​​Peppermint is another one of my essentials and I love the fragrance and flavour so much. There are a variety of benefits and methods for using peppermint. This is the first essential oil that brought me to dōTERRA, after a friend had recommended using it internally to manage allergies. You will find that most brands of essential oils are for topical use only, that is because they are not as pure as dōTERRA.
 
During a particularly bad allergy season, I was shut in my house and feeling lousy. I had all the windows shut, an air purifier on all day, taking maximum strength prescription antihistamines and still having to use my allergy inhaler the maximum 4 times a day. I was exhausted, struggling to breathe and running out of ideas. That is when a friend suggested I try ingesting peppermint essential oil.

Purify is a dōTERRA blend, comprised of Lemon, Lime, Siberian Fir, Citronella, Tea Tree and Coriander essential oils. This blend has many uses both mental and physical, but for me, it’s ability to support my physical health is most astounding. Purify, much like the name suggests, is an oil of purification; it can help to deodorise the air and to support with seasonal allergies.
 
A few years ago, my seasonal allergies were completely out of control. I spent weeks confined to my house, unable to open a window and with the air purifier going 24/7 just to keep me breathing. All of this was on top of taking the maximum prescription medication and an inhaler four times a day. It was quite scary, even with all these things in place, I still felt like I was fighting for air.

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Bergamot was one of the first essential oils recommended to me. Over the years, I have delved deeper into the world of aromatherapy, gained knowledge and experience of many essential oils, but bergamot is still my favourite. Most of us aren’t familiar with the bergamot fruit, a citrus native to southern Italy. However, outside of aromatherapy, you may have heard of it in the world of tea; the inclusion of bergamot makes a brew known as Early Grey.
 
I first came across bergamot while trying to find ways to cope with severe anxiety. When the accumulation of stress and trauma in my life became overwhelming, my body was pushed beyond its limits. At it’s worst, my anxiety caused me to shake, tremble and stutter. The doctor gave me beater blockers, a type of medication used to slow down the heart. Unfortunately, I was getting side-effects and I didn’t want to go down a spiral of taking more and more medication, trying to balance various side effects. Instead, I turned to natural remedies.

At the age of seventeen, I sat in a doctor’s office to hear my diagnosis. The relief of knowing what was wrong with me, being able to give it a name, was short lived when he informed me, “You are seventeen and your life is over.” This remark was followed by a long list of things I should give up on, including “pipe-dreams” of further education or ever living independently. There was no hope of healing, no treatment and no cure.
 
While this hit me like a punch in the gut, I remember thinking in that very moment, “What right does he have to decide that my life is over? Nobody gets to decide that but me.”
 
That began my journey into alternative therapies. Changing my diet and how I managed my life, so that I could continue to live it! Living with chronic illness isn’t easy and comes with a great many additional challenges that those blessed with good health don’t usually have to worry about. In addition to my physical diagnosis of Fibromyalgia, my mental health also suffered and that is when I found aromatherapy.