Essential Oils That Help With Anxiety
Anxiety is describes as a feeling of unease, worry or fear. It's a completely normal, yet unpleasant part of life that is likely to affect you at some point or another. For most people anxiety will come and go with life events such as starting a new job, moving house or planning a family, but for some people anxiety is a continuous battle against thoughts that appear to be far worse than they are in reality.
Over the years there have been a number of medications and therapies introduced to suppress feelings of anxiety. Depending on the severity of the problem, you could be prescribed anything from counselling and talking treatments to antidepressants and tranquillisers.
What
if you didn't need any of that?
What if there was an effective and inexpensive way of reducing the symptoms of anxiety without the need for physical therapy or pharmaceutical medication? Well, we might just have the answer you're looking for.
Essential
oils
have been around for many years, and are proven to be able to help
people relax in a number of ways including reducing stress, calming
the mind and body, inducing sleep and decreasing depression.
Different scents resonate with the brain and body in different ways,
so we've picked out some of the best essential oils to help with
stress and anxiety:
You might be familiar with drinking chamomile tea as a way of winding down at the end of a busy day. This is because it has properties that are able to calm your mind, relieve stress and improve digestion. Add a few drops to the bath or in your aroma humidifier or oil burner before bed to significantly calm the atmosphere in your home ready for a peaceful nights' sleep.
Probably the most common essential oil, Lavender has an array of benefits including being a nervous system restorative that helps with sleep, irritability, panic attacks and nervous stomach. It's a good idea to rub a blend of lavender oil and coconut oil on the back of your neck or on the soles of your feet for a natural anxiety remedy at night time.
Ever wondered why roses are given as a token of affection? That's probably because the smell of roses has been said to help relieve depression by releasing a feel-good hormone in the human brain. This makes it an ideal scent for encouraging happy thoughts and reducing feelings of stress, depression and anxiety.
When you're feeling stressed, your heart rate increases and your blood pressure rises, this can lead to palpitations and panic attacks. Ylang Ylang has been shown to promote feelings of comfort and reduce a racing heart rate. This particular oil has also been said to fight depression and has an uplifting scent that will calm you down after a long day at work.
Used in patients with IBS, peppermint is known to help indigestion which is heavily linked to nerves. If peppermint tea doesn't sound very appealing to you, simply rub a drop of peppermint oil to the temples, forehead and over the sinuses to alleviate mental fatigue and promote a sense of clarity.
Perhaps one of the most unexpected oils on our list, Clary Sage is actually one of the most beneficial in terms of reducing the affects of stress and anxiety. Clary Sage oil works as an antidepressant, relieves hypertension and can act as a mild sedative. It's also been said to, in some cases, promote a feeling of euphoria!
Although commonly used as an additive to cleaning agents, Lemon has significant affects on the nervous and immune systems. It's refreshing scent has both purifying and uplifting properties and can be used to combat stress, depression and negative emotions.
So, if you feel like you could be suffering with stress or anxiety, try one of our fantastic essential oil blends before you see a doctor. You might just surprise yourself.