Stress is an easy friend to come by and one that takes a lot of hard work to get rid of. We’ve all experienced stress at least once in our lives, and we all can agree that the faster we can get rid of stress, the better.
As adults, we face a lot of various obligations that require attention and time, and it can get overwhelming. We know how easy it can be to feel stressed out, and we avoid it at all costs.
What’s worse is our kids are feeling stressed like never. With all the pressures from school and peers, it’s on us to model healthy emotion regulation coping habits.
So today, we want to talk about what stress is, what it does to your body, essential oils that help curb stress, and where to apply essential oils to combat it.
Defining Stress
Before we can learn to tackle it, we need to know exactly what stress is.
Stress can be defined as a physical or emotional response to tension. When we feel stressed out, it causes a spike in blood pressure, fastened breathing, and overall feelings of dread and worry.
Stress occurs when our nervous system, particularly the fight or flight response, is activated. Your body is flooded with cortisol (the stress hormone), and suddenly it seems like you can’t take a deep breath to save your life.
How Does Stress Impact Our Bodies?
If left to stew, stress can lead to long-term mental health issues.
As your stress levels are left to increase without any attempt at stress-relieving techniques, the long-term effects of stress can become tricker to reverse.
Some signs of stress on the body include:
- Low energy
- Feelings of dread, but no way to explain why
- Inability to focus attention on any one task
- Disrupted sleep
- Headaches
- Hormone imbalance
- Acne
- Weight gain
- Rapid weight loss
Many times, people struggle to combat stress because they didn’t learn how to do this as children. Stress in children is often dismissed as tantrums. While children can absolutely have tantrums, these moments of heightened emotional dysregulation present an opportune teaching moment for parents.
There are many ways to help destress, but today we’re going to talk about using essential oils to find a sense of calm.
What Essential Oils Are Best for Stress?
There are a variety of essential oils that help combat stress. Why is the list so long? Because each of these essential oils works in a different way to fight the effects of stress. This means that a combination of these oils is the best way to keep stress and anxiety at bay.
Some oils that are known for their calming effects are:
- Sweet orange
- Lavender
- Atlas cedarwood
- Bergamot
- Grapefruit
- Chamomile
- Ylang ylang
- Frankincense
- Clary sage
Creating a blend of these oils is best to calm, stimulate and invigorate the mind and senses as well as boost mood.
Best Ways To Use Essential Oils
While there are several ways to use essential oils, some are more helpful and convenient than others.
Directly On Skin
One of the more popular ways is applying essential oils directly to the skin. You will need to dilute the oil blend you choose, so you will need to add it to a carrier oil or a neutral oil. Popular choices include cold-pressed coconut oil, olive oil, or jojoba oil. Then you can soak a cotton ball in the mixture and dab the mixture onto your pulse points.
You can also add your oil blend to lotions or soaps (this is great for both disinfecting oils as well as calming oils). The downside here is that creams and lotions rub off quickly and don’t last very long.
Essential Oil Diffusers
Aromatherapy is the act of inhaling the scents, stimulating responses once the qualities of the oils reach the olfactory senses.
This wellness device is a tried and true method for stress relief. Some possible options include lavender essential oils and ylang ylang essential oils. The downside to a diffuser is it isn’t portable, meaning it can only provide relief at home.
Where Should You Apply Essential Oils To Decrease Stress?
You’ll need to apply essential oils in areas that will give you the most direct access to inhaling the scents. In order to calm the brain and invigorate the senses, your essential oils need to trigger responses from the olfactory senses.
This means the best areas to put essential oils for stress are:
- Behind the ears
- On the neck
- On the wrists
- On the temples
If applied right on the skin, oils will need to be consistently reapplied to sustain the health benefits. On average, each skin-based application will only provide up to two hours of relief.
Swap in a Patch Instead
While the oils can be applied to the skin, we’ve got a better solution: ZenPatch.
It’s a sticker full of eight hours of stress-relieving essential oils and goes on clothes, which means you won’t have to reapply or worry about how you’ll get relief on the go.
Plus, you never have to worry about kids rubbing them off because they won’t even notice they’re wearing them! It’s the win every parent needs for a piece of mind that can be hard to come by in our line of work.
Relief Is on the Way
Here at The Natural Patch Co., we pride ourselves on doing things the natural way. There are chemical products out there that promise relief but come with a lot of harmful side effects.
Instead, we use all-natural essential oils in our products to keep you safe and stress-free. These products are effective and safe for even the smallest members of your family to use, which means relief is on the way for everyone.
Sources:
Stress: Signs, Symptoms, Management | Cleveland Clinic & Prevention
The impact of stress on body function: A review | NCBI
Essential oil of lavender in anxiety disorders: Ready for prime time? | NCBI
