Seems like aromatherapy is everywhere, from our dish soap to little smelly bottles found even at gas stations.  It’s main stream, but I’ll caution you – all oils aren’t created equal.  But when you’re using truly medicinal oils, aromatherapy is a great addition to anxiety therapy.

Oils work super fast, that’s why I love them. I’m impatient! Our noses process aroma and we react to it faster than our brain can process it. Sight, sound, taste, and touch are processed by the brain before we have an emotional reaction.  Smell is the most basic of senses, even the most ancient of creatures process chemicals and they don’t even have eyeballs or a tongue!

What that means for you and I is if we are experiencing an unpleasant emotion and then inhale an essential oil that has properties known to calm the sympathetic nervous system, we respond quickly.  When our sympathetic nervous system is in overdrive, we experience anxiety, panic … AKA: fight or flight.

Problem is that almost all of the essential oils being sold are chemically changed or altered in some way. You might be thinking, “so what?”.  Well, most of these chemicals used to expand or make bad oils test like good oils in a lab are toxic to our nervous system.  They are also toxic to our liver and endocrine glands.  Just what we need if we’re experiencing anxiety right?  We’re already experiencing stress in those areas of our body, that is why we feel the way we do. Then add more chemicals, it’s a big problem.

People think rubbing or whiffing some lavender from the local health food store is going to help their anxiety.  What they don’t know is that they could be getting a good does of chemicals like toluene and methyl ethyl ketone – both are extremely toxic.  I have known people who purchased health food store oils and wound up in their doctors office having seizures.  Their blood results showed they were being exposed to toxic chemicals, which traced back to the chemically altered ‘frankincense’ they thought they were saving money on.

Don’t let this stop you from using essential oils.  Using safe quality essential oils will work faster than any Xanax, at lease that was my experience with Stress Away.  I’d start to feel that wave of panic coming on, I’d pull out my oil and take a good deep breath and I was fine.  Other oils that I’ve used through my healing journey are Harmony, Grounding, Valor, and coriander. All of these helped me feel more balanced and centered as I was working on healing my body.  Anxiety therapy hasn’t smelled so good!