Elana: Therapies in Aroma

A few weeks ago, Jen and I had the pleasure of being invited into Elana Millman’s home for a crash course on aromatherapy. If you’re like me, the first thing that popped into your head is nicely designed little bottles of oil that smells like flowers. What I got instead was a complete sensory experience.

Elana’s use of essential oils is primarily medicinal. In fact, the first perfumers in Ancient Egypt also happened to be the priests and concurrently, the healers . Throughout human history, they’ve been used to heal and soothe us naturally. But as Elana pointed out, you don’t need to believe in them for them to work. You can explore them for yourself. Our first attempt at this included infusing honey with a few drops of peppermint oil.

…Let’s just say it was better than ten packs of gum or a bottle of Listerine. The peppermint was so strong and refreshing that it instantly cleared up my sinuses and left a delicious peppermint aftertaste. Thus began the exploration into the many different uses and varieties of essential oils. Each oil has its own quality and gorgeous scent. I enjoyed the idea of using lemongrass for massages, rose oil in baths, jasmine in my shampoo, peppermint to ward off bugs and to deal with summer allergies. And my personal favourite, vanilla as a sensual stimulant.What was really cool is that Elana created a small travel kit for a friend of hers complete with oils to deal with stomach aches, fevers, bugs and of course, something sweet and fragrant for travelling encounters. I love the idea of always having a potent and small kit on my travels! Lastly, we were able to create a unique blend of a few oils for ourselves. It was interesting to see which oils would overpower the others and which would complement. I wanted something to help me focus during intense work days. My blend was the lovely lemongrass, with a citrus orange oil addition and an earthy cypress to top it off. A little dab of it definitely wakes me up and often works better than coffee.
Elana left us with a story about how Cleopatra would soak the sails of her boat in rose oil so that Marc Anthony could smell her coming from miles and miles. I couldn’t help but think that as we left Elana’s place we were left with a positive openness and a sense of well-being that lasted throughout the entire day. Elana is definitely a keynote to her essential oils. I would highly recommend looking out for her aromatherapy workshops at the Big Carrot and at The Rock Store.

A touch of essence,
Ish