Slay Your Workday with Essential Oils

I will always be a working woman. I love the challenges, the camaraderie, I love the fact that my career is 100% mine - but that’s not to say working isn’t without challenges!

When I discovered essential oils I immediately saw the benefit they could have for me at work. Oils are powerful mood enhancers and they can invoke all kinds of physical and emotional responses that we desire at work. We face many challenges in the workplace and I firmly believe that every working woman should have essential oils in her work toolbox!

Power Hour

I always start my day with a power hour. It’s where I get super focused on what I need to do for the day and start banging it out. I know many people who use the pomodoro technique to create some focused energy toward a particular project or task. This is a fantastic time to use essential oils because it can create what is called anchoring in the NLP technique where using particular smells during specific tasks can help you ‘get in the zone’ faster and remain there while your sense of smell is being activated. Using essential oils that help with focus, invigorate the mind, clear thinking, and enhance creativity are ways to boost your performance during this time.

This is a great time to diffuse. Diffusing essential oils not only is a quick way to absorb them but also to affect your environment. If you want to promote this type of focused, stimulated and productive environment diffuse these oils in your office in the morning and share the magic with your coworkers!

Stress/Pressure

Deadlines anyone? More projects than time in the day? Superiors looking for answers you don’t have yet? I get it. Stress and pressure can be the biggest inhibitors to our work performance. Ongoing stress can lead to negativity, bitterness and bad attitudes that really hinder our ability to perform at our best. Essential oils have the ability to lift our moods even when our minds don’t feel like it. Using essential oils topically when under pressure can help us to feel better and feel better fast!

Anxiety

Let’s be honest, work is where I have the greatest anxiety in my life. Sometimes it’s unpredictable. Sometimes crazy stuff happens that’s completely out of your control. Other times we have to deal with people who are completely out of control. No matter what, anxiety comes with the territory of working but that doesn’t mean it has to whip us!

Essential oils not only affect our moods, they also physically affect our bodies. We can use oils to reduce anxiety in our bodies by using them topically. Some oils reduce physical tension, some calm the mind and when we use them we can give ourselves some much needed relief from anxiety AND remove the blocks from our thinking that anxiety creates so we can problem solve and overcome those obstacles.

Headaches

So many things at work can bring on a headache. Sitting in one position for too long, noises, smells, staring at a computer or printed reports can all bring on a headache. I prefer to either use a roller blend or dab some oils on my temples, forehead and the back of my neck to relieve a headache. Not only do they absorb into the bloodstream quicker than pills that need to first be digested the smell of oils is also very soothing when a headache is plaguing you.

Aches & Pains

Working long hours at a desk leaves me with a sore neck, pains in my wrists and arms, and tension between my shoulder blades and sometimes sitting for long periods can’t be avoided so I always have essential oils to relieve pain at my desk and in my purse.

Fatigue

The struggle is real! There was a time when I would leave my house at 7am to get to work before 8:30. That hour and a half commute had me exhausted before I ever got started! I worked until 5 pm and then drove that same brutal commute home and walked in the door 11 ½ hours after I left. I realize this is normal for so many people - this is why Starbucks is such a hit! Who doesn’t start the work day with a Venti something-or-other? But all that caffeine and sugar wreak havoc on our bodies and then they perform at less than peak capacity when we need them the most. Essential oils are a great way to beat fatigue. Use topically or diffuse for a quick (calorie and caffeine free!!) boost when you need it.

I actually have a diffuser in my car. You can get the plug in kind that has water or the kind that you put on the air vents in your car. Take an extra couple of seconds in the morning before you leave to set up your oils and save yourself the 25 minutes in line (and $10) at Starbucks!

Anger/Frustration

Anger/Frustration: No matter how much we love our jobs there is always going to be something that frustrates and sometimes even angers us. Coworkers, superiors, policy, budget cuts, you name it there will be something. Frustration can derail our work performance and sometimes we need an extra boost to help us focus on something different. Essential oils work very well at redirecting our focus. The smell of essential oils can give us something specific to focus on so that our minds can be drawn away from what is frustrating us long enough for us to disconnect from it and change direction.

Confidence

Every once in awhile we need a little confidence boost at work. Whether you are doing a presentation in front of your peers or have a meeting with someone intimidating essential oils are a great way to boost your confidence physically and mentally. Remember, essential oils work physiologically in the body so even if you didn’t feel it emotionally they are still working to help your body do what it does hormonally when you feel your best. Essential oils assist your body in the magic it was made for so dab some on behind your ears and on your wrists like perfume and trust the process!