When I was younger, I got very ill with chronic fatigue syndrome - to the point where I couldn’t walk.  I tried every doctor possible to help figure out what was wrong, yet no one could help me - they called it ‘yuppy flu’ and asked if I really wanted to work, directing me to anti-depressants.  I see now that this was really a call from my inner wise woman - the part of me who knew how to heal herself and take another, more holistic path. And it was truly a turning point for me, looking back, helping me reconnect to my body’s own self-healing wisdom.

I say that not to dismiss conventional medicine, because it can be life-saving and has its place.  But I also learned in that experience that healing doesn’t come from external sources alone.  Within a year, I had actually healed myself without needing external interventions - I went from being unable to walk, to climbing a (real-life) mountain. It taught me how powerful the body can be when supported gently and naturally - and one of the things that really helped me was essential oils.

We’re so conditioned to outsource our healing entirely - but the truth is, nature’s medicine can really help us take ownership of our healing and make more powerful choices.  Essential oils have therapeutic properties, and can remind us of our own body wisdom, working to support our healing - in all sorts of ways.

The power of our bodies

We have learned, in our culture, that we must seek ‘quick fixes’, that doctors know best, and that we should just follow what others tell us, blindly.  We are taught to hand over our healing - yet, often, that can disconnect us from our body’s inbuilt self-healing wisdom.  We can become dissociated from our power.

And yet, what we are forgetting in this, is that we are innately wired to heal - and our bodies will guide us in our healing process, if we can allow ourselves to listen to them (even in co-creation with external medical care).  Essential oils can help us begin to do that - they’re a bridge back home to connect to our body wisdom, and letting it guide us.  And this isn’t about being ‘anti-medicine’ but about remembering that we hold the power to choose our healing, in each moment.

What is ‘self-healing’?

When I speak to “self-healing”, I really mean not ‘rejecting’ support from the external, but taking a more active and empowered role in our health - in ‘choosing’ our support. We can begin to learn how to tune into our bodies, listen to their inner signals and sensations, slow down and really get to know ourselves - and essential oils can help us do that.  Our bodies need nervous system support, emotional awareness, rest and therapeutic support when we are imbalanced - and much of this can come from within, or from the natural world (where actually, many of the mainstream medications are created from).

Essential oils are messengers from nature and carry the wisdom of the plants - and we can begin to harness them to reconnect us to our body wisdom, as a self-healing practice.  They have emotional, spiritual and physical therapeutic benefits that can help us to build more trust in ourselves.  

Today, rather than talk about oils that can help us heal specific ailments - which would require a full exploration of the ‘materia medica’ of oils - I’m going to explore the oils that can help us to begin a journey of self-healing.  Oils that will connect us to our power, help us trust our inner wisdom and begin to guide us to intuit our healing and begin listening to our bodies.

Top 5 essential oils to support self-healing

When we begin to attune to our self-healing power, it’s helpful to work with oils that can help us reconnect with our bodies, regulate our nervous system, uplift us into our power, release our emotions and bring clarity.  I’ll explore oils for each below:

Reconnection - Frankincense

Known for its grounding and centring properties, Frankincense helps us come back into our body and reconnect with the present moment. It encourages us to breathe deeply and creates space for an ‘inner awareness’, making it a strong ally when we’ve become disconnected or dissociated from ourselves.

Tip: use this oil to connect back into your body wisdom and listen to its sensations.

Nervous system regulation - Bergamot

Bergamot is a calming citrus oil that gently soothes the nervous system, relieving anxiety and softening emotional tension. Its light, floral-citrus scent encourages relaxation and calm, making it ideal for moments of emotional overwhelm or nervous fatigue, and bringing us back to the present moment in our bodies, so we can make more powerful healing choices.

Tip: use this oil to help any ‘health’ panic - to help you calm and see the possibility for self-healing.

Empowerment - Patchouli

Earthy and stabilising, Patchouli is known for its deeply grounding qualities. It connects us to the body and the earth and supports a sense of strength and inner steadiness. Patchouli helps us feel more rooted in our power and more resilient - particularly when reclaiming our power in moments of depletion.

Tip: use this oil to reconnect to a sense of stability within - and to help you in moments where you’re being called to make health choices.

Emotional release - Geranium

Geranium works on the emotional body, to restore harmony, balance and flow. In particular, it supports heart-opening and helps us release suppressed emotions gently, especially when emotional stagnation may be playing a part in physical symptoms.

Tip: use this oil if you sense that you’ve suppressed emotions (and that they’re at the root of your health challenge) to help you move the emotions through the body.

Clarity - Rosemary

Rosemary is a beautifully energising oil that clears mental fog and awakens the mind. It helps sharpen focus and bring insight, making it a helpful support whenever we feel stuck, confused, or uncertain about the next step in our self-healing.

Tip: work with this oil if you are struggling to see what’s the best ‘next step’, or if you need some clarity on the way forward in your healing.

Three simple self-healing rituals

I know it can feel overwhelming when we feel ill, so I’m going to provide three simple rituals for you to engage with so that you can go inwards and connect into your body’s wisdom for guidance on what it needs.

Self-Trust Ritual - to support remembering your inner healing power

Part of learning to heal ourselves is a journey of beginning to trust ourselves and our power.  We need to remember our possibility - and so, I invite you each morning to pop the following blend into your diffuser:

Mix 3 drops Bergamot, 2 drops Frankincense, and 1 drop Patchouli into water in an electrical diffuser or candle burner and sit for 30 minutes, contemplating your power.

Whilst inhaling the oils, journal on how you feel about the idea that you can help heal yourself, loving yourself in any self-doubt that arises.  Ask: what resistance comes up around embracing your self-healing power?  Is it fear?  Meet yourself in that and acknowledge it - this is simply the part of you that hasn’t got experience in self-healing yet. Will you choose to embrace playing with essential oils and begin to weave them in, and see what difference it makes?

Use this blend especially when you feel self-doubt creeping in or are tempted to give up and totally outsource your healing. You can also trust yourself to contribute - even if that’s beginning to slow down, tune in and grant yourself permission to rest or play with essential oils in a new way.

Intuitive Body Massage Ritual - to help you reconnect to your body’s wisdom

Our bodies are speaking to us all the time - just largely we are ignoring what they say or judging it as inconvenient.  But there’s a deep well of wisdom within, if we begin to listen.  In fact, we can only access our healing wisdom by going in and connecting to our body’s sensations to find out what guidance they are providing us.  I invite you into a body massage ritual to connect to your intuition and body sensations:

Mix 3 drops Patchouli, 2 drops Geranium and 1 drop Rosemary into 15ml of Grapeseed oil to create a body massage blend.

Find a quiet, uninterrupted space to sit so you can connect into your body and begin to listen inwardly.  Massage the oil into your body, working gently in a direction towards the heart - as you do, speak out “I call my body back, connecting to my inner healing wisdom, guide me in my next steps for my healing”.

Notice what sensations are in your body - are there pains trying to tell you something that you’ve not acknowledged before? Is there tension showing you where there’s fear? Is there a soft nudge that tells you how to heal? Allow yourself to simply notice, without moving to fix or change, whilst whispering love to your body and letting it know you’re beginning to listen. Do this ritual daily, in the morning, and note down whatever you noticed each day, so you can revisit and see if there are any patterns showing up.

Emotional Reconnection Inhalator Ritual - to support moving through unprocessed emotions trapped in the body

I believe that one of the biggest causes of dis-ease in the body is suppression.  Often, underneath physical or mental imbalance, we can find there is emotion that’s been left unexpressed and has buried itself in our cells.  So, I invite you to begin a practice of emotional attunement with the following ritual:

Add 3 drops Geranium (and 1 optional drop of Rose) onto a cotton pad and roll it up into an aromatherapy inhaler. 

Spend some time sitting somewhere comfortable where you are able to let emotions out, and work with the sniffy stick, alternatively breathing in through the left nostril for 5 in-breaths and exhales and then changing to the right nostril for 5 in-breaths and exhales.  This creates balance but also will help you to release any stuck emotions.  

To super charge this ritual, you could also work with opening your hips - perhaps sitting with your feet together, and legs opened out to the side - or anything else that helps you to feel more open in your hip area.  Our hips store a lot of emotion, and this can help discharge emotions.  Let yourself experience whatever comes up - even if that’s tears.  That’s all natural.

You might notice as you journey with any of these rituals that your body begins to crave a particular scent of oil.  If that’s the case, trust that - our bodies will know what they need, and guide us by our sense of smell. Your body knows best.

Reclaiming slow and sacred self-healing 

Overall, the message I want to leave you with is that essential oils can help empower us to begin to trust our body wisdom, release emotions that are stuck, and help us to attune to what we need, rather than just blindly feeling victim to our health challenges.  It can take a while to really learn to trust our bodies and their signals - and that’s okay.  It takes time, patience and curiosity. But working with oils can really help us build longer-term confidence in ourselves and our intuition.

Healing isn’t just about the quick-fix provided by others, it’s about remembering that we are wise, too - that we can co-create our health.  I know that can feel scary - but when we remember we have a whole cabinet of plant allies, we can feel a whole lot more supported. We don’t need to wait to be ‘fixed’ by others, just supported as we learn to support ourselves.

Remember, true healing is slow and sacred - trust yourself to be guided by the oils.