Top 3 essential oils to help you relax and de-stress
Did you know it’s International Stress Awareness Day?
Now is an excellent time to share with you my top 3 oils to help you relax and de-stress.
Fight or Flight – why long term stress is so bad?
You may have heard of the fight or flight response. It’s your basic primitive response when under stress to prepare you to fight or run. Hormones including cortisol are released into your bloodstream which increase your heart rate and make you breathe faster. Cortisol also suppresses your immune system and other systems that your body deems non-vital during times of high stress like your digestion. This is why continuous stress is bad for your health – not just your immune system and digestion, these are just two examples. Long term stress can result in headaches, muscular tension, acne breakouts, digestive disorders and even leads to the creation of disease in the body.
Your body is AMAZING!
You will be pleased to know that your body has an in built relaxation response as outlined by Dr Herbert Benson in 1975 and specific essential oils are known to trigger it.
Top 3 Essential Oils to help you to Relax and De-Stress
Ylang Ylang
Acts on the parasympathetic nervous system and slows your heart rate and breathing which in turn can help to lower blood pressure. It does the opposite to adrenaline. When everything is racing and you feel panicked or anxious, you can’t switch off your mind, pop a drop of this in your oil burner or onto a tissue and take a few deep slow breaths.
Lavender
Has wonderful sedative properties and is recommended to help you sleep. It has a calming and soothing scent and a recent study in Turkey revealed that Lavender essential oil increased quality of sleep and reduced level of anxiety in patients.[1]
Bergamot
This gentle oil has a lovely fresh and lightly citrus fragrance. Often when we feel stressed or under pressure we can become depressed. In the Complete Aromatherapy Handbook, Suzanne Fischer-Rizzi describes Bergamot wonderfully when she says “…it uplifts and refreshes the spirit. The gentle fragrance, like a bouquet of flowers evokes joy and warms the heart.
These 3 oils blend very well together and so here is a recipe for a bath blend to help you relax and de-stress.
Bath blend recipe to relax and de-stress
- 2 drops of Ylang Ylang
- 3 drops of Lavender
- 3 drops of Bergamot
- 10 ml of carrier oil like organic Jojoba oil
Method
Mix all of the above together and add to a warm bath, soak and relax for at least 15 minutes
Bonus: Add two mugfuls of Epsom Salts – the magnesium is a wonderful relaxant – it literally encourages relaxation as well as aiding detoxification processes – perfect after a stressful day. To get the full benefit, soak for 20 minutes.
I’d love to hear what you think of this blend so do leave a comment below and remember, life is all about balance.
Don’t beat yourself up if your work and home life is so demanding that you don’t have time for relaxation. Even if you can just begin with giving yourself 5 minutes of quiet time each day that’s a start! Book time out of your diary, write it on your calendar. I encourage you to make the effort to stimulate your relaxation response because I see the negative effects of stress in so many of my clients and life is short – you only have one body, nourish and protect it.
Try and work some relaxation time into your schedule to help your body cope with stress. Remember, it’s all about balance.
Would you like help finding out which therapy is the best to help you de-stress? Call me on 020 8419 8143 or contact me here.
Looking for some products to help you de-stress? Take a look at the Balance and De-Stress Set here.