Essential oils for soul: Weekly scents and remedies, week seven

Hydrate, alkalinize, live health (Image © Yoga Robin®)

And now I turn to the health of drinking pure water. Having creativity and trust in your life is first and foremost to overall health. Finding your personal power within your own unique blend of masculinity and femininity protects you. Anger management, pain management, skincare and calming anxiety all aid in returning you back to yourself—the self you are meant to be, pure and simple. Essential oils lend a tremendous boost to each of these efforts.

stay hydrated

Here is the power of hydration for the body, heart and mind: flushes out toxins, prevents headaches, helps digestive system, boosts brain power, improves skin complexion, increases energy, aids in weight loss.

The body encompasses 55–75% water, while blood is 80% water and the human brain is 95%. Water is essential to our lives. Keeping the body hydrated assists development and long-term health. If you go only 3 days without drinking water, the results would most likely be fatal.

Do not let your body become dehydrated or you're actually causing your body to ration water, resulting in symptoms such as acid reflux, muscular cramps, headache, nausea and allergies. The long-term result of cellular water loss is blood thickening which impedes blood flow (i.e., high blood pressure). Next your brain actually shrinks.

optimal water intake?

How much water consumption is optimal? The answer is largely determined by your gender, size, physical activity levels and diet. Water infiltrates the body through many systems in the body, coordinated by neural pathways in the brain that process information.

The hypothalamus sends messages to encourage increased fluid intake when necessary, resulting in thirst. It's best, however, to be proactive toward hydration—not waiting until you're unbearably thirsty—and get into the habit of drinking water throughtout the day.

pH, alkalinity, acidity

The scale used to measure pH (hydrogen ion concentration) ranges from 0-14. An alkaline body measures above 7; an acidic body measures below 7. The ideal pH for the body is 7.4. (Note: if you're below 6.8 or over 7.8, you are most likely not alive).

You fluctuate between acidic and alkaline throughout the days due to your lifestyle and diet. Stress, meat, alcohol, sugar, caffeine are all acidic; plant-based diets, almonds, figs, dairy, coconut, avacado and relaxation are alkaline in nature.

There is a lot of talk in health and wellness circles about the importance of an alkaline diet. Why is this? The main reason is that disease lives in an acidic body. Many people—some unknowingly—consume acidic lifestyles and diets. If your life is primarily healthy, full of greens, stress-reducing activities and lack of all things acidic, then you might already be naturally alkaline. (It's important to know this because you don't want to be over-alkaline either).

In the body's job to always maintain an alkaline/acid balance, it is helped along by the fact that alkalinity naturally dominates all of the fluids and tissues in the body except for the stomach. In other words, your body is meant to be healthy so treat it right to let it work optimally. "Detoxification is a system [that] involves the understanding that the body is the healer, and that energy is at the core of healing." ~ Robert Morse, N.D.

The best drinking waters are usually alkaline to combat acidic ways of living. Since it's healthy to remain hydrated all day, why not treat your body to an alkaline treat while you're at it. The goal is to maintain your pH balance. Pure and natural sources of water straight from the ground are best.

I'm lucky enough to live near a natural alkaline spring water source, containing all of the valuable minerals such as calcium and magnesium (minus the flouride, chromium, etc. and other toxic additives you normally find in tap waters). When my water bottles are out, my life revolves around making my way to the fill station to replenish. Reverse osmosis (RO) is a common health trend too for drinking water since it purifies the water, where the RO system filters any water—even acidic—to remove toxins and some systems add aklalinity as well. So, this is a good place to start.

essential oils to ingest with water

Focusing on optimal health, let's talk about essential oils that could accentuate your watery intake. Essential oils enhance drinking water—the ones that are healthy to ingest. I sip my water all day. And, I add soul to my water too... I chose from Grapefruit, Lemon, Lime, Wild Orange, Ylang Ylang essential oils normally. If I'm feeling extra heated, I add Peppermint, Spearmint or Lavender. Just 1-2 drops at a time will do.

Now for the internal benefits of the essential oils that I like to put in my drinking water...

Grapefruit (citrus x paradisi) when taken orally is a diruetic, a fat-burner and is exhilarating to metabolism, cleansing for kidneys and vascular system, anti-depressant in nature. It's naturally alkaline.

Lemon (citrus limon) when taken orally regulates blood pressure, boosts the mood, inhibits parasites, increases energy and purifies drinking water. Naturally alkaline.

Lime (citrus aurantifolia) when taken orally is cooling and can reduce a fever and anxiety, remove toxins, improve clarity of thought.

Wild Orange (citrus sinensis) when taken orally is uplifting, enhances digestion and is sedating.

Ylang Ylang (cananga odorata) when taken orally is calming to the nervous system, uplifting to the mood, stimulates adrenal glands, alleviates anger and invites sensuality to come forward in your being.

I like to mix these all together. My truth serum...

uplifting sun power

With my sungazing, sunbathing and just love for the sun, I have to watch out for the side effect of the citrus essential oils which is sensitivity to light (even when ingested). It affects my eyesight, making the sun seem brighter while outside (as if my pupils are dialated).

Next effect is the skin. So, I don't leave the house for a beach walk with essential oil infused water without my sunglasses, big straw hat and Helichyrum mixture for the skincare—which is more active in the sun actually.

staying internally oily

As a side note, I need to mention that all oils are not created equal. Even though essential oils have the word "oil" in them doesn't mean that they are all oily and moisturizing for the internal body. Essential oils are medicinal and with some it only takes one drop of the concentrated elixir to reach the desired effect.

When ingesting these oils, you want to make sure you still stay nourished in your internal organs and some essential oils can dry you up inside, despite their benefits. It goes without saying that it's important to consume healthy oils each day such as coconut oil, avacado and olive oil regardless. Now you have another reason, but more so...

[If you want to try some dōTERRA® essential oils yourself, here are two ways to do it. 1) Shop here for retail purchases directly.  2) Join to get wholesale prices. Ships internationally.]

Namaste.

~ Robin Ellen Lucas, M.A.