Aromatherapy has been around for thousands of years. I'm pretty sure even the earliest of humans knew that the smell of flowers made them happier than the smell of rotting meat.

Aromatherapy is a natural way to help out your body both physically and emotionally.

Essential oils are concentrated extracts taken from the roots, leaves, or blossoms of plants. I love the fact that it is the essence of the plant.

Essential oils stimulate our powerful sense of smell. The everyday odors that we smell have a major impact on how we are feeling. We have the potential to distinguish between 10,000 different smells! That's why those air freshener commercials show a powerful pleasant emotion with someone ignoring everything else but the smell and being lifted into a state of euphoria because, as exaggerated as it may seem, that's essentially what smells can do to us.

Smells enter through the fine hairs lining the nose and move on to the limbic system, the part of the brain that controls our moods, emotions, memory and learning. This is why smells can have such a powerful effect on us.

I know most people associate a specific past event or person in our life with a smell. Even if you've forgotten about the event or person for years and years, just one whiff of a smell from that time will trigger the memory and feeling of it very quickly.

Essential oils can also be massaged into the skin or even taken by mouth. When taken orally any guidelines given should be followed. Whether inhaled, absorbed, or ingested, essential oils are gaining attention as an alternative treatment for infections, stress, and other health problems.

Almost every ailment can be helped with essential oils. For example, a few drops of Lavender or Chamomile added to a warm bath can help with stress. Cedarwood or Lemon added to your cream or lotion can help with oily skin or you can add them to rosewater to use as a toner for your skin.

A common one is ginger or peppermint for nausea or stomach upset. You can massage a few drops into the abdomen or add a few drops to a warm bath or even use it as an inhalation.

Those are just a drop in the bucket of what essential oils can do for us. It is quite exciting to think about using these natural oils to help us with physical ailments and emotional issues instead of reaching for the nearest drug.

And the best part is you can make your own oils, lotions, and balms at home.

Homemade essential oils help in relieving the symptoms of various types of mental and bodily disorders but the effectiveness of any homemade essential oil will depend on the quality of herbs used. So use organic herbs when you can, and also very high quality oil.

When you make them at home you know exactly what's going in them plus it ends up costing less than having to purchase them. It eliminates any unwanted ingredients, or worse an unknown ingredient. Plus while you learn you get to share your new knowledge with all your friends and family and become an example of a natural therapy.

Learn more about aromatherapy and how to make your own essential oils, balms and lotions at the aromatherapy site