Aromatherapy for Self-Care

Have you ever wondered how you can incorporate essential oils and aromatherapy into your self-care routine?

Stress is something that affects us all in some way. Whether it’s from your job, family, health, or something else going on in your life, we all deal with it. A big difference is between us is how we deal with it. Someone like myself, who suffers from mental health issues, will deal with stress completely different from say my husband who doesn’t let things bother him in the same way. My point to this is, it’s all relevant. My stress and things that bother me are just as important as your stress and how it bothers you, however different the two may be. What we need to focus on is how we care for ourselves. What I want to talk about more today is how to use aromatherapy in your self-care routine.

Self-Care is not something I have always done. And because I’m being honest with you guys, it’s something I still struggle to do. On my journey of dealing with my anxiety and depression, I’m learning that taking care of myself is something I have neglected. Everyone comes before me and at the end of the day there just wasn’t any time left. I’m learning that I need to make time for me, even if it’s just once a week for 10-15 minutes. I do something I enjoy or something to help me relax. Whether it’s taking a bath, giving myself a foot or hand massage, reading a book, sitting quietly outside on my swing, taking a walk or journaling. It’s just a little time that is all about me, nobody else. It’s very hard. Especially when you are a mother or you are just someone who has never focused on yourself. It’s absolutely a new practice and something to get used too.

An easy way to use Aromatherapy for self-care is through an inhaler. Sounds odd right? I thought so too, honestly! But hear me out. If you are having an absolutely terribly day and feeling down, you can grab this little inhaler and breathe. That’s it, just breathe. It will seriously lift you up. Scent triggers your brain. I’m not making this post all scientific and all that good stuff, we will save that for another day. Just think of it like this, when you hear a song you love and it takes you back to a great memory, scent can trigger the same responses. So if you find a scent that you love, when you are having an absolutely terrible, curl up into a fetal position and hide under your desk kind of day, you can breathe in your favorite scent through your little portable inhaler and it can trigger your relaxation sensors (or something scientific like that).

Another option is to take a bath and add in some of your favorite soothing oils. Vetiver is a highly popular calming oil (it’s a love it or hate it aroma). If you choose to use Vetiver, a drop or two is all you need! Lavender of course is a big go-to. Bergamot is a beautifully calming oil. The one thing to remember about this oil is it is phototoxic so at night it would be fine but don’t bath in this oil before heading out to sunbathe! Also, VERY important, when you are adding essential oils into your bath, I highly recommend you mix them into a carrier oil and then add that mixture to your bath. Not only will it add extra moisturizing to your skin