Happy First Day of November!
I am so excited to tell you guys who is guest posting on the blog today. She is one of the best people I know because she spreads love and kindness wherever she goes and to whomever she meets. Not only that but she is also a wealth of knowledge when it comes to lifestyle and nutrition, including one of my favourite topics- essential oils.
Today’s post comes from Meg Doll of megtherhn.com
Meg Doll is a Registered Holistic Nutritionist, living in a small city within Saskatchewan, Canada, but works with women globally through her online holistic health practice. As an eating disorder survivor, Meg is passionate about guiding women to finding their freedom – mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually. She is a self-love expert, essential oil educator, real food advocate, and soon to be author of the upcoming book, Keto Freedom.
I know you guys are going to love Meg as much as I do! If you are interested in ordering or learning more about any of the essential oils Meg talks about, click here.
You’ve likely heard about essential oils already and maybe you’ve even used them once or twice prior to reading this, but today I want to educate you on why essential oils should be a part of your healing protocol and how they actually work because they are so much more than just a pretty smell.
I see many women begin using essential oils to simply eliminate the candles and fragrances they once used within their homes (goodbye, toxins) and replace them with essential oils, which offer the aroma their old candles once did, but without the chemicals and toxins.
When I see women doing this, it makes my heart happy and I get a warm fuzzy feeling inside – nothing makes me happier than seeing women take care of themselves in a natural way.
But did you know essential oils can be used for so much more than just making our homes smell pretty?
I personally began using essential oils two years ago to do my part in reducing the toxic load within my home. Although we cannot live completely free of toxins, we can do our part and we have control of what we bring into our homes. This is when essential oils entered my life.
Soon, I began to learn that essential oils actually have a positive impact on so many different aspects of our life, not just reducing the unnecessary toxins we bring into our homes. Essential oils actually work to positively improve our physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health, too.
Here’s how they work:
When we inhale a pure essential oil, receptor sites receive the aroma and send signals to the limbic system, which is a part of the brain that is in control of our emotions, mood, memory, behaviour, and even things such as our hormones, blood pressure, and digestion. This is how essential oils can have a profound impact on our health in a variety of different ways.
Each essential oil has a unique composition of chemical compounds such as terpenes, esters, oxides, alcohols, phenols, ketones, and aldehydes and, due to each of them having their own unique chemical makeup; this is why certain essential oils are best used for certain situations and conditions.
Today, I want to focus on the top five essential oils you can use to support your emotional health.
Emotional health is a very important topic to me, as I have a history of suffering from eating disorders, anxiety, and depression, however, with a holistic approach to my healing, I was able to overcome all of the struggles I once had and used to believe would be something I would have to deal with for the rest of my life.
Fact: You were born to live a nourished life – free of illness and disease. So, let’s review a few of the best oils to support you, your emotional health, and bringing your mood back into balance!
- I usually save the best for last, but today I want to begin with my absolute favourite oil and one that I have seen change many lives amongst the women I work with – Frankincense. Frankincense is a very grounding oil and provides a sense of calmness that allows us to connect with our spirituality, which is why it is often used in meditation or yoga to deepen the practice. This incredible oil has also been shown to relieve anxiety and depression (1).
- Bergamot is known as the oil of self-acceptance and one that I use frequently within my private practice for this exact reason. The inability to accept who we are prevents us from living an emotionally balanced, healthy, and fulfilled life. Self-acceptance is a key piece to any self-love journey and bergamot can support you in this area of your life. Additionally, bergamot has been shown to relieve stress and anxiety (2).
- Wild Orange is a go to of mine when I’m feeling anxious or panic. Last summer in the midst of studying for my first large final exam in years, I found myself in state of anxiety that had my heart racing and I was unable to catch my breath. All I could do in this moment was reach for my bottle of wild orange and after just a single inhale, my breath returned to normal, my heart rate slowed, and I felt the anxiety lift. Our sense of smell is more sensitive than any other sense we have, which is why essential oils can work so quickly within our body. Wild orange has been shown to be effective in lowering anxiety, lifting the mood, and providing a sense of calm (3).
- Lavender is known as the oil of calm. It is one of my favourite oils to use as part of my evening routine – one drop of lavender on my pillow before I go to sleep was a total game changer in my sleep experience! In addition to being able to improve the quality of sleep, lavender essential oil can also help alleviate anxiety and depression without the side effects that can come from synthetic medications and drugs (4).
- Roman Chamomile is another favourite essential oil of mine. When we hear the word chamomile, I am sure we all think of the chamomile tea we grew up thinking of as “sleepy time tea”. Roman chamomile essential oil can definitely support a better nights sleep because it is so incredibly soothing and one of the best natural ways to reduce stress and promote relaxation. It is also affective against anxiety and depression (5, 6). One thing I love most about roman chamomile essential oil is its ability to calm an overactive mind, which I know is a very common characteristic amongst us health-seeking women!
I could go on and on about the different essential oils you can use in your daily life to support your emotional health, but these are my top five and hope you gained some insight as to how you can use them to balance your mood and emotions!
Essential oils are truly powerful natural tools that I am blessed to have at my fingertips on a daily basis! If you want to learn more about essential oils, be sure to follow me on Instagram at @megtherhn, subscribe to my newsletter at megtherhn.com, or email me at megtherhn@gmail.com. I love connecting with like-minded women who are on a mission to make our world a better, less-toxic, and healthier place!
Thanks to Meagen for hosting me!
Love,
Meg Doll, RHN, RWP
References:
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18492727
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21105176
- https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2014/03/06/aromatherapy-essential-oils.aspx
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23808618
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22894890
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3210003/
