Essential oils are proven to elevate moods. You may be wondering how essential oils work. Smells are carried directly to the brain, they serve as emotional triggers. The limbic system evaluates the sensory stimuli, registering pleasure, pain, danger or safety. This then creates and ultimately directs our emotional response, which can include feelings of fear, anger, depression and attraction.
Our basic emotions and hormonal balance are in response to the most basic smells. This makes scents very powerful in our day-to-day lives because they’re a direct pathway to memory and emotion.
Each essential oil comes with its own therapeutic benefits. Let’s learn to enhance our lives with pure essential oils!
There are 2 main ways to use natural essential oils –
Topical Application
Many prefer topical uses of essential oils. Topical application is a process of using essential oil on the skin, hair, mouth, teeth, nails or mucous membranes of the body. When the oils touch the skin, they penetrate rapidly. Since they are so potent, it is important to dilute and blend with a carrier oil, such as jojoba or rice bran oil. You can apply the blend directly to an affected area, on the bottoms of the feet, rims of the ears, using compresses, in baths or through massage.
Some of the most common ways to use essential oils include:
- Massaging them (blended with a carrier oil) into your skin
- Adding them to bathwater
- Using them in a hot compress
- Rubbing a drop onto pulse points in lieu of perfume
Inhalation
When you inhale the aroma of an essential oil, the aroma penetrates your bloodstream via your lungs and this is thought to be one of the mechanisms by which aromatherapy exerts its physiological effects. The fragrance also affects the limbic system in your brain, which controls both memories and emotions. Many essential oils have antibacterial, antifungal, and/or antiviral qualities. You can inhale the goodness of essential oils through Nebuliser, Ultrasonic Diffuser or Reed Diffusers.
Click here to read about the benefits of using a nebuliser.
When you're feeling anxious and stressed, or scared
Chamomile oils are used to help soothe anxious, overactive minds that may lead to trouble sleeping or depression. Other relaxing oils include sandalwood, and lavender. There are also a handful of oils such as bergamot, orange and jasmine that can helps to balance your emotions, boost your mood and bring back the joy in your life. This help you get into a more uplifted and happy mood!
When you're looking to relax and sleep more soundly
A good night of sleep is important to many of us. However due to our modern lifestyle, many of us face insomnia issues. There are lots of elements that need to come together in order for someone to feel relaxed and get a good night’s sleep. Similarly, oil blends work best to solve the multifaceted problem of insomnia—blends that include frankincense, ylang ylang and lavender which are mood stabilizer and de-stresser, this is an excellent blend for relaxing and restoring your energies!
When you're angry
Try blending bergamot, ylang ylang, jasmine, mandarin, and coriander to kick out the negative energy in the space or balance your emotions. These oils are perfect when diffused to help clear any hostility, tension, or conflict from a workspace or home. These oils are also a great addition to a bath for a relaxing and de-stressing massage.
When you're looking to improve your concentration
We must balance and center the mind before we can focus, so a good balance of various oils is what we’re going for here. Each oil adds a unique benefit to this blend, including frankincense oil, which elevates the mood and helps us to rewind from stress, sandalwood oil, which is an antidepressant and mood balancer, lavender oil, which helps to release tension from the whole body; and finally peppermint oil, which helps stimulate the body and awaken the mind. Citrus oils of all sorts are also great to help give the mind the spring cleaning it sometimes needs to get your focus back.