Transcript**

Essential Oils: Brain Health Allies for Relieving Stress and Anxiety

Hello dear friend. It’s Dr. Sarah.

The collective “we”, meaning the global population, has been experiencing a lot of turmoil these past few years. Due to the constant upheaval and uncertainty in the world, many are struggling emotionally.

Throughout the mental health crisis, I have shared holistic, integrative, naturopathic medicine solutions, natural remedies, and essential oil tips to aid with calming the mind-body and supporting physical wellness. Using these tools to soothe emotions, our brain can better focus, learn and pay attention. We also enhance our resiliency as a result.

Essential oils are a particularly beneficial tool because they can assist brain health at the root causes of dysfunction as they intercept stress at the level of perception. These aromatic molecules have the capacity to stop the negative downstream physiological consequences in their biochemical tracks.

By modulating neurotransmitters and hormones, acting as neuroprotective agents, shifting brain activity, and directly acting at the emotional brain, essential oils offer a multi-dimensional approach to stress relief and mental health. Their molecular actions also address underlying issues that can cause brain imbalances. For example, essential oils can decrease inflammation, act as antioxidants, assist with digestion, ward off infections, support the microbiome, and more.

In this tip, I want to share with you two of my most popular recommendations for modulating stress and supporting my clients’ brains when the world is overwhelming. I decided to focus on blends, because they aren’t as well-known for relaxing the mind as single oils, such as lavender. I do have my preferred brands, but you can always find similar blends from your favorite, quality essential oil supplier.

As always, all the links to references, past articles, clinical tips, and additional information will be listed in the resource section.

Now, let’s get started!

 

Relieve Stress and Banish Worry with this Mix of Essential Oils

The first blend I use is appropriately named for its ability to alleviate the negative ramifications of stress on the body, mind, spirit, and heart. This Stress Relief blend contains a beautiful mix of oils that work through various mechanisms.

 

The Stress Relief Blend

The stress relief blend I use contains:

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. It contains beta-caryophyllene, a molecule that acts on a cannabinoid receptor (CB2). CB2 stimulation provides physiological benefits without hallucinogenic effects. Copaiba is relaxing to the mind, decreases inflammation, and supports the brain, skeletal system, and much more.

Ocotea quixos – known as “American cinnamon”, has a warm and relaxing scent. This oil has many properties based on its diversity of chemical compounds. The cinnamaldehyde it contains has some evidence for supporting blood sugar. This can be very helpful during overwhelming times, as blood sugar is impacted by stressful triggers and can affect blood flow to the heart and brain.

Vanilla – this is not a true essential oil, but an extract or oleoresin. It has preliminary evidence for uplfiting the mood. It also has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.

I have recently become obsessed with vanilla oil. I just love the smell! I’m combining it with many oils for diffusing and wearing it as perfume. It’s also wonderful to mix with citrus oils for an elating yet soothing experience. Look for ethically sourced, pure vanilla oleoresin for the best quality.

 

Calming the Nervous System and Nourishing the Vagus Nerve with the Parasympathetic Blend

The Parasympathetic Blend is my second go-to oil blend for calming down my clients nervous system 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 is a specialized combination of two oils that can be applied behind the earlobe, on the mastoid bone, as a way to influence the vagus nerve. By stimulating this tenth cranial nerve, 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 division of the autonomic nervous system (ANS), the part of our of nervous system that subconsciously controls the smooth muscles of all our organs and allows our body to relax.

The Parasympathetic blend contains 25% clove and 75% distilled lime in fractioned coconut oil. Clove oil is high in eugenol, is stimulating, and is anti-inflammatory. It has medium sized molecules which makes it absorb at a slower rate than tiny molecules. Clove oil can be blended with the smaller molecules found in lime oil to make it faster acting on the vagus nerve. Lime oil also aids with detoxification (it may upregulate glutathione) and is uplifting.

The body can be trained to calm down through this application of clove and distilled lime oils. In time, the smell of the blend alone can elicit the relaxation response through its association.

 

Summing Up on Essential Oil Blends for Combating Stress and Soothing the Mind

Through their aromatic and biochemical properties, essential oils can help to relieve our stress as they support our brain health and overall wellness.

Blends of essential oils can be a powerful way to boost the effects of  single oils through multiple mechanisms. The stress relief blend soothes the mind and body and can halt the detrimental ramifications of stress on the body, mind, spirit, and heart. The Parasympathetic blend can be used to shift the nervous system from a state of alarm to one of calm. This has multiple benefits for optimizing bodily processes.

I hope you and your loved ones can use this information to access a more serene life during these tumultuous times.

Thank you so much for taking the time to learn how to nourish and nurture your mind, body, and soul.

I would love to hear from you on what your favorite oils and blends are for stress in the comment section. Also, feel free to share what I can do to support you more. Your feedback helps to guide my focus on topics for my blogs and social media.

Sending you many blessings.

 

Resources

**Transcript has been edited for grammar and ease of reading.

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Disclaimer: This material is for information purposes only and is not intended to diagnose, treat, or prescribe for any illness. You should check with your doctor regarding implementing any new strategies into your wellness regime. These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. (Affiliation link.)

This information is applicable ONLY for therapeutic quality essential oils. This information DOES NOT apply to essential oils that have not been tested for purity and standardized constituents. There is no quality control in the United States, and oils labeled as “100% pure” need only to contain 5% of the actual oil. The rest of the bottle can be filled with fillers and sometimes toxic ingredients that can irritate the skin. The studies are not based solely on a specific brand of an essential oil, unless stated. Please read the full study for more information.

Thanks Pixabay and Canva.