The aroma of lavender filled the room of the business meeting room at Seward County Community College’s Industrial Technical School. Essential oil guide books laid on the table titled “Essential Oils 101.” 

The evening class on Sept. 24 was open to the community and covered all the basics someone might need to get started in using oils for health and daily life. 

Debbie Scroggs, Young Living essential oils advocate who is originally from Canada, taught the class. She gained an interest in essential oils around five years ago. Scroggs openly admitted that at first, she really didn’t believe in the health benefits essential oils could have but once she gave them a try, she was all in. 

“My husband was really in pain one year because of his knees, he was literally bone on bone, and so when my daughter told me to try a specific essential oil for him to apply, it helped him enough and that was enough to convince me,” Scroggs said. 

Scroggs gave a brief history of essential oils, how it works and how to use them. She explained that a lot of people don’t really know what essential oils are. They just hear about them via the internet and commercials.

“Essential oils are the oil directly from the plant. The oil sustains the life of the plant and gets everything in the plant where it needs to go. Its equivalent to what blood is to us,” Scroggs explained. 

Scroggs noted that to her, essential oils are beneficial in more ways than one. Essential oils are an alternative to most household products, such as candles, air fresheners and fabric softeners. 

“The average American house will have at least 63 hazardouse products. That’s really scary to me, so I use and make my own products to use at home using plant based products,” Scroggs said. 

Scroggs makes her own fabric softener with just vinegar, water, oils and her cleanser which has all plant based products. 

“Our skin is like a sponge, not a protective barrier. So, I want to make sure that what I put on my skin is beneficial to me and not harmful,” she added. 

Essential oils can not only be used for household products, but they can be ingested and applied to face and hair. The important thing to remember, she said, is that you need to make sure the essential oils are not coming from a farm that has pesticides near their plant crops and also what kind of temperature they have been stored in. 

“The FDA is sometimes not the most reliable source on whether or not something is organic so you need to know where your oil comes from and how it is made if you truly want the best. I also wouldn’t ingest something that you don’t know where it’s coming from,” Scroggs said. 

The most popular way essential oils are used though, is by diffusing them in an essential oil diffuser. Many oils are beneficial for being able to sleep at night, calming anxiety, brightening moods and improving the immune system. 

Oils like lavender and peace and calm are for calming down and aiding with stress. Scents like orange or citrus smells are aimed at aiding in waking up and brightening your mood. 

“If someone is wanting to get into essential oils, then they should start with a simple kit of 6 such as Joy, Peace and Calming, Lemon, Digize, Lavender and Citrus fresh. Most of these are made by Young Living, a brand of essential oils,” Scroggs advises. 

The SCCC Business and Industry offers classes such as this one throughout the year that are open to the community. Click here to see a full list of the fall classes being offered.