Towards the end of 1997 I happened upon a message on the existence of an aromatherapy list. I could see no harm in subscribing so I found myself in aromatherapy@idma.com. Little did I know how it has and is changing my life.
After being on the list for a few weeks, and being mystified and overwhelmed by the language, I found that many people talked about oils and blends and eos. The feeling is similar to being in a foreign country where I see people having very involved and passionate conversations but I have no idea what they are talking about.
But even from the lifelessness of the computer screen I felt the aura of several individuals. I've never seen any mail before addressed to "Dear Gentlepeople" and ending with "Stay warm" or "Namaste". I must learn more about this lingo.
Browsing some of the web sites that people attach in their signatures, I began to discover more about essential oils. I found that lavender is a must have. I also found that people make synergistic blends for all sorts of uses.
One day walking in a local health food store I passed a counter with several dozens of little bottles with names that I recognize people discussing -- lavender, tangerine, ylang ylang. I must have passed this area hundreds of times before but never stopped and looked. I was very happy I found the essential oils.
I had high anticipation when I started sniffing the bottles. But soon felt disappointed. Many smelled pungent or acrid or mediciny. I was expecting sweet aromas of perfumes and flowers and herbs and none of them are like that. I was depressed. There were also several brands with great range in prices and I really don't know what I should buy. Then I read that we are conditioned for years by artificial fragrances that the aromas of the real oils can be a culture shock. It was shocking but not enough to put me off. Perhaps there are some vibes in the oils calling me back :-)
Further email exchanges with a few listmembers convinced me I should buy from people on the list. I also learned that there are things called salt scrubs. My youngest daughter has some callouses and corns on her toes due to using the wrong shoe size for a long time. I felt sorry because I had not paid attention to this before and I was hoping a scrub would help minimize the discomfort or remove the callouses.
I bought a wonderful starter kit from a nice and knowledgeable person. It has a number of little bottles of essential oils and some larger bottles of carrier oils. There are also plenty of instructions to help with understanding and get started.
So I even have a plan. My initial goals for using aromatherapy includes stress reduction, taking care of my daughter's feet, and perhaps blending some oils together to create a fragrance for the house, for various moods.
About this time I also bought Valerie Worwood's book, The Complete Book of Essential Oils & Aromatherapy, since I read that is one of the books to get. For beginners anyway. And did I learn! It's easy to read for someone starting out on the aromatherapy path. Since then I've seen people mentioning that there are a number of errors in the book but it's still useful for general reference.
And so the journey begins.