Anxiety Therapy Hasn't Smelled So Good

From our dish soap to little smelly bottles found at gas stations, it seems like aromatherapy is all around us. It’s main stream, but most people don't know this dirty little secret: all oils aren’t created equal. But when you’re using truly medicinal quality oils, aromatherapy is a great addition to anxiety therapy.

Oils work super fast, that’s why people love them. As a society we are impatient. The nose takes in an aroma and we respond to it faster than our brain can logically process it. Sight, taste, sound, and touch are processed by the logical brain before we have an emotional reaction. Smell is the most basic of senses, even the most ancient of creatures process and respond to chemicals and they don’t even have eyeballs or a tongue.

Say you are experiencing an unpleasant emotion like that heavy feeling of overwhelm; your chest and shoulders are tight and your brain is completely foggy and confused. You choose to inhale an essential oil that has properties known to calm the sympathetic nervous system. When our sympathetic nervous system is in overdrive, we experience fight or flight responses like anxiety and panic.

Your body will respond quickly to an essential oil aroma because the nose is an extension of the brain and is directly connected to the seat of fear and defense emotions, the amygdala. If an essential oil has calming properties, the amygdala send out calming chemical messengers to the rest of our body that everything is going to be okey dokey. This is why stress melts away and the minds become crystal clear so rapidly after inhaling or applying an essential oil.

The biggest problem with using aromatherapy for anxiety therapy is that almost all of the essential oils being sold are chemically changed or altered in some way. Why is that a big deal? Most of these chemicals used to expand or make cheap, synthetic oils test like genuine, authentic oils are toxic to our nervous system. They are also toxic to our endocrine glands and liver. Just what the body needs if it's anxious, right? Every day the human body experiences stress in those areas, that is why we feel run down, anxious, and over stressed. It’s a big problem when more chemicals are added.

People think rubbing or whiffing some lavender from the local health food store is going to help their anxiety. What they don’t know is that they could be getting a good dose of chemicals like toluene and methyl ethyl ketone. Both of these solvents are extremely toxic. I had a client once who did not understand essential oil quality. She purchased essential oils at her local health food store. Shortly after using the oil she purchased she wound up in her doctor's office having seizures. Their blood results showed they she being exposed to toxic chemicals, which traced back to the synthetics added to the altered frankincense she thought she was saving money on.

This experience is an extreme case, don’t let this stop you from using essential oils. Genuine therapeutic grade essential oils are safe and extremely simple to use. They will work faster than any medication you put them against. Next time that wave of anxiety or overwhelm comes on, pull out and essential oil and take an 8 second long deep belly breath and everything will be just fine. Anxiety therapy hasn’t smelled so good!