If you were asked if you practice personal hygiene, what response would come to mind? Probably something along the lines of “Of course! I take showers. I brush my teeth. I comb my hair. I wash my clothes.”

You probably aren’t having more holistic thoughts about your hygiene and thinking things like: “Of course! I use aromatherapy shower steamers. I use a diffuser every day. I practice yoga twice a week. I soak in the tub after the gym.”

I have posed that same question to many people and once they responded, I asked if they knew the true definition of hygiene. Most responded that hygiene is being clean, when in fact it’s defined as “conditions or practices conducive to maintaining health and preventing disease, especially through cleanliness.”

Notice that the definition includes “especially through cleanliness” and not simply “through cleanliness”. Therefore, maintaining health and preventing disease by being clean is not the only method.

I share all of this with you to say that many of us do not practice emotional, mental, or spiritual hygiene. We focus only on the body because the norm is thinking that hygiene solely involves cleanliness.

When considering hygiene, it’s important to include your mind, body, and spirit. We must take care and be proactive with all three in order to truly live a healthy life. We shouldn’t wait to address intense pain until it’s time to go to the doctor. We shouldn’t have to seek a mental health professional just because we ignored our excessive stress and anxiety. Instead, we need to be proactive and practice taking actions to maintain good health and prevent conditions which impair normal functioning.

Self-care products are a fantastic and popular way we can do that. With health and wellness being on the forefront today, there are several self-care products on the market that can help us be proactive. In this blog, we’re going to focus on those that involve essential oils.

Essential oils are the concentrated essences of various fruits, herbs, flowers, and plants and have been used for centuries. They are one of the greatest untapped resources of the world because our modern world had simply forgotten about the medicinal and cleansing properties of them. Nowadays, they are becoming increasingly popular and should be part of everyone’s regimen. Here are just some of the ways they can help:

1. Relieve muscle pain
2. Relieve inflammation and joint discomfort
3. Reduce the amount of cortisol released
4. Relieve sinusitis
5. Rid heart palpitations
6. Relieve headaches
7. Relieve diverticulitis
8. Reduce anxiety

There are thousands of essential oils and each have their own benefits, but they also have benefits when used together. For example, clove has antibacterial properties but in order to relieve diverticulitis, you have to use peppermint, chamomile, rosemary, and clove together. Some oils that are commonly used in self-care products are lavender, lemon, orange, peppermint, and eucalyptus.

If you are looking to add essential oils into your daily hygiene routine, you can use them by themselves or make self-care products like bath bombs, bath teas, shower steamers, and bath salts. Bath salts are wonderful products because they can address your mind and body at the same time. For instance, if you use a lavender bath salt, the Epsom salt can relieve muscle aches and pains before it turns into arthritis, the baking soda can help soothe skin irritations before eczema occurs, and the lavender reduces stress to help avoid things like a mental breakdown. Another great benefit to bath salts is that they require you to take a bath, which means that you have the opportunity to be still and shut everything else out: no phone, no book, no music, and no one talking to you.

I encourage you to do some reflecting and see what lurking problems you may have that you don’t pay much attention to before they become something you can’t ignore. If you have physical aches and pains, I encourage you to search for an essential oil that relieves the pain and start including that in your daily regimen. I also encourage you to find an oil that targets your emotions and your mind and add that into your daily regimen. You will be amazed at the difference in how you feel overall!

Today’s author: Casey Clark is an affiliate coach with Wholistic Woman and manages a health and wellness practice, Heaven On Earth, which focuses on self-care. Having been a student and working, both full-time, Casey has a deep understanding for the importance of self-care and is committed to helping those who lead busy lives, especially young professionals, accomplish prioritizing self-care so that they can live a holistically balanced, well and fulfilled life. She uses her own experiences as a motivator to help her clients achieve lasting, self-compassionate change that is aligned with their values. Find out more about Casey at her website: www.aheavenlyyou.com