Mental Health
Mental Health
Anxiety
Anxiety disorders affect 12% of the population, causing mild to severe impairment (Public health agency of Canada)
Anxiety is different than fear. People who are experiencing fear know exactly what they are afraid of. For example heights, snakes, spiders etc. With anxiety, it is a general feeling of uneasiness with no known or understood cause.
The anxious feelings of an individual present themselves most frequently when thinking of the future. Anxious individuals look to the future with a feeling of uneasiness – if something can go wrong – it will. Anxious individuals live in a world tainted by an expectation of worst case (or at least undesirable) scenarios.
Depression
Approximately 8% of adults will experience major depression at some time in their lives. (Canadian mental health association).
In contrast to the person with anxiety who’s feelings of uneasiness are linked to the future, a person with depression is often living in the past. For these individuals, when they think about the past, they feel a void or guilt/shame.
Depression and low self-esteem are linked and feed on each other. Low self-esteem is defined by feelings of inadequacy or unworthiness. When an individual is living in the past and they have low self-esteem, their memories are affected. For example, they would remember events and encounters with the impression that they did not handle them well, were insufficient or unusually awkward in comparison to others. This poor self-perception tends only to create more depression and the vicious circle ensues
Individual Essential Oils for Calmness and Clarity
So many essential oils will help with anxiety. The most important thing is to know your triggers and then select the oil that diffuses the emotions that go with that trigger. For example, some people do not feel a sense of belonging in a group. They feel awkward and feel that they don’t fit in. In this case, cedarwood might be a good oil to try. Others feel burdened and have lost their “child-like” perspective. They no longer feel the thrill and joy that is meant to be a part of day to day living. They have become accustomed to logic and have ignored their heart. In this case, ylang ylang may be their oil. Some may feel that no one listens to them or that it is not safe to speak their truth. These individuals may want to reach for lavender. Patchouli is good for those who lack comfort in their bodies and try to escape physical presence. Patchouli brings confidence in the body and helps the individual to feel grounded and fluid. Peppermint can be used in a crisis because it helps individuals to surface like a cork in the water when they are experiencing something intensely emotional or difficult. However, peppermint is not intended to be used regularly to glide through life. It is a crisis oil. Wild orange is extremely popular for relief from anxiety and depression. Wild orange helps to relieve feelings of scarcity in all its manifestations. For example, fear of having enough money, friends, time, food, resources or anything. Wild orange lifts people from a serious, rigid nature of fearing that they will run short. Balance is good to take mid day as it eases the sense of being scattered. It helps an individual to stay focused on a particular task. Similarly, In Tune helps with focus. It is good in social or academic situations wherein an individual needs to follow closely to the conversation. Vetiver , otherwise known as the oil of tranquility, may be a good choice for those with anxiety. Vetiver helps individuals that feel split among people and activities. It helps people discover deeper aspects of their being by enabling them to feel more connected to what they need and want. Overwhelmed? Exhausted or “burned out”? Try basil. Serenity speaks to many. Serenity is good when we find that others persistently let us down. It eases resentment and judgment that we may direct toward others (rightfully or wrongfully) and encourages us to look at ourselves first before we blame others. It enables us to seriously explore the worthy question – What else is possible? Bergamot enables us to go easy on ourselves replacing feelings of low self-esteem or self-incrimination with self-acceptance and the belief that we are, in fact, lovable. Elevation, otherwise known as the joyful blend, was specifically formulated as an anti-depressant. It is a blend of powerful oils that help to replace darkness with sunshine and joy. And last but not least, Frankincense, the King of oils, is an excellent grounder enabling people to recognize their truth and be authentic.
Lavender is probably the most popular for anxiety and wild orange is an excellent choice for depression. But as we are all different, we may react differently to the oils. Start with lavender and/or wild orange and expand if more support is needed. Otherwise, read the descriptions above and choose the one(s) that resonate most with your triggers.
Chemical Addiction to Emotions
This is a tough subject because many people want to blame “life” or “others” for the way they feel. When in reality, emotions are addictive and we have the power to control which emotions we become addicted to by controlling the way we react to our environment. You see, there is a peptide (chemical in the brain) for every single emotion; negative or positive. So we have a specific peptide for grief, jealousy, anger, loneliness, victimization as well as having a specific peptide for gratitude, elation, confidence, and joy.
When we experience an emotion, the hypothalamus in the brain immediately manufactures the matching peptide and releases it into the blood stream. The peptide influences every cell as it enters through cell receptors and begins to change the composition of the cell. Whatever emotions we feel the most frequently, will become imbedded in the cell structure and the cell will then produce specific receptors for that peptide. As such, the cells will not be open to peptides of other, positive emotions, and will crave the peptide that it has been” fed”. Hence the expression “I craved it with every cell of my body”.
And the most difficult part of this is that the longer we have practiced or allowed negative feelings, the harder it is to control the way we react to our environment. This is because when our cells divide, they will create new cells that are already addicted to our negative emotions!
However difficult it is to take control of our emotions, we can and we must if want to live a joyful life.
Please check out this clip from a top documentary film released in 2005 called “What the Bleep do We Know” This film grossed 16 million dollars in the US.
Trapped Emotions are Making me ill!
Emotional healing is critically important because everything going on in our bodies has an emotional root. In fact, it is understood that various different organs in our body hold different emotions. Anger is held in the liver, grief and sadness in the lungs, fear in the kidneys, pensiveness in the spleen and joy in the heart. If these emotions are out of balance, specific symptoms will develop. It is no wonder that respiratory and heart symptoms often occur together when you see that sadness is related to the lungs and joy to the heart. There is often wisdom in old expressions such as “died of a broken heart”. Let’s be certain however, that all the emotions mentioned here are normal and healthy expressions of life but it is when they are imbalanced, suppressed, or stuck in our systems that difficulties arise.
When we are able to heal our emotional state, we are not just masking symptoms but we are getting to the root of manifested (or not yet manifested) health problems. It is imperative to do whatever we can to heal our emotional state and thereby experience a deeper and more permanent healing.
Body map showing areas where subjects reported feeling various emotions. (Credit: Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences 3)
However, healing our emotional state can be tricky because the subconscious mind stores everything you ever came across. Our subconscious mind may store emotions from childhood or emotions that have been passed to us genetically that we are not aware of. For instance, we can inherit feelings of unworthiness or a need to be in control. Trying to get through to your subconscious mind using logic may not work. For example, when you experience an emotion like anxiety before giving a speech, you won’t be able to logically convince yourself that there is no need to be afraid.
In understanding our limitations and recognizing and addressing subconscious emotions, we can take a reverse approach. For example, if we are unaware of joylessness or sadness yet we have heart and lung issues, it may be reasonable to conclude that joylessness and sadness (which are related to the heart and lungs) may be locked in our subconscious; possibly inherited, or a result of forgotten childhood experiences. As such we can use the appropriate essential oil(s) for joylessness and sadness over the heart and lungs to release the trapped emotions and facilitate healing of our heart and lung challenges.
In conclusion, be aware of your emotions. And be aware of your physical challenges recognizing the emotions that are associated with the organs and systems that are challenging you. Be certain to do whatever is in your power to balance your emotions by consciously breaking the cycle and using essential oils to facilitate the release of emotions that are locked in your subconscious and/or stuck in your organs and systems.
NOTE: Evidence of emotions being stuck in our systems is evident when considering what we know about blocked chakras and the effect that that has on our bodies. CLICK HERE for information on chakras and how to clear them.
Essential Oil Support to Break Negative Emotion
Emotions, like physical aspects of our body, are energy. Varying emotions have varying frequencies. Simply put, negative emotions such as hate, jealousy, anger, and frustration are lower forms of energy and as such have a slower frequency. Positive emotions like gratitude, anticipation, excitement and exhilaration are higher forms of energy with faster frequencies. Essential oils have the highest frequency of anything natural. When we introduce essential oils, their frequency remains in the body and serves to raise our emotional frequency. It is impossible to feel negative emotions when we are vibrating at this rate.
Essential Oils and Emotions Made Easy
Individual essential oils can be used effectively by skilled aromatherapists to positively affect emotional wellbeing. This can be a detailed process. DoTERRA makes emotional aromatherapy easy and accessible for anyone with their new line of proprietary essential oil blends representing six categories of emotional well-being. The 6 blends are packaged in the Essentials Aromatics Kit.
The Essential Aromatics Kit is intended to be used both aromatically and topically. With aromatic use, you can affect the mood of several people in a setting. Use aromatically in an essential oil diffuser. The Essential Aromatics Kit features the petal diffuser.
For topical use, apply 1 or 2 drops in your palms, rub hands together and cup in front of your nose. Inhale deeply (do not touch eyes). Or, dilute and apply topically to aromatherapy touch points such as the back of the neck, on the wrists, and over the heart. Just a few drops can elicit emotional responses to help let go of burdens, find comfort and encouragement, or inspire one to dream with passion again. The bottles in this system are 5 ml.
With this kit, you save so much because, you will get the oils at a lower cost as you are buying them in a kit but more over, you obtain a wholesale membership status entitling you to 25% off all orders without paying a membership fee!
Break the Cycle of Negative Emotion
Only 5 to 10 minutes of meditation a day can make a difference in our lives. When we meditate, we are relaxing the mind and taking a break from the pressures of daily life. The more we achieve a state of peace and calm, the more frequently and easily it will be done! And we will begin to break the cellular addiction to our frenzied state.
There are many resources for guided meditations on youtube. I have included a link here for you to try.
Mindfulness Guided Meditation – 5 Minutes (by Dr. Robert E.) https://youtu.be/dEzbdLn2bJc