“There is a crack, a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in” – Leonard Cohen

Last night a dear friend had an intense reaction to essential oils. It made her heart pound, her head and body ache, her fingers tingle and her anxiety kick in full throttle. She immediately fell into that place of fear – Did I make a mistake in trying this? I thought it would make me feel better, but I feel so much worse. When will this feeling pass? Essential Oils can support imperfections that you may have in your body or mind.

Support Imperfections

I believe this is a very common experience on the road to healing and certainly one that I have personally experienced. It could be a different diet, a new supplement or even a new type of therapy that shifts us and suddenly the floodgates open and all junk comes pouring out the to surface. Junk that we have been suppressing for years, sometimes even decades. Because it was too much and we were not ready.

Perhaps you have a place in your home where you let the physical junk accumulate. It can be a closet, a basement, an attic, a pantry , a rarely used room or even a pile in the corner. It serves as the storage receptacle for all the things we don’t have the time, energy or knowledge to process and it can build there for weeks, months or even years. I certainly do this, especially with bills. I put them in a pile in the kitchen, then batch pay them when I have the energy. I store my children’s treasures, including their art work, report cards, photos, sports awards and ribbons, in our basement until I have time to organize them, a process that has been known to take me years.
I believe we do that in our bodies as well. We store the emotions and toxins that we don’t have the time, energy or knowledge to process in our bodies until we are ready to handle them.

I first experienced this emotional storage facility when I started practicing yoga. My hips have always been very tight which I had attributed to years as a marathon runner. But my yoga instructor had a different perspective. She explained that just as we slip things into our pockets – conveniently located near the hips – to deal with later, we also store a lot of unprocessed emotions in our hips and when you start to loosen them with yoga, those emotions often bubble to the surface.

When I first experienced this emotional unraveling, it was extremely intense. Too much and too fast. All those emotions I had stored for a rainy day came flooding out at once and it was a lot to handle. It was like trying to drink from a fire hose when I really would have preferred an eye dropper.
Essential oils naturally shift the body into balance and can trigger the same detoxifying response, helping to mobilize toxins and emotions that no longer serve. Ideally when you start working with essential oils, you should do so very gradually, first smelling the oil for a few days, then diluting heavily with each topical application to gradually work up to a full dosage. This gradual introduction reduces the chances of an intense emotional detoxification.

Even when the emotions are released slowly and gradually, it can be overwhelming. I equate the experience to cleaning out those storage places in our house. It often gets messier before it gets cleaner. We have to pull everything out of our neatly tucked away hiding spaces, look at it and decide what needs to be tossed, kept or further processed. The same is true for our emotions. Some emotions no longer serve and are fairly easy to discard, while others require additional processing before we are ready to let them go.

I really want to stress that even though the process can be messy, it can also be highly rewarding and transformative. Stuck emotions can keep us stuck in a stress response that constantly undermines our health. Once we have cleaned out those cluttered spaces in our homes and our bodies, it can make room for us to attract new things that are a better fit for our current emotional state.
And there are essential oils blends that can specifically help you gently navigate what can be a very intense and emotionally charged process.

5 Essential Oils to Support Perfect Imperfections

The other feelings that may arise on this journey are those of intense self-doubt and self-blame. That perhaps it is our fault that a protocol isn’t working. That we are so deeply flawed, broken or somehow a mess in our physical or emotional state and perhaps do not deserve to feel better.

As I often tell my children, life is messy. We are all confused, determined, broken, loving, talented, immense disasters of human beings full of our own perfect imperfections. And we are all working to heal, to grow and to expand ourselves. Slowly and determinedly. It may feel messy and we may take 3 steps back for every 2 steps forward, but slowly and surely be are digging ourselves out of our holes and getting better every day.

We all deserve to heal. We all deserve to feel good in our bodies and in our minds. We can get there and essential oils can help. That said, I really do believe that less is more, so please proceed with slowly with these essential oils, only smelling or applying heavily diluted to start. They are powerful healing tools and should be used with caution.

Liver Support™ for Emotional Release: The Liver Support™ blend is my personal favorite for any emotional release issue. It is designed to support the release of anger which we so often store in the liver and gall bladder areas of the body, but seems to help with the release of all emotions. Just hold the bottle about an inch or two below the nose and deeply breathe in the oil to the count of six, then gentle exhale just as slowly. As you exhale, imagine exhaling any anxiety, fear or emotion that you wish to move through. Repeat this for 3 – 7 breaths. It is not uncommon to stop smelling the oil at some point during this process as that is often indicative of the body shifting.

Lung Support™ for Grief: We all get a little attached to our stuff, even the negative emotions that no longer serve, and there can be a sense of grief or loss in letting go. I suspect that maybe one of the reasons so many of us cling to a bad relationship or situation that no longer serves. It is painful to move on and grow and we have to acknowledge and work through the grief that comes with it.

The lungs serve as an important channel of elimination and are often the area where grief accumulates when we are not yet ready to let go of situations or emotions that no longer serve. Smelling Lung Support™ or gently massaging it around the ear lobes, which serve as reflexology points for the body and the release of many emotions, can help support the gentle release of grief.

Kidney Support™ for Fear: Any kind of shift in the body can trigger a fear response. In Chinese medicine, the kidneys are the organ associated with emotions of fear. In our physical body, the kidneys filter blood, regulate the balance of fluids, and remove water-soluble waste products. Water is symbolic of the unconscious, or that which we do not understand and that which we fear. Balancing the kidneys by topically applying Kidney Support™ over the kidneys on the back of the body (starting at the 12th rib in the area about the size of a fist) may help dispel fear and assist in feeling safe.

Adrenal® for Anxiety: Any kind of stress in the body can trigger the adrenal glands to release stress hormones like adrenaline or cortisol. A prolonged stress response can throw the both the body out of balance. The Adrenal® blend is designed to balance the extremes, calming the adrenals when too much cortisol is released and supporting them during periods of adrenal fatigue. This blend can be very powerful when smelled, helping to reduce anxiety. You can also apply it over the adrenal glands (on the lower mid-back, one fist above the 12th rib on each side). This blend can be hot, so definitely dilute before using topically in the beginning.

Heart™ or Rose Blend™ for Joy and Self Love: When we are anxious, afraid or otherwise out of balance, it helps to both reduce the negative emotion and heighten it’s opposite – that of Joy and Love. The Heart™ blend is designed to be very uplifting and comforting, helping to shift us back into a state of balance and joy. Similarly, Rose™ oil is known for having a very high frequency to immediately help shift the body into a more balanced, less anxious state.

I hope these blends help you on your journey to healing. Please feel free to leave a comment below detailing any additional blends that have helped you!

Resources

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

• Adrenal® available here
• Heart™ available here
• Kidney Support™ available here
• Liver Support™ available here
• Lung Support™ available here
• Rose™ available here