Living in a constant state of stress can disrupt many of our body’s processes and create an increased risk for many health problems including:
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Digestive problems
- Headaches
- Heart disease
- Sleep problems
- Weight gain
- Memory and concentration impairment
It is so important to find ways that we can cope with the stressors of life.
- 40% of Americans get less than the recommended amount of sleep
- 8 out of 10 Americans say they are frequently or sometimes stressed in their daily lives
- Only 4% of people say they never felt stressed (must be nice!)
While I can’t claim to know their secrets, I do have some tips, tricks, and oils that can help you to stay more calm, relaxed, and grounded during your daily grind that in turn will also support better sleep habits at night allowing you to feel rested and happy in the morning.
How you start your mornings has a huge impact on the remainder of your day. It can even be a very good indication of how you will end your day. If you wake up with your mind already racing, frantically rushing around trying to get things done for yourself and everyone else with your nerves on edge, you are setting yourself up for a day that will be much the same.
Gary Young developed something he called the Great Day Protocol. It uses four specific oils to support our emotions, promote feelings of harmony and joy, and guard against negative energies that disturb our thoughts and send our emotions into a tailspin. You can also use these oils to combat occasional sadness.
Promotes a feeling of courage and self-esteem and helps to balance the body’s energies. Use this oil each morning on your wrists and cupped over your nose and inhaled as you set your intentions for the day, visualizing what you want to accomplish and seeing yourself completing it.
Creates deeper feelings of security and protection by offsetting the negative energies that work to bring you down and invade your personal space. This oil will be your ‘shield’ as you navigate your day striving to stay stress-free, balanced and relaxed. Place a drop in your hands, rub your palms together, breathe in deep, then rub your hands over the crown of your head, down your neck, shoulders, and midsection, all the way to your toes as if you are putting up an imaginary shield.
If you get into a routine of using your calming oils throughout the day, and set your intentions and your mindset to focus on the positive, you will set yourself up for one of the best night’s sleep you have had in a long time!
Despite your best efforts, you may still have days where you find yourself slipping into the abyss of negative reactions, occasional anxious moments, and stress-filled interactions with others by mid-day. Have no fear... Stress Away Roll-On is here! This is the perfect oil to have on hand for those moments that sneak up on you and create chaos.
One swipe on the wrists or back of the neck and 30 seconds to stop what you’re doing and breath in the sweet scent of Lavender, Lime, and Vanilla will have you relaxing on the beach with your feet in the sand! When you snap back to reality, you will find yourself feeling calmer, more relaxed, and ready to tackle the rest of your day with ease.
When we breathe in the scent of a pure essential oil, it has a direct effect on our emotions. Our sense of smell is the only one of the five senses directly connected to the emotional center of our brains. This gives us the power to retrain our brains, focus our thoughts on the positive, and release the negative emotions that have been stored there that hold us back from reaching our full potential. Stress Away is not the only oil that can help you get over that mid-afternoon slump. Here are some others to try...
Peace & Calming - A great oil to help you and even your kiddos work through and lessen their feelings of occasional stress and being overwhelmed.
Bergamot - Used to elevate your mood and found in other amazing blends like Acceptance, Believe, Gratitude and Harmony.
Vetiver - Grounding and calming, helps to overcome stress from past emotional trauma.
Lavender - Relaxing and balancing, helps to improve concentration.
Use these oils as needed throughout the day by diffusing in the office, putting a drop in your hands or breathing in from the bottle, or adding to your favorite piece of diffuser jewelry.
Here are a few tips to help you chill out during your evening downtime:
- Turn off your phone
- Sip on some hot tea - add even more benefit with a drop of Lemon Vitality
- Take a relaxing bath - add one cup of Epsom salt with 10 drops of Lavender
- Aromatherapy - get your diffuser going with some of the calming oils we talked about in the last post
- Light stretches - nothing over the top, just some light stretches or Yoga poses to help ease the tension in your tired muscles and add in some Frankincense and PanAway to your feet for a more relaxing feel
Once you oil up, if you find you are still having a hard time relaxing your mind and your thoughts are still racing, here are a few other things you can try:
- Journaling - Ok, so you aren’t gonna document your life story here at 1 am, but getting your thoughts on paper helps to get them out of your head. Keep a journal on your nightstand and put the brakes on those racing thoughts by jotting them down.
- Gratitude - Instead of laying in bed thinking of all the things that could go wrong, force yourself to focus on all the things that have gone right. Need some help? Apply your Gratitude oil to your wrists and inhale
- Get Up - I know, this sounds counterintuitive, right? Why would you ‘get up’ if you are trying to get to sleep? If you find yourself tossing and turning and becoming more and more restless, getting up and finding a simple mundane task to accomplish, applying an essential oil, or even grabbing an adult coloring book can be just the thing to calm your mind enough to be ready for sleep.
