While many feel that aromatherapy is a "feel good" practice with no real base or value, this is not true.
It is probably true that most aromatherapy activities do not actually push any magic buttons when it comes to health or well-being.
What seems to happen in aromatherapy is that the essential oils, absolutes, and blends used tend to positively influence mood and emotion. Because of the very real mind-body connection, where improvement in one influences improvement in the other, feeling "better" in your mind, for whatever reason, whether it be through exercise, diet, massage, or medicine, can definitely produce an improvement in physical health.
Any improvement in physical health can result in an improvement in the mind, i.e. feeling "better", more confident, less stressed, more in control, or just plain "relaxed".
Therefore, getting started with aromatherapy, can "help" produce many improvements in both your mental and physical well-being.
The fragrances provided by essential oils work more on the emotions and the attitudes than on any physical part of the body. Thus, aromatherapy and your emotions are linked, and this link, when exploited properly can help you become healthier and happier over time.
Add other lifestyle changes, such as exercise and diet, or alternative practices, such as massage and meditation, and you will enhance that connection between aromatherapy and your emotions.
If you would like to learn more about this connection, there is an excellent book, Aromatherapy and Your Emotions
, by Shirley Price, which may be a bit hard to find in most bookstores but which is still available new and used from Amazon.
Basics and Benefits of Aromatherapy
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