A primer on how to use essential oils to alleviate stress and anxiety


Stress is a part of everyone’s life that is simply unavoidable. Many things can cause stress, most notably work and school. It can manifest in all sorts of ways, such as sleep problems, digestive distress, and reproductive issues.

Anxiety is a debilitating form of stress. It causes repeated and prolonged worrying over a lot of things that can lead to panic attacks, which affect a person’s ability to socialize and form relationships. People with anxiety tend to withdraw from society, affecting their overall quality of life.

Calm your mind and body with essential oils

Essential oils can be a wonderful tool to help ease your mind and soothe your worries, especially when combined with other stress-relief techniques.

Inhaling the aroma of an essential oil immediately affects many bodily reactions and systems, such as emotions, memory, breathing, hormones, blood pressure and heart rate, and stress. The aroma of essential oils triggers the production of mood-enhancing neurotransmitters such as serotonin and dopamine.

To start filling your home with the relaxing scent of essential oils, diffuse a stress-relieving blend using an oil diffuser and the following oil combinations:

Calm and focus diffuser blend

  • 3 drops rosemary essential oil
  • 2 drops lavender essential oil
  • 2 drops wild orange essential oil
  • 1 drop peppermint or spearmint essential oil

Overwhelm reset blend

  • 2 drops geranium essential oil
  • 2 drops clary sage essential oil
  • 1 drop patchouli essential oil
  • 1 drop ylang-ylang essential oil

Some offices and healthcare facilities allow diffusing essential oils to help alleviate anxiety in the workplace.

If you need to go out of the house, you can bring some essential oil with you:

  • For an energetic workout, drop a cotton ball with peppermint oil into your gym bag. Pair it with wild orange oil to perk up your senses.
  • For a relaxing drive, add a drop of lavender, ylang-ylang, or bergamot oil to a clothespin and place it on your car’s air vents to ease your nerves during your commute.
  • Put some essential oil on your accessories like leather bracelets. Make sure to dilute the oil in a carrier oil to avoid burning your skin with these potent substances.

You can also incorporate essential oils into breathing exercises. Deep breathing calms the body, regulates the heart rate, and eases the mind.

Lavender is an excellent oil to pair with deep breathing routines. It helps improve your mood and calm your body thanks to the organic compounds linalool and linalyl acetate that have natural soothing abilities.

Of course, essential oils are commonly used in therapeutic massages. A massage coupled with healing essential oils is the perfect stress-reliever. A combination of lavender, bergamot and frankincense is an effective blend for massages. Mix one drop of the three essential oils in one teaspoon of carrier oil and apply with long, smooth strokes to the body.

Topical application of essential oils – such as in massages – combined with deep breathing can help you face the day feeling refreshed and relaxed. Wherever you are, keeping a rollerball bottle ready with the essential oils that best suit your needs can help reduce tension throughout the day. Here’s an example of a stress-busting blend:

Stress-relief roller blend

  • 12 drops lavender essential oil
  • 9 drops frankincense essential oil
  • 9 drops wild orange essential oil
  • Carrier oil of choice

Add the essential oils to a 10-mL glass rollerball bottle and top off with a carrier oil of your choice. Apply this to the bottoms of your feet, the back of your neck or your spine to reduce tension.

No essential oil will work the same for each, so finding the ones that you love is all part of the journey.

While using essential oils is an excellent way of managing stress, chronic stress and anxiety can be caused by underlying reasons or more serious issues. Talking with your trusted healthcare provider can help you clarify your condition and decide on the appropriate approach to take.

Visit EssentialOils.news to learn other ways of incorporating these miracle liquids into your everyday routine.

Sources include:

MindBodyGreen.com

Up-Nature.com



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