Anxiety is a common emotion that all of us feel at one time or another in our lives. There are different levels of anxiety. A mild case could be a feeling of unease or nervousness, but severe anxiety can cause a panic attack.
Today with the COVID-19 pandemic going into its third year, symptoms of anxiety and depression have increased from 36.4% to 41.5% according to a Household Pulse Survey. If your anxiety and depression are severe, I encourage you to seek professional help. If you are considering suicide, please call the Suicide Prevention Hotline at 800-273-8255.
We can manage anxiety through intentional and mindful actions that we can incorporate into our daily routines. Essential oils and aromatherapy can play a part in helping you to manage your feelings of anxiety.
I have created several essential oil blends for anxiety to use in many different ways to help you or your little ones cope with feelings of anxiousness, sadness, and stress.
What Essential Oils are Good for Anxiety?
Before I go into the specific blends I have created, I want to talk about the specific essential oils that help with anxiety.
My Top 5 Go To Essential Oils for Anxiety
Bergamot is a warm citrus oil that supports emotional health. It provides a calming effect and a feeling of centeredness. Bergamot is phototoxic, so you must dilute it properly if you plan to use it on your skin.
Cedarwood is an incredibly grounding oil. One of the main chemical components found in Cedarwood oil is cedrol which has been studied and found to have a sedative effect on the central nervous system. It is a great oil to use during stressful or anxious times. However, pregnant women and young children should avoid this essential oil.
Lavender is one of my favorite oils because it is both gentle and powerful at the same time. It has been studied extensively and can be used safely in many different ways. It also has a soothing effect on the central nervous system. Lavender oil is a great choice to use for yourself and your littles at bedtime.
German Chamomile is a bright blue oil that helps calm feelings of anxiety, anger, or frustration. A little of this oil goes a long way, as the aroma is quite strong!
Ylang Ylang oil is another excellent choice when you need emotional support during anxious times. The scent of Ylang Ylang is known to be uplifting for your spirit while at the same time calming the body and the central nervous system.
These are just a few essential oils I would recommend for anxiety. I have curated several essential oil blends for anxiety that include the above oils and have aromatherapy properties to calm anxiety and help with stress.
UNWIND - A Blend of Essential Oils to Calm Anxiety
This soothing blend is available as a diffuser and rollerball blend. For the diffuser blend, you would add a few drops of UNWIND essential oil blend to a misting diffuser. It disperses a fine mist of water droplets combined with tiny droplets of the essential oils.
Benefits of Diffusing Essential Oils
Inhalation is the fastest way to feel the effects of aromatherapy on our emotions. Why? Because our sense of smell is closely related to our limbic system. The limbic system processes and regulates our emotions.
Diffusing essential oils has many benefits. Besides making your home smell amazing, inhaling the essential oils will affect your emotions. Every tiny little droplet contains all of the chemical components of each essential oil.
The oils in our UNWIND blend are high in the chemical component known to have a sedative effect on your central nervous system. Every time you breathe in, you will trigger your limbic system with oils that help reduce anxiety and stress.
When you diffuse our UNWIND blend, you create an atmosphere of calm and comfort.
Benefits of Using an Essential Oil Rollerball
Rollerballs are a convenient and effective way to experience aromatherapy. A rollerball gives you pure essential oils diluted with a carrier oil. We use fractionated coconut oil in our rollerballs because it’s lightweight, is easily absorbed into the skin, and won’t clog your pores.
Carrier oils, like coconut oil, are fatty lipids, and essential oils are lipophilic, which means they combine with or dissolve in lipids or fats. So carrier oils, like coconut oil and shea butter, are the best way to dilute and absorb the essential oils into our skin.
Rollerballs are great for using when you want a slower and more long-term effect on your emotional state. When you use a rollerball you are introducing the oils into deeper tissue and into the bloodstream. This means you are getting a slower more continuous absorption.
I often use my rollerballs for both the quick effect of inhalation and the slow absorption through the skin. I start by rolling the blend into the palms of my hand, making a tent over my nose and mouth, and take a few deep breaths. This gives me the immediate effect through the mucous membrane.
I then roll some onto the back of my neck, my wrists, and the front of my throat, this gives me a slower and more continuous effect.
UNWIND essential oil blend recipe contains bergamot, cedarwood, clary sage, and ylang ylang. You could use this blend proactively and apply it when you know you are going into a situation that makes you feel anxious. These oils produce a sense of calm so you can think clearly.
If you are feeling emotionally confused or indecisive, put a few drops of UNWIND into your diffuser, sit quietly or meditate, breathing in the aromatic molecules of these oils. Once your mind and body are calm again, approach your problem or decision again.
Star Essence Relax - A Combination of the Best Essential Oils for Relaxation
I developed the Star Essence Sensory Goods line specifically for children to give them a tangible way to self-regulate difficult emotions and circumstances.
Star Essence Relax blend is available in a diffuser blend (safe to diffuse for babies ages 6 months or older) and rollerball blend (diluted with a carrier oil and safe to be used on children 2 years and older). This blend is also available in a much wider variety of products. To see them all, please visit the Star Essence Relax Collection.
The Relax blend contains wild orange, green mandarin (for topical products), bergamot (for non-topical products), ylang ylang, frankincense, and vetiver.
I want to highlight a few of our best sellers and how they can help you or your child with self-regulating feelings of anxiety and stress.
Star Essence Relax Aromatherapy Putty is infused with these stress-relieving oils and is absorbed into the skin and bloodstream through the simple act of playing with the putty. Your child will also be experiencing the aromatherapy benefits through inhalation as they play.
Younger children use our Putty through what we call Purposeful Play. They can use cookie cutters, rolling pins, stamps, or simply squeeze and roll the putty.
The sensory activity of squeezing, pinching, and kneading the putty helps to ground children in the present moment by engaging their senses. It can provide a sense of calm and help to increase attention and focus.
We can help our children learn to care for and regulate their emotions by prompting them to play with the Relax putty when we see that they are feeling worried or anxious. As they play with the putty, bring to their attention the great smells and the sensory feeling of the putty.
In this way, we are helping to ground them in the present moment which can help when they are feeling anxious.
For older children, we have a guided meditation to use with the Relax Putty. Introducing mindfulness to our children can be an incredibly useful tool for dealing with anxious feelings.
Relax Body Butter serves double duty as a skin-nourishing moisturizer. Every whipped body butter is handmade with organic and all-natural shea butter, cocoa butter, and coconut oil infused with the Relax blend of essential oils that can help with anxiety.
Perfect for your child’s bedtime routine. Apply the Relax body butter after bath time to help ease your child into a state of relaxation. The sensory experience of massaging the body butter on their skin if done in a purposeful way can help to keep their focus on the present moment. The fragrance of the Relax essential oil blend will help their mind and body get ready for sleep.
BLISS - An Essential Oil Blend That Soothes Feelings of Stress and Anxiety
Our BLISS blend combines lavender, wild orange, and frankincense and was one of the first blends I created. In fact, I created it specifically for myself to deal with stress and to help with unwinding and calming my mind when needed.
BLISS has been such a popular blend that I now use it in many different products both topical and through inhalation only.
With the Omicron variant spreading so quickly, you can have feelings of anxiousness just going out in public for your essentials – buying groceries, going to work. Apply a few spritzes of BLISS mask refresher spray to your mask and inhale the soothing and calming scent of the mix of BLISS oils before you head out. As a bonus, the spray does contain some grain alcohol, so it helps to kill germs.
Our vision for Wellnessed is to make it easy for you to find and use all-natural and safe aromatherapy and sensory products that will enhance your emotional well-being.
We would love to hear how one of our products has helped you or someone in your life. Please leave a comment here or leave a review of your experience on the product page of your favorite Wellnessed aromatherapy or sensory good.
To your wellness… cheers!
Susan