aromatherapy. stuffy nose no more.

I'm just a little weird. I believe and use a few things that I think many people would call "hippie-ish" - like aromatherapy, oil burners, and herbal teas. I have a lot of success with them though!

Everyone gets a little cold that congests your head up to such a point you feel unable to breath at all and - for such cases - aromatherapy is super helpful. I mainly use eucalyptus essential oil for nose congestion relief. If you're rolling your eyes at me- just think about this real quick- you know Vicks VapoRub? Well the main strong smell in Vicks is the smell of eucalyptus. Does Vicks completely rid you of your stuffy nose? Not usually, but it certainly does help (but I really hate having that gooey stuff on me)!I do two things when I'm feeling congested instead of drugging up or rubbing that goo on my chest (while I'm not against decongestants- I still use them. I just try to not use them too much).1. When's the congestion is really bad-I drop a few drops of eucalyptus essential oil into a pot of water and boil it... then I close my eyes tight, put a towel over my head, and just breath in the eucalyptus-y steam until the pressure is relieved to a manageable state.2. Through out the afternoon and night (or entire day if its a weekend)-First I must explain that I use a oil burners (which are those stone things in the above and below pics) as my air fresheners because it is quite a bit cheaper than any sort of wall plug in... plus their healthier (no carcinogens) and use less energy (which is nice on energy bills). All I do it put in a tea light, add a tablespoon of water, and then a few drops of some essential oils (usually peppermint or evergreen on a day to day basis- clean and fresh!) and light the tea light to heat up the oil and spread it through my apartment. When I have a cold I just use eucalyptus- so then my entire house is filled with the congestion relieving smell of eucalyptus. :)

You can find essential oils and oil burners at health food stores (Vitamin Cottage, WholeFoods, Sunflower Market, etc). You don't have to look at health food stores for the oils burner thought, I have found cute oil burners at places like The Body Shop or Bath & Body Works even places like Michaels or Hobby Lobby. As I mentioned, they're really great for things beyond relieving a stuffy nose- The Body Shop and Bath & Body Works sell a lot of their fragrances in oil form for this very use (see its not sooo weird- those are big, non-hippie companies). You don't have to use just essential oils if you do not want to for the everyday use. :)