Essential Oils for Your Yoga Practice
By: Jodi Cohen, Vibrant Blue Oils
I have been a dedicated yoga practitioner for over 10 years. I find that Essential oils and my daily yoga practice have much in common.
They both feed the mind, body and spirit. They both help to ground me so I am able to better process and work through physical, mental and emotional challenges. They both seem to keep pace with my growth, evolving and unfolding in different ways to match my expanding potential.
When combined, they seem to enhance and amplify each other, helping to clear my mind, open my heart and anchor my balance.
If you are not familiar with Essential oils, they are the natural, highly concentrated essences extracted from specific plants in their living state for their healing capabilities. Many of my favorite oils, like Vetiver, are derived from the roots of the plants. If you think about the job of a plant’s roots, it is to ground and anchor the plant to earth. Since humans and plants are bio familiar, these oils can play a similar role in the human body, helping to ground and balance us.
One of my favorite examples of how this works comes from a yoga instructor friend who integrated Vibrant Blue Oils Adrenal oil into her class to demonstrate the true meaning of Balance.
My friend guided the class into Tree pose on both sides; counting slowly and asking them remember how many seconds they were able to hold the posture. She then guided them to Mountain pose and applied the Adrenal oil on their lower backs. After a minute, she asked if anyone felt anything, and 75% of the class reported a palpable energetic shift, with a heightened awareness of feeling rooted and grounded.
She then asked them return to Tree pose on both sides and again timed the balance. They all nailed that balance and improved by at least 50% in regards to time held.
“I even had a few students who stayed and stayed and stayed until I asked them to come back to standing so that we could move on. These few reported that they had hit a place of “effortlessness” in the balance-even “Santosha” which is the word for “Contentment” or a perfect mind and body homeostasis- all in a state of resonant harmony and flow- no need, no desire, no striving, not too much or too little…everything is just right and the person is purely in the present moment.”
You may know that the Adrenals correspond with the Root Chakra. They create balance within the systems of the body and mind and help direct how that balance resonates through our whole experience of life, when we fall into stress, when we relax and what hormones are released into our system. The grounding energy of Yoga helps balance the adrenals which is one of the reasons so many people find it so beneficial.
The addition of essential oils helps to amplify and enhance the yoga experience. Other oils that I layer into my yoga practice include:
Heart: I love heart opening sequences and find that this blend accentuates both my ability to open my emotional heart and my physical heart. My flexibility in my back literally improves the minute I apply it. Even better, it instantly drops me into a heart-centered space to get the most out of my practice. As you may know, the heart is the connector between the upper and lower chakras and helps to integrate intuition from the gut and feelings into our thought processes. I apply a few drops over the heart, and immediately feel grounded, balanced and open hearted.
Lymph: Yoga is a great way to get the lymphatic system moving and our Lymph oil seems to enhance that movement, increasing my energy level and helping me go deeper into my poses. As you may know, interstitial lymph fluid flows through the lymph nodes where toxins are filtered out. Unlike the cardiovascular system, the lymphatic system does not have a heart to pump the fluid through the body. The more you can help the lymph fluid flow, the more quickly you can move toxins out of the body. Applying Vibrant Blue Oils Lymph before yoga to the lymph nodes — sides of neck, under the arms and around bikini line (where your leg creases when you lift it) – helps increase circulation of the lymphatic system, leaving you feeling lighter, stronger and healthier.
Breathe: A key component of yoga is the breath. We naturally work to breathe deeper during our yoga practice to take in more oxygen for the body and the brain. Vibrant Blue Oils Breathe blend opens and soothes the physical airways to allow for enhanced oxygen intake during exercise. On an emotional level, the lungs also take in” and “let go” of emotional energy. Vibrant Blue Oils Lung Support in combination with yoga breathing can help release feelings of grief, bereavement, regret, loss, remorse that can obstruct ability of the lungs to accept and relinquish. Both Breathe and Lung Support can be inhaled or topically applied over the lungs before yoga to optimize breath. Breathe contains hot oils and should be diluted with another oil (like coconut oil or olive oil) prior to topical application.
Author: Jodi Cohen, Founder Vibrant Blue Oils and Certified Yoga Instructor
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