Use Essential Oils To Reduce Anxiety
After a stress filled day using essential oils to reduce anxiety is both natural and effective.
Everyone has stress in their lives, but often the way you deal with that stress determines how it affects your life. Finding ways to minimize stress and anxiety can make you happier, healthier and a more productive person in every aspect of life. A little “me” time never felt so good!
It’s important with essential oils to purchase oils that are pure and are not diluted with other chemicals.
Here is a look at some of the top essential oils to reduce anxiety.
Top Essential Oils for Anxiety
Anxiety is a tough battle to face day in and day out, which makes having a natural solution, such as an essential oil blend, important.
In a recent 2014 study by the American College of Healthcare Sciences, 58 hospice patients were given hand massages once a day for one week with an essential oil blend in 1.5 percent dilution with sweet almond oil. The essential oil blend consisted of these essential oils in equal ratios of bergamot, frankincense and lavender. All patients who received the aromatherapy hand massage reported less pain and depression, concluding that aromatherapy massage with this essential oil blend is more effective for pain and depression management than massage alone.
Here are some of the best essentials oils for anxiety:
1. Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia)
Considered the most common essential oil, lavender oil benefits include having a calming, relaxing effect. It’s considered a nervous system restorative and helps with inner peace, sleep, restlessness, irritability, panic attacks, nervous stomach and general nervous tension.
“The Handbook of Essential Oils: Science, Technology, and Applications, Second Edition” states that there have been a number of clinical trials involving the inhalation of lavender essential oil that indicate a reduction in stress and anxiety…
…Further research demonstrates lavender’s ability to lower anxiety in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass surgery and in people visiting the dentist.
2. Rose (Rosa damascena)
One of the benefits of rose essential oil is it’s very settling to the emotional heart and perhaps the second most popular after lavender for relieving anxiety and depression, helping with panic attacks, grieving and shock. In study of women who were pregnant for the first time published in the Iranian Red Crescent Medical Journal, one group of women was received a 10-minute inhalation and footbath with oil rose, another group received a 10-minute warm-water footbath, and they were compared to a control group. The findings showed “aromatherapy and footbath reduces anxiety in active phase in nulliparous women.”
3. Vetiver (Vetiveria zizanioides)
Vetiver oil has a tranquil, grounding and reassuring energy, often used in trauma helping with self-awareness, calmness and stabilization. A nervous system tonic, it decreases jitteriness and hypersensitivity and is also useful in panic attacks and shock. A study published in Natural Product Research examining the anxiety-like behavior in rats concluded that vetiver oil may be useful in lowering anxiety effects, though more research is needed to confirm this finding. – Dr Axe
Ways of Using Essential Oils
Once you choose which oil or oils you want to use, here are some suggestions of ways to use essential oils to reduce anxiety and stress in your life.
Note: If you use them in your shower be sure you have a safe mat so you don’t slip!
1. Take a huge whiff.
Self-explanatory and easy! This may be enough to help you change your focus (even slightly), and hopefully help you to feel a bit better about things. This method is especially good if you are really freaking out.
2. Add to your shower.
If you try adding a few drops of your favorite oil to the floor of your shower, your whole body will be immersed in an essential oil steam. Energetically, this will cleanse your aura and have a positive effect on your mind and emotions. Just cover the drain with a cloth or your foot for a couple of minutes, and breathe in the medicinal goodness.
3. Carry a sample with you.
Put a couple of drops onto a scarf, handkerchief or cotton pad and take it with you, or tuck it into your pocket or your bra. The scent of the oil will help support you throughout the day, and people will comment on how lovely the scent is. You will be sure to feel slightly better about life in general, as the energetic presence of the oil will bring you a sense of calm.
Have you ever used essential oils for anxiety?