Healing chronic illness with essential oils
“What the body creates it can uncreate.” This is something my Naturopath said to me once and it really jolted me into a new awareness of the power of our human body, which we so often dismiss in this modern era of fast-moving science and medicine (and our impatient requirement for a quick fix). Before we begin, I’m not by any means suggesting that we shun modern medicine – I’m of the opinion that both allopathic and holistic medicine have their place in the world, and that’s why I see aromatherapy as a “complementary” medicine (i.e. it supports mainstream medicine), but what I have seen more and more throughout my own journey is that healing is very much possible – even when mainstream options can seem limited and you’re told it’s impossible to recover.
So, this article today explores my own journey with healing the impossible, and how we can help chronic conditions - like Bell’s Palsy and facial paralysis in my instance - with a more natural approach; which includes the use of essential oils! This is my own experience, so take from it the inspiration you will, but the wisdom shared here is likely to help you with beginning to open to the possibility of holistically tending to a whole host of things, including chronic conditions such as Long COVID, etc.
During my pregnancy, over a year ago now, I developed a condition called Bell’s Palsy, caused by a virus on the nerve. I’d never heard of it before, but my face basically went numb overnight and I woke up unable to move it at all, before being rushed into hospital (the week I was due to give birth!) in case I’d suffered a stroke. I hadn’t, but what had happened was my facial nerve had become damaged and died. At the time, I remember thinking I’d never get my face back – I literally couldn’t move it at all, and I also had horrible tinnitus and couldn’t hear as my stapedius muscle was also paralysed. And yet, somewhere within me was also knowing that somewhere inside of my body, there was the wisdom to heal.
Unfortunately, the NHS wasn’t well-equipped (mid-pandemic) to refer me to any specialists, and so I spent about a month being given exercises to do and dealing with recovery alone, which ended up with me developing an accompanying condition, called Synkinesis. Synkinesis is where the face basically starts over-compensating for the parts that won’t move anymore and the parts that won’t move tell the brain for the rest of the face to work harder – so when my eye closed, my mouth would move involuntarily, and likewise, my eyebrow would move involuntarily when I smiled and my ear would contract and have me hear some loud noises whenever I tried to move my face. It was really scary, and I easily became very fearful that I wouldn’t heal. I ended up going privately to a specialist who operated in London, and he actually told me just what I didn’t want to hear – “this will not recover, and you’ll have to exercise your face night and morning for the rest of your life, so it doesn’t get worse”.
Luckily (in a way) I’ve been very chronically ill before, with something that doctors have told me I’d have for life – I suffered chronic fatigue syndrome when I was age 10 and 24 – and so I know that when someone tells you how your body will respond to something, it’s not always the way as both times I fully recovered by listening to my body. So, on hearing this news, a determination within me found its resolve to heal this naturally – after all, this is my work with people to help them create the lives they desire!
I began to reclaim my power and notice how there was a new possibility to recreate my face the way I desired. To hear the words “what your body creates, it can uncreate” was possibly the thing that saved me in that moment of fear – along with reading stories of how other people have healed all sorts of things with the help of nature.
So, I set to work and found myself a doctor in the Netherlands who specialised in holistic recovery of Bell’s Palsy - and along with their guidance and my own use of holistic methods, I’ve healed my face. It’s still an ongoing process, but I’ve mostly got my smile back now – I’m about 95% there.
So, today, I want to share with you how we can use essential oils to help us along the journey to healing things that may seem chronic.
Find the root cause – and support with essential oils
The first thing I began to do was get honest with how it had been created. I am a firm believer that the body sends symptoms, pains and numbness to wake us up to how we have been living life. As I enquired deeper, I asked myself:
“How have I created this and where do I benefit from it?”
This might sound a bold question – after all, it’s not something asked in mainstream society because we don’t really see ourselves as the powerful creators of our lives, but it’s a question worth considering if we truly want to be back in our power.
As I reflected on this, I began to see how terrified I was of giving birth – there was a deep, primal fear that I wasn’t going to be capable of giving birth, and I’d been ignoring my body’s call to listen in and address this fear. I firmly believe that my body gave me numbness because I was numbing its calls to reclaim my power and tend to my fears.
As well as this, I also began to see how I benefitted from being ill – I got an awful lot of love and attention from being ill, and again, this is bold to say, but we can either (lovingly) see ourselves as victims and own that so we can choose out of it, or we can stay as we are. I chose the former and began to choose into seeing myself as a powerful woman who could tend her own fears and wounds, and no longer required to be ill to generate love. This takes a lot of courage to be able to look at this, but it’s a really powerful enquiry.
If you’re feeling ready to do this, I’d suggest that you ask yourself the same question about your own illness – but to do this, you will need to feel safe. So, I’d recommend setting aside 30 minutes of time for yourself to sit with a journal and create your environment to feel nurturing so that whatever comes up can be attended to with love. Create a safe space, with cushions, blankets, a candle, and put some power and courage-inducing essential oils in a diffuser to intentionally create the safety required for you to dive deeply into this enquiry. Here’s a recommended blend:
Courage Inducing Diffuser Ritual
Mix 3 drops Rose Otto essential oil, 2 drops Geranium and 2 drops Cypress in water in a candle burner or electrical diffuser and diffuse for 30 minutes whilst you engage in the above powerful enquiry.
When you are done, you can choose: do you intend to release this way of being and heal? Declare this to yourself.
Address the fear - essential oils for relaxation
Of course, with the prospect of any illness or dis-ease in the body being long-term, there can be a LOT of fear. I know, for me, fear was a huge block in my recovery because whilst my body really needed relaxation in order to heal, all I was doing was getting myself into a state of tension and stress. I wasn’t sleeping, because I was so anxious about my face (and also had a brand new baby to deal with!) and this was totally distracting me from actually allowing my body to heal.
So, one of the biggest steps towards healing my chronic illness – and this goes for both my Chronic Fatigue and my Bell’s Palsy and Synkinesis – was learning to remember my power to create what I desired and not focus on the situation as it was. We need to learn to tend our nervous systems – hearing what they are trying to tell us, acknowledging the fears that we might not heal, and calming them down, offering them relaxation.
So, I’d recommend lots of whatever feels nurturing – but with the intention of healing the nervous system. If you’re like me, this looks like lots of nurturing evening baths, with some Himalayan Pink Salt and an essential oil blend for ridding fear – this allows you to calm your nervous system down before bedtime and relax so that you can then sleep.
Relaxing Bath Ritual
Pop 3 handfuls of Himalayan Pink Salt into your bath. Mix 3 drops Bergamot, 2 drops Lavender and 1 drop Valerian with 15ml Bath Oil and add to the warm water of your running bath. Lie back and do some deep breathing, stroking your body and chanting a mantra that feels relevant to your fears – e.g. “I acknowledge my body’s wisdom and lovingly release fear around my capacity for healing.”
This is a particularly powerful ritual to do at Full Moon, which is the perfect time to release old ways of being and choose into new ways. If you do choose to do this at Full Moon, I’d invite you to also go outside into nature and speak out this intention (to release fear) to the moon.
Support the body – e.g. for Bell’s Palsy
Now, when you have chosen into healing your body and begun to release the fear you’re feeling (which is no easy step, by the way, this might take some time and become a daily practice alongside this next step), you’ll also want to support your body naturally, with essential oils that have the specific healing properties you desire for the intention of healing whatever you are longing to heal. If you’re suffering with a chronic illness other than Bell’s Palsy or Synkinesis, you’ll want to choose oils with properties likely to heal your specific symptoms (you can find lots of advice for other conditions here on our blog). In my case, with Bell’s Palsy and Synkinesis, this was using essential oils for the Nervous System, harmonisation of the face and massage.
Essential oils for the nervous and muscular systems
Essential oils specifically for the nervous system and musculoskeletal system are good for Bell’s Palsy and Synkinesis because the muscles will get sore due to their lack of movement. Two blends that may help are:
- Mix one drop of Helichrysum and 1 drop Chamomile in 5ml Jojoba oil and 5ml Castor oil and spend some time gently massaging your face in small circles from the inside out, with the intention of relaxation.
- You could substitute the above oils for 1 drop Lavender or Marjoram and Clove.
These oils are particularly regenerative, relaxing, and good for muscular pain and opening the heart. The aim here is NOT to massage firmly to stimulate your face, but instead to relax and allow your face to heal, so go gently and allow your face to be as relaxed as possible and only work it in harmony. With Bell’s Palsy and Synkinesis we want to only use the muscles in harmony, and not force the movement. Focus, initially, on relaxation, reducing stress and let the movement return in its own time – keeping the muscles soft and relaxed will be more helpful.
Overall, whatever you are suffering with, the main focus is to support the body in its new requirements – deeply listening into what it needs and supporting it as best you can with nature. This might look like eating more naturally (I went plant-based and gluten free as my body began to dislike sugar and gluten, and listening in like this really helped) or spending more time in nature and beginning to care for yourself more and offer yourself more rest – or it could look like dancing more if that’s what’s causing the imbalance! Your body is unique and only you can listen in and find out and offer yourself the permission to heal.
Visualisation and focus – visualise the body you desire
Another important thing to take away about our powerful capacity to heal – and from my own experience – is that it really helped me to keep shifting my focus back into healing. I often found it would be easy to drop into fear and distractions and had to keep refocusing back on the vision that I wanted for my face.
I would visualise my face being balanced, even and moving normally – physically closing my eyes and feeling the face move (and visualising it with eyes open too). This was a really powerful step in reminding my mind how my face moved, and this constant visualisation had a huge impact in my creation of what I longed for – i.e. my face to move properly.
Never underestimate your capacity to manifest your health – I know, it can really seem a bit magical and unobtainable at times to hear, but for me, it really did help me as a step in healing my face and it was a necessary part of the healing path. We are powerful creators, and often our focus will just be on the wrong thing, and we then create more of that.
Manifestation Ritual
A powerful practice here is to ask yourself, over and over – “where is my focus?” and sit and spend 10-20 minutes each day (I did morning and night) visualising your body and health as you desire it. Again, diffuse some oils specifically for supporting your creative potential.
Try 3 drops Myrrh, 2 drops Lime and 1 drop Clary Sage in water in a candle burner or electrical diffuser and diffuse as you visualise.
Overall, the topic of healing the body is one that is often debated between science and the holistic paradigms, but my own experience is that anything is possible if we remain open – everyone is unique and we all have to find our own way, but I hope my journey has inspired you in your own journey. Keep using those essential oils and blend your own according to what your body needs (it will let you know by the scents you like). The invitation is to let nature’s healing in, and see what magic occurs.
Nicole Barton
Consultant Aromatherapist
Read other articles by Nicole Barton
