When you are feeling out of tune emotionally, your body is thrown off balance and your social relationships suffer. If you are currently experiencing the downs of life, you can find the emotional support you require through keeping a healthy lifestyle and using essential oils. Essential oils are known to have many uses and can also help us on a deeper level. Before we share our recommended essential oils for emotional well-being, let’s first go into an overview of essential oils.
How Essential Oils Affect Our Moods
Studies have shown that there is a connection between aromatherapy with the use of essential oils and improved emotional well-being. When we smell something, we have an olfactory response and the scent will travel through the olfactory system to reach the limbic area in our brains. The limbic system has a direct connection with emotions and memory. Thus, using essential oils that have calming and relaxing properties can have positive benefits when dealing with negative emotions like anxiety. The effect the aromatherapy has depends on the type of oil used, and each person’s chemical composition.
How to Use Essential Oils
There are several ways to use essential oils, such as inhaling the scent directly, diffusing it around your living space using an essential oil diffuser, using it in a bath, and applying it topically to your skin. To have an aromatherapy bath, you will need a box of Epsom salts to act as the base for your essential oils. If you are applying them to your skin, you should not apply the essential oils directly to the skin. Instead, you should always mix or dilute it with a carrier oil base such as almond oil and hazelnut oil.
Best Essential Oils for Emotional Wellness
There are several essential oils highly recommended for supporting emotions. Some essential oils are more effective and better suited for certain types of moods and emotional conditions.
Anxiety Relief
Bergamot oil is shown to have a positive effect on mood as it contains Linalyl Acetate and ester that can have a calming or soothing effect. Additionally, it can also help to increase energy levels.
With its earthy and woodsy fragrance, frankincense oil has a very calming effect that uplifts your mood at the same time. It has long been used in aromatherapy to reduce stress and anxiety.
Stress
The earthy fragrance of cedarwood promotes relaxation and helps combat negative moods. Cedarwood oil has a variety of benefits, including helping with focus and reducing stress levels.
Derived from the jasmine flower, jasmine oil is a popular natural remedy used for hundreds of years in parts of Asia for overcoming stress and balancing hormones.
Insomnia
One of the most popular essential oils for improving mood and reducing stress levels, lavender oil has antidepressant effects and can help to reduce sleep disturbances and improve sleep.
Fatigue
The benefits of cypress oil in aromatherapy include helping to clear the airways while energizing the mood. This oil also increases focus and clarity.
Peppermint oil is a good oil to use for lethargy or when you are lacking motivation and focus as the invigorating and refreshing scent of peppermint can help improve your mood and energy levels.