EYP Essential Oil Tip: Respiratory Blend

/

As you are focusing on your breath this week, try supplementing your yoga practice with a respiratory blend (which may include such oils as laurel leaf, eucalyptus, peppermint, melaleuca, lemon, ravensara and cardamom), or with a single oil known to support healthy function of the respiratory system, such as eucalyptus, cardamom or peppermint.

You can topically apply a drop of your pure essential oil to the chest and upper back; if your skin is sensitive, simply dilute the essential oil with a carrier oil to enhance comfort.

Aromatically, you can put a drop of essential oil in the palm of your hand, rub your hands together, cup the nose or create a lotus mudra with your hands and inhale deeply. This type of inhalation will invite the oils into the sinus cavities in the head, and will pass the olfactory bulb on their way to the brain. As you are focusing on breath, this can be an excellent tool for calming and focusing the mind.

If you would like to support the healthy function of the respiratory system in the chest (lungs), after you have applied a drop of oil to the palm of your hand and rubbed your hands together, make a loose fist with one hand and cup your fist with the palm of your other hand. Hold your fist up to your mouth and inhale deeply through the mouth three times.

Don’t be surprised if the sensation of deep breathing feels awkward or uncomfortable; most of us are used to very shallow breathing. Learning the skill and habit of deep breathing and developing awareness of how deeply you breathe can assist with many factors of healthy functioning for the body and the emotions.

Diffuser recipe to uplift, invigorate and support attention to breath:

  • 3 drops lemon
  • 2 drops eucalyptus
  • 2 drops wild orange
  • 2 drops cardamom
  • 4 drops patchouli
  • 2 drops lime

Remember you can increase or decrease the recipe in proportion to a comfortable strength for your room size. If it’s difficult to break the recipe down to a smaller size, you can blend the oils ahead of time (always in the order given) in a separate bottle and diffuse the appropriate amount of the new diffuser blend.