Above is a photo of my secret weapon against the colds and sicknesses of the season. My Clinical Aromatherapy Teacher Kathy Duffy LPN MH CCAP teaches her students about the “lost art of the healing compress”. I was skeptical the first time I tried a hot compress with essential oils. I was just coming down with a sore throat and a cold so I followed her instructions and made a compress with Spike Lavender. After lying down for an hour nap with the warm compress on my throat; I was amazed. The cold had disappeared! I didn’t have a sore throat anymore! I was hooked.
Here is the technique for making a healing hot compress for your neck:
Put a pad or towel down over your pillow because you might drip some water on your bed.
Get a microwave warming pillow or heating pad ready and hot, waiting by your pillow.
Also, get some plastic wrap (I use a gallon ziplock bag) and have it waiting there, too.
Then, head to the sink and get a bowl of very warm water and drop some drops of essential oils in the bowl and swish it around.
Dunk the hand towel in the warm/hot water and then wring it mostly out. (Don’t be lazy like I was once and just drop the oils on the hot towel without diluting them because they can burn the skin! Ouch!)
Take the wrung out towel with you, lie down and place the hot towel on your neck, then the plastic, then your heat source.
Now you force yourself to sit still and lay there for as long as you can (20 minutes to overnight)
It feels heavenly to lie there with the warm soothing weight and, after all the trouble it took to get there, please don’t get up to grab the phone or get something for someone.
The aromatic oils waft up, so you get the physical response from smelling them, while they are also absorbed through your skin into your blood stream. There, they can increase healing and fight germs (more about that below.) I love using Spike Lavender, True Lavender and/or Eucalyptus but there are so many others you can use, too. You can also use a compress on your belly for digestive issues and other places for pain. They really are wonderful.
I highly recommend you try it out this month and hopefully ward off the bug that might be coming your way!
As always, if you would like an aromatherapy product to suit your specific need in a scent you love to smell, let me know. Email or call if you would like to book an appointment for a healing session in person, over skype or on the phone.
My email is crowladyhealing@gmail.com
