Essential Oils and Anxiety
I am often approached by young women wanting to know if essential oils can help their anxiety. The good news is that there's a lot of research on this topic. Orange essential oil, for example, was effective in helping women overcome their anxiety in labor. So was geranium. Lavender reduced preoperative anxiety in ambulatory surgery patients.
Because of the connection the sense of smell has on the amygdala (which I discussed in my last blog post), essential oils can help that fight or flight response in all animals - including the human animal!
The examples listed above deal with acute anxiety - anxiety related to a specific situation. When people have chronic anxiety (which I have dealt with myself), the answer is a little more complicated. By the way, I am not a doctor so I am not trying to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease; let's just make that clear. I'm sharing what has gotten me off the path of chronic anxiety.
What I want to ask people when they want to know if essential oils can help their anxiety is this:
Are you a chronic people pleaser?
Are you a perfectionist?
Are you more worried about what others think of you than what you think of yourself?
When you are asked what you want, whether it's which movie to see, restaurant to go to, or what you want out of life, do you have a hard time answering?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, you'll need to deal with that need-to-please perfectionism. Perfection isn't attainable. It really isn't.
The good news is that perfectionism isn't the key to leading a whole-hearted life - vulnerability is. I recommend reading Brene Brown's Gifts of Imperfection if you struggle with this and want to learn more.
Can essential oils help you in your journey to whole-hearted wellness? Absolutely! I think if you struggle with chronic anxiety you need to show yourself some compassion. I recommend the following Young Living essential oil blends for that:
Acceptance
Forgiveness
Freedom
Gathering
Harmony
Hope
Release
Surrender
Valor
If you want more information on bringing essential oils in to your life, send me an email at kristen@sunshineknoll.com.