I have experienced deep healing by using essential oils to process my grief and trauma.
For those of you who don't know me, or haven't ventured far on my page, my older brother passed away when I was 13. More of my heart with that can be found in other post on my page, or I would love to connect with you if you have more questions.
The point of this blog is this: I have found deep healing processing my grief with using essential oils and I want you to find healing too. Essential oils can be used in so many ways. If you haven't gone through grief yet, they can help you process your emotions. Emotions can be overwhelming, I have found that using essential oils helps me navigate them with a more gentle approach.
The more I read and researched about how essential oils work with emotions, I couldn't stop. It was fascinating to me. I wanted to share what I have learned so far.
What is emotion? Emotion is a conscious mental reaction (such as anger or fear) subjectively experienced as a strong feeling usually directed toward a specific object and typically accompanied by a physiological and behavioral changes in the body.
Emotions have a positive and negative side. What happens when we stuff negative emotions? They are held in the body at a cellular level and eventually produce physical or emotional pain.
What exactly are essential oils? An essential oil is an aromatic, volatile liquid that is within many shrubs, flowers, trees, roots, bushes, and seeds and is extracted through steam distillation. It is the “lifeblood” of the plant, meaning when the plant is torn or scraped, it releases essential oils to repair the damages!
This explanation of how essential oils work helped it make sense to me:
Essential oil molecules are the same size or smaller than the molecules are bodies are made up of. They can penetrate our cell membranes and work within our bodies to repair damages and make the cells healthy again! Because essential Oils are made up of hundreds of constituents, each oil can have many effects on our body. Each oil has so many uses!
Young Living sets the highest standards to get these amazing essential oils into our homes. They have the Seed to Seal promise, assuring that there is nothing but goodness in these bottles. Check out more info on that here:https://www.youngliving.com/en_US/discover/seed-to-seal.
Young Living products are truly pure and therapeutic, we are confident using these products in our homes, on our skin and in our bodies.
Essential oils can do amazing things. We encourage you to research, ask questions, and explore! Essential oils are fun but they are also powerful (in the best way).
I cannot stress enough the importance of using the highest quality oils on and around your body. Young Living products are a product you can trust because of quality ingredients and their seed to seal promise.
Essential oils are anywhere from 100 to 10,000 times more concentrated than the solid form of the plant and can cross the blood-brain barrier and stimulate the limbic system. When the limbic system is engaged in this way it can release negative emotional patterns and allows for reprogramming positive messages and associations.
Whenever these memories and feelings arise that are either positive or negative, they are stored in the Limbic System of the brain. Two parts of the Limbic System that play a major role in this are the Amygdala and the Hippocampus. Both the Amygdala and Hippocampus are located less than and inch from the olfactory (sense of smell).
Essential oils have something called sesquiterpenes that help to increase the oxygen in the limbic system which will “unlock” the DNA and allows emotional baggage ro be released from cellular memory.
Whenever I smell fresh baked bread I go directly back to my Grandparents house watching my Grandma knead dough and take the fresh loaves out of the oven. What is a scent that takes you back to a certain time in your life?
The sense of smell is the only one of the five sense that is directly linked to the limbic lobe of the brain (the emotional control center). Anxiety, depression, anger and joy all emanate from this region.
The Limbic System is our “Emotional Brain”, this controls stress, memory, mood, etc. The Limbic System also works with our endocrine system (helps with hormone regulation) and our autonomic nervous system (our “fight or flight” response), as well as gastrointestinal function, heart rate, body temperature and sexual arousal.
So, every time you are feeling an emotion, your whole body is effected. Isn’t that crazy?!
The Amygdala is only affected by scent. In the amygdala emotions and memories of life are stored. Since essential oils have the ability to cross the blood-brain barrier and stimulate the amygdala, buried feelings such as past trauma, emotional upset and unhappy memories can be released and brought to the surface of awareness. When these things are realized, this emotional pattern will dim or may even completely disappear. FREEDOM.
Smelling a certain scent can change your brain pattern. When you smell scent and feel happy, you’re not just making that up! Scent directly affects your brain.
Once you smell something, the hippocampus is engaged. Once the hippocampus is engaged, it sends strong emotional signals that travel all throughout the body. Spreading into the digestive system, heart, penetrating at the cellular level and “unlocking” the DNA and allowing the emotional baggage to be released from cellular memory.
Let’s set those emotions free so we can be free, amen!?
Some (of many) oils that are good for emotions:
Frankincense
Frankincense is known as the “holy anointing oil” and is well known in biblical history for anointing and for it’s healing powers.
Frankincense has compounds that have been studied extensively and aid in the rewiring of DNA.
This oil is deeply relaxing. Diffuse it during yoga, smell it when you’re feeling stressed, hold it next to you as you take a few deep breaths.
Common uses: anxiety, depression, fear, grief, peace, stress
Lemon
Lemon can help improve memory. This one is definitely a mood booster! This oil is invigorating, enhancing and warming.
Diffuse it in the morning, add it to your daily water, open the bottle when you feel sad.
Common uses: sadness, regret, concentration, depression, fatigue
Peppermint
Peppermint as been studied for its ability to directly affect the brain’s satiety center (the ventromedial nucleus of the hypothalamus), which triggers a sensation of fullness after meals. This one is a great one to grab if you are an emotional eater (hello, chocolate) and see if your emotions are in check before you eat the whole Hershey bar.
Peppermint is great for those days where you can't wake up, but you need to wake up (physically and emotionally). One sniff of this baby and you're on your way (out the door or to digging a little deeper into what your emotion is telling you).
Common uses: fatigue, memory/concentration, stress headaches
Lavender
Lavender is calming, relaxing and balancing. Lavender has been proven to help concentration and focus.
The University of Miami researchers found that inhalation of lavender oil increased beta waves in the brain, suggesting heightened relaxation. It also reduced depression and improved cognitive performance (Diego MA, et al. 1998).
Common uses: abandonment, fear, anxiety, irritability, stress, grief