Aromatherapy and Anxiety
The right scents can help your muscles relax and ease your anxiety. Aromatherapy is a great way to reduce anxiety. Aromatherapy candles are popular, but consider using essential oils as well as your favorite candle. Some essential oils, such as lavender, can be applied directly to the skin. You can also purchase a diffuser to make the whole room smell relaxing.
A hot bath with drops of your favorite scent added is another way to use aromatherapy for anxiety. After filling the bath with water, add about six drops of your favorite essential oil and two tablespoons of almond oil. If anxiety is causing insomnia, consider making a scent sleep pillow. Lime blossoms, lavender, and hops are all good for sleep pillows. Simply fill a small bag with the herb and place it under your pillow.
Another way to use aromatherapy is to make a massage blend. Add ten drops of essential oil to one ounce of almond oil. If you suffer from anxiety in crowds, prepare a handkerchief with a few drops of a calming essential oil.
The best relaxation scent you can purchase is lavender. It is both a sedative and a tonic. Not only will it ease your stress, it can also help lessen aches and pains.
If you suffer from both anxiety and depression, consider patchouli oil. Patchouli oil reduces anxiety and is also known to lift the mood. Frankincense is good for reducing fear. It will help slow down your breathing and calm your mind. If your self confidence is feeling low, try using some jasmine. Use jasmine aromatherapy before an event, such as a job interview, that is causing you anxiety.
One of the most powerful essential oils is neroli. It is both a sedative and an anti-depressant. It will provide you with relief from tension, exhaustion, and make many hopeless situations seem more bearable.
Aromatherapy might not cure anxiety, but the right scents can do wonders to ease tensions and help relaxation.
Overcoming Anxiety By Defeating Negative Self Talk
Defeating negative self-talk is one of the most important aspects of overcoming anxiety. Although self-talk becomes automatic, it can become controlled. People who overcome anxiety are the ones who use self-talk to their advantage instead of letting it increase their anxiety.
Often, you don’t even notice self-talk because it is both automatic and subtle. With self-talk, one short word or image can contain much more in the form of thoughts, memories and associations. Although your self-talk is usually irrational, because it takes place quickly you often accept it as the truth. Self-talk can lead to avoidance. If you worry about what will happen during a job interview, you might not seek out new employment opportunities. Fortunately, negative self-talk is a bad habit and with a little time and effort, it can be broken.
The first thing you must do is slow down your self-talk. When it happens too quickly, you don’t have a chance to correct the negative self-talk. Once you slow down your self-talk, you’ll be able to unravel all its implications. When you think “oh no” or “this is terrible”–what thoughts are you actually thinking? Take the time to list the distinct thoughts that you may have from one phrase or image.
Next, you have to evaluate the truthfulness of your negative self-talk. Write down your negative self-talk. If you are a worrier, your self-talk might be “What if I say something stupid during the meeting?” A perfectionist might think, “I have to make a 100% on this test or I’m a disappointment.”
To evaluate your self-talk, you need to ask yourself some questions. What is the evidence for your negative belief? Is it always true and has it been true in the past? How likely is it to really happen? What is the worst that could happen, and what is so bad about that?
Once you evaluate your negative self-talk, it is time to write positive counterstatements that you can practice in its place. With positive counterstatements, use present tense, first person, avoid negatives, and make them believable. Instead of saying “I am not going to be anxious,” use “I am feeling calm.” If feeling calm isn’t believable to you, consider a counterstatement such as “I may be anxious, but I can still do this.”
Now it is time to make these positive counterstatements into a good habit. Start by reading your list a couple of times a day every day for a few weeks. The more you are exposed to them, the more truthful they will seem. Make copies and put them in places where you can see them throughout the day to help remind you. If you learn better by listening, consider making a recording of yourself reading your list. Listen to it while you are relaxed.
After a month, you will find that you are more aware of the previously automatic negative self-talk. You’ll be able to counter it with positive statements, and you will find your anxiety reduced.
