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Meditation encourages you to quiet your mind, connect with your body, and focus on your inner self. This relieves stress and anxiety, calms the mind, and helps you feel more balanced and better prepared to face whatever the day has in store for you. It also improves cognition, focus, and memory.
Meditation can take several forms. In its simplest form, you sit comfortably on a mat on the floor with your legs crossed. Try and do this in a slight-darkened room where you aren’t likely to be disturbed or distracted.
Rest your hands on your lap, close your eyes to avoid getting distracted by things lying around the room, and breathe in through the nose deeply and slowly. Focus on each breath as you inhale and exhale.
Closing your eyes and focusing on your breathing is what will help you reach that meditative state so you can enjoy the benefits of meditation.
How Aromatherapy Works to Enhance the Benefits of Meditation
Aromatherapy involves the use of essential oils and aromatic plant extracts for calming and healing purposes.
If you are new to aromatherapy, you may be wondering what are essential oils. These are natural oils extracted from various plants, flowers, fruits, roots, stems, bark, and other botanicals. The distilled oil contains concentrated compounds derived from the original plant they are extracted from. These compounds stimulate the olfactory glands, which then communicate with the brain’s limbic system to promote a positive mind and boost physical health.
There are several ways to get benefit from the powerful healing and rejuvenating properties of essential oils. These oils can be used individually or combined with other oils to achieve the desired effect. They can be dispersed in the air or used in skincare products, lotions, and salves.
Adding essential oils to your meditation practice can transform an ordinary session into a powerhouse of benefits.
Taking Your Practice of Meditation to the Next Level with Aromatherapy
Practicing meditation even at the most basic levels offers significant benefits. While it may take a little while to get into the state of meditation, once you do, you will begin to feel the benefits of meditation. However, to achieve even greater results from your practice, you will need to take this to the next level.
Adding aromatherapy to meditation can help you achieve much better results in a shorter period of time. This is because you get the combined benefits of meditation as well aromatherapy. Combined aromatherapy and meditation accelerates the process of relaxation, boosts mental alertness, and opens pathways for spiritual exploration.
Even better, you will find that the benefits stay with you much longer when you combine aromatherapy and meditation.
Best Essential Oils for Meditation
For your meditation sessions to be effective, you must be able to calm your body and quiet your mind enough to sit still. Not everyone finds this easy to do. Fortunately, there are several relaxing essential oils that can help you reach a state of calm relaxation so you can get the benefits of meditation practice. Not only so relaxing essential oils ease stress and help you feel more grounded, they smell great too.
When selecting essential oils for meditation it is important to consider your goals in aromatherapy. Different oils have various purposes, functions, and effects, and each one is suitable for its own particular and specific situation.
By researching essential oils and their benefits, you can discover the appropriate options for you.
The best essential oils for meditation are those that have calming and grounding properties.
Frankincense Oil
Frankincense has the most calming properties of all essential oils. Its earthy fragrance has a calming effect that is different from that of lavender. Where lavender promotes relaxation and sleep, frankincense helps you stay grounded. This is what makes frankincense one of the best essential oils for meditation.
Diffusing frankincense essential oil in the room while meditating helps you connect with your spiritual senses and expands the upper chakras. This draws out your inner strength and promotes healing by alleviating stress, anxiety, and fatigue.
Frankincense has been used in various spiritual practices for centuries and is popularly used around the world to enhance the benefits of all types of meditative sessions.
Lavender Oil
Lavender is the best essential oil for meditating at night.
Diffusing lavender essential oil during your meditation session helps to relieve anxiety, stress, and headaches. Inhaling the aroma of lavender balances the chakras, soothes the heart, and instills a sense of peace and relaxation, which is conducive to falling asleep faster and staying asleep longer.
Ylang-Ylang
Ylang ylang is the best essential oil for meditating in the morning.
Using ylang-ylang essential oil for your morning meditation sessions will help you start the day off on a positive, optimistic note.
The unique floral aroma of ylang-ylang essential oil reduces tension, soothes headaches, and increases positivity and optimism. This is the best essential oil to use for meditation if you prefer a distinctly floral aroma.
Sweet Orange
Sweet Orange is the best essential oil to use for meditation at any time during the day.
Sweet orange has a summer-fresh aroma that works exceptionally well to banish your problems and uplift your mood. It squashes away irrational fears and self-doubt and revitalizes the senses.
Vetiver
Vetiver essential oil has an exotic aroma that has a calming, grounding effect just like frankincense. It draws out your inner strength and helps you stay calm and grounded during your meditation sessions, which increases the stress-relief benefits of the session.
Myrrh
Myrrh is another essential oil that has been used for thousands of years in traditional healing therapies including meditation. Myrrh essential oil has an uplifting aroma that promotes tranquility, peace, and greater spiritual awareness.
Lemongrass
The light, citrusy fragrance of lemongrass essential oil helps to ease tension and fatigue so you feel refreshed and rested. Diffusing this soothing aroma while meditating will uplift your mood and leave you feeling re-energized so you feel better prepared to tackle whatever lays ahead.
Neroli
Neroli essential oil has a calming and relaxing scent that helps ease anxiety. It promotes calm and serenity when used in meditation.
Special Mention – Plant Therapy Meditation Synergy Essential Oil
I was looking for unique items to add to an aromatherapy-related gift basket for a friend who I know meditates every morning and has participated in a couple of group meditation sessions that are held on a remote farm on full-moon nights. I’ve heard it was fantastic. The energy on a full moon night enhances the benefits of meditation. But I digress…
While looking for unique gifts for the gift basket, I came across this Meditation Synergy Essential Oil by Plant Therapy. I thought that would be really cool to add in the gift basket along with a few other essential oils and spa essentials. She used it the very next day and over the next few days and called to tell me she LOVED it! She loved the scent of the blend and how it helped enhance her meditation session.
According to Plant Therapy, the Meditation synergy is formulated with a special blend of essential oils that evoke a calm alertness, helping to take you into a calmer, more meditative state of mind. If you are looking to get the best from your meditation sessions, I highly recommend using a few drops of this synergy blend in your diffuser.
The Meditation Synergy Essential Oil is also available in a Pre-Diluted Roll-On, which is convenient to use if you like meditating outdoors.
Buy Plant Therapy Meditation Synergy Essential Oil
How to Use Essential Oils to Enhance the Benefits of Meditation
There are a few ways you can use essential oils for meditation. All of the methods mentioned below are just as effective. What you choose will depend on your personal preference and whether or not you have an essential oil diffuser.
Choose from any one or more of these methods to use aromatherapy for meditation:
• Add a few drops in your Aromatherapy Diffuser – Using an aromatherapy diffuser is the most common way to use essential oils for meditation. They are incredibly easy to use too. You simply add a few drops of your preferred oil to the diffuser and plug it in. The diffuser disburses the aroma particles in your meditation space. As you inhale these aromas while meditating, you get the benefits of meditation as well as the essential oil you’ve used. Don’t have a diffuser? Find affordable options here – Top Rated Diffusers for Less Than $25
• Use an Aromatherapy Candle: Burning an aromatherapy candle will give you the same effect as using a diffuser. They smell fantastic and create a soothing atmosphere that’s just perfect for meditation.
• Massage the Essential Oil into the Skin: Mix 2-3 drops of your preferred essential oil for meditation with a carrier oil such as sweet almond or jojoba oil and massage it gently but deeply into the skin. This helps increase focus and visualization, enhances the benefits of meditation with aromatherapy. Get this essential oil dilution chart to make sure you’re using the correct dilution on your skin.
• Purifying: Use essential oils as an astringent cleaning method. Add a few drops of essential oils to a spray bottle with water and spray the surfaces in the room. This cleanses and deodorizes your meditative workspace.
Precautions When Using Essential Oils for Meditation
If you are pregnant or breastfeeding, please speak to your doctor before using essential oils for meditation.
Implementation
You will not see the benefits of aromatherapy and meditation overnight. Expect it to take at least a couple of weeks, more if you are new to meditation. Don’t get discouraged and don’t give up. When you use essential oils for meditation continually for some time at least, you will only continue to enrich your physical and mental health. Adding aromatherapy to this routine will help you in exceeding your goals.
Test the different methods of implementing aromatherapy and explore your essential oil options. Sample different products until you find the right formula for your practice. Whether you are a seasoned yogi or a novice student, aromatherapy will help encourage your success and reward your discipline.
Disclaimer: This information is not intended to serve as medical advice. Please consult your doctor before using any natural medication or if you experience any unusual symptoms. See Full Disclaimer here.
