Do you hear the alarm go off and immediately push the snooze button?

Wait until the last minute to pay bills or complete an important task?

Or put off tasks like going to the gym, doing laundry or cleaning the house?

Procrastination is defined as putting off starting or delaying the completion of a task we’ve agreed to take on.  We often choose to procrastinate to help reduce our anxiety about a task or avoid unpleasant feelings associated with the work.  But procrastination can contribute to low self-esteem and the feeling that you are not someone who succeeds, according to my new friend, Stanford University Professor of Behavioral Science, BJ Fogg.  

Fogg considers procrastination a habit that can be broken with specific steps to help rewire your identity as someone who succeeds.  Essential oils can be used as a talisman to help support these changes in habit.   More specifically, Fogg recommends:

1. Identifying easy-win behaviors — Big goals can feel overwhelming, but small manageable actions like applying the Parasympathetic® blend before meals to ensure that you are able to digest, absorb and assimilate your food in the parasympathetic state, can help you move toward your health goals.

2. Find a trigger— Identify something that you already do as a habit, like brushing your teeth and graft the new habit onto it. For example, if you can’t remember to apply essential oils, you can just leave them by your toothbrush and apply after your brush your teeth in the morning and before bed.

3. Celebrate Small Victories – After carrying through with a tiny step, reward yourself with a celebratory pat on the back. You might even say “Yay” or “Good Job” to help rewrite your identity as someone who succeeds. Fogg helped the Weight Watchers organization craft their program of celebrating small success in weight loss with great success.  The same principal can come into play, helping you to shift the habit of procrastination.

I would add to that list:

4. Avoid Shame – We are all works in progress and there is no need to shame or self-blame ourselves for not maintaining high levels of motivation 24/7. To that point, many of us maintain unrealistic expectations, so the goal is to set goals that are easily achievable.  Bladder Support™ can help clear shame, as well as overcome and heal emotional traumas and clear the residual emotional debris often stored in the bladder when applied over the bladder or around the earlobes.

5. Small victories add up to big wins – Similar to Malcolm Gladwell’s broken window theory, where little changes, like fixing a broken window on a block, can lead to big shifts, like a reduction of crime on the block. Fogg found that more than two-thirds of those who engaged in his tiny habits approach also noticed other, unexpected ripple effect improvements.  For example, one woman set a goal to pick up one piece of garbage or misplaced item from her car every time she parked in her garage and soon found she was straightening out her house as well. Fogg hypothesizes these small victories help people break down other barriers in their lives either consciously or subconsciously.

Stop Procrastinating with Essential Oils

Essential oils are able to help us address the underlying conditions that interfere with our ability to achieve our goals.  You might consider some of the following blends to help support anxiety, focus, fear and worry.

For Anxiety: Avoiding a task may help reduce anxiety in the short term, but task avoidance can increase feelings of anxiety and self-blame over time.

To help reduce anxiety, you might consider Adrenal® applied over the low back or smelled through the left nostril or Calm™ or Lavender™ applied over the heart or the bottom of the feet.  Parasympathetic® applied behind the earlobe on the mastoid bone can also help reduce anxiety.

For Focus:  Difficulty with concentration and focus can impeded our ability to stay on task or make use easily distracted by external factors, like emails, texts or household tasks.

Essential oils, like Focus™ or Brain Boost™, applied on the temples, Circulation™, applied behind the ears or at the base of the neck. Attention™ can also support ADD/ADHD when applied to the bottom of the feet. Parasympathetic® can calm the nervous system and support focus when applied behind the earlobe on the mastoid bone.

For Worry:  We often worry that we might fail, or perhaps even worse, that we might succeed.  Sometimes we are consciously or unconsciously conflicted about achieving a goal or feel undeserving of success, like weight loss, professional success, or relationship success, so we self sabotage through procrastination.   According to Chinese medicine, the spleen houses the body’s thoughts and intentions and is responsible for analytical thinking, memory, cognition, intelligence, and ideas. These emotions in their extreme states – over-thinking, worry, excessive mental and intellectual stimulation or any activity that involves a lot of mental effort — can create disharmony in the spleen.

To calm our minds from worry and help stabilize obsessive thoughts and emotions, apply 2- 3 drops of Spleen™ over the spleen (left side of the body, under breast) or around the earlobes for emotional support.

For Fear:  We often fear that we lack the ability to complete the task.  If you think you can’t do something, you are unlikely to stick with it.  On the flip side, you might fear that you will have to work all of the time in order to finish something.  In Chinese medicine, the kidneys are considered the seat of courage and willpower.  They control the volume, composition and pressure of water in our bodies and water is of that which we do not understand and that which we fear. Feelings of fear and paranoia can be held in the kidneys impairing function.

To promote feelings of safety, strength and courage, apply 2- 3 drops of Kidney Support™ over the kidneys (one inch up and out from belly button), back of neck, or around the outside of earlobes.

Resources:

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

• Parasympathetic® available here
• Bladder Support™ available here
• Adrenal® available here
• Calm™ available here
• Lavender™ available here
• Focus™ available here
• Brain Boost™ available here
• Circulation™ available here
• Attention™ available here
• Spleen™ available here
• Kidney Support™ available here