Five Ways Essential Oils Can Soothe Holiday Stress and My Three Favorite Calming Single Oils and Two Oils Blend to Harmonize the Mind and Body

Sniffing Some Holiday Cheer with Essential Oils

The holidays are here! Although they bring cheer and good tidings, they can also trigger feelings of overwhelm from more shopping, additional gatherings, and extra preparations.

Alongside the seasonal challenges, significant global events have further strained our capacity to cope with everyday life hassles. These combined factors have reduced the population’s mental resiliency to an unprecedented low and can wreak havoc on the brain and body. Thankfully, the negative effects can be subdued by mind-body techniques, lifestyle practices, and aromatherapy.

Out of all integrative modalities, essential oils are my top recommendation for managing holiday stress. Their aromas subdue our mental perception of stressful stimuli, while their biological effects help re-balance the nervous system and hormonal environment.

In this video recap of health topics for the holidays, I continue to offer you suggestions on how to use essential oils to aid you through the challenges of the winter months. These aromatic allies truly do have the capacity to shift your mindset to feel more tranquil and grateful during this sacred season.

Topics in this video post include:

• Five ways essential oils can calm the mind and harmonize the body
• Three single essential oils to tame the holiday-associated mind-body chaos
• Two of my favorite soothing oil blends to taper stress
• Application tips for using essential oils for a more serene holiday season

As always, all the links to previous articles, references, and resources will be within this accompanying article.

So, let’s get started.

 

Five Ways Essential Oils Calm the Brain and Body from Stress and Holiday Havoc

Incorporating essential oils into our lives is an accessible means to relieve unrelenting stress and shift us out of survival mode into flourishing. They are a versatile tool that can enhance all holistic techniques to support our mental health during trying times.

The combination of their aroma and chemical composition allows essential oils to intervene favorably on our brain’s interpretation of the stressor. Simultaneously, their biological properties work in coordination to support the nervous system and hormonal milieu.

Essential oils can also quickly:

1. Soothe the limbic brain, immediately taming emotional and nervous system reactivity caused by stressful events
2.  Affect the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis to promote balanced communication between the brain and endocrine system via their:
   • direct influence on the release of cortisol (“the stress hormone”)
   • compounds that interact with hormone receptors (without being estrogenic)
   • anti-inflammatory effects, preventing neuronal damage
   • ability to affect neurotransmitters that interact with the HPA axis
3. Modulate vagal tone, calming the nervous system
4. Support neuroplasticity in the brain, contributing to improved behavioral response patterns
5. Influence hormones, which impacts brain function and emotional balance

 

Three Single Essential Oils for Lowering Stress and High Cortisol

Three of my favorite oils to lower stress are listed below. They are based on my clinical experience and the literature.

 

1. Clary Sage Oil

One small study with 22 menopausal women in their 50’s found that inhalation of clary sage oil could impact neurotransmitter concentrations, cortisol, and thyroid stimulating hormone. The researchers reported that participants had decreased levels of cortisol and increased 5-hydroxytrptamine (a precursor to serotonin), leading to an elevated mood and calmer state.

In my practice, I’ve seen these helpful results with clary sage oil alone and when combined with geranium oil to further support hormone balance. Postmenopausal women have reported that this mixture has assisted them with balancing their stress and mood. It can also help with modulating estrogen in women of all ages with low estrogen levels.

 

2. Lavender Oil

Lavender is known as the “universal oil” for good reason. It has been shown to benefit the brain, support emotional health, enhance sleep, improve resiliency, and alleviate anxiety. In fact, it has such convincing evidence for its use for anxiety, Germany has formulated it as a prescription medication for this indication.

One 2016 single-blind clinical trial demonstrated how just two tiny drops of lavender oil can impact anxiety and blood cortisol levels. The aroma was inhaled by 90 candidates for open-heart surgery for 20 minutes. Distilled water was used as a control. Along with an adapted questionnaire, blood samples of cortisol were taken and compared between groups. The results indicated a significant reduction in anxiety scores and a higher decline in cortisol levels in the lavender group.

More research on lavender’s beneficial impact on mental and overall health can be found here.

 

3. Bergamot Oil

Bergamot essential oil (BEO) is another popular essential oil I use to aid in calming the minds of my naturopathic clients. Clinical studies have supported its overall positive role in reducing stress, alleviating cardiovascular excitement, improving nervous system tone (as measured by heart rate variability), and decreasing anxiety symptoms. (A table from a review article which outlines seven studies on bergamot’s effects can be found here.)

A small study that explored the use of bergamot oil with 41 females is one of my favorite trials on this oil’s impact. It validated how inhalation of bergamot oil for ten minutes improved heart rate variability, cortisol levels, mood, and fatigue. (Click here for the full study.)

I have found bergamot oil to be helpful for my clients who feel “tired and wired” and can’t sleep, have experienced trauma, suffer with an anxious mind, and whose nervous system is over-excited. I also recommend diffusing this oil at night, in combination with lavender, for my athletes who are looking for faster recovery of their nervous system.

 

Two Oil Blends for Decreasing Stress, Supporting Physical Resiliency, and Elevating the Mood

Along with my three top single oils for stress, these two blends of essential oils are my first suggestions for relieving overwhelm in my clients, especially around the holidays.

 

4. Stress Relief Blend

Stress Relief blend is appropriately named for its ability to calm the mind and body and combat the negative ramifications of stress on the heart. Below is a list of the essential oils within this blend and their characteristic properties.

• Lime – a citrus oil for elevating the mood.
• Cedarwood – a comforting oil that supports sleep and neurological health.
• Lavender – an essential oil documented to relieve anxiety and combat the detrimental effects of excessive stress.
• Copaiba – a strange-sounding oil that interacts with the endocannabinoid system, a system that regulates major functions of the body. Copaiba is relaxing to the mind, and benefits the brain, skeletal system, and other organ systems.
• Ocotea – Ocotea quixos is known as “American cinnamon.” It is an oil that has a warm, soothing scent. It has many properties based on its diversity of chemical compounds. It contains cinnamaldehyde, which has some evidence for supporting blood sugar. This can be very helpful during hectic times, as blood sugar is impacted by stressful triggers and can affect optimal blood flow.
• Vanilla – this is not a true essential oil, but an extract or oleoresin. It has preliminary evidence for elevating the mood. Vanilla oil also has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. I find this oil comforting and will often diffuse it in combination with most of my oils. (I personally look for ethically sourced, pure vanilla oleoresin for the best quality.)

 

5. Calming the Nervous System and the Vagus Nerve with the Parasympathetic Blend

The Parasympathetic Blend is my second go-to oil blend for calming down my clients’ nervous systems and optimizing their gut-brain connection. It can help to melt away stress, elevate mood, boost energy, improve digestion, and regain focus.

The Parasympathetic blend contains 25% clove and 75% distilled lime in fractioned coconut oil. Clove oil is high in eugenol, it is stimulating, and anti-inflammatory. Lime oil aids with detoxification (it may upregulate glutathione) and is uplifting. Clove oil is distinctly blended with the smaller molecules found in lime oil to make the blend act quickly when applied to the vagus nerve stimulation point.

By stimulating this tenth cranial nerve with this combination of oils, we can help our nervous system shift into a “rest and digest” state and calm down our “fight and flight” reaction. This is because the vagus nerve is predominately associated with the parasympathetic nervous systems (PNS) division of the autonomic nervous system (ANS). The PNS is part of our of nervous system that subconsciously controls the smooth muscles of all our organs and allows our body to relax.

 

Applications of Soothing Essential Oils and Blends

My favorite way to use essential oils for stress and mood is via inhalation combined with topical application.*

Soothe holiday stress and support overall resiliency by picking your favorite oil or blend and:

• placing a few drops in a diffuser
• sniffing directly from the bottle
• rubbing a few drops diluted on the wrist and dabbing some on the perfume points to inhale

The Parasympathetic Blend can be applied behind the earlobe, on the mastoid bone, as a way to influence the vagus nerve.

*Note: Bergamot oil can be photosensitive (table 3 and 4). This means no sunbathing with bergamot oil slathered on you during your holiday beach vacation, or you’ll end up with a very uneven skin tone!

 

Summary: Using Essential Oils to Decrease Stress and Heighten Holiday Happiness

The stress of the holidays can lower our spirits and lead us into physical and emotional havoc. Thankfully, we have tools to combat these unwanted effects and keep our moods heightened while calming our brains and bodies.

In this post, I listed three of my favorite single oils (clary sage, lavender, and bergamot) and two essential oil blends (Stress Relief Blend and Parasympathetic Blend) to shield the negative mind-body impacts of stress attacks.

I hope you find this information helpful so that you may enjoy your holidays with less worry and more joy.

Stay tuned for more integrative tips to further enhance your wellness and resiliency through the holidays and into the new year.

Wishing you many blessings for a calm and bright holiday.

Note: Next year, I’ll be starting a regular series for my essential oils community members. So, make sure you subscribe to my newsletter to stay in-the-know about this and other up-coming offers, promotions, and educational opportunities.