All About Essential Oils and Relaxation

Usage, Benefits, Precautions and More

The strongest among the five senses, is the sense of smell that exerts the biggest influence on our brain activity, on which the aromatherapy is based. This is one of the reasons why a fragrance often reminds you of some incident or someone. If you’ve ever dreamed of wiping away your stress and anxiety by doing nothing but simply breathing, you’ve landed on the right page.

Essential oils are highly concentrated liquids made from plant chemical extracts. The compounds are carefully chosen by considering their physical and functional properties to yield soothing and calming effects along with a pleasant fragrance. These are widely used in aromatherapy; one of the few easy yet effective self therapies that can immensely help you get rid of stress and make you feel better.

Through this blog, let’s discuss in detail, how we can make this magic potion-like oil work for us.

Aromatherapy: How Do Essential Oils Work?

There is a lot of ambiguity when it comes to the debate of whether essential oils really have healing properties strong enough to help treat diseases. As of today, there’s no concrete research-backed evidence of the same.

However, there exists strong indication, including the ones from the research conducted by international bodies like Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience and Holistic Nursing Practice that relate essential oils with helping treat stress and anxiety. So what is it exactly about essential oils that make them the integral element of therapy of its own called aromatherapy? Let’s find out.

The Science Behind

As the name suggests, aromatherapy is about inhaling particular aromas that have therapeutic effects. Most studies point towards the association of stress-relieving effects of such therapy with the stimulation of the amygdala, the region of the brain that deals with emotions, and is the key modulator to fear and anxiety.

Simply put, when we inhale the essential oils, some components in them (for example, antioxidants) pass through the olfactory nerves directly to the brain’s amygdala. As a result of its stimulation, we feel the stress and anxiety dissipating, and positive emotions replacing them. This is one of the fastest and easiest ways to keep anxiety in check.

Benefits Of Using Essential Oils

Different essential oils have different benefits, but they more or less lie under the same brackets.

Lifts mood and energizes you.
Acts as an anti-depressant.
Improves productivity.
Helps induce relaxation and sleep.
Relieves stress and anxiety.
Suppresses nausea, headache, and simple body pains.
Repels insects.

Ways To Use and Infuse Essential Oils In Your Daily Lives

There are primarily 5 different ways you can infuse essential oil therapy in your lives. The bottom line for each one is simple:

Essential oils are concentrated and should be used with a carrier. This can be a carrier oil like coconut or avocado or just plain water.

Inhalation: Simply apply on a swab of cotton and inhale, or add it to hot water and inhale the steam.
Apply on skin: Using carrier oils, apply directly like a fragrance or add it to your daily lotion.
Bath therapy: Add it to your bathing soap or shampoo, to your bathtub, or simply spray a few drops around the shower walls. It will mix with the steam and have the same effect.
Oil Massage: If you can take out time to pamper yourself, indulge in a relaxing massage by adding a few drops to your regular oil.
Diffuser/ Humidifier: These are specialized appliances that you can use to make your entire indoors therapeutic in the right proportions and consistency. Just add a few drops and watch them disperse as mist.

5 Best Essential Oils To Relax, Relieve Stress and Ward Off Anxiety

Before we jump to the list, let me remind you that different essential oil has different ways to make you feel better. Peppermint or Geranium essential oil, for instance, makes you feel energized and fresh. Here are the 5 best essential oils that will do just the opposite — calm you down, help you relax, work away your stress and anxiety, and even help to induce a good night’s sleep.

Lavender Essential Oil
Bergamot Essential Oil
Valerian Essential Oil
Rose Essential Oil
Chamomile Essential Oil

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Bonus: Deep Relaxation Blend

A lot of people have found miraculous healing properties in blending more than one essential oil and diffusing them together. One of the most popular blends that is known to instantly boost your serotonin levels and ward off anxiety and tone down your stress. Here’s the magic mantra:

2 drops of bergamot essential oil + 2 drops of clary sage oil + 1 drop of lavender oil

Simply mix them, add the mixture in a diffuser or just dab it on your clothes, and you’re good to go!

Key Facts About Essential Oils: Precautions and Care

Now that we know how essential oils work, how we can use them, and which ones work best to keep us cool, let’s have a look at some lesser-known, negative overlooked facts about essential oils before we wrap this up.

Yes, something as gentle as inhaling fragrant oils can cause discomfort. But the main harm or hazard lies in consuming them. It’s actually the problem with the marketing of essential oils that are often misinterpreted by those who are unaware. The 100% natural claims might influence some of the users to directly consume these oils for possibly ‘faster and stronger effects’.

Possible Harmful Effects

The truth is, these oils are entirely for use through infusion and inhalation, that is, they are not edible, and consuming them can lead to harmful conditions including serious poisoning. Unlike what you are made to believe, ingestion in small amounts can also be harmful.

Other harmful effects also exist due to simple inhalation and can be seen in the form of individual body traits reacting differently to these oils. For some, particular contents of such oil may irritate the skin and cause rashes and itchiness. For some infants, concentrated infusions may cause sneezing and irritation in the nasal passage.

Precautions

This in no way should discourage you from trying aromatherapy as a supportive treatment or mood lifter. By using a carrier oil, you dilute the concentration and are much less likely to get affected negatively in any way.

In case your body is still sensitive, you simply have to be careful about which kind of essential oil usage suits you and which oil ingredients work best with your skin. Using it in very limited quantities with adequate dilution and diffusion is the best option during pregnancy or when having an infant around.

As long as you are mindful of the precautions that you must take to avoid harm, essential oils are one of the friendliest and gentlest solutions out there. However, you should always resort to other forms of therapies when the stress and anxiety turn into something chronic.

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