Here I will share with you my 4 favourite Essential Oils to use when feeling anxious or in a low mood. I have discovered these though my bespoke aromatherapy practice, where I see how incredibly effective and beneficial essential oils can be for both our physical and mental wellbeing. Especially in helping positively change moods.
🎧 Psst if you prefer to listen not read there is an audio reading of this blog post scroll to the bottom 😃
Essential oils are a brilliant natural tool to help elicit a positive change in our mood, which can then have a positive effect on the rest of our day, they are a great way to support to help reduce feelings of anxiety, stuckness, or overwhelm, low mood and depression. They can be great used daily to help uplift and inspire you, or at more stressful times of life, like times of loss, emotional upheaval of moving or being a carer for an elderly parent or for new mums after giving birth.
So let’s just establish what is Aromatherapy?!
Aromatherapy is the practice of using Essential Oils on the skin and/or in the air for a therapeutic benefit and to help support general wellbeing
What the Science behind Aromatherapy & using Essential Oils?
The compounds/molecules in essential oils act on the body by entering our blood steam, they can have an effect on our circulatory, nervous, digestive and endocrine systems, in this way they can change our current mood quite quickly. They are strong substances and this is why we must take care using them, especially around babies, young children and pets.
1 drop of Peppermint oil on the skin equals 23 cups of peppermint tea!
Cool factoid I read recently 🙂
The powerful compounds of Essential Oils have been harnessed and used for centuries to help: focus the mind – Meditation (Frankincense), to reduce inflammation and pain (Lavender), to heal wounds with their antibacterial, antiviral properties (Orange, Petitgrain).
Today they are at the root of our beauty, perfumery, pharmaceuticals and food industries.
4 Essential oils for Anxiety & Low Mood (my 4 favourites)
There is a whole world of essential oils out there! And even for an expert the choice can get overwhelming! So here I have narrowed it right down to my 4 favorites essential oils to help with anxiety & low mood, (all the are also suitable for new mums post birth):
1. Mandarin
2. Geranium
3. Lavender
4. Frankincense
“Before you try blending oils I recommend working with an individual essential oil first, so you can get to know its character and review its effects”.
MANDARIN
Uplifting
Healing for the skin
Antiviral
Aids digestion
TOP – CITRUS
Fresh & bright!
Helps change perspective
Supports boundaries
GERANIUM
Calms nerves
Soothes skin
Balances hormones
Antidepressant
Reduces feeling of anxiety
MIDDLE – FLORAL
Centering for deeper emotions
Strengthen self worth
Ease worry, calms the heart
LAVENDER
Sedative
Calms skin
Balances hormones
Antibacterial
Eases pain
MIDDLE – HERBAL
Calming for deeper emotions
Connect to self
Connection to others
FRANKINCENSE
Calms the mind
Restores skin
Anti-fungal
Reduces inflammation
BASE – WOODY
Release negative thoughts
Calms mind chatter
Energetically grounding
How to use these 4 Essential Oils
• Make an aromatherapy massage oil with 1 drop of essential oil to 10mls of a cold pressed carrier oil and massage over shoulders and arms or rub on the bottom of the feet.
• Take a gentle smell straight from the oils bottle by ‘wafting’ it under your nose
• Diffuse into the air using an electric diffuser
• Put a 10 drops in a 100ml mist spray bottle to spray into the air, on your pillow and on your clothing
• Add to you bath (max 5 drops) –
To add essential oils to bath water first mix them in a little container like an egg cup with a milk that has a fat content. Then tip into bath, this ensures it disperses through the bath water.
How do essential oils work?
When the tiny molecules of essential oils enter into our bloodstream they can trigger a beneficial response. This can happen in a few different ways:
1. Through our sense of smell – when we breathe in molecules enter through our nose (olfactory system) to interact with our endocrine (hormonal) system.
2. When we breathe some will enter of lungs and absorbed into our bloodstream
3. When applied to our skin in an aromatherapy oil blend our skin allows some of the essential oils though into our bloodstream
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What are the benefits of using Essential Oils?
Benefits of using essential oils can be for – pain relief, to heal and reduce inflammation and infection, calm itching (insect bites), for helping with relaxation and sleep, mood enhancement, for the skin to combat free radical damage to cells, and to help calm and focus the mind helping with stress reduction.
Try working with one oil at a time so you can see how it makes you feel, try different times of day and different methods of delivery so you can work out what the best is for you.
Take care to…
Always use essential oils carefully and with caution, never use neat on the skin, do not use on broken skin, do not ingest, keep away from pets, babies, young children and store away from heat and direct sunlight. always patch test first before full use if using on the skin.
Main image with thanks to Mariana Rascao unsplash
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Disclaimer
This information here is intended only as a general reference for further exploration, and is not a replacement for professional health advice. This information should be used only under supervision of a qualified health practitioner.