26/08/2026
An interesting read. 👩🏫
There is a profound lesson in natural medicine: it is both an art and a science.
Nowhere is this more evident than with essential oils.
For centuries, people have observed, experimented with, and passed down practical knowledge about the therapeutic uses of plants. Modern science has now begun to investigate many of those traditional applications, but in many cases, we have only validated a fraction of what generations before us already recognized.
Science is incredibly valuable. It gives us mechanisms, clinical evidence, safety parameters, and a way to distinguish what works from what doesn't.
But science also has a limitation: it moves at the pace of research. Sometimes it takes decades for science to catch up with what human experience has been telling us for centuries.
That doesn't mean we should abandon evidence. Quite the opposite. I deeply value scientific evidence. But I also believe that an overreliance on what has already been studied, and a dismissal of what has not yet been studied, can be a mistake.
The wisest approach, in my view, is not art versus science. It is art informed by science, and science informed by centuries of human experience. That intersection is where natural medicine becomes especially powerful.
It is also the philosophy behind the way I use essential oils, and it is infused throughout everything I write. I seek to honor the wisdom accumulated through generations while continually asking what modern research can teach us about why these natural substances work, how they work, and how they can be used responsibly.
Because sometimes the most important discoveries aren't found by choosing between tradition and science. They're found by bringing the two together.
That is the philosophy I have carried into my books, and I am deeply grateful that tens of thousands of people who have found greater wellness through the knowledge and counsel within them.
Perhaps the future of natural medicine isn't about proving that tradition was right or that science is right. Perhaps it's about having the humility to recognize that each has something the other desperately needs.
