I’ve battled migraines since I was a teenager. They’re vicious, excruciating headaches that last for days. Sometimes longer. After I had my youngest son, my body chemistry changed and I found myself allergic to just about all over-the-counter medicines except for Tylenol. And Tylenol does nil for my migraines.

Ugh.

To make matters worse, my second son started to experience migraines last year too.

Double Ugh.

His doctor was on the fence about prescribing a medicine to help his headaches. Once I found out a side-effect was an irregular heartbeat, I nixed that idea. Sadly, because of his age, there was nothing else she felt comfortable giving him and there was nothing I felt comfortable with him taking. So, I started looking into other options. This is what led me to essential oils.

So many of my friends had been posting about them in recent years. I always blew them off as a new fad. Then I found myself reading people’s testimonies about how they helped with a myriad of ills—things from migraines to allergies. With not a lot of other viable options, I thought, “What can it hurt?”, and placed an order.

And fell in love.

I post about this regularly on my Facebook profile and get tons and tons of questions about what I use and what I use it for and how I use it. I’ve made a Pinterest Board with lots of my favorite mixes (you can follow that by clicking here), but thought I’d share a few of my favorites with you today!

What do I use?

There are many brands of essential oils on the market. My favorite is a company called Young Living. I’m not a rep with them or in any way compensated for saying anything good about them, I just really like their products.

How do I use them? 

I’m a big proponent of baby steps. At this point, I have diffusers in my office, living room, and the kids’ bedrooms. Young Living Oils can be applied topically and some even ingested, but we don’t do those things yet. (Except the roller balls you can buy already mixed from Young Living. I’ll apply those because I don’t have to mix them with the carrier oils.)

Note: Before you put anything on your skin or ingest anything at all, please read up on the oils and consult a physician. Not all oils are created equal. Not all oils are made for all methods. It’s important to know what you’re doing before leaping in.

The diffusers are simple to use. You fill with water up to a certain point, add drops of your oils, and turn it on. So easy.

What do I use?

Each morning, I diffuse, at a minimum, peppermint. Peppermint is great for migraines and I’ve found if I diffuse it regularly in my office, my migraine frequency goes down. Score! I also love adding some Copaiba to the peppermint. This is a Young Living-specific oil that smells slightly woodsy. It’s probably my favorite oil.

When I’m working or writing, I’ll diffuse Copaiba with orange or sometimes eucalyptus. Both the orange and eucalyptus are “brighter” scents that help me focus and work, work, work!

At night, I often reach for lavender.

My oldest son (age 16) loves lemon and eucalyptus mixed in a 1:1 ratio in his diffuser. My second son (age 14) likes lemongrass and orange.

Now that the weather is cooling off, I’ve been playing with random mixtures of cinnamon, Copaiba, eucalyptus, and cedar wood in the living room. The house smells warm and inviting!

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