroke, is a very serious condition that hopefully won’t happen on your vacation, but if it does then essential oils can help to reduce your body temperature. - Submerge your body in a cold bath and add four drops each of lavender and eucalyptus oil. - If you can’t have a cold bath, then apply a drop of eucalyptus oil to your temples and the back of your neck and continually pour water over your body.

4. Diarrhea

We’ve all had vacations where, unfortunately, we’ve spent more time looking at the toilet roll holder on the bathroom door than we have the amazing sights we originally came to see. Heat, new foods and foreign water all contribute to diarrhea, but there are a few essential oil recipes that can help prevent this from happening, or that can help rehydrate us should the worst occur. Preventative Measures - Wash all fruit and vegetables in a bowl of water with one drop of lemon essential oil. The lemon oil helps to purify the water. Curative Measures - Take a bath with four drops of geranium and ginger oil. It should help to alleviate diarrhea, but failing that it will still help you feel better. Rehydration - After each bowel movement, drink the following rehydration blend to replenish your liquid supplies. Mix one quart of bottled water, eight teaspoons of sugar, half a teaspoon of salt and eight drops of lemon oil. Drink one glass after each bowel movement.

5. Insect Bites

No matter where you go in the world, there’s usually some little bugger trying to eat you! Some insects are obviously a lot more dangerous than others, but they are all incredibly annoying nonetheless. As always, essential oils come to the rescue… Prevention Prevention is better than cure and there are a multitude of ways to use essential oils to repel insects. Lemongrass and citronella are the two best oils to use, and here are a few ways to make them work. - Fill the bath with very hot water, add a few drops of either oil to the water and allow the steam to spread through to your bedroom. - Apply a few drops of either oil to ribbons or tissue paper and hang around outside to deter insects. Place some essential oil infused ribbon around your windows to stop insects entering. - Burn a candle for a few minutes and allow a pool of wax to form and then add a drop of lemongrass or citronella being careful to avoid the wick. - Create a synergistic blend of thyme (4 drops), lemongrass (8 drops), lavender (4 drops) and peppermint (4 drops) to use in a variety of ways. For example, dilute two drops of this blend in two teaspoons of vegetable oil for a massage oil that will keep insects away. Alternatively add two drops of the blend to a cotton-wool ball and place next to you while you sleep.

6. Hangovers

Vacations are a time to let our hair down so there might be a few nights where you overindulge – especially with the rise in all-inclusive vacations where alcohol is available on tap – no cash required! (I once went to a hotel where you simply walked up, pressed a button for either wine or beer, held your glass underneath, and walked off!) Essential oils can be used to minimize the impact a hangover has on your day in two ways. You can either create a blend that sedates and relaxes you which is ideal if you have a day planned lazing by the pool, or you can mix a blend that stimulates you which is ideal for a day engaged in activities. - Sedating & Relaxing Hangover Cure: Blend five drops of fennel, three drops of lavender, five drops of sandalwood and ten drops of lemon oil. Use eight drops in a bath, rub two drops around the liver area and apply two drops to the back of the neck. Save the rest of the blend for next time! - Stimulating Hangover Cure: Blend ten drops of grapefruit, seven of rosemary, four of fennel and three drops of juniper oil and use in the same ways as the sedating and relaxing hangover cure. Read More: Top 8 Herbal Hangover Remedies

Packing Your Essential Oil Travel Pharmacy

Nearly twenty different essential oils have been mentioned in this blog post. It’s probably not feasible to take a bottle of each oil plus vegetable or base oils on your vacation. Making each blend, such as the hangover blends, the insect blend, the homemade sunscreen and the after sun oil, before you leave is one way to save space, baggage weight and time when you get there. And then I’d simply suggest bringing… (click on each oil to see the brand I recommend) Lavender Oil Peppermint Oil Eucalyptus Oil Ginger Oil Lemongrass Oil Citronella Oil Lemon Oil You’ll also need a vegetable or base oil such as sweet almond oil or apricot kernel oil to dilute your essential oils for massage and application on the skin.