natural

How To Make Thieves Oil And Why You Should Be Using It Every Day

The recipe varies and dates back to the Middle Ages where Thieves Oil kept a group of merchants safe from the Black Plague. The mixtures of antiseptic, antibacterial, and antimicrobial properties were able to stave off the Plague and keep these merchants safe.

The Thieves Story

In the early 1990s Gary Young studied essential oils and recreated a blend he had been researching. According to Gary there are 17 different version of the “Story of Thieves” and each contains a different amounts of different oils. This intrigued Gary to research essential oils and make the perfect Thieves Oil blend for everyday use.

He researched the properties of the different oils in the multiple ingredients lists he found. His research lead to a proprietary oil blend called Young Living Thieves Essential Oil. His research also lead him to the historical story of the “Thieves” this blend is named after.

Actually spice traders and merchants, the “Thieves” lived in the 15th century and traded the likes of cinnamon and cloves from India across Europe. When the bubonic plague struck, international shipping and trade stopped. The spice traders needed a way to support themselves.

A Dark Time

Dead bodies everywhere, the Thieves decided to loot the plague-ridden bodies to sell the found clothes, boots, jewelry, pots, pans – anything they could get their hands on to trade for food and money. They knew about spices and their medicinal properties and believed they wouldn’t get sick from the dead bodies if they applied their knowledge of spices, vinegars, and oils.

Because their repossession process was lucrative the King found out. He wanted to know their secret – why were they not getting sick? Four of the Thieves were caught and brought before the King. He gave them a choice: Share the secret or be burned at the stake.

A Kingly Proposition

They shared the oil blend secret and the rest is history. The King spread word around town and spread the “medicine” as well. A few recipes have stuck around, so you can make your own Thieves Oil blend, or buy a premixed blend wherever you buy your essential oils.

Thieves Oil Blend #1

40 drops of Clove Essential Oil

35 drops of Lemon Essential Oil

20 drops of Cinnamon Essential Oil

15 drops of Eucalyptus Essential Oil

10 drops of Rosemary Essential Oil

Thieves Oil Blend #2

200 drops of Clove Oil

175 drops of Lemon Oil

100 drops of Cinnamon Bark

75 drops of Eucalyptus Oil

50 drops of Rosemary Oil

Thieves Oil Blend #3

1 tbs. Clove Essential Oil

1 tbs. Lemon Essential Oil

2 ½ tsp. Cinnamon Bark Essential Oil

2 tsp. Eucalyptus Essential Oil

2 tsp. Rosemary Essential Oil

Thieves Oil Blend #4

2 tsp Clove Oil

1 1/2 tsp Lemon Oil

1 tsp Cinnamon Bark Oil

3/4 tsp Eucalyptus Oil

1/2 tsp Rosemary Oil

*Note: One 15 ml bottle of essential oil contains approximately 255 drops. One 5 ml bottle contains approximately 85 drops.

Store these blends in a dark bottle, in a cool place out of the sun. You should use Thieves Oil every day as it can be used for so many different reasons – not to mention it has a nice cinnamon scent. You can diffuse the oil, use it topically, clean household items with it, or ingest it to aid digestion and support your immune system.

Diffusing Thieves Oil

This purifies the air in your home, eliminates odors, acts aromatically to support your lungs and sinuses. Diffuse 15-20 drops of Thieves Oil for 15 minutes three or four time a day in an essential oil diffuser. As you breathe the oil you will strengthen your lungs, sinuses, and entire respiratory system.

Thieves Oil All-Purpose Spray

Make an easy all-purpose spray out of Thieves Oil and water in a spray bottle to clean and disinfect just about everything. Take odor out of pet beds*, clean microbial bacteria off surfaces, and keep baby’s room spic and span with Thieves Oil.

*Note: Cat’s cannot process essential oils – if you’re using this blend to clean a litter box that’s fine, but do not spray on a cat’s bed or use as an aromatic without a diffuser if you’re a cat person.

Add 1 drop of Thieves Oil for every ½ ounce of water used. This is a strong solution that can be lessened to 1 drop per 1 oz if you find it overpowering. You’ll need to shake the bottle vigorously

Topical Thieves Oil

1 drop of Thieves Oil to 4 drops carrier oil. (Grapeseed, Jojoba, Coconut, Avocado – any healthy oil will act as a carrier)

This lets you use Thieves Oil topically. Some folks can use Thieves Oil without a carrier, but some peoples’ skin will get irritated. You can massage this blend on your feet, lower back, neck, and behind your ears. Rubbing this oil blend on your feet daily promotes a healthy immune system.

Household Uses

Because of its antibacterial properties, Thieves Oil is a great all-around cleaner. Add to laundry loads, dishwasher loads, and floor and countertops to remove any stubborn, sticky buildup or even just to give a great, deep clean.

You can freshen up your kids’ stuffed animals or your dog’s bed, clean your cell phone and other devices, even keep plants bug-free and happy. Adding Thieves Oil to a cotton ball placed in the home, car, or office air vents eliminates nasty odors. Thieves Oil even helps to dispel bed bugs!

Massage Therapy

Dilute 15 drops of Thieves Oil with 15 drops of carrier oil and massage over lungs, chest, and back to improve your respiratory system. Massaged into the back, thighs, and neck helps relieve minor aches and pains that come with your daily routine. You can also use Thieves Oil to relieve insect bites.

Ingesting Thieves Oil

Add 1 drop of Thieves oil to a bottle of water and drink all day long. This will help clean your digestive tract and support a healthy immune system. Add Thieves Oil to a cup of warm water and drink as a tea. Wait 15 minutes before eating, and benefit from the system-cleansing oil.

Add 2-3 drops to 2 Tbsp of water and gargle to relieve a sore or dry throat. You can even add 1 drop of Thieve Oil to 1 oz of water and, using a spray bottle, spray onto the back of your throat.

Thieves Oil Miscellaneous

Dilute 1 drop of Thieves Oil into 4 drops of carrier oil and apply to the affected area. You can apply the oil directly, or using a gauze or bandage.

To relieve a headache, put a drop of Thieves Oil on your thumb and place against the roof of your mouth. Be sure not to lick your lips as this may burn.

A few drops of Thieves Oil in a bowl of steaming water and lean over the bowl covering your head with a towel. Inhale the vapors for sinus and lung support.

Using Thieves Oil topically promotes healthy skin, and can help fight acne and other skin issues. Thieves Oil can also be used in the bathroom as toothpaste or mouthwash. Use 1 drop per ounce for mouthwash, and 2 drops to 4 Tbsp of baking soda and shake well.

What can’t Thieves Oil do?

SOURCE:

http://www.natural-aromatherapy-benefits.com/thievesoilrecipe.html

Most of you probably know what Thieves Oil is, but if not have I got a story for you! The name and recipe for Thieves Oil have an interesting backstory and explains why this blend of oils is so good for you.

None of the world’s top industries would be profitable if they paid for the natural capital they use

The notion of “externalities” has become familiar in environmental circles. It refers to costs imposed by businesses that are not paid for by those businesses. For instance, industrial processes can put pollutants in the air that increase public health costs, but the public, not the polluting businesses, picks up the tab. In this way, businesses privatize profits and publicize costs.

While the notion is incredibly useful, especially in folding ecological concerns into economics, I’ve always had my reservations about it. Environmentalists these days love speaking in the language of economics – it makes them sound Serious – but I worry that wrapping this notion in a bloodless technical term tends to have a narcotizing effect. It brings to mind incrementalism: boost a few taxes here, tighten a regulation there, and the industrial juggernaut can keep right on chugging. However, if we take the idea seriously, not just as an accounting phenomenon but as a deep description of current human practices, its implications are positively revolutionary.

To see what I mean, check out a recent report [PDF] done by environmental consultancy Trucost on behalf of The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) program sponsored by United Nations Environmental Program. TEEB asked Trucost to tally up the total “unpriced natural capital” consumed by the world’s top industrial sectors. (“Natural capital” refers to ecological materials and services like, say, clean water or a stable atmosphere; “unpriced” means that businesses don’t pay to consume them.)

It’s a huge task; obviously, doing it required a specific methodology that built in a series of assumptions. (Plenty of details in the report.) But it serves as an important signpost pointing the way to the truth about externalities.

Here’s how those costs break down:

The majority of unpriced natural capital costs are from greenhouse gas emissions (38%), followed by water use (25%), land use (24%), air pollution (7%), land and water pollution (5%), and waste (1%).

So how much is that costing us? Trucost’s headline results are fairly stunning.

First, the total unpriced natural capital consumed by the more than 1,000 “global primary production and primary processing region-sectors” amounts to $7.3 trillion a year – 13 percent of 2009 global GDP.

(A “region-sector” is a particular industry in a particular region – say, wheat farming in East Asia.)

Second, surprising no one, coal is the enemy of the human race. Trucost compiled rankings, both of the top environmental impacts and of the top industrial culprits.

Here are the top five biggest environmental impacts and the region-sectors responsible for them:

UNEP

The biggest single environmental cost? Greenhouse gases from coal burning in China. The fifth biggest? Greenhouse gases from coal burning in North America. (This also shows what an unholy nightmare deforestation in South America is.)

Now, here are the top five industrial sectors ranked by total ecological damages imposed:

UNEP

It’s coal again! This time North American coal is up at number three.

Trucost’s third big finding is the coup de grace. Of the top 20 region-sectors ranked by environmental impacts, none would be profitable if environmental costs were fully integrated. Ponder that for a moment: None of the world’s top industrial sectors would be profitable if they were paying their full freight. Zero.

That amounts to an global industrial system built on sleight of hand. As Paul Hawken likes to put it, we are stealing the future, selling it in the present, and calling it GDP.

This gets back to what I was saying at the top. The notion of “externalities” is so technical, such an economist’s term. Got a few unfortunate side effects, so just move some numbers from Column A to Column B, right?

But the UNEP report makes clear that what’s going on today is more than a few accounting oversights here and there. The distance between today’s industrial systems and truly sustainable industrial systems – systems that do not spend down stored natural capital but instead integrate into current energy and material flows – is not one of degree, but one of kind. What’s needed is not just better accounting but a new global industrial system, a new way of providing for human wellbeing, and fast. That means a revolution.