Aromatherapy is a complementary therapy that uses concentrated essential oils for their therapeutic effects. It’s a safe and effective way to relieve stress, promote relaxation and boost your mood.
Relieves Stress
To find pure essential oils for aromatherapy is vital. These essential oils can relieve stress, promote sleep, detoxify the body, and decrease pain. For example, the lemon essential oil is a calming scent that can help you relax and ease anxiety. It’s said to be effective at reducing cortisol levels, which is the stress hormone, and it can also stimulate dopamine production in your brain, helping you feel better. These natural remedies can also boost your mood and reduce your risk of chronic diseases.
It’s also an anxiolytic, a compound that helps alleviate anxiety symptoms. The oil can be diffused into the air to produce a relaxing scent, or you can inhale it directly from a cotton ball or tissue when diluted. There are many benefits of using pure essential oils in aromatherapy, but ensuring you’re using high-quality products is crucial.
Promotes Sleep
Aromatherapy has a long history of being used to promote relaxation and sleep. It’s a natural alternative to synthetic sleep aids, and many people use it as a tool to establish a bedtime routine.
Essential oils attach to the olfactory bulb in the nose, then travel to parts of the brain that control mood and emotions. Then, the fats trigger a range of neurotransmitters that promote feelings of calm and ease stress.
In addition, many oils stimulate the production of melatonin and serotonin, neurotransmitters that help people fall asleep. These chemicals also help regulate the circadian rhythm, which controls your body’s natural sleep cycle.
Using pure essential oils in aromatherapy is effective in helping people get to sleep and stay asleep. However, it’s necessary to buy only a quality product. The best way to ensure you’re purchasing pure essential oil is to look for the Latin name of the plant, its purity, and other information on the label. Then, ensure the company is reputable and has been in business for several years.
Detoxifies the Body
Using pure essential oils in aromatherapy can detoxify your body by assisting the liver, kidneys, digestive system, and skin to eliminate harmful chemicals. This is essential to maintaining your health as we are exposed to toxins in our environment and daily lives.
The lymphatic system is also responsible for removing toxins in our bodies. It works to remove waste by opening up pores and promoting the flow of blood. Moving your body more can also help the skin release toxins, increasing sweat.
Some detoxifying oils include lemon, grapefruit, fennel, and peppermint.
These are all wonderful for supporting detoxification as they stimulate the immune system, encourage lymphatic circulation, and have diuretic properties. Detoxing oils can also be used in massages, such as bath water, compresses, foot soaks, or spray mists to support the body’s elimination systems. They can be applied directly to the skin or diluted in a carrier oil before use.
Decreases Pain
Whether it is a muscle strain, pain from a chronic disease, or just the normal day-to-day discomfort of life, using pure essential oils in aromatherapy can decrease pain. The fragrance of the oil stimulates olfactory nerves in the nose and brain. The olfactory nerves then send signals to the brain, releasing a chemical that makes you feel better.
If you suffer from a chronic pain condition, aromatherapy can help decrease the medication you need and reduce your pain level. For example, a study showed that lavender essential oil effectively reduced pain after surgery to remove a clogged coronary artery. Moreover, aromatherapy may reduce anxiety and stress, which in turn can decrease pain. Specifically, aromatherapy can reduce pain during labor and delivery and postoperative pain.
Relieves Anxiety
Essential oils can help ease anxiety by calming the mind and body. They’re usually inhaled but can be applied topically to the skin or added to a bath. Lavender oil (Lavandula angustifolia) is a favorite for aromatherapy and is thought to help reduce stress, relieve tension, and promote sleep. It has a slightly sweet and floral scent that helps promote heart health.
Another popular essential oil for easing anxiety is ylang-ylang (Cananga odorata). Like lavender, it contains linalool as its main active ingredient.
In addition to relieving anxiety, ylang-ylang essential oil has been shown to lower blood pressure, heart rate, and cortisol levels in people with coronary artery disease.
If you have anxiety, try calming your nerves by taking a few deep breaths and thinking about something positive. Breathing deeply helps to stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system, which relaxes the body and mind. If you want to use essential oils to ease anxiety, look for pure products with the highest quality oil. Some essential oils can be dangerous to ingest or inhale, so always use them cautiously.
