Oils for Instant Calm

April is Stress Awareness Month and with everything that is going on in the world, in the news, aside from daily personal stressors and struggles it could all easily become a bit too much.

Please don’t despair and let aromatherapy help you pause and find a moment of relaxation.

Good News

In my last blog, Essential Oils and Smell training, I explained how inhaling essential oils can have a direct impact on your mood and emotions.

Your body has an in built relaxation response and you can use aromatherapy to help you stimulate it. Here are 3 amazing essential oils to switch on your inner calm. Remember it’s always there, sometimes you just need to find the best way to turn it on.

Frankincense

A beautiful oil for meditation. Why? It has a profound effect on deepening your breathing, a key aspect of good meditative practice.  Frankincense oil has a great affinity with the respiratory system.  In traditional medicine Frankincense has been used to treat asthma and bronchitis for centuries.  Studies have suggested that its compounds may prevent the production of leukotrienes, which cause bronchial muscle constriction in asthma¹.

CAUTION: Never do a steam inhalation if you suffer from asthma because this method can actually irritate your condition. Instead add 3-5 drops to a diffuser or oil burner or apply the oil diluted in a carrier to your chest and back.

You’ll find this beautiful oil in our Rejuvenate Facial oil  because it also has wonderful toning properties for the skin – relax your mind, deepen your breathing and rejuvenate your skin before bed.

Lavender & Sweet Orange Oil

This is a wonderful combination of oils to help you relax and soothe your mind and body.  Studies have shown that these two oils in particular have been effective in reducing both situational anxiety and chronic anxiety².

Lavandula Angustifolia has powerful sedative properties and is recommended to help you sleep. It has a calming and soothing scent and a recent study³ in Turkey revealed that Lavender essential oil increased quality of sleep and reduced level of anxiety in patients.

For a range of products using locally sourced lavender oil, including a bedtime spray, click here.

Aromatherapy Recipes for Instant Calm

Oil Burner / Diffuser Blend

3 drops organic Frankincense essential oil

2 drops organic Carshalton Lavender essential oil

1 drop organic Sweet Orange essential oil – *new batch just in*

Bath Blend

Add 5ml of organic Jojoba oil to the Oil Burner blend – see above.

Stir well and add to warm running water.

Massage Oil Blend

Add 10ml of organic Jojoba oil to the Oil Burner blend – see above.

Stir well and massage into your skin.

 

Want to keep things super simple?

Add a drop to a tissue and inhale deeply for 5-10 minutes.

Remember essential oils are quickly absorbed into your circulation through your olfactory system. Inhaling an oil means it has a direct route to your brain, specifically your limbic system that has the ability to influence your mood, emotions and many other physiological factors.

 

I hope you have found this blog useful.

If you would like to purchase any of these essential oils please click on the highlighted links in the text above or click here for the full range.  If you would like a unique massage oil blend made just for you contact me here.

As always feel free to leave a comment or contact me if you have any questions.  I’m always happy to help.

Until next time, do what you can to relax!

Best wishes, Louisa

P.S. If you need some help relaxing take a look at this brand new package I’ve recently launched called De-stress and Refresh.

 

 

 

 

 

References

^{1 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15829470}

^{2 Lehrner et al 2005, Perry and Perry 2006, Goes et al 2012}

^{3 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26211735}