With the fast pace of life, and with so much to do, many individuals find it difficult to get into a state of complete and utter relaxation. Practices like meditation and mindfulness are very helpful and much needed in today’s fast-paced environment, but incorporating essential oils to it will make these practices even more enjoyable. Oil has been used as medicine and in religious practices for generations in many civilizations. The aromas of essential oils are so natural and their bioactive substances are harmonised with the meditation process.
Essential oils can amplify the benefits of meditation in several key ways:
- Calming Effects: Some of the most familiar oils such as lavender, frankincense and bergamot are generally acknowledged as having sedative effects. Preapplying these oils or using them during meditation helps in the process to get the body into the relaxation response rapidly and thoroughly. They penetrate through the blood-brain barrier and work on nicotinic receptors in the brain, which is involved in stress regulation.
- Focus Enhancement: It is for this reason that oils such as rosemary, basil and peppermint work well, as they give an energetic flair to the brain. The cool and uplifting fragrances can help reduce the symptoms of tiredness, enhance wakefulness and attentiveness, so that one may be better able to be fully present when practicing mindfulness or meditation.
- Set The Mood: In addition to the physiological and psychological benefits, the use of essential oils enhances the aura and atmosphere of your practice area. A few drops of a somewhat grounding, otherworldly scent like patchouli or frankincense provides a pleasant scent and sets an atmosphere that encourages contemplation.
- Connect To Nature: Majority of essential oils are derived from plant’s: leaves, flowers, wood, root, or resin. Your natural self and your meditation come into the home and bring Mother Nature with it. This means that one can easily feel that they are present at that place at a certain time.
- Complement Holistic Wellness: Aromatherapy has been an essential part of healing practices from ancient times and is still practiced as a part of ancient healing systems such as Ayurveda and Traditional Chinese Medicine. When employed alongside yoga, meditation, breath-work, massage and other practices which focus on the mind and body, they benefit the whole person.
Best EO for Meditation and Mindfulness
Some of the oils are relaxing, some stimulating, and some of them are in between meaning that they help in both relaxation and stimulation of the mind. Top oils to boost meditation include:Top oils to boost meditation include:
- Lavender: Recognized as universally as the perfect sleep inducer and a total stress reliever. And also helps in regulating moods and managing anxiety.
- Frankincense: Earthy, holy, otherworldly, divine, and dignified. Traditionally has been employed to augment the practice of prayer and meditation. Calms anxiety too.
- Bergamot: A stimulating oil with pleasant citrus scents, promoting optimism and self esteem; alleviating depression, stress and anxiety.
- Patchouli: Rich, deep sweet scent of incense, producing calming, serene and eternal sleep like feelings. Helps to decrease anxiety, depressed mood, and emotional fatigue.
- Cedarwood: With its grounding properties that help in relieving tension, cedarwood aroma also aids in improving focus. It has a mild, pleasant smell that reminds one of woody or cedar environment.
- Clary Sage: Has natural phytoestrogens to which makes it help in balancing of feminine energy in the body. Inspires tranquility. Aside from that, it increases the dreamer’s creativity and intuition.
- Sweet Orange: Sour, sweet, citrus scents work to immediately shift the subject’s state of mind into a more positive and alert one. Cuts anxiety and the kinds of stress that are experienced at a deeper level of the body.
- Rose: Also known as “the queen of essential oils”. Gives the mind and heart a wonderful calming effect. Allow the heart’s love to be touched by loving compassion as well as to express it.
- Ylang Ylang: The sedative action is produced due to two active compounds that include Linalool and Geraniol. Allays the state of anxiety, fear and anger in an individual and hence provides inner feelings of tranquility.
How To Incorporate Essential Oils Into Your Meditation Practice
They are highly concentrated, which makes them to be mixed with a base oil before applying on skin. Examples of the carrier oil are almond, coconut, jojoba or grapeseed oil. Useful ways to incorporate essential oils into meditation include:Useful ways to incorporate essential oils into meditation include:
- Topical application: Pour your desired amount of drops of your desired oil(s) into the carrier oil. Apply this synergy at areas that contain blood vessels, such as the wrists, temples, back of the neck or behind the ears. Goes through skin and has scent of lavender which brings relaxation in a short time.
- Aromatic diffusion: Bless some oil in an ultrasonic or cool mist diffuser so the fine mist can ascend to your nasal olfactory once in a meditation position. They can also be placed in a very limited quantity nearby on a cotton pad or a natural porous stone. The action of inhaling the oils that evaporate is psychophysiological, instantaneous.
- Personal inhalation: Place a couple droppers full of oil in both of your hands. Bring your hands to your face and place your palms on your nose and mouth. Take several slow breaths allowing the smell to penetrate your lungs and clear your senses.
- Massage oil: Ease the body and mind by gently applying diluted essential oil such as lavender, shoulders, neck, temples, third eye or feet before meditation. This is a signal that is received positively at the nerves to send signals of relaxation.
- Ancient Ayurvedic oils: From time immemorial, Ayurvedic healers have used essential oils for massage and anointing to strike the right balance in mind and body. Therefore you should look for these special premade synergies to bolster your practice.
- Cleaning surfaces: Dilute a few drops of this particular essential oil to non-toxic surface cleaners. Spraying the cushion used in meditation or the yoga mat with the mixture allows the scent to be absorbed by the materials.
- Mindfulness ritual: As we mentioned earlier, put diluted oil at the entrance of your meditation space. Put one drop on the third eye or wrists every time before entering and after exiting as a modern shaman’s power symbol of being present and open to the expanded now.
Implement the following tips for best results and safety when adding essential oils to your meditation practice:
It is also important that oils are first diluted before they are applied on the skin to avoid skin sensitization. Patch test if using an new oil. Do not use anything but 100% pure therapeutic grade essential oils. Purer synthetic fragrance oils that are relatively cheaper will not confer meditative health benefits. One of the ways that people use oils is to use one for some time and then replace it with another because the body get used to the effects of a particular oil. Select fragrances that can blend well with your session type appropriately. Mint and citrus oils can be too stimulating during evening time if the aim is to calm down the body and a mind.
Perhaps, add a meditation synergy oil by using your single note oils of choice in a blend. The use of a specified fragrance can be helpful in creating and sustaining the state. This is your cue to start taking slow deep breaths as you move into meditation with the fragrance of the oil stimulating you. Focus on specific areas since they are likely to have better penetration of compounds through the skin to different parts of the body including the temples, wrists, neck or chest. It is also important that the oils should be housed in dark amber or blue glass containers to protect them from the light to retain therapeutic benefits.
When using essential oils in total body care, these aromas help as signaling cues to meditation, whether they are relaxing or stimulating. Let them show you how to go inside to reduce cognitive noise, increase focus, let go of negative emotions, or just find oneself. May these delightful plant spirits help expand your consciousness to the depths of the soul’s serenity and clear wisdom.