Setting New Year Goals?
How aromatherapy can help
By Zenab Ishtay, Aromatherapist and Cosmetologist
Every year people make New Year’s resolutions, yet studies tell us that around 80 per cent of New Year’s resolutions get abandoned by the second month! If that’s you, aromatherapy can help create an energy of change to support you.
While essential oils should not replace conventional medicine, they can play an important role in maintaining general health and mental wellbeing. People of all ages can benefit from aroma treatments. Filling a room with the aroma of essential oils can help with a wide range of physical and emotional problems, from improving headaches and increasing attention and memory, to simply relaxing you after a long day.
Around this time, with long and cold winter nights, one can experience Seasonal Affective Disorder; we can become particularly gloomy and moody, unable to find joy anywhere. There is almost a desperate need to find the positive things in life, yet there seems to be no energy to follow positivity through.
The use of essential oils in different forms during the day can be beneficial in encouraging the positivism and energy we need to do things and focus on our goals. We can use them in shower gels, liquid hand soaps, in hand lotions, in diffusers, in the bathtub, at work with a burner or diffuser, in facials, in massages and in body mist.
How essential oils can help:
Clary sage, jasmine, neroli, frankincense, patchouli, rose, ylang-ylang, and sandalwood oils promote self-love, confidence and a sharper mind. They can reduce lethargy and anxiety, encourage feelings of wellbeing and give strength Basil, bergamot, clary sage, geranium, jasmine, lavender, melissa, neroli, rose, cypress, rosemary oils, all help us to eat healthier, lose weight and exercise more
Basil, cardamom, lemon, lemongrass, peppermint, rosemary and lemon verbena oils are best if you’re looking to find a new job, participate more in class or pursue higher education, since they can help you with concentration, focus and energy as they aid memory and help relieve mental fatigue
Let go of resolutions?
Instead of New Year’s resolutions, I choose a “Word of the Year” to help bring focus and clarity to what I want to create in my life. It’s the one word that sums up who I want to be or how I want to live.
Word of the Year examples:
Content
Joy
Peace
Focus
Nourish
Embrace
Grow
Empowered
Courage
Balance
Creativity
Learning
If you wish to do this, it will take intentionality and commitment. However, if you let it, your Word will shape not only your year, but also you. It will become the compass that directs your decisions and guides your steps. Along with your Word of the Year, you can choose to use one essential oil during the whole year, using it in different ways and different forms to help along your journey to bringing more of your Word into your life.
You can contact Zenab Ishtay at [email protected]
