Essential oils are powerful tools for calming anxiety and Frankincense is one of my favorites. Applying it over my heart or inhaling directly from the bottle helps me navigate intensely anxious moments.
Research supports how your sense of smell affects our mood, stress levels, and mental performance. When inhaled, essential oils stimulate the smell receptors in your nose which then signal the part of the brain that controls emotions, mood, stress, and thought processes, including anxiety.
Evidence also supports topically applying essential oils to help calm anxiety. One study found that topically applying an essential oil blend of frankincense, bergamot, and lavender when used in a hand massage oil helped induce relaxation, lower blood pressure, and reduce depression and anxiety.
Extracts from frankincense, in particular, have been found to affect certain neurons in the brain that help regulate emotions. This has an anxiolytic, or anxiety-inhibiting, effect that helps relieve symptoms of anxiety and depression. The research found that inhaling frankincense extracts promotes a positive emotional state.
How does frankincense oil reduce anxiety?
Frankincense, a resin made from the sap of trees, is an especially powerful tool for calming emotions. It is high in sesquiterpenes, a constituent known to easily pass the blood-brain barrier and carry oxygen to the brain. This increase in oxygen helps calm inflammation in the parts of your brain that control stress, anxiety, fear, and depression.
Sesquiterpenes may also help to balance hormones and emotions, helping to alleviate symptoms of anxiety and depression. By increasing oxygenation of the pineal and pituitary glands in the brain, sesquiterpenes balance emotion-regulating hormones, which in turn balances your mood.
Frankincense essential oil can also help promote a calming response in your nervous system, supporting deep breathing and relaxation, which helps to open up air passages and lower blood pressure.
For example, Frankincense contains Incensole Acetate, a compound that stimulates a receptor protein shown to relieve anxiety and depression in animal studies. A study on mice published in the FASEB journal discovered that a receptor in the brain was reacting to the chemical component of Frankincense resin called incensole acetate. This had an anti-depressive effect and reduced anxiety.
Another study found that the inhalation of frankincense helped calm pain and anxiety among pregnant women during delivery.
Frankincense possesses powerful anti-depressant and sedative properties that help induce a feeling of mental peace, and relaxation that helps calm anxiety.
How to use frankincense oil reduce anxiety?
Inhalation:
Hold the bottle an inch or two below your nose and take a deep inhalation breathe. You can also strategically inhale Frankincense through your left nostril.
Anxiety can be triggered by over-activity and dominance of the right frontal lobe of your brain. The right brain processes the emotional aspects of the human experience, giving us empathy and compassion, but in overdrive, the right brain can contribute to heightened emotions and anxiety.
Functional neurologist Dr. Titus Chiu strategically suggests inhaling essential oils, like Frankincense, through your left nostril to activate your left frontal lobe and balance the over-activity of the right frontal lobe. This creates balance between the left and right hemispheres of the brain, which then leads to feelings of calm and helps halt anxiety attacks.
Topical Application:
Frankincense can be massaged:
- Over the heart to calm anxiety
- On the back of the neck on the brain stem to support calm and clear thinking
- On the bottoms of the feet – you can strategically apply over reflex points on the bottom of the feet or just allow the chemical constituents of the oil to enter your body through the (over) 200 pores in the soles of your feet.
Applying Frankincense to the bottom of the feet can also be very grounding, which helps to calm and diffuse anxious energy.
Grounding is a technique that helps you connect to the healing energy of nature and the Earth. Grounding brings us into a state of balance, both mentally and physically. It is in this balanced state that our body can rest, repair, and heal on the physical, emotional, and spiritual levels.
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Essential oils, especially those derived from barks, roots, grasses, needles, and resin of grounded plants which are intrinsically grounded through their root structure into the Earth, help you pull your energy centers down into the Earth.
Frankincense is a resin extracted from trees that grow in the challenging climates of northeastern Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. These challenging climates make Frankincense™ uniquely resilient and supportive to help with grounding. Frankincense™ is known for helping to purify, sanctify, and connect you to your spiritual path, calming the mental chatter of your nervous system. It also helps connect you to the healing energy of the Earth.
Add a few drops to a bath. Pair it with some Epsom salts for added relaxation. You can also integrate Frankincense oil into your skincare routine for both mental and a physical benefit. There is evidence that frankincense and other essential oils can help fight wrinkles and reduce or prevent the appearance of sunspots. Frankincense has also been shown to improve skin tone while also helping to generate new skin cells and reduce other signs of aging. In addition to serving as an excellent moisturizer, frankincense contains compounds that can lift and tighten skin loosened by age, stress, or environmental conditions.
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References:
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5198031/
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21922934/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2493463/
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18492727/
- http://www.aromaticscience.com/the-use-of-aromatherapy-in-intrapartum-midwifery-practice-an-observational-study-2/
