If you’ve heard some of the benefits of essential oils and want to learn more about the wonders of aromatherapy, you’ve come to the right place! Many people are a little bit skeptical about the benefits of essential oils at first. However, just because something is natural doesn’t mean that it’s not powerful and effective.
In fact, essential oils just go to show that something taken straight from nature can be extremely beneficial to your mood and overall health. So here’s everything you need to know about essential oils and your emotions:
What Are Essential Oils?
Essential oils are extracted from different plants and give off a certain essence depending on the unique plant source. They are extracted through either steaming or pressing methods that may focus on different areas of the plant, including the flowers, leaves, bark, or even the fruit! Believe it or not, but one tiny bottle of essential oil requires several pounds of a plant to produce. Not all plants produce essential oils, but those that do can be extremely beneficial for a variety of different reasons.
Can Essential Oils Affect Emotions?
Essential oils don’t just smell amazing, but they can actually offer real benefits when it comes to emotions and mood. Essential oil molecules enter your body through your nose and interact with your olfactory sensory neurons. These neurons send signals to the limbic lobe of the brain. The limbic lobe consists of your amygdala, hypothalamus, hippocampus, and other important components. Together, these components are largely responsible for regulating emotion, behavior, memory, learning, and motivation.
Depending on the specific type of essential oil, your body can respond in one of a few ways. It can either release endorphins that help you relax, serotonin that helps calm you down, or noradrenaline that acts as a stimulant and energizes you. As you can see, essential oils can definitely affect emotions!
Specific Essential Oils and Their Effect on Emotions
That being said, not all essential oils have the same effect on emotions as others. For example, some essential oils are great for relaxing and soothing the brain. Others are great for stimulating the brain and helping you get to work!
So depending on what you’re looking for, you need to know the effects of different essential oils on your brain and body so that you can use them correctly to always be in a good mood. Here’s a quick guide on a few specific essential oils and how they make you feel:
- Lavender oil is a great stress-relieving essential oil that helps you relax. It’s also great at promoting sleep and combatting stress and worrying that can contribute to insomnia.
- Bergamot oil helps uplift your mood, making you feel better and more at peace. This is ideal for people who work in high-stress environments that create stress and worry even when they’re back at home.
- Rose oil helps reduce adrenaline levels and can really help you out if you’re nervous about a big work presentation or meeting. By decreasing your nervous system activity, you can remain calm, cool, and collected no matter what’s going on around you.
- Ylang-ylang essential oil helps to reduce feelings of anxiety, decrease high blood pressure, and can even reduce your body temperature. All of this combined will get you feeling back to your amazing self in no time!
- Peppermint oil is a great stimulating essential oil that can help you get past your mid-afternoon slump at work without consuming a ton of caffeine! This oil promotes concentration and mental sharpness so that you can really do your best work.
- Citrus oil is another stimulating oil that can help lift you out of your bad mood and put you in better spirits.
- Rosemary oil also helps stimulate the nervous system and can increase focus and memory to help you be at the top of your game.
How to Use Essential Oils for Emotions?
There are several different ways that you can utilize essential oils to help impact your emotions. Here are our favorites:
- Essential oil diffuser: One of the best ways to use essential oils for your emotions is through an essential oil diffuser. An essential oil diffuser dilutes a few drops of essential oil with water, turns it into a fine mist that is then spread throughout a room. All you have to do is place your diffuser on a flat location that isn’t in a high traffic area where it would be easily knocked over.
Also, make sure to keep it away from electronics or paper documents that would be affected by exposure to water droplets. Fill up the base container with water and add in a few drops of your favorite essential oil. Turn it on and watch it work its magic on your feelings and emotions!
- Essential oil massage: Another way to use essential oils is through a massage. There are massage products out there with essential oils already in them. However, you can also make your own at home!
All you need to do is dilute your favorite essential oil with a carrier oil. From there, you can rub this mixture directly into your skin for a relaxing massage that will help soothe all your stress and can even help to relieve muscle aches and pains at the same time!
- Essential oil bath: If you really want to take your relaxation to the next level, then you should definitely try out an essential oil bath. There is a wide variety of bath products out there that contain essential oils, including bath bombs, soap bars, shampoos, conditioners, and body washes.
However, if you really want to get the most out of your essential oil, you can put your favorite essential oil directly into your bathwater! Just make sure to dilute it with a carrier oil first since the oil on its own will float on top of the water and just stick to your skin.
So to make your perfect bath mixture, combine 5 to 10 drops of essential oil with a tablespoon of carrier oils like jojoba oil, almond oil, grapeseed oil, or argan oil. Add this mixture to your bathwater right before you get in and make sure to set the entire scene with calming music and dimmed lights to really get the most out of your calming and relaxing bath.
What to Look for in an Essential Oil Diffuser?
Since one of the quickest and easiest ways to use essential oil to benefit your emotions is through an essential oil diffuser, we are going to go a little bit more in-depth into these amazing little devices so that you can find the perfect one for your home.
This is because not all essential oil diffusers are created equal, so we are going to give you some key things to look for when shopping for a new diffuser:
- Make sure that your product is ETL-certified, meaning that it has been well-tested in terms of safety and reliability.
- Look for an essential oil diffuser that has a high capacity water tank that doesn’t have to be refilled all the time! That way, you can set it up, forget about it, and continue to reap the benefits of your amazing essential oils. Our essential oil diffuser has a 400mL tank that can provide you with over 13 hours of diffusion before it needs to be refilled. This definitely beats the 200mL average capacity of other diffusers!
- Look for an essential oil diffuser with multiple timer options so that you can customize the amount of time that the device is on. Most devices will automatically shut off when they run out of water, but other devices actually allow you to set one hour, three hour, or six-hour timers! That way, you can just set it and forget it.
- Look for an essential oil diffuser that incorporates LED lights to really set the mood in your room. This essential oil diffuser features seven colors that you can choose from, including yellow, green, aqua, blue, purple, violet, and red. There’s also a “carousel” option that switches between colors for a beautiful rainbow effect.
- Look for an essential oil diffuser that offers variable mist output levels. That way, you can decide whether you want a more powerful effect from your favorite oil or a more subtle one based on your needs.
- Finally, look for an aesthetically-pleasing essential oil diffuser that will fit seamlessly into your home decor. For example, our essential oil diffuser features a beautiful flower vase shape and either a dark or light wooden finish. That way, your device will look as good as it makes you feel!
Using essential oils is a great way to impact your emotions and so much more! So the next time that you’re feeling stressed or overwhelmed, take a minute to break out your favorite essential oils, whether it’s in a diffuser, a massage oil, or a bath, to give yourself an instant pick-me-up that not even coffee or tea can beat.
Sources:
- https://thesleepdoctor.com/2018/08/07/the-relaxing-sleep-promoting-health-boosting-powers-of-lavender/#:~:text=Benefits%20of%20lavender-,For%20sleep.,deep%2C%20slow%2Dwave%20sleep
- https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/health/wellness/a20707661/essential-oils-in-bath/
- https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/caffeine-side-effects
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