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If you’re new to the world of aromatherapy, you might be interested in knowing how various essential oils can affect your emotions. After all, aromatherapy is a thousand-year-old practice known to help alleviate stress, reduce tension, and even offer natural healing and antibacterial properties.

In this article, we’re going to go over some of the most effective natural essential oils that can help regulate your emotions, ward off stress and panic, and even help to lift mild to moderate symptoms of depression and anxiety. 

So, how do essential oils affect emotions? Let’s take a look!

What are essential oils?

Essential oils are plant extracts used in aromatherapy practices. The most popular and common essential oils include the following:

• Lavender oil
• Rosemary oil
• Eucalyptus oil
• Rose oil
• Lemon oil
• Peppermint oil
• Clove oil
• Tea tree oil
• Orange oil
• Ylang ylang
• Cassia
• Frankincense
• Chamomile oil
• Cinnamon

Each of these essential oils offers their own unique health and wellbeing benefits, although certain oils can be blended together to offer more potent results when it comes to soothing and alleviating specific problems, such as anxiety, depression, stress and even concentration.

Many essential oils contain anti-anxiety properties, and can also help reduce the production of the stress hormone, cortisol, in the body. This makes aromatherapy one of the easiest natural methods for improving your moods and regulating your emotions. 

How do essential oils affect emotions?

When inhaled using an oil diffuser, essential oils can positively impact your mood in the following ways:

Mood regulation

Certain essential oils - in particular ylang ylang, rose, and lavender - are known to help stabilise your moods and offer emotional balance. If you’re working in a stressful job, or are simply more prone to stress in general, inhaling essential oils can improve your mood when you’re in challenging situations. 

Soothe anxiety

If you suffer from panic attacks, generalised anxiety disorder, or are simply more prone to stress and worrying than your peers, certain essential oils are known to be able to soothe anxiety symptoms and promote emotional calm. Oils such as chamomile and lavender are both ideal for those suffering with anxiety, as they both contain light sedative effects that can promote calm and reduce symptoms of an anxiety or panic attack.

Improved concentration

Our moods aren’t just concerned by our emotions or stress levels, but by our concentration levels, too. If you’re working in a fast-paced environment - or even studying as a full-time student - you’ll know how it feels when you just can’t get your brain to concentrate on key objectives. 

Essential oils such as peppermint, orange, lemon and patchouli can help boost your concentration levels, helping you to perk up your mood and get your tasks completed successfully. Being able to concentrate and work efficiently will also help you avoid stress, as you’ll be on top of your duties and not worried about getting everything completed on time.

Sleep improvement

Our sleep is absolutely essential to our emotional and mental wellbeing, and how much sleep we get has a direct impact on how well we’re able to regulate our day-to-day moods. Studies have shown that a lack of sleep not only causes mood disturbances and volatile emotions, but it can also exacerbate existing negative emotions, such as anger, stress, and irritability. 

This is why essential oils are frequently used as a natural sleep aid: essential oils such as lavender, jasmine, rose, and chamomile can help naturally induce sleep, as they contain moderate sedative properties that will help to relax your body and put you in the optimal emotional state for nodding off. If you - like many other adults in the UK - struggle to get enough shut-eye, consider using essential oils to improve your sleep quality.

Anti-stress properties

With hectic lifestyles and living in a world that appears to be in turmoil, it’s no wonder that UK adults report themselves as more stressed than ever. If you’re feeling overwhelmed on a regular basis but don’t want to opt for medical treatment - or if you’re already being treated medically for stress but see little-to-no improvements - it might be a good idea to try essential oils. Essential oils such as ylang ylang, lavender and bergamot are all known to reduce cortisol, the stress hormone that can wreak havoc on our moods, physical health, and overall wellbeing. By diffusing a blend of cortisol-busting essential oils when you’re feeling stressed, you’ll be able to better manage both your emotions and any problems that are currently stressing you out. 

How do I use essential oils

So, if you want to access all these positive health and wellbeing benefits, what’s the best way to do so? If you want to incorporate essential oils into your wellness routine, you can do so via two ways.

Inhaling essential oils

The best way to access the full spectrum of essential oil benefits is to inhale the essential oils directly. Inhaling oils allows the properties to go directly to your central nervous system, where they’ll be able to be the most effective.

The best way to inhale essential oils is by using the best essential oils diffuser you can find. A diffuser allows you to create customised blends according to your needs, and diffuse them into your room, home, or workplace - or anywhere where you wish to enjoy the benefits of aromatherapy. And if you want the best possible results, we’d recommend using organic diffuser oils - these are the safest and most effective essential oils available for home use.

Applying essential oils topically

Another way you can benefit from essential oils is to apply them topically to your skin. While you’ll still be able to enjoy their various health and wellbeing benefits by applying the oils directly to your skin, it’s not the most effective way to regulate your moods or emotional wellness.

Applying your essential oils topically is more suited to when you have a physical injury, as certain essential oils - such as clove eucalyptus and frankincense - can help speed up healing, soothe the injured area, and offer antibacterial properties to any wounds.