The wonderful healing properties of aromatherapy oils, and how you can be using them in your home care routine to maintain optimum health.
Smell has a powerful effect on our spirits as it’s linked to our limbic system, the part of the brain that controls mood and emotion. Here are some of my favourite uplifting, mood boosting oils that can be used either on their own or together.
Citrus essential oils
These are my favourite go to when I feel in need of a lift in energy and mood. Bergamot, orange, mandarin, grapefruit and lemon have refreshing and cleansing qualities that ease depressive stress. Their warm, fresh and fruity aromas are inherently joyful and harmonising...
Bergamot has a really beautiful aroma that can help lift our mood and focus the mind. It is a great antidepressant because it’s very stimulating. Bergamot can create a feeling of joy, freshness and energy by improving the circulation of your blood. It has an ability to both relax the nerves and refresh the spirit.
Orange oil with its warm, sunny and sweet aroma helps to convey joy and positivity. It can also help us take a more relaxed approach, encouraging more adaptability.
Grapefruit oil is essential clarifying, refreshing and uplifting, prompting a feeling of lightness by easing heavy feelings.
Mandarin essential oil is used by aromatherapists as a general tonic to help with stress and tension and has a delightfully cheering fragrance. Its warm, fresh and fruity aroma is inherently joyful and harmonising.
Lemon essential oil has a wonderfully zesty, sharp and refreshing aroma and is a traditional antiseptic and purifier. It is also useful for helping to clear blemished skin – add a few drops to a bowl of hot water and then put your face over it while you take slow deep breaths.
Uplifting oils
Other oils that are wonderfully beneficial when feeling in need of a lift are lavender, rosemary and clary sage...
Lavender has a gentle balancing action which is reputed to be able to either calm or stimulate depending on what is needed. It has long been used to lift mood and has long been used to help battle depression.
Rosemary oil has wonderfully uplifting effects with its warming and invigorating properties.I find it useful to inspire and boost morale.
Clary Sage is also another of my favourite oils that i turn to when I need inspiration and is naturally euphoric in its properties. Strengthening yet relaxing, clary sage is emotionally uplifting, wonderful when feeling mentally fatigued.
Reconnect with joy
Many have experienced high levels of stress due to financial uncertainty in these times. This can make people withdraw into a shell and stop experiencing joy altogether, with feelings of being uninspired and low enthusiasm.
A perfect oil to help us connect back to feelings of joy is Ylang ylang. With its powerfully sweet, exotic and heady fragrance, similar to jasmine, it can help to calm the nervous system during times of depression and stress. It has amazing benefits for helping stave off depression and negative emotions associated with depression. Inhaling Ylang ylang can have immediate, positive effects on your mood and act like a mild, remedy for depression. Research shows it can help release negative emotions such as anger and low self-esteem. Ylang ylang works because of its mild sedative effects, which can lower stress responses helping you relax. To enhance confidence, mood and self-love, try diffusing the oil in your home.
Mood boosting scents
The unknown can leave people feeling helpless leading towards feelings of despair and a negative outlook. Ginger and Cardamon are lesser known oils that can help boost our mood and spirits...
Ginger essential oil can boost moral with its spicy scent sparking the will and awakening the senses. It can help activate will power and restore determination and optimism through its dynamic essence.
Cardamon essential oil can be recommended for despondency and indifference. It can uplift through its ability to stimulate our appetite for life, providing the much needed boost to keep you going and encouraging you to be proactive. Innately stabilising and balancing, it is helpful in times when we feel weighed down by worries and our endurance tested.
Self care ideas
Blissful bath blends Let the blues float away by adding four drops of lemon and four drops of ylang ylang to a warm bath just before you step in for the ideal, quick pick-me-up. Or if you need a little extra get up and go, try adding four drops of mandarin together with four drops of bergamot to the bathtub to feel wonderfully refreshed and rejuvenated.
Room revitaliser Add six drops of lemon, two drops of lavender and two drops of bergamot to a burner or diffuser to bring a fresh outdoor scent into your home and make spirits soar.
I have very much missed my client contact and caring for you all face to face. I am so looking forward to connecting again soon when I am able to recommence my holistic therapies and aromatherapy massage at my new venue at the delightful Chapel House in Penzance. Until then, I hope you find these ideas inspiring.