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Using Essential Oils for
Emotional Support 

Essential Oils and Emotions

As we have seen, essential oils provide numerous physical benefits. But that's not all.

Because the part of our brain that processes odor lies so close to the part of our brain that regulates emotions, memory and the autonomic nervous system, odors have the power to evoke memories and influence our emotions: In fact, emotional support is one of the main uses of essential oils.

This is nothing new: The ability of essential oils to help regulate emotions has been recognized since ancient times. The ancient Romans, Greeks and Chinese often used essential oils in their religious ceremonies for just this purpose. 

How to Choose an Essential Oil for Mood Enhancement

Essential Oil Chemistry

The emotion that a particular oil evokes depends largely on its chemical composition.

To simplify things, we can place essential oils into one of two categories - calming and uplifting.

• Calming Essential Oils are primarily comprised of monoterpene alcohols, sesquiterpenes, esters, and oxides. Many of these are floral oils and include Clary Sage, Eucalyptus, Frankincense, Geranium, Jasmine, Juniper Berry, Lavender, Roman Chamomile and Ylang Ylang.

• Uplifting Essential Oils come from the citrus, spice, or mint families. These  plants produce oils with invigorating, uplifting, and energizing aromas. Uplifting oils primarily consist of  ketones, phenols, and monoterpenes like beta-pinene and limonene. They include Cypress, Douglas Fir, Grapefruit, Lemon, Lime, Peppermint, White Fir, and Wild Orange.

For more on choosing an essential oil according to its chemical attributes see  doTERRA's ebook on the chemistry of essential oils. 

Personal Experiences Matter

In addition to the chemistry of the oil, emotional responses to aromas also depend on personal experiences.

When an essential oil is inhaled, it travels vial the olfactory nerve to the part of our brain that is responsible for sensing smell. From there, aromatic pathways connect the scent to the part of our brain where memories and experiences are stored. As the aroma travels through these pathways, memories are triggered - and these memories evoke an emotional response.

Because everyone has different memories and life experiences, each of us will have a different emotional response to the scent of a particular  essential oil.

For example, many people associate the scent of pine with Christmas. While that association triggers joyful memories and brings feelings of peace and happiness for most people, it may bring feelings of sadness and grief to those who have lost a loved one during the holiday season.

So you may need to experiment a bit to find the oil or the blend that helps a particular patient.

Why Use Essential Oils to Regulate Emotions

Essential oils are very effective at helping us manage our moods and emotions. They are also completely natural, safe substances that have no harmful side effects.

And people love them!

The wide variety of essential oils offer many different options for managing emotions. This is important because not only will a particular essential oil have different effects on different people, but we all pass through several emotions during the course of a day. 

Because they are potent, portable, and fast-acting, essential oils offer a simple natural way to help us manage all of these emotions. Whether you are experiencing sadness or grief, need to be energized and motivated, or simply want to restore calm and peaceful feelings throughout your day, essential oils can help.

How to Use Essential Oils for Emotional Support 

Essential oils can be used aromatically, topically or internally. But for the most effective emotional support you need to inhale the oil's aroma. There are several ways to do this.

You can. . .

• Inhale the oil's aroma straight from the bottle.
• Rub the oil between your hands and inhale from your palms.
• Diffuse the oil using an essential oil diffuser and breathe in the aroma through the air.
• Use a personal diffuser or place a few drops of oil on a cotton ball, drop the ball in a small baggie, and inhale as needed. 
• Add a calming essential oil to bathwater. You can add the oil directly to  bathwater, or make epsom salt/essential oil bath bombs to enjoy the combined relaxing effects of magnesium salts and essential oils. 
• Spritz calming essential oils on bedsheets to facilitate nighttime relaxation and sleep.
• Apply the desired oil topically to your temples, shoulder, neck or even to your nose. As the oil evaporates you will benefit from its aroma.

Essential Oil Blends 

While individual oils can be effective at evoking certain emotions, combinations of essential oils can have additive or even synergistic effects. 

You can blend different oils for additional emotional effects. But an easier way to do this is to use company-formulated blends. 

doTERRA has developed several proprietary blends, specifically formulated to have a particular emotional effect - and have named them accordingly.

This makes your job  easier when trying to select essential oils to help your patients emotional health.   

These blends can be purchased separately but they also can be purchased all together in a kit. You may want to consider purchasing a few of these to sell out of your office.

doTERRA's Essential Oil Blends

doTERRA Emotional Support Blends include:  

• Motivate (Encouraging Blend) Use to combat feelings of insecurity and instill  confidence and courage
• Cheer (Uplifting Blend) Use to ward off feelings of discouragement or gloom and instill feelings of optimism and happiness. 
• Adaptiv (Calming Blend) - Use to fight stress and tension and to  help stay on track during stressful times
• Balance (Grounding Blend) Use to dampen feelings of nervousness and anxiety and to bring balance back to the body.
• Serenity (Restful Blend)  A Blend of some of the most relaxing oils including lavender, roman chamomille. Cedarwood and Sandalwood,  serenity promote relaxation and restful sleep.
• Passion (Inspiring Blend ) Passion combats feelings of boredom and apathy and provides a joyful and inspiring environment
• Forgive (Renewing Blend)  Use this blend to dampen feelings of anger or bitterness
• Console (Comforting Blend ) This blend helps alleviate feelings of grief and sadness   
• Peace (Reassuring Blend) Use this blend to  reduce feelings of fear and worry and to promote feelings of peacefulness.

Emotional Support for Kids

If you treat kids or parents of kids you may be happy to know that doTERRA also makes emotional support blends especially for them. 

These blends come in roller bottles for easy topical application are already diluted with fractionated coconut oil, so they are safe to use on sensitive skin, right out of the bottle.  For more on this, see essential oil blends for kids.  

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Next in the Series on Essential Oil Basics . . .

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