We know that having a gratitude practice can be incredibly beneficial, but did you know you can also use essential oils and aromatherapy to support that practice? In this post I'm sharing why as well as sharing ways you can put it into action.
How do essential oils correlate to gratitude?
Well, we know that essential oils stimulate our olfactory bulb (the part of your brain that is connected to smell). The olfactory is part of your limbic system, which is the part of your brain that deals with emotions and memories. So, aromatherapy can directly affect your emotions and memories.
We can use this knowledge to encourage feelings of gratitude by:
- Using essential oils that affect our emotions in specific ways (for example, frankincense can promote grounding and lavender promotes relaxation)
- Using scents that connect to positive memories (for example, fir needle reminds me of spending time in my childhood backyard)
- Adding an aromatherapy ritual to your gratitude, mindfulness, or self-care routine to form a connection between a certain scent and gratitude
Don't worry, it's much less complicated than it sounds.
Here are some specific ways you can put aromatherapy for gratitude into practice:
- Diffuse or inhale lavender to help you relax. Taking your body out of fight-or-flight mode can make it easier to appreciate all that you have.
- Diffuse or inhale frankincense to ground you and help you connect with your values.
- Diffuse or inhale citrus essential oils (like orange, lemon, tangerine, or grapefruit) to uplift your heart and make it easier to the joy in life.
- Use of the essential oils listed above (or your favorite oils) before writing in a gratitude journal. Not only can the essential oils help to calm, ground, and uplift you, but they can also help create a memory from the ritual. Over time, this ritual paired with aromatherapy will signal your brain that it's time to recall things that you're grateful for.
- Create a self-love ritual that involves aromatherapy, like a weekly bath. I like to use the Lavender + Geranium Bath Salts. Every time you take a bath (or do your preferred self-love ritual) focus on gratitude for yourself and your body. Remind yourself of all that you're capable of, your best qualities, and how much your body provides for you. Self-love is often tricky, but over time this ritual can help create a memory in your mind between those specific essential oils and self-love. Then, whenever you're feeling down on yourself, inhale your self-love oils and remind yourself how amazing you are.
- Need a little pick-me-up? Diffuse essential oils that remind you of happy memories. For example, fir needle reminds me of playing outside in my childhood backyard. Tea tree reminds me of the soap my mom used. And lavender and rosemary remind me of my parents buying me plants when I struggled with seasonal depression during college.
As always, essential oils are never a cure-all for anything. But they do make life a little better. And finding joy in the everyday is what life is all about, right?
If you enjoyed this post, you might enjoy our Essential Oils for Self-Care Printable Guide. You'll learn all about our 10 favorite essential oils for self-care and lots of ways to use them all. Sign up below and we'll send it right over :)