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Essential oils may help ease chronic pain by addressing it at the root.

Chronic pain is defined as pain lasting more than 12 weeks (roughly three months). Chronic pain is different than acute (short-term) pain because it typically arises from an initial injury or illness but then doesn’t subside, rather causing ongoing symptoms for many months or years.

Chronic pain can include:

•        Muscular pains

•        Back pain

•        Neck pain

•        Joint pain and arthritis

•        Nerve pain, including tingling and jolting

•        Bone pain

•        Headaches/migraines

•        Uterine pain/endometriosis

•        Inflammatory bowel pains and other forms of stomach pain or digestive discomfort

Chronic Pain Symptoms

Chronic pain can present as physical and mental and emotional symptoms, including:

•       Increased risk for suicidal thoughts and attempts

•       Discomfort that is sharp or dull, constant or on-and-off or feels like burning or aching

•       Restrictions in mobility and daily activities

•       Reduced flexibility, strength and stamina

•       Increased anxiety, depression, irritability and other mood changes

•       Higher risk for dependence on alcohol, opioids and other pain-killing medications

•       Poor perceived health or reduced quality of life

•       Fatigue and sleep disturbances

•       Changes in appetite and sometimes weight loss/weight gain

•       Low libido

•       Higher risk for marital or family problems and loss of employment

How Fascia Contributes to Chronic Pain

Fascia is a thin casing of connective tissue that surrounds and holds every organ, blood vessel, bone, nerve fiber and muscle in place. The tissue does more than provide internal structure; fascia has nerves that make it almost as sensitive as skin to pain signals.

Maintaining healthy fascia is crucial for ensuring smooth and pain-free movement of your tissues and organs. 

When fascia is healthy, it’s flexible, hydrated, and allows smooth, smooth and pain-free gliding movement of your tissues and organs

Your fascia wraps around your muscles to prevent friction during movement. Likewise, your fascia coats your veins and arteries to reduce any abrasion from smooth muscles that power your circulation. And your fascia also encapsulates your fragile organs to enable fluid, non-abrasive shifts in position as you move.

Fascia is made up of multiple layers with liquid in between called hyaluronan  that help your fascia stretch with your movement. But when it’s stressed—by trauma, inflammation, surgery, repetitive movements, or even emotional tension – the hyaluronan can dry up, thicken and become tight, sticky, and rigid, especially around your muscles.  This can limit mobility and cause painful knots to develop.

Dysfunctional fascia contributes to chronic pain through:

Restricted movement: When fascia loses its flexibility, it can create “sticky” adhesions that restrict muscles and joints, leading to stiffness and reduced mobility and unnatural movement patterns. Over time, this strain can cause pain in muscles, joints, and even nerves.

Compromised Blood and Lymph Flow: Fascia congestion limits circulation and drainage. This can lead to tissue inflammation, toxin accumulation, and nutrient deprivation, perpetuating pain and preventing healing.

Stored Emotional and Physical Trauma: Fascia doesn’t just hold physical structure—it’s also a storehouse for unprocessed memories and trauma. Chronic stress and unresolved emotions can create physical tension in the fascia, which may manifest as physical symptoms like chronic pain or tension.  When you experiences emotional stress or trauma, your fascia can tighten and constrict, leading to limited range of motion, stiffness, and a feeling of being on edge.

Nerve compression: Fascia contains sensory nerves, and when it becomes constricted, the restrictions and adhesions can directly press on these nerves, contributing to pain and sensitivity.  According to “An Emerging Perspective on the Role of Fascia in Complex Regional Pain Syndrome” fascia “is richly innervated and contains numerous mechanoreceptors and free nerve endings, making it a significant player in proprioception and pain sensation.”

Trigger points: Healthy fascia allows muscles to glide smoothly, but when it becomes tight, it can develop hypersensitive knots called trigger points. These points can cause significant pain and trigger referred pain in other areas of the body.

Structural and functional issues: Fascia provides structural support, but when it becomes dysfunctional, it can cause a cascade of problems, creating a supportive framework that perpetuates poor posture and movement patterns.

Inflammation and fluid transport: Fascial restrictions can impede the flow of lymph and blood, contributing to inflammation and a buildup of waste products, which can further increase pain sensitivity. 

Essential Oils for Chronic Pain

Certain essential oils can help manage inflammation and pain by delivering active compounds that calm immune responses, reduce swelling, and block pain signals.

Essential oils are derived from plants and contain powerful compounds that can help alleviate pain and promote relaxation.  For example, research on “Essential Oils and Neuropathic Pain” found that “essential oil active components have direct anti-neuropathic activity and modulate pain signaling.”

More specifically, essential oils contain natural anti-inflammatory compounds that can reduce pain by inhibiting pro-inflammatory mediators and cytokines in the body, which reduces swelling and pressure on nerves.

Essential oils also work as analgesics, which means they relieve pain, relax muscles, reduce inflammation, and calm your nerves when topically applied. For example, Menthol in peppermint essential oi creates a cooling sensation, while compounds in wintergreen act like aspirin to dull pain.  Research on “Analgesic Potential of Essential Oils” highlights that monoterpenes present in certain essential oils – such as menthol, linalool, limonene, myrcene and 1,8-cineole include analgesic-like activity.”

The chemical composition of essential oils – super small and fat-soluble—allows them to bind to and inhibit prostaglandin synthesis (the process that creates/signals pain and inflammation). This is the same channel by which nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) work. This might be one reason that essential oils consistently test as effective as over-the-counter pain medications, and pharmacological and clinical studies have demonstrated the profile of essential oil compounds as drug candidates.

Topically applied essential oils can easily penetrate layers of the skin, helping to release restricted fascia, creating warmth to break up congestion, increasing circulation, lymphatic drainage, and mobilizing adhered or painful tissue.  Essential oils can also help to vasodilate your blood and lymphatic vessels, which may help improve the flow of fluid that can contribute to swelling and inflammation. Essential oils may also help release facial adhesions, improve circulation, stimulate healthy lymphatic flow, and support the regulation of your nervous system.

Essential oils soften the myofascial tissue, allowing the deep and constrained tissue to stretch and move as it is designed to function. They also have an analgesic effect, relaxing the muscles and reducing pain. Essential oils can be used to revitalize and de-stress the fascia and muscles, working quickly to break down inflamed, fibrous tissue and remove toxins from the painful area.

As you may know, your experience of pain can be triggered by pain receptors—a group of sensory neurons with specialized nerve endings in your skin, deep tissues, like muscles and joints, and most of your organs—which send a message via nerve fibers to your spinal cord and brain stem and then onto your brain where the sensation of pain is registered and pain is perceived. The chemical constituents of essential oils can help modulate your perception and experience of pain.

In addition, smelling essential oils—through your olfactory channel—can also help modulate the perception of pain.  Research on “The Effectiveness of Aromatherapy in Reducing Pain” suggest that “olfactory stimulation related to aromatherapy can result in immediate reduction in pain, as well as changing physiological parameters such as pulse, blood pressure, skin temperature, and brain activity.”

Fascia Release for Chronic Pain

The Fascia Release™ blend helps relieve pain, improve flexibility and mobility by helping to unravel deeply held tensions, constrictions and release adhesions, fascial restriction that impede movement and energetic blockages in your tissues. . Fascia Release™ also helps to increase circulation and lymph flow which helps to move fluid out of the tissues of the organs, muscles, tendons, bones and joints  and consequently, decrease swelling and improve mobility and flexibility.

As you know, fascia lies just below the skin so topically applying essential oils onto the skin allows for easy and immediate access to the fascia.  The skin is your largest organ and is relatively permeable to fat-soluble substances like essential oils.

Topical supplements play an important role in supporting fascia health and recovery from inflammation. For example, essential oils easily penetrate layers of restricted fascia, creating warmth to break up congestion, increasing circulation, lymphatic drainage and mobilizing adhered tissue.

Essential oils soften the myofascial tissue, allowing the deep and constrained tissue to stretch and move as it is designed to function.  They also have an analgesic effect, relaxing the muscles and reducing pain.

Essential oils can be used to revitalize and de-stress the fascia and muscles, working quickly to break down inflamed, fibrous tissue, removing toxins from the painful area.

Essential oils help with collagen production by reducing free-radical damage. The antioxidant properties of essential oils may also promote collagen growth by both reducing free radicals and increasing collagen cell growth and formation.

Essential oils with detoxing properties help reduce inflammation that may weaken collagen fibers.

The essential oils in the Fascia Release™ blend is uniquely formulated to unravel deeply held tensions, constrictions and energetic blockages in your tissues to reduce pain, improve blood and lymphatic circulation and release fear, repressed emotions, and tension held in the body (organs, muscles, tendons, bones and joints) or the mind.

Penetrating essential oils, such as the combination of Angelica Root, Black Pepper, Cypress, Elemi, Frankincense, Lavender, Rose, Geranium, Vetiver, Litsea Cubeba, Rosemary and Ylang Ylang work synergistically to create warmth to break up congestion while relaxing tissues and releasing constriction and congestion and improving mobility and flexibility.

For example, Rosemary oil possesses analgesic properties and can improve circulation, by creating a warming effect which helps increase blood flow to the affected area, aiding to reduce various types of pain, particularly muscle soreness.

Similarly, Lavender oil is known for its anti-inflammatory properties. Studies show it can help reduce the perception of pain.

READ THIS NEXT: Essential Oils for Fascia Release 

Parasympathetic®

The autonomic nervous system plays a crucial role in your experience of pain. 

Your Parasympathetic nervous system dampens pain signals.  Your Sympathetic “Fight-or-Flight” branch of your nervous system – which is activated by stress, including the stress of acute pain – can conduct pain signals or heighten other nerve activity, leading to tension and increased sensitivity.  The experience of pain diminishes the activity of your parasympathetic nervous system which further amplifies and heightens the experience of pain and inflammation.

Research on “Neuroinflammation and Central Sensitization in Chronic and Widespread Pain” found that “Dysregulated sympathetic activity can also cause persistent vasoconstriction, leading to reduced blood flow, tissue hypoxia and the development of fibrosis in the fascia and surrounding tissue. These structural changes contribute to a vicious cycle of pain (activating nociceptive pathways, perpetuating pain, inflammation and fascial dysfunction).”

One of the most well-known essential oils for pain relief is clove oil, contained in the Parasympathetic® blend. Clove has been used throughout history to relieve pain. For example, the strong local anesthetic effect of clove oil has been used in dental practices for centuries to numb the gums, teeth, and nerves and relieve pain, such as toothaches.

Clove oil makes an ideal natural pain-killer due to its anti-inflammatory, antispasmodic, and analgesic properties. It can be applied topically to warm muscles and increase circulation, which helps reduce pain and ease tension in sore muscles and sprains.

What’s more, clove’s high eugenol content is thought to block nerve signals that send the message of pain from the body to the brain, thus giving the user a break from pain.  Studies suggest that eugenol may exert analgesic effects via the capsaicin receptor and high-voltage-activated calcium channel inhibition.  Parasympathetic® oil can be used to reduce the body’s inflammatory response (Read More HERE).

Similarly, the warming characteristic of clove oil is thought to provide numbing relief from pain, and the antioxidants found in this oil assist in the protection of body cells. Further, a rat study conducted by the Journal of Planta Medica discovered that a chemical compound present in clove essential oil was successful at recovering nerve functions of rats with diabetic neuropathy.

Additional Essential Oils to Support Chronic Pain

Nerve Repair™

Thirty-one pairs of nerves are rooted in the spinal cord, which can cause radiating pain downward or outward. Fortunately, the Nerve Repair™blend may help repair damaged nerves, relieve pain, stimulate circulation, ease inflammation, and regenerate new cells.

Nerve Repair™ is formulated from organic and/or wild-crafted essential oils known for relieving pain and repairing and regenerating damaged nerve cells and connective tissue. For example, basil essential oil is a known nerve tonic, characterized by its analgesic, antidepressant, antispasmodic, and balancing properties. Deemed a divine plant by Hindus in India, basil is a significant ingredient in the treatments used to combat nerve pain and nerve damage.

In a research study published in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology, Basil oil was found to be particularly helpful in reducing nerve damage symptoms and increasing nerve receptivity. Simultaneously beneficial in calming nerve pain and offering stimulation to nerves, it is regularly used to treat skin conditions, indigestion, stress levels, blood circulation issues, respiratory problems, and certain infections. It also helps repair connective tissue.

Peppermint™ essential oils are known to possess analgesic, anti-inflammatory, and anti-spasmodic properties that relieve aches, pain, and inflammation as well as calm the spasms that cause muscle cramps, making it an ideal natural treatment for nerve pain. A 2002 study attributed Peppermint™ oil’s dramatic analgesic influence to the relief of neuropathic pain in a 76-year-old woman.

Peppermint™ contains menthol, a cooling phenol that has powerful pain-blocking, anti-inflammatory, and antispasmodic properties. Menthol naturally warms the skin and muscles to improve circulation in the area of numbness or discomfort. This enhanced blood circulation stimulates the nerves and helps to heal damaged and injured nerves. Although other mints have a cooling analgesic effect, peppermint has by far the highest concentration. Peppermint™ can be purchased as both a single oil and as part of the Nerve Repair™ blend.

Renowned for its pain-relieving properties and ability to accelerate healing, Helichrysum™ helps to strengthen the nervous system, relieving nerve pain while regenerating and healing damaged nerves. Known for its antispasmodic, anti-inflammatory, and mild sedative properties, Helichrysum™ has been used historically as a treatment for muscle spasms, decreasing nerve pain, helping repair connective tissue, and reducing swelling and inflammation both inside and outside the body.

You can even apply Helichrysum™ oil directly to an injury to reduce muscle pain and prevent bruising.

The Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmacology found that the pain-relieving power of helichrysum works by reducing inflammatory enzymes and reducing swelling. As it helps rebuild cells, it may be beneficial in nerve regeneration following injury or in the treatment of peripheral neuropathy, shingles, nerve pain related to burns, and even hearing damage caused by nerves. We sell Helichrysum™ as both a single oil (my mother swears by it) and as part of our Nerve Repair™ blend. As we only work with the highest quality oil from Corsica, our single oil is very costly.

Frankincense™: Known for its anti-inflammatory and sedative properties, Frankincense™ has been shown to improve accurate transmission and communication of messages between the nerves and the brain. Incorrect messages to the brain’s limbic system can result in nerve pain, so improving the accuracy of signals can eliminate pain. Frankincense also helps modulate the immune system and relax muscles.

A 2023 Evaluation of the effectiveness of topical oily solution containing frankincense extract in the treatment of knee osteoarthritis found that topically applied Frankincense essential oil  could “decrease pain severity and improve the function in patients with knee OA.”  Additional research suggests that frankincense may play a role in inhibiting specific pain pathways.

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Часовното забавяне може да бъде истинско увлечение по празниците.

Независимо дали летите, за да посетите семейството си или приемате гости извън града, искате да можете да се насладите на празничния сезон, чувствайки се отпочинали и освежени.

Часовното забавяне може да изтощи енергията ви, да наруши съня ви и да затрудни пълноценното наслаждаване на празничната магия.

Точно тук се намесва мелатонинът. Този естествен хормон на съня, който може да бъде подкрепен с етерични масла, може да помогне за нулиране на вътрешния ви часовник и да улесни прехода към нова часова зона. Всъщност изследване на „Мелатонин за превенция и лечение на джет лаг“ установи, че „мелатонинът е забележително ефективен за предотвратяване или намаляване на джет лаг.”

Независимо дали летите през цялата страна или посрещате уморени пътници в дома си, знанието как да използвате етерични масла за подпомагане на естественото освобождаване на мелатонин може да помогне постепенно да настроите вътрешния часовник на тялото си към графика на дестинацията, позволявайки по-плавен и по-приятен празничен сезон.

Какво представлява мелатонинът?

Мелатонинът е естествен хормон, който помага за регулирането на цикъла сън-събуждане на тялото ви, известен също като вашия циркаден ритъм.

Мелатонинът се освобождава от вашата епифизна жлеза, разположена в центъра на мозъка ви, в отговор на циклите светло-тъмно в околната среда. Тъй като е чувствителен към светлина, нивата на мелатонин са ниски през целия ден и достигат пик вечер, сигнализирайки, че е време за сън.

Смята се, че джет лаг възниква, когато вътрешният циркаден часовник на тялото ви не е синхронизиран с местното време в новата часова зона. Смята се, че мелатонинът действа като хронобиотик (вещество, което помага за изместване на вътрешния часовник на тялото), за да намали симптомите на джет лаг, като помага за повторното синхронизиране на вътрешните ритми на тялото с цикъла ден-нощ на новата дестинация. Той прави това, като действа като сигнал за тъмнина, който, когато е настроен правилно, може да помогне да „измамите“ мозъка да мисли, че е време за сън или будност на новото място, което може да помогне на тялото ви да се адаптира по-бързо и да насърчи съня в подходящото местно време. По същия начин, приемането на мелатонин няколко дни преди пътуването – съобразено с времето за лягане на вашата дестинация – може да помогне постепенно да настроите вътрешния часовник на тялото си към графика на дестинацията, правейки прехода по-плавен при пристигането.

Какво е Jet Lag?

Джет лаг е временно състояние, което може да изпитате по време на пътуване. Това състояние описва проблеми със съня и други симптоми, които може да срещнете, когато бързо пресичате множество часови зони, като например по време на междуселищен или задграничен полет.

Когато пътувате през часови зони, тялото ви може да не се адаптира бързо към промените. Пътуването със самолет влошава джет лага, защото тялото ви се движи по-бързо от циркадните ви ритми и мозъкът може да обработи смяната на времето.

Може да отнеме време, докато циркадният ритъм се адаптира към нови цикли на сън и бодърстване в нова дестинация, което допринася за симптоми като:

• Сънливост през деня
• Безсъние или затруднено заспиване през нощта
• Намалена способност за изпълнение на умствени и физически задачи
• Намалена бдителност
• Проблеми с концентрацията и фокусирането
• Сънливост през деня
• Умора
• раздразнителност
• Разстроено настроение

Нарушенията на съня обикновено продължават няколко дни, но могат да продължат до една седмица, ако смяната на часовата зона е повече от 8 часа. Пътуването на изток е свързано с по-голяма продължителност на джетлаг, отколкото пътуването на запад. Тъй като вътрешният циркаден „часовник“ на тялото се адаптира към новата часова зона, забавянето на часовия пояс намалява.

Как може мелатонинът да помогне за намаляване на часовото забавяне?

Мелатонинът помага за намаляване на джет лага, като действа като хронобиотик който сигнализира за тъмнина и помага за нулиране на вътрешния циркаден ритъм на тялото за привеждане в съответствие с новата часова зона. Това свежда до минимум несъответствието между вашия вътрешен часовник и местното време, което е основната причина за симптомите на джет лаг.

Мелатонинът упражнява едновременно хипнотичен (предизвикващ сън) и седативен (облекчаващ безпокойството) ефект, за да поддържа естествените цикли на сън-събуждане на тялото ви. Изследванията доказват, че мелатонинът помага за предотвратяване, намаляване и подобряване на симптомите на джет лаг, като бдителност, особено когато пътувате на изток, тъй като нулира графика на тялото за сън-будност. Мелатонинът действа, като помага за повторното синхронизиране на циркадните ритми на тялото, като ви помага да спите, когато преминавате между часовите зони, като казва на мозъка да спи в различно време от обичайното.

Мелатонинът помага за поддържане на циркадното пренастройване възможно най-бързо и ефикасно, като ви позволява да регулирате циркадния часовник чрез изместване на времето на вътрешните ритми. Мелатониновите рецептори се намират в супрахиазматичните ядра, мястото на циркадния пейсмейкър, и могат да нулират ритъма, генериран от пейсмейкъра.

Увеличаването на мелатонина предупреждава тялото, че „биологичната нощ“ започва, докато спадът на мелатонина предупреждава човешкото тяло, че биологичната нощ свършва. Мелатонинът, приет вечер, ще премести часовника по-рано (фазов напредък), докато мелатонинът, приет сутрин, ще премести часовника по-късно (фазово забавяне). Приемането на мелатонин в точното време за необходимата смяна ще помогне да нулирате часовника по-бързо, когато пътувате през часови зони.

Полезността на мелатонина при овладяване на джет лага е била обект на множество изследвания.

Изследване на „Мелатонин за превенция и лечение на джет лаг“ установи, че мелатонинът намалява джет лага при хора, пресичащи пет или повече часови зони. Това намаляване на забавянето на часовия пояс се наблюдава, когато мелатонинът се приема близо до местното време за лягане на дестинацията.

В допълнение, изследване на тема „Ефективността на мелатонин за насърчаване на здравословен сън: бърза оценка на доказателствата на литературата“ прегледа проучванията за употребата на мелатонин в различни сценарии, включително предотвратяване на забавяне на часовете. Този преглед на осем рандомизирани клинични изпитвания, включващи повече от 900 участници, установи, че шест предпочитат мелатонина пред контрола за противодействие на ефектите от джет лаг.

Етерични масла за джет лаг

Етеричните масла могат да помогнат за задействане или подпомагане на естественото освобождаване на мелатонин в тялото. Те правят това основно чрез повлияване на мозъчната дейност и невротрансмитерните системи чрез обонятелната система, вместо да доставят хормона директно.

Изследване върху „Ефектът на ароматерапията с лавандула (Lavandula angustifolia) върху серумните нива на мелатонин“ установи, че „нивата на мелатонин в кръвта значително се повишават след интервенцията с ароматерапия“. Допълнителни изследвания показват, че етеричните масла могат да повлияят на невротрансмитерните системи и активността на мозъчните вълни (ЕЕГ), което от своя страна може да повлияе на циклите сън-събуждане и регулирането на хормоните.

Когато етеричните масла се вдишват, техните ароматни молекули се абсорбират и пътуват директно до лимбичната система на мозъка, предизвиквайки неврохимични реакции, които насърчават съня. Например, етерични масла като бял грейпфрут могат да насърчат освобождаването на серотонин в мозъка, който действа като прекурсор, който тялото след това превръща в мелатонин. Този хормон регулира цикъла сън-бодърстване.

Белият грейпфрут е с невероятно високо съдържание (95,12%) на химическата съставка лимонен, терпен, открит в кората на цитрусовите плодове, за който е доказано, че намалява тревожността и стреса. Успокояващите и повдигащи настроението ефекти на лимонена се приписват на способността му да повишава нивата на серотонин в мозъка. Епифизната жлеза синтезира серотонин, за да произведе мелатонин, който подпомага релаксацията и съня. По същия начин ниските нива на серотонин водят до нарушаване на съня и нарушения на съня, включително безсъние. Повишаващите серотонина ефекти на Limonene допринасят за ползата от етеричното масло от грейпфрут като стимулатор на съня. Допълнителни изследвания разкриват, че лимоненът може да помогне за намаляване на симптомите на безсъние.

по същия начин Роза здравец Етеричното масло демонстрира естествен седативен ефект, помага ви да преодолеете безсънието и да заспите. Изследване, публикувано в Допълнителни терапии в клиничната практика през 2014 г. установи, че етеричното масло от роза „може значително да подобри качеството на съня“. Проучването установи, че пациентите, хоспитализирани в коронарното отделение (CCU), които са получавали рутинни грижи плюс ароматерапия с розово масло за три последователни нощи, са имали по-добро качество на съня от тези, които са получавали рутинни грижи. Подобно проучване установи, че вдишването на етерични масла от роза и портокал „предизвиква физиологична и психологическа релаксация“, заедно с увеличаване на „удобните“, „отпуснати“ и „естествени“ чувства.

Ефективността на етеричните масла за стимулиране на производството на мелатонин може да се дължи отчасти на факта, че мелатонинът се произвежда в растенията и защитава растителните клетки като антиоксидант.

Прилагането на етерични масла локално в подходящото време задейства естественото освобождаване на мелатонин от епифизната жлеза. Това от своя страна сигнализира на мозъка ви, че е „биологична нощ“, което помага за предотвратяване и облекчаване на симптомите на джет лаг и премества вътрешния ви часовник към новата часова зона по-бързо.

Циркаден ритъм® сместа е предназначена да ви помогне да заспите, като задейства епифизната жлеза в мозъка ви да освободи хормона на съня мелатонин естествено, за да ви помогне да заспите. Вашият нос е директен вход към мозъка и епифизната жлеза. За да стимулирате обонятелния пасаж за активиране на епифизната жлеза, вдишайте Циркаден ритъм® олио или нанесете локално върху определени места около главата – на самия връх на главата, задната част на главата или кожата над ушите.

Епифизната жлеза се намира точно в центъра на мозъка, така че локалното прилагане на масла директно около мозъка позволява трансдермален достъп. Циркаден ритъм® сместа може също да помогне за детоксикация на епифизната жлеза, подобрявайки освобождаването на мелатонин чрез многобройните си лечебни свойства.

В допълнение към прилагането Циркаден ритъм® около епифизната жлеза, можете да използвате акупунктурни точки на краката за локално приложение.

Традиционната китайска медицина признава връзката между акупунктурата и циркадните ритми, като отбелязва, че акупунктурата може да повлияе на факторите, които регулират вътрешния ви часовник.

Проучване, публикувано в Journal of Sleep Research, установи, че акупунктурата може да увеличи производството на мелатонин и да подобри ефективността на съня. Специално е установено, че увеличава продължителността на дълбокия сън – най-възстановяващата фаза на съня – позволявайки на тялото ви да се възстанови и подмлади. Чрез повишаване на нивата на мелатонин, акупунктурата може да подобри качеството на съня и да създаде по-изравнен циркаден ритъм.

Локално приложение Циркаден ритъм® Следните акупунктурни точки могат да помогнат за балансиране на дълбокия сън.

Бъбрек 6 (Zhaohai): Намира се от вътрешната страна на подбедрицата, точно под вътрешната кост на глезена. Масажирайте вдлъбнатината между ахилесовото сухожилие и тибията (пищялната кост). Известно е, че подобрява съня, облекчава безсънието и намалява умората.

Пикочен мехур 62 (Shenmai), разположен на стъпалото, се смята, че помага при психични разстройства, безсъние и други състояния, потенциално подпомагащи съня, според Journal of Acupuncture and Tuina Science [1].

Както пикочен мехур 62 (външен глезен), така и бъбрек 6 (вътрешен глезен) могат да бъдат открити чрез локализиране на нежна вдлъбнатина около един инч под върха на глезенната кост (малеол). Тези точки ви помагат да се приземите, позволявайки ви да заспите и да спите.

Как да масажирате:

След като се намери, нанесете локално малко количество от Циркаден ритъм® смесете, след това масажирайте точките заедно с върховете на пръстите си, поддържайки силен, но безболезнен натиск. Можете да масажирате двете точки на глезените си едновременно. При желание могат да се прилагат малки кръгови движения. Масажирайте тези точки до 3 до 5 минути преди лягане.

Изследванията показват, че трябва да се подготвите да нулирате циркадните си ритми преди пътуването, като нанесете маслата локално в идеалното време за лягане в часовата зона на вашата дестинация в деня на пристигане и за още 4 дни. Ако се събудите преди 4 сутринта местно време, може да е от полза да вземете допълнителна половин доза мелатонин. Това е така, защото мелатонинът може да забави частта от събуждането на вашите циркадни ритми и да помогне за промяна на модела ви на сън.

ПРОЧЕТЕТЕ ТОВА СЛЕДВАЩО: Неврозащитните ефекти на мелатонина

Представени масла:

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препратки:

When was the last time you expressed gratitude toward yourself?

If you’re like me, maybe never?

I’m so busy expressing gratitude for other people or situations that fall outside of me, but never for myself.

It never occurred to me to thank myself for getting up and making myself coffee, for going to the gym and lifting weights, or even for making a greater time investment in my dental routine.

Somewhere in my childhood, I received the message that this kind of self-gratitude was vain, entitled, and rude. I learned at a young age to prioritize humility—even to myself—and to downplay or diminish praise from others and even myself.

I’m not sure where this unhealthy mental program originated, but I can tell you where it ends.

Right now. Before Thanksgiving, the holiday where we express gratitude for potentially everything in our lives, except for possibly ourselves.

Essential oils have helped me create the space for more self-love and gratitude. In advance of Thanksgiving, I am excited to share my new self-gratitude ritual.

What is Self-Gratitude?

Self-gratitude is the practice of appreciating and valuing yourself, your accomplishments, and your internal qualities. 

Gratitude is the conscious act of feeling grateful for tangible or intangible things. It involves a conscious effort to acknowledge your strengths, celebrate your successes, and recognize your own self-worth.

It is the process of recognizing and acknowledging yourself as much as you appreciate others and external wins in your life. Self-gratitude is about being grateful for who you are, how you choose to navigate the world, and what you have accomplished. Feeling gratitude for yourself can manifest as being thankful for who you are on the inside. It is a way for you to see yourself as valuable and worthy of love, care, attention, admiration, respect, and enjoyment.

Benefits of Practicing Self-Gratitude

Research finds that focusing on self-gratitude practice may help you boost your mood by enhancing your ability to feel more positive emotions, improving physical health, and enhancing cognitive functions, including memory.

Gratitude has been found to:

• Improve physical health: Research finds that gratitude is linked to traits indicative of better physical health, including conscientiousness, emotional stability, and optimism.
• Enhance Emotional Regulation: Research on gratitude shows that it activates brain regions associated with emotional regulation, decision-making, and reward processing. The experience of gratitude alters physiological aspects of the brain, including feelings of happiness and contentment.
• Boost Cognition: Research on” Neural correlates of gratitude” correlated gratitude with brain activity associated with moral cognition. The research found that when you are grateful, it activates reward circuits related to social interaction and social cognitive processes.

What’s more, self-gratitude and the feeling of being appreciated can help you to feel happier and more content with your life. This is because the act of giving thanks to yourself can make you feel better about yourself and present benefits like:

• Nervous System Regulation: Gratitude activates the parasympathetic branch of your nervous system. Gratitude may help condition the brain to handle stress better and rewire the brain to filter negative ruminations and focus on positive thoughts.

• Increased Mental Strength: The HeartMath Institute found that when you feel gratitude or appreciation, your heart rhythms become more synchronized and coherent, which increases the mental clarity, resilience, and well-being needed for discernment and better choices.
• Enhanced Emotional Resilience: Feelings of gratitude have been found to activate the parts of your limbic system that have been found to help regulate emotions and calm feelings of anger, fear, and sadness. This seems to work, in part, because gratitude enhances empathy and reduces aggression. At the neurochemical level, feelings of gratitude are associated with increased neural modulation of the prefrontal cortex, the brain region responsible for managing negative emotions such as guilt, shame, and aggression.
• Boost Mood: Gratitude has been found to boost serotonin and activate the brain stem to produce dopamine, improving mood and making us feel good. HeartMath researchers found that “gratitude causes a synchronized activation in multiple brain regions and lights up parts of the brain’s reward pathways. Gratitude can boost endorphins that produce a natural euphoric rush; it can increase oxytocin—the love or bonding hormone—where you feel more warm-hearted connections with others; it can boost the neurotransmitter serotonin that makes you feel happy and calm; and it activates the brain stem to produce dopamine, which helps you feel pleasure.
• Lower Stress: Gratitude may reduce negative emotions and provide a natural stress reduction. Studies on gratitude and appreciation found that participants experienced lower cortisol levels.
• Reduce Anxiety and Depression. By reducing stress hormones, gratitude reduces symptoms of depression and anxiety. Gratitude and gratitude journaling have been found to reduce anxiety. Self-gratitude enhances hope and optimism about the future, which helps you appreciate the positive things in your life.
• Reduce Pain: Gratitude may reduce feelings of pain by regulating dopamine levels. Research on “Counting Blessings Versus Burdens” found a positive effect on physical well-being among participants with neuromuscular diseases. Similarly, a 2012 study published in Personality and Individual Differences found that grateful people experience fewer aches and pains and report feeling healthier than other people.
• Enhance Immune Function: Gratitude and feelings of appreciation help regulate the effective functioning of the immune system. Research found that gratitude may reduce physical symptoms such as headaches, sore muscles, and nausea. Gratitude is believed to downregulate threat responses, decreasing cellular inflammation.
• Improve Sleep: Studies have shown that receiving and displaying simple acts of kindness and expressing gratitude activate the hypothalamus, which helps regulate bodily mechanisms that promote better sleep.
• Promotes a positive feedback loop: The physiological calming effects of gratitude make it easier to continue practicing it, which can lead to a more positive outlook and behavior patterns over time.

Essential Oils to Support Your Self-Gratitude Practice

Essential oils can help support your daily self-gratitude practice.

Your sense of smell can evoke emotions and memories. It has a significant effect on our mood and how we respond to specific situations, making essential oils an “essential” tool to help you fully embrace the feeling of gratitude.

Essential oils may help you enhance feelings of love, gratitude, and abundance. Your sense of smell links directly to the limbic lobe of your brain, which stores and releases emotional memories and trauma. Smelling essential oils can help you mobilize and release negative emotions so you can sincerely feel gratitude and appreciation for all aspects of yourself and your life.

Plants and the oils derived from plants help not only with physical ailments but also with emotional processing. They help support movement and gently release stagnation, including emotional stagnation, so that you can begin to release stuck energy and old patterns and open up to new potential.

Essential oils can also calm the intensity of the emotional flow, allowing you to chunk the release so that it feels more manageable. In this way, essential oils help you control the duration of the pain, releasing just a small amount of intensity at a time, much like slowly and carefully unscrewing the top of a carbonated beverage to release excess carbonation without an explosion.

Combining essential oils with positive thoughts or feelings of gratitude can help expedite your healing.

My Essential Oil Self-Gratitude Practice

As a gift to myself, I start and end my day with an essential oil gratitude practice. I feel that the oils both calm my body and mind, allowing me to receive this powerful self-care ritual better and amplify the health benefits of gratitude.

I keep the following blends on my nightstand, along with a gratitude journal, and I start and end every day by writing down or repeating to myself 3 (or more) things I am grateful for. If you are new to gratitude journaling, I wanted to share some ideas to get you started. When I am struggling to find gratitude, I might write something like:

• I am proud of how I continue to show up for myself
• I am proud of how far I’ve come, even on the hard days
• I am grateful for the peace I find in quiet moments
• I am thankful for my body’s ability to rest and recover
• I am grateful for how I have grown through the years
• I am grateful for the strength I showed today
• I am grateful for the little things in my life that spark joy
• I am grateful for the lessons I learned today
• I am grateful for all the little achievements I make every day
• I am thankful for my body’s natural ability to heal
• I am proud of the boundaries I’ve learned to set
• I am thankful for the kindness I showed today
• I am thankful for the ability to choose how I respond
• I am grateful for the growth I’ve found in discomfort
• I am proud of the courage it took to keep going
• I am grateful for the clarity I’ve gained over time
• I am thankful for this moment, precisely as it is

How to use self-gratitude prompts:

• Say them out loud: Repeat them to yourself while looking in a mirror or inhaling essential oils.
• Incorporate them into daily routines: Say them while brushing your teeth, driving, or getting ready in the morning.
• Write them down: Keep a journal or write them on a sticky note to place them where you can see them often.
• Say them before sleep: Use them to end your day with a sense of peace and gratitude.

Essential Oils for Self-Gratitude

Essential oils can trigger changes in mood, stress levels, and energy — all of which can help strengthen feelings of gratitude. My favorite essential oil blends to support gratitude are:

Heart™

Heart™ balances the heart to enhance self-compassion and support, integrate, and reset all body systems, including supporting feelings of receptivity to self-gratitude.
Your heart integrates and balances your physical, emotional, and mental bodies, providing blood to every cell and every organ. It also serves as a complex information-processing center, influencing brain function, the nervous and hormonal systems, and most of the body’s major organs. When any part of your body isn’t functioning optimally, your heart has to work harder. For example, when your body is in a state of stress, it needs more oxygen, increasing your heart rate. Your heart is your body’s reset button. Still, a state of constant stress can fatigue the heart and compromise our ability to reset, leading to inflammation, infections, toxicity, and heart disease.

By returning your heart to balance, you support the cardiovascular and circulatory systems, regenerate the structure of your heart, and help reset the homeostatic mechanisms of your entire body. Heart™ is formulated with powerful calming oils, including Jasmine, which is as calming as the anti-anxiety drug valium, according to a 2010 study. Jasmine has a mildly soothing effect, helping alleviate anxious thoughts, relieve stress, and ease depression. Jasmine oil stimulates the brain, helping to uplift mood and promote feelings of self-confidence and optimism.

Heart™ blend also contains Neroli, known to soothe anxiety and frantic thoughts, calm negative emotional responses, and support optimism.

Apply Heart™ over your heart (left side of the chest) to balance the heart and support, integrate, and reset all body systems, including mental clarity, physical health, and emotional balance. Heart™ blend also supports feelings of open-heartedness, expansiveness, and receptivity while mitigating loneliness, sadness, and grief.

As you deeply breathe in Heart™, try to breathe in the deep sense of gratitude and allow yourself to receive love and praise. As you slowly exhale, allow your breath to dispel any patterns of low self-worth or self-limiting beliefs.

Fascia Release™

While it is very easy for me to give love, it has always been difficult to receive compliments, help, or even self-gratitude.

Opening your heart to receiving love—including self-love—requires you to also open the tissues around your physical heart that can hold on to blocked or stuck heart energy. Opening the space around your physical heart with a fascia blend helps amplify and enhance your capacity for gratitude.

You see, when you experience stress or heartbreak, part of you is resistant, which triggers you to physically contract, constrict, or pull away from physical danger, a negative thought, or an emotional aversion. In the process, you constrict and physically guard your heart in preparation for an attack. This causes you to physically constrict forward—think fetal position—and constrict the muscles on the back of the heart. 

When you do this, you internalize the fear without release or recovery. In short, energy doesn’t flow, and your body constricts, which locks the stress in your body. And blocks your ability to receive love from yourself and others.

Topically applying Fascia Release™ over the front and back of your physical heart—with focused application both above the clavicle bones in sweeping outward motions and in a gentle vertical caress from your throat and the sides of your neck down over and below the heart—opens the space to allow energy and emotions to flow down and out of your system.

Formulated with essential oils derived from flexible plants with deep roots in the earth, like Frankincense, Fascia Release™ helps improve mental and physical flexibility, providing the physical and emotional space to release any old thoughts or physical patterns that may be interfering with your ability to receive self-love and gratitude.

Fascia Release™ blend contains Lavender oil, known for its calming and soothing effects. Lavender is known to calm the mind, which makes it easier to focus on gratitude. Rose is known for its ability to open the heart, supporting feelings of self-compassion and self-gratitude. Frankincense helps calm your nervous system and promotes mental flexibility. This may help encourage emotional honesty and promote capacity for self-gratitude. Finally, Ylang Ylang helps balance heightened emotions and eases mental restlessness, which might make it easier for you to stay present in the moment and practice gratitude. A study on the “Harmonizing Effect of Ylang-Ylang Oil” highlights how inhaling Ylang Ylang can stimulate your senses and keep you focused.

Topically apply Fascia Release™ over the front and back of the heart, over the throat, or inhale to support your gratitude practice.

Parasympathetic®

Activating the parasympathetic nervous system counteracts your stress response, promoting relaxation and greater awareness, which enhances your capacity to experience gratitude.Parasympathetic® shifts the nervous system from the sympathetic (“fight-or-flight”) mode to the parasympathetic “rest and digest” mode, creating a sense of calm that enhances your mental capacity, helping to support the brain to help you remain steady, calm, and optimistic, which then allows you to identify and experience self-gratitude more clearly.

Your sympathetic “fight or flight” state turns on when survival and safety are threatened—which can occur during unexpected, intense, and sudden stress or change. When you are stuck in a cycle of sympathetic dominance—not activating your parasympathetic nervous system—your body’s alert mechanism for survival remains on high. You can become trapped in a perception that you are not safe, which lays the groundwork for pessimism and negative thinking.

The parasympathetic system restores a sense of safety and balance, which calms the brain and the body by activating the parasympathetic nervous system to help you identify and support your own needs. The research found that when stimulated, your vagus nerve releases anti-anxiety chemicals that help you focus on positive emotions, decrease mental distress, and improve mental well-being. 

Parasympathetic® empowers a flexible mindset and the ability to pivot when necessary, which can be valuable in a rapidly changing environment. Although external events— such as death, divorce, illness, and even election results—fall outside of your control, the parasympathetic branch of your nervous system allows you to intentionally and thoughtfully choose how you react to these events. As a result, you may feel empowered to sustain resilience, identify the most efficient path forward, and demonstrate the ability to make wise decisions even in turbulent times while guiding others.

Research has found that your parasympathetic nervous system supports the development of learned optimism by helping you think about your reactions to adversity in new ways and by consciously challenging negative self-talk. This learned optimism involves cognitive restructuring, where you can help yourself and others become more optimistic by consciously challenging negative, self-limiting thinking and replacing it with more optimistic thought patterns.

When you do not feel safe envisioning a positive outcome, you might activate what is known as a freeze response of your nervous system—also known as disassociation so that you don’t feel pain. This often includes a disconnection to your sense of smell. Smelling essential oils, like Parasympathetic®, can help thaw the freeze response and restore your ability to sense your environment and feel safe in it. This sense of embodiment and safety may help you feel more engaged, attentive, and present in the moment, which may help you avoid worrying about future events and things beyond your control.

Apply Parasympathetic® over the vagus nerve (behind the earlobe on the mastoid bone) to activate the vagus nerve. This activation helps discharge energy and shift from the frozen state into the healing parasympathetic.

Limbic Reset™ 

It is almost impossible to experience gratitude when you are stuck in a mental loop that focuses on the negative. It is your limbic system—and particularly your amygdala—that keeps you stuck in that negative thought cycle. Shifting your limbic system into a more positive start may help enhance your capacity to experience self-gratitude.

Limbic Reset™ helps calm the amygdala (the brain’s fear center), making it easier to experience positive emotions, such as gratitude.

As you may know, your limbic system is the emotional control center of your brain. It helps you process emotions, engage in social interactions, learn, and stay motivated. When your limbic system detects a stressful situation, it activates the amygdala, which floods the body with stress hormones. Simply put, when the amygdala is overactive, gratitude becomes harder to access.

Resetting your limbic system brings your brain out of survival mode and into a state of regulation, where you can then reconnect with gratitude.

Inhaling essential oils is one of the quickest ways to lower limbic activation. Your sense of smell connects directly to your amygdala—only two synapses away—making scent uniquely powerful for emotional shifts.

When your limbic system is calm, your brain can more easily access thoughts of appreciation and gratitude.

Limbic Reset™ contains a proprietary blend of essential oils designed to calm threat arousal and send safety cues, helping reset your limbic system and supporting healthy emotional regulation. Limbic Reset™ was explicitly formulated with essential oils such as Frankincense and Sandalwood, which contain the chemical constituent sesquiterpenes, which may help increase oxygen in the limbic system, promoting mental clarity and focus while also encouraging feelings of thankfulness.
The citrus oils in Limbic Reset™ help lift your mood and clear your energy, so you do not take on or carry negative emotions or a pessimistic mindset toward others. For example, Melissa oil is known as an antidepressant with uplifting, emotion-balancing compounds.

Limbic Reset™ also contains Helichrysum oil, which is touted for brain function and known to cross the blood-brain barrier and carry oxygen to the limbic system to help rewire neural circuits in your limbic system and calm an overactive stress response. Cedarwood is known for its stabilizing and grounding aroma, and Ylang-Ylang supports emotional balance.

Featured Oils:

Ready to get started? Click the links below to order today:

 

References:

 

I suffered post-partum depression after the birth of my second child, Max.

My doctor immediately recommended pharmaceutical drugs, which were such a negative experience that it kicked off my exploration of natural alternatives, like essential oils.

It was only recently, during a casual conversation, that I learned of the connection between past sexual trauma and post-partum depression.

The more I think about it, the more it makes sense that childbirth could re-activate trauma in the pelvic region and trigger the trauma response of a “freeze” response—the symptoms of which significantly overlap with the symptoms of post-partum depression.

Birth and Trauma

I was so ill-prepared for the actual births of my children. No one told me how painful it was going to be and how quickly doctors can recommend surgical interventions that fall outside of the scope of your birth plan. 

My first experience of childbirth was with my daughter Carly. Things seemed to be progressing really well until suddenly they weren’t. The doctor announced that the baby had been crowning for too long and that she would need to perform an episiotomy. Everything in my body screamed “Noooooo!”

I pushed back aggressively—which mortified my mother—but the doctor agreed to grant me three more pushes before intervening surgically. Carly came out on the third push with her hand on her face. 

In early baby groups, it was common to share your birth story, and mine was among the more positive. Many of my friends experienced unexpected surgical interventions—including C-sections—that felt unexpected and traumatic. Many fell into post-partum depression and—like me—were offered pharmaceutical drugs and a healthy dose of shame and blame without any explanation as to why they might be feeling these symptoms.

It only recently occurred to me that the terror, helplessness, and pain in the pelvis that you may experience during childbirth could trigger your body’s trauma response—sending you into a protective freeze response that has been labeled as post-partum depression due to the post-partum timing of the onset.

What is Post-Partum Depression?

Postpartum depression is a mood disorder that postpartum women may experience.

Diagnosis of postpartum depression is based on the presence of symptoms—including emotional highs and lows, frequent crying, fatigue, guilt, and anxiety—that persist for at least two weeks.

It’s interesting to note that no medical experts seem able to identify the exact cause of postpartum depression. It is often attributed to:

• Hormonal Changes: A rapid drop in estrogen and progesterone levels after childbirth can lead to hormonal imbalances that affect mood.
• Stress and Sleep Deprivation: Caring for a newborn can be stressful and lead to sleep deprivation, which can exacerbate mood symptoms.

I cannot help but wonder if the root cause of postpartum depression might lie in unprocessed trauma—especially sexual trauma—and the hormonal changes and lack of sleep are not the root cause, but instead exasperating factors that significantly exacerbate the unprocessed trauma and its associated symptoms.

For example, we know that restful sleep, particularly REM sleep, is vital for processing emotional memories and reducing their intensity. Sleep deprivation can intensify the fight, flight, and freeze response that may present as symptoms of postpartum depression.

Similarly, fluctuations in sex hormones are known to influence the expression and severity of trauma-related symptoms. Just ask any woman or anyone who lives with her about her experience of anger and irritability, and how those emotions appear to worsen during phases of the menstrual cycle when estradiol and progesterone levels are lower.

Symptoms of Post-Partum Depression

Postpartum depression can present as the following emotional, physical, and psychological symptoms:

Emotional and Mood Symptoms 

• Emotional numbness or detachment, even from your newborn child
• Persistent sadness, anxiety, or an empty mood
• Severe mood swings, irritability, or anger
• Feelings of guilt, shame, or worthlessness
• Feelings of hopelessness or helplessness
• Crying spells, sometimes for no apparent reason
• Feeling hopeless, worthlessness, ashamed, guilt, or inadequate
• Inability to be comforted

Physical symptoms

• Extreme fatigue or a significant loss of energy
• Changes in sleep patterns, such as insomnia or sleeping too much
• Changes in appetite, such as eating too little or too much
• Physical aches and pains, headaches, or stomach problems
• Decreased motivation or lethargy
• Low libido

Behavioral and cognitive symptoms

• Loss of interest or pleasure in activities you once enjoyed
• Procrastination and distractibility
• Social withdrawal
• Difficulty concentrating, making decisions, or processing information
• Doubting your ability to care for your baby
• Feeling overwhelmed by small tasks
• Restlessness or being unable to sit still
• Poor self-care
• Mentally “checking out”
• Continuing to function but lacking motivation or joy

Overlap Between Symptoms of Post-Partum Depression and Symptoms of Functional Freeze

The overlap between postpartum depression and functional freeze is significant, as both can involve a lack of energy, difficulty concentrating, and a sense of being overwhelmed.

Functional freeze refers to a survival response state of emotional and physiological shutdown that occurs in response to overwhelming stress, exhaustion, or unresolved trauma. It is a protective mechanism that may allow you to cope with difficult situations by temporarily becoming emotionally and physically numb to disconnect from your feelings and environment.

Chronic and prolonged stress can keep your nervous system locked in an ongoing state of “fight or flight”, known as sympathetic dominance. This prolonged stress, coupled with the re-emergence of unresolved trauma (like the pelvic trauma of birth that may stir up the unresolved emotions of sexual assault), can tip you over the edge from sympathetic dominance into dorsal vagal shutdown, a stress response initiated by the parasympathetic nervous system that redirects your limited energy towards essential functions such as conservation and self-preservation.

In other words, trauma can shift the two branches of the autonomic nervous system from functioning harmoniously—pendulating between arousal and relaxation—into over-activation of your parasympathetic branch, causing you to freeze rather than simply slow down.

In his ground-breaking book, The Polyvagal Theory, Dr. Stephen Porges explains how your vagus nerve consists of three distinct branches: ventral vagal (safety), sympathetic, and dorsal vagal (shut down). The dorsal side of the vagus nerve responds to cues of extreme danger. When it is too aroused, the dorsal vagus nerve can shut down the entire system, pulling you away from connection, out of awareness, and into a state of self-protection. You may experience this as a functional freeze, responding to fear or trauma by becoming immobile, frozen, numb, shutting down, dissociating, or feeling unable to think clearly or access words or emotions.

Postpartum depression could be an expression of the functional freeze state.

Essential Oils for Postpartum Depression

Essential oils can both reduce and PREVENT postpartum depression in at-risk women.

Research on “Aromatherapy for Postpartum Depression” found “that aromatherapy reduces depression levels among postpartum women”. The study further noted that “essential oils such as lavender, jasmine, ylang-ylang, sandalwood, bergamot, and rose… have shown the effective role in overcoming depression and anxiety during pregnancy and postpartum.”

Most interestingly, research on “The Effects of Inhalation Aromatherapy with Rose and Lavender at Week 38 and Postpartum Period on Postpartum Depression in High-risk Women” found that essential oil intervention during the final weeks of pregnancy “significantly decreased” symptoms of depression in at-risk women. 

In the study, pregnant women were instructed to inhale either seven drops of lavender oil and one cc of rose water at 100% concentration, a placebo of odorless oil, or nothing at all before sleeping between the 38^th week of pregnancy and 6 weeks postpartum. The study found that the mean depression score in the intervention group decreased significantly compared to the placebo and control groups, “providing valid evidence for the effect of aromatherapy on postpartum depression,” to both help prevent and reverse the condition.

Similarly, “The Effectiveness of Aromatherapy for Depressive Symptoms” showed improvement in depressive symptoms. What’s more, “The effects of clinical aromatherapy for anxiety and depression in the high-risk postpartum woman” indicated that aromatherapy had significant improvements greater than the control group.

The research found that “the pilot study indicates positive findings with minimal risk for the use of aromatherapy as a complementary therapy in both anxiety and depression scales with the postpartum woman.” No adverse effects were reported in any of the research. It also noted that essential oils offer a safe alternative to breastfeeding mothers who might be scared of taking medication due to any possible adverse effects.

Inhaling through the Left Nostril

A depressed brain shows differences in structure, activity, and chemistry compared to a healthy brain.

Research on “Postpartum depression-associated localized neural dysfunction” indicates differences in brain activity between mothers with postpartum depression and those without. Mothers diagnosed with postpartum depression tend to have less activity in the left frontal lobe and increased activity in the right frontal lobe when compared with healthy controls.

As I shared my “Panic Attack Hack,” different regions and hemispheres of the brain impact your mood and cognitive function, with the prefrontal cortex—a significant part of the frontal lobe—playing the most critical role in mood by regulating emotions, influencing emotional responses, and connecting feelings with thoughts and actions.

Specifically, different parts of the prefrontal cortex are involved in processing positive and negative emotions, and damage or dysfunction can lead to mood disorders like postpartum depression and anxiety. For example, the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex may be associated with positive feelings. In contrast, the right prefrontal cortex is implicated in impulse regulation and is often underactive during depressive or manic states.

Further research finds that “Imbalance between left and right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in major depression is linked to negative emotional judgment.” The fact that “Mothers diagnosed with postpartum depression tend to have less activity in the left frontal lobe and increased activity in the right frontal lobe” allows for the strategic use of essential oils to help balance the two hemispheres of the brain. 

The two hemispheres of the brain perform different functions:

The Lighthearted Left Lobby (Left PFC Lobe) – The left side of the prefrontal cortex is filled with lighthearted, pleasant thoughts. The L in the Left prefrontal cortex stands for “Lighthearted.”

The Ruminating Right Lobby (Right PFC Lobe) – The right side of the prefrontal cortex tends to ruminate or overthink, contributing to feelings of overwhelm, anxiety, and panic. The R in the Right prefrontal cortex stands for “Ruminating.

Anxiety and depression are linked to over-activation of the right frontal lobe of the brain, located behind the forehead.

Inhaling an essential oil through the left nostril (which travels directly to your left forehead) helps stimulate the left frontal lobe and balance the left and right hemispheres of the brain, thereby reducing the overactivity of the right frontal lobe and leading to feelings of calm.

We recommend inhaling Rose or Lavender essential oil through the left nostril to help balance the two hemispheres of the brain.

Limbic Reset™

Emotional dysregulation—which is mainly influenced by the limbic system and the amygdala—is considered to be one of the core features of postpartum depression. Mothers with postpartum depression show altered brain activity, particularly in areas related to emotion processing and connectivity, like the amygdala, compared to mothers without the condition.

The amygdala is thought to play a pivotal role in recognizing emotionally salient stimuli and subsequently cooperate to control emotions and enhance the overall emotional state voluntarily.

Research on “Structural, functional, and metabolic signatures of postpartum depression”

found altered information flow patterns in the amygdala of women with postpartum depression compared to non-depressed postpartum controls. The preferred information flow direction from the amygdala to the temporal and frontal lobes significantly correlated with depression severity.

Your limbic system—often referred to as the “emotional nervous system”—is your “threat-detection & response” mechanism wired to respond to sensory information—especially the sense of smell—to help keep you safe.

The limbic system triggers the functional freeze response as a survival mechanism when it perceives a threat that cannot be fought or fled, like the reactivation of suppressed sexual trauma through childbirth. If the limbic system’s amygdala detects danger, it can take the thinking brain offline, leading to immobilization and a suppressed emotional response to conserve energy and survive a stressful situation. This response suppresses other body systems to conserve energy. This may present as symptoms of postpartum depression, like numbness, sadness, or detachment.

Your limbic system helps you interpret sensory information and determine whether external stimuli are threatening or benign. To do so, it learns from past events to help protect you in the future. In this capacity, it can overreact. For example, if you experienced significant psychological or emotional stress, a “conditioning effect” may take place in which the limbic system “wires in” an association between the situation and the stress response. Once a conditioning event occurs, your limbic system can become stuck in a state of high alert, and sensory stimuli can be misclassified as threatening when they are actually benign.

This leads to chronic elevation of your stress response. Restoring proper function to the limbic system can help TURN OFF the alarm in your limbic system—in effect rebalancing inhibition and activation—and TURN ON your body’s self-healing mechanisms by regulating your “fight or flight” response, and controlling the freeze response.

As your sense of smell is critical to your sense of safety and your olfactory bulb is physically located near your limbic system, essential oils can be a powerful tool to help restore the proper function of your limbic system. Inhaling essential oils is the fastest and most efficient way to create physiological or psychological balance in your limbic system. Your sense of smell has direct anatomical and functional access to the amygdala in the limbic lobe of the brain, which is physically located near the olfactory bulb. In fact, on a physical level, only two synapses separate your amygdala from your olfactory nerve.

Smell travels through your olfactory system to your hypothalamus by way of your amygdala. When you smell an essential oil, it stimulates your hypothalamus to release hormones that trigger a rapid emotional response, directly impacting how you feel and how you function. In particular, the chemical constituent Sesquiterpenes, found in high levels in essential oils such as Frankincense and Sandalwood, are thought to help increase the oxygen in the limbic system, which in turn “unlocks” the DNA and allows emotional baggage to be released from cellular memory.

Limbic Reset™ can be used to reset the volume of threat perception, help rewire neural circuits in your limbic system, and calm its over-firing.

Limbic Reset™ can be topically applied over Emotional Points located on the forehead (above the eyes and on the temples), an emotional release point situated at the base of the skull at the back of the neck, on the bottom of the feet, and especially on the amygdala reflex point on the big toe. You can also apply over Filter points located on both sides of the back of the skull, which are used to filter energies that could pull you back into the old pattern.

My most exciting discovery is a set of acupressure points that help release emotional patterns.

Emotional Points are located above the eyes on the forehead. You can also lay your hand over your forehead. I write more about the forehead points for healing emotional trauma HERE.

The release point is located at the spinal cord at the base of the skull

Filter points are located on both sides of the back of the skull. They are used to filter energies that could pull you back into the old pattern.

READ THIS NEXT: Reset Your Limbic System

Parasympathetic™

Postpartum depression is associated with autonomic nervous system dysregulation, particularly with a reduction in parasympathetic activity and an increase in sympathetic activity.

Your nervous system’s primary job is to keep you alive. When your nervous system perceives overwhelming stress or trauma that it is unable to fight or flee, your vagus nerve—specifically the dorsal vagal pathway—triggers a deep shutdown, numbness, and dissociation to conserve energy and numbs itself to the pain of the experience. This is the nervous system’s most extreme survival tactic.

During the intensity of childbirth, the “fight” response might be triggered. Since you can’t physically run out of the room during childbirth, the “flight” response often turns inward. It can manifest as dissociation, or the feeling of “checking out,” “freezing,” or feeling numb or disconnected from what is happening. When a threat is too overwhelming to fight or escape, your nervous system may drop into a “freeze” state, a function of the dorsal vagal nerve.

Unfortunately, even after the baby has been delivered, the nervous system can get stuck in the survival state it used to get through the trauma. If your nervous system is stuck in a “fight/flight” state, your postpartum experience will be defined by perinatal anxiety. You may feel constantly on edge, irritable, panicked, and hypervigilant, as your body continues to scan for threats.

If your nervous system is stuck in a “freeze” state, your postpartum experience will be defined by postpartum depression. You may feel numb, hopeless, exhausted, and disconnected from your baby and the world.

Regulating the nervous system can help you shift out of the freeze response. Activating the ventral vagal nerve tells your body that you are safe.

Stimulating the vagus nerve by inhaling or topically applying the Parasympathetic™ blend can help activate the ventral vagal parasympathetic nervous system. This enables you to regulate your nervous system, signaling safety and relaxation to the body, which may help counteract functional freeze mode and induce a state of calm and openness, helping you process underlying emotions and traumas. The Parasympathetic™ blend can help calm the nervous system and ground you in the moment. This sense of embodiment and safety can prevent future Freeze Responses. 

Apply Parasympathetic™ over the vagus nerve (behind the earlobe on the mastoid bone) to activate the vagus nerve. This helps discharge energy and shift out of the frozen state into the healing Parasympathetic.

READ THIS NEXT: Release Overwhelm with Essential Oils

Bladder Support™ 

Pregnancy and childbirth can be triggering and potentially re-traumatizing for survivors of sexual trauma.

Research on “The Effects of Rape Trauma and PTSD on the Childbirth Process” revealed that women who have a history of sexual trauma may have a more difficult time physically and emotionally during childbirth and have an increased chance of retraumatization. The research noted that “sexual trauma, including rape and childhood sexual abuse, takes a toll on the survivor emotionally and physically. With the invasive procedures, physical exposure, and feelings of loss of control related to childbirth, the survivor may become triggered and retraumatized. “

Similarly, research on “(Re)activation of survival strategies during pregnancy and childbirth following experiences of childhood sexual abuse found “Pregnancy and birth can be triggering for women-survivors of childhood sexual assault. Survival strategies learnt during experiences of CSA can be (re)activated as a way of not only coping, but surviving (the sometimes unconsented) procedures, such as monitoring and physical examinations, as well as the feelings of lack of control and bodily agency.

In Traditional Chinese Medicine, the bladder’s function is closely linked to the Kidneys and the emotion of fear, and sexual trauma is considered to have a direct impact on these systems. Your bladder, in particular, is known to be correlated with emotional traumas.

Residual emotional debris is thought to be stored in the bladder, helping manage emotional reserves and overflow. When you feel internally empty of reserves, everything seems to be too much to handle, uncertain, and frightening. Similarly, when emotions are overflowing, you can feel awash in an internal torrent, drowning, out of control, and driven to desperation.

Often, these overwhelming emotions feel too much to handle in the moment, so you store them in the bladder until you can process and move through them.

Bladder Support™ blend allows you to let go of the negative past and release the emotional trauma from the body. It helps overcome feelings of despair and the sense of being pushed over the edge. It can also balance the right and left hemispheres of the brain.

Apply 2-3 drops of Bladder Support™ over the bladder (just above and behind the pubic bone), directly over areas of trauma or abuse, or around the outside of earlobes.

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