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from Holistic Healing/ June 2020

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Benefits of Essential Oils for Mental Health

By Margaret Ann Lembo

It is undeniable that the emotional, spiritual and physical body play an integral part in mental health. The chakra system involves the four bodies – mental, emotional, physical and spiritual. While this article is focused on the benefits of essential oils for mental health, good health is dependent on all aspects of the human being to find balance and well-being. Essential oils have a true effect on activating memory and healing for inner peace and restoration. You can use an essential oil on many levels – for example, to relieve physical ailments such as respiratory challenges, to enhance your mental acuity, to heal emotional issues such as sadness or embarrassment, and/or to deepen a spiritual practice.

Essential Oil Safety

There are many ways for essential oils to have positive effects on the body, mind, and spirit. The three ways I recommend using essential oils, whether as single notes or part of a blend, are:

1Diffusion 2 Inhalation 3 Topically

Cold-water mist from a diffuser or mister into the air.

Smelling the oil or blend directly from the bottle or as a mist.

Application to the skin (usually the soles of the feet) with the use of a carrier oil or lotion.

Inhalation is the preferred method. Use essential oils in moderation and mindfully. Do not use the same oil repetitively, but rather use various oils that potentially provide the similar benefits in moderation.

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The Grades of Essential Oil — Not All Products Are Created Equal

Aromatherapy products have entered the commercial marketplace by force. There are many commercial-grade products marketed as “aromatherapy,” but they are either not made with quality essential oils or contain synthetic fragrances. Therapeutically, it is essential to know and understand the differences between the various grades of essential oils.

True medical-grade oils provide real therapeutic results. They bring about a physiological, mental, emotional, or spiritual response immediately.

The following is an overview of the various grades of oils you will encounter on the market:

• Pure Medical Grade essential oils are 100% pure and completely natural.

This means they do not contain any synthetic or unnatural adulterations.

They are determined to be pure through quality control from the point of growth, processing, and laboratory analysis. • Pure Grade Organic essential oils are from organic flowers, plants, and trees that are certified by U.S. standards and inspections. They are considered pure medical grade oils. • Aromatherapy Grade essential oils are adulterated with natural and unnatural components and additives. • Commercial Grade essential oils have been distilled again, creating a lower grade oil or have components added or removed to improve odor or safety.

I use medical grade oils for therapeutic reasons. Being the largest organ of the body, the skin is the key location for the absorption of the essential oils directly into the bloodstream. To use therapeutically, add the chosen oil or synergy to carrier oil, as described earlier, and apply it to the soles of your feet to maximize the integration of the oil’s physiological benefits. Application to the feet also avoids sensitivity challenges in those with sensitive skin; irritation is less likely to affect the soles of the feet, which are generally thicker-skinned than the rest of the body.

Recommendation for Beginner’s Use

I recommend inhalation and diffusion as the preferred method of use until you get to know your essential oil allies a little better. Always remember that essential oils have true chemical constituents with real effects on your body. Medical grade essential oils are much more potent than a roll-on fragranced oil. So use them sparingly, as a little bit goes a long way. Once you know a particular oil well, you can then graduate to the next level by applying the essential oil in a carrier oil to the soles of your feet. Refrain from applying the oils directly on your body and do not take them internally. Other than that, have a good time exploring the many uses of nature’s aromatic gifts and turn to the myriad of vibrational support available to you as you begin creating aroma-energetic blends with far-reaching beneficial effects.

Essential Oils for Mental Health

ANGELICA –can be used with the intention of calming the mind’s incessant chatter. Providing a sense of serenity, this oil is beneficial for times when too many things are happening at once and you need to regain your mental focus. It is a good oil to add to a synergistic blend with the intention of promoting inner peace and restful sleep. Angelica can help release emotional wounds. It supports release through dreaming, journaling, crying, emoting, and/or processing your emotions. Use this oil to help clear away unnecessary emotional baggage and outside negative influences. For your safety: This oil is phototoxic. Therefore, avoid exposure to direct sunlight when using topically. Do not use if pregnant or nursing.

CLARY SAGE – relaxes the judgments in the mind, allowing you to let go and let other’s live their lives. As you release judgment of others and yourself, you become the objective observer. Clary sage relaxes, comforts, and grounds feelings and emotions. It replaces the energy of hysteria with a sense of well-being and euphoria. It is especially beneficial when emotions are rampant. Use it for calming and releasing anger and frustration. Clary sage lowers the blood pressure. For your safety: Has a sedative effect; avoid prior to driving and

when it is necessary to stay alert. Avoid when drinking alcohol, as nausea may result. Use sparingly or occasionally as overuse may cause headaches. Do not use if pregnant or nursing.

LIME – brings mental clarity. The sweet scent of lime helps to counteract dark thoughts and bring awareness to the sweetness of life. Lime assists you in feeling joy and finding inner peace. Use it to recover from periods of the blues or low self-esteem. This oil raises your awareness so you can work through your feelings, validate them, and move on to more joyful pursuits. Place a bit of lime oil in a diffuser or on a hanky to inhale while journaling to achieve both emotional and mental clarity. For your safety: This oil is phototoxic; therefore, avoid exposure to direct sunlight when using topically.

PALMAROSA – is useful for decompressing and releasing pressure in your mind. It helps to expand your mental pathways so that you can more easily generate new ideas. Palmarosa is helpful for reducing stress and anxiety. Use it as an aid when you are trying to release problems and truly want to let them go. This oil can help release any anxiety you are feeling and allow your affairs to unfold with ease. Add this scent to synergistic blends to help let go of feelings of insecurity/lack of confidence and to help drive away the blues and relieve the symptoms of depression. No known contraindications.

PETITGRAIN – shines light on mental obstacles. Use this oil for manifestation and to activate the power of the mind to create reality. This essential oil activates creative thought processes, helping you to bring forth inspiration. It calms the mind, relieves mental stress, supports mental activity, and increases positive thinking. Petitgrain is a calming aroma and therefore relieves agitated feelings. It is a perfect ingredient in synergistic blends for lifting you out of the blues and improving personal power and awareness. No known contraindications.

The mental uses of essential oils offer benefits of clarity and positive affects for the central nervous system. The energy and scent realigns the mind. The mental subtle body contains all the thoughtforms in your consciousness that create your reality. To manage and balance your thoughtforms is paramount in creating a happy, healthy, and productive life. Use the oil with intention to keep your mind focused on the positive: what you do want, not what you don’t want.

Margaret Ann Lembo is the author of Chakra Awakening; The Essential Guide to Crystals; Minerals and Stones; The Essential Guide to Aromatherapy and Vibrational Healing; Archangels & Gemstone Guardians Cards, and many more. Margaret Ann’s upcoming book The Essential Guide to Everyday Angels will be available in September 2020. Margaret Ann is an evolutionary aromatherapist, the creator of Smudge in Spray, and the owner of The Crystal Garden — the conscious living store of the Palm Beaches established 1988. Visit her website at www.margaretannlembo.com or www.thecrystalgarden.com.

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Business&Marketing

Programmatic Advertising By Megy Karydes

If you’ve not begun experimenting with programmatic advertising, the time to start is now.

What Exactly is Programmatic Advertising? Programmatic advertising is a way to buy ads that’s automated by machines, which makes it more efficient, faster, cheaper and more targeted. Hits all the high notes, right? It’s different from traditional digital advertising in that you set certain parameters and then similar to how an auction works, you bid in real time to purchase impressions to display your ad on various websites. A traditional digital advertising approach would mean you’d have to request quotes manually and buy the digital impressions in advance, making the whole process annoyingly time-consuming and unnecessarily frustrating.

Why Do Independent Retailers Need to Consider Programmatic

Advertising? Programmatic advertising should be a part of your marketing mix for a few reasons:

a) It’s targeted. Right now, many independent retailers are spending ad dollars on platforms that may or may not be reaching their audience. With programmatic advertising, you’re able to layer advanced data targeted to focus on those customers who have searched for or interacted with content related to your offerings. For example, you can add behavioral targeting to show your ad only to people who have searched for, or interacted with, content related to fair trade gifts or tarot cards (or whatever you want to focus on). Also, since these ads show up in mobile apps, you could create a “geo-fence” and target those who drive by your physical retail store.

b )It expands your reach. If you’re advertising on platforms like Facebook and Google, you’re likely reaching some of your customers but programmatic allows you to expand your reach through other mobile apps.

How Can You Get Started? Before you flip the page and I lose you because this sounds complicated, stay with me. It’s a lot easier than you think. And by spending a few minutes understanding it now, you’ll not only save yourself a lot of time and money, but you’ll be at the cusp of using some of the latest technology available to bring in new business.

Consider these six things from the onset: Think through your strategy. What are you hoping to achieve through programmatic advertising? Instead of jumping on a new bandwagon, think through what a successful campaign will look like. This will save you time, money and headaches in the long run.

Sign up with an agency that allows you to buy programmatic ads.

Consider who you are trying to reach. Advanced targeting is probably one of the best things about programmatic advertising because you can be really detailed about who you want to reach. The only caveat here is that the more targeting data you add, the higher your ad buy will be. Also, if you start getting too detailed, your audience might be smaller than you want. Just take some time thinking through your audience and play around to find what might work best for you.

Consider your ad format. If you’re trying to drive traffic to your website, might a standard display ad work? Could a native ad work to get customers to stop in the shop? You could even test video ads. That’s the beauty of programmatic advertising — you can buy several different types of ads.

Tweak. The fact that you have access to real-time data is a gamechanger because it allows you to make changes to your campaign and give you the best chance at running an effective campaign.

Don’t forget to measure. There are different ways you can measure the success of your campaign and it’s smart to think about this in advance. If you want to track how many people come through your doors through programmatic advertising, you can measure that pretty easily. But if you want more advanced tracking features and analytics, you’ll want to make sure you have things in place to track that so you can see how your campaign fared.

We live in a time when technology can really help us become stronger and smarter business owners. It’s imperative that we adopt new tools like programmatic advertising which are specifically designed to make our advertising campaigns more powerful and successful.

Megy Karydes is a Chicago-based writer currently working on a book on behalf of a client that wants to use it sell and promote their organization. Visit her website at www.megykarydes.com.