The Best Essential Oils to Help Ease Stress and Anxiety

Stress is a killer. Like, no, but really. Studies have shown that stress can actually exacerbate or lead to serious health problems. Are we stressing you out? Sorry, we’re supposed to just be talking about beauty here. So, it’s worth mentioning that stress also doesn’t do you any favors in the looks department. Stress is widely known to wreak havoc on your skin, causing wrinkles (worry lines, anyone), breakouts and even eczema. Increased cortisol levels can lead to unhealthy weight gain or loss. Finding a way to manage your stress levels can be crucial to feeling good and looking good. 

It’s no secret that as a collective, our stress level is way up. The last several years have brought unimaginable worry and hardships. Even before the pandemic, stress and anxiety had emerged as a widespread issue in our fast-paced lives. It’s been reported by The American Institute of Stress that 77 percent of people experience stress that affects their physical health and general wellbeing with 33 percent report feeling ‘extreme stress’. 

Having some go-to ‘feel better’ tricks to help calm your body and mind can be invaluable. Enter, essential oil. As mom knows, often the best therapies are the original ones. Aromatherapy has been used since ancient times to experience emotions of tranquility and relaxation. Inhaling and topically applying organic and sustainable essential oils can assist in relieving stress, sleeplessness, or depression. These potent natural extracts work via stimulating areas of the brain that are accountable for our emotions. When coupled with mindfulness, essential oils can dramatically help change negative emotions, calm the mind, and decrease stress. 

Studies have shown positive results with essential oils towards raising the participants’ moods. Because the scents are carried to the brain without delay, they serve as emotional triggers. The limbic system evaluates the sensory stimuli, indicating pleasure, pain, hazard, or safety. This action then forms and sooner or later affects our emotional response, which can include thoughts of fear, anger, and depression.

Our primary thoughts and hormonal balance are often triggered in response to the most predominant aromas. This makes odors very influential in our day-to-day lives because they’re a road to memory and emotion — which is why they can help to fight depression and anxiety.

Whether you choose to simply dab a drop of the mixed oil in your hands and breathe in, make your own special blend or seek out natural beauty and wellness products with the oils, it’s a great way to find a bit of calm respite. 

It’s important to note that essential oils should never be ingested or used in full strength directly on the skin. They need to be mixed with a carrier oil, like coconut or mineral oil for skin treatment or water vapor for aromatherapy treatment. Never swallow essential oils. 

Some essential oils that have shown to have positive actions when it comes to stress, anxiety, depression, mental health, and overall mood, include Bergamot, Lavender, Ylang Ylang, Chamomile and Frankincense. Below are some ideas of how you may want to incorporate these key essential oils into your self-care and beauty routine. 

1. Bergamot Essential Oil

Bergamot essential oil can promote an experience of happiness and power by improving blood circulation. It’s additionally thought to have the potential to serve as a natural treatment for anxiety. (1)

One research confirmed that using a blended essential oil that included bergamot helped participants deal with depression. The blend of essential oils mixed bergamot with lavender oils, and participants have been examined primarily based on their blood pressure, respiratory, and temperature and emotional status in phrases of relaxation, energy, calmness, attentiveness, and temperament to evaluate behavioral modifications.

The study confirms the relaxing effect of bergamot organic oil, and it gives records for its use in medication for helping to manage depression or anxiety in humans. (2)

You can use bergamot oil via rubbing two to three drops of a mixture into your hands and cupping them on your mouth and nose and inhaling. Another way is the oil can be applied with the aid of massaging a diluted mixture on your feet and abdomen.

2. Lavender Essential Oil

One of the most revered and necessary oils for inner peace is Lavender.

Lavender essential oil is a must-have if you frequently experience stress and anxiety. It’s been proven to help restore the nervous system by lowering blood pressure and heartbeats. It can help soothe nerves, relieve restlessness, and promote sleep quality.

Lavender oil benefits temper and has primarily been employed to help combat depression. A study mentioned that 80-milligram of lavender essential oil can alleviate anxiousness and depression. This is a piece of excellent news due to the fact we understand that synthetic, medicinal drugs and psychotropic prescriptions have several undesirable adverse effects. (3)

Additionally, another study revealed that lavender aromatherapy accelerated mood in men and women with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which, if left untreated, can result in depression. Lavender oil had outstanding results, displaying signs and symptoms of improved mood and feelings. The results demonstrated that the lavender oil, when utilized daily, helped limit depression by 32.7% and efficiently reduced sleep problems, and moodiness. (4)

To minimize stress and enhance sleep, put a diffuser by your bedside and diffuse oils while you relax in bed at night or in the lounge while you’re studying or switching off for the evening. Additionally, it can be applied topically with a rollerball bottle to your temples and wrists, just make sure to mix the oil with a carrier oil beforehand.

Product highlight: We recommend relaxing bath and body Lavender Essential Oil line of products. The beautiful and soft aromas will immediately calm the senses. Weleda products are certified natural by NATRUE. Dermatologically tested. Free from synthetic preservatives, fragrances, colorants or raw materials from mineral oils. Some of the key products they offer are lavender essential oil body wash and body oil.

“The relaxing scent of pure lavender essential oil helps melt away tension, soothe sensitive skin and enhance circulation, bringing your skin into healthy balance.”

3. Ylang Ylang Essential Oil

Ylang Ylang’s essential oil may help alleviate depression and anxiety due to its calming and uplifting characteristics. This oil helps with optimism, courage, confidence, and fearfulness. It might also soothe anxiety related to heart, frightened palpitations, and can help with restlessness.

A study led with the aid of Korean College, which applied ylang ylang oil, once a day for a month, noted lowered psychological stress responses, cortisol levels, and blood pressure in patients with hypertension. (5) Make sure to avoid the use of ylang-ylang in conditions of low blood pressure.

4. Chamomile Essential Oil

Chamomile is one of the leading therapeutic oils for combating stress and encouraging relaxation. That is why you see chamomile as a frequent ingredient in candles and other aromatherapy goods, whether in tincture, tea, or essential oil composition.

A peaceful, calming aroma, chamomile helps with inner stability and reduces irritability, overthinking concern, and distress. A study examination on the antidepressant action of chamomile essential oil discovered that it provides a clinically significant antidepressant impact that happens in extension to its anxiolytic activity. (6)

The Center for Complementary and Integrative Health often observed that chamomile had been demonstrated to ease nervousness. (7)

Product highlight: We highly recommend is Agent Nateur. One of their staple ingredients for various products is chamomile. Products include everything from a cleansing face oil, to an ageless eye serum. Agent Nateur is a Los Angeles-based, female-owned company. They believe in protecting Mother Earth and use glass and other recyclable materials for packaging.

Other great oils that can be used to care for your mental well-being:

• Frankincense Essential Oil

Frankincense oil is incredible for easing feelings of depression and anxiety because it offers calming and peaceful energy, as well as a sense of grounding. In aromatherapy, it assists in deepening meditation and quieting the mind.

A study performed by the University of Korea, necessary frankincense oil was once observed to have a high-quality effect on pain and depression in palliative hospice patients with terminal cancer. (8)

• Vetiver Essential Oil

Vetiver essential oil has a calming, grounding, and reassuring energy, frequently applied in healing trauma with self-awareness. It’s also used as a common nervous system healer, as it reduces jitteriness, hypersensitivity, and is also useful for minimizing panic attacks and shock.

A recent study inspecting anxiety-like behavior concluded that vetiver essential oil could be beneficial in reducing anxiety, even though a more significant investigation is needed to authenticate this finding. (9)

● Geranium Rose Essential Oil

One of the leading health advantages of geranium rose essential oil is it’s very pacifying to the emotional heart and perhaps the most reliable after Lavender for relieving nervousness, depression, panic attacks, grief, and shock.

In one study, one team of participants received a 10-minute inhalation and footbath with geranium rose oil, while other groups underwent a 10-minute warm-water footbath. The conclusions confirmed aromatherapy with geranium rose reduces nervousness, especially in pregnant women. (10)

Story by: Romilly Anne Glenton