5 Best Essential Oils For Mindfulness Meditation

Essential oils are an oil that’s the “essence” of a plant’s fragrance. We also know them as volatile oils, ethereal oils, or “oil of the plant”.

We have used them throughout history for medicinal purposes, ranging from simple treatments like skin problems to more complicated diseases. Their use in modern medicine is rare, however. We often use them as a form of aromatherapy, as a complementary medical treatment, or as an alternative medicine. 

There is no medical evidence proving essential oils can cure diseases. Essential oils help promote well-being and have positive effects on those who use them. That’s what makes them a great addition to your mindfulness routine and regular meditation practice that will deepen the meditation experience.

Essential oils can help transition easier to a meditative state and calm your mind, which will increase mental clarity afterwards and provide a soothing inner peace. It’s important to note the oils I am going to talk about produce no drug related effects, and are not at all part of the hemp or opioid family. They are simply aromatherapy oils and will not show on any drug test or performance-enhancing drug test.

Why Would You Want To Use Essential Oils For Mindfulness Meditation?

The answer to this question is that by using drops of essential oil in your meditation, you are encompassing one of the best ways to shed negative energy and negative emotions. Using essential oils for mindfulness is a wise practice, ensuring a solid meditation routine.

Using essential oils in a mindfulness meditation not only gives you a sense of peace, but increases awareness of our spiritual self along with providing healing qualities. You can expand and have a group of oils you choose from, but the most effective way to apply the use of essential oils in a meditative practice is to use only a single essential oil in your meditation. Although you don’t need to use essential oils in your mindfulness practice, there is a profound spiritual power of odor that has a positive effect in a meditation practice.

Which Essential Oil Should I Choose For My Meditation?

There are many different essential oils and essential oil blends available for you to choose from in the practice of meditation. Let’s learn about what I believe to be the top 5 essential oils for meditation.

Frankincense Essential Oil

Frankincense is a superb choice when you’re looking for something to calm your mind and help to get grounded. The oil has a calming effect and does not cause drowsiness, which makes it great for a morning or midday meditation. It’s also often used in helping with anxiety. It’s a very good essential oil for help with calming your mind in stressful times.

Frankincense oil has a woody, balsamic smell with an undertone of spice. Other uses include treating asthma and coughing. Many people put the oil onto scars and stretch marks to make them fade.

Frankincense is one of the best essential oils for meditation! It is known by its botanical name as Boswellia Carterii. Frankincense has been used as an essential oil to enhance spirituality for quite a few centuries. It supports feelings of grounding, balancing, and openness. Overall, this mindfulness aromatherapy oil can promote relaxation and stillness while in a meditation, spiritual practice, or just using it as a scent in a room.

Sandalwood Essential Oil

When looking for essential oils for meditation, sandalwood is an excellent choice because it is very calming and helps inspire a sense of inner peace, allowing you to better focus on your breathing. It’s also good for coping with stress.

Sandalwood oil is widely used in treating depression or using it as an aphrodisiac. Some also use it topically for healing dry or chapped skin, fading scars or stretch marks, and find it works well for skin that is sensitive to topical creams or other oils.

Sandalwood essential oil has a woodsy smell that is rather sweet, and there is a long list of therapeutic and spiritual benefits it provides (it’s often used in perfume and colognes). Traditionally, sandalwood oil has been a part of religious traditions in India and other Eastern countries. The sandalwood tree itself is considered holy and used for various religious ceremonies, including decorating for weddings or for the birth of a baby.

In Buddhism, the sandalwood scent is believed to be able to transform your desires while helping you remain alert while meditating.

Neroli Essential Oil

The centering spiritual and physical effects of neroli have a large impact on anyone’s meditation session and can help you achieve mindfulness, clarity, and inner peace.

Some practical and quick uses of Neroli essential oil include: 

Clear your head and reduce stress: take a sniff of Neroli essential oil while commuting to or from work.

Promote better dreams: put a drop of the essential oil on a cotton ball and tuck it inside your pillowcase to help you relax into a great night’s slumber.

Acne treatment: Neroli essential oil has powerful antibacterial properties, making it a great home remedy for acne to treat breakouts. To apply simply wet a cotton ball with water (to provide some dilution to the essential oil) and then add a few drops of Neroli essential oil. Dab the cotton ball on the problem area gently once a day until the blemish clears up.  

Purify the air: diffuse Neroli essential oil in your home or office to clean the air and breathe in its anti-germ properties.

Soak away stress: it will perform to naturally create a remedy for anxiety, depression, hysteria, panic, shock and stress. Use 3–4 drops of Neroli essential oil in your next bath or foot bath.

Alleviate headaches: place a few drops to a hot or cold compress to soothe a headache, especially one caused by tension.

Lower blood pressure: using Neroli essential oil in a diffuser or just taking a few sniffs of it right out of the bottle, studies have shown blood pressure as well as cortisol (the stress hormone) levels can be lowered.

Regenerate skin: mix a drop or two of Neroli essential oil with an application of an unscented face cream or oil (like jojoba or argan), and apply as normal.

PMS relief: to achieve a natural remedy for PMS cramps, mix a few drops of neroli into your bathwater.

Natural antispasmodic: use 2–3 drops in essential oil diffusers or 4–5 drops in a blended massage oil and rub it over the lower abdomen to improve colon problems, diarrhea and nervous dyspepsia.

Ease labor: childbirth is certainly stressful, but the essential oil of neroli can help with fear and anxiety during labor. Diffuse it in the air, or include it in a massage oil for the lower back.

Decrease stretch marks: add a few drops of Neroli essential oil to a cream, lotion or oil to reduce stretch marks and broken capillaries on the skin.

Cedarwood Essential Oil

It has a sweet yet woody and earthy smell and helps with relaxation. One additional benefit is that cedarwood also is a well-liked scent by men. 

Here are 14 of the most common uses of cedarwood oil, the most common ways to use and benefit from cedarwood.

To improve skin conditions like eczema, promote hair growth, soothe dry scalp, cedarwood oil has natural antiseptic properties, for arthritis relief, as a natural deodorizer, natural sedative, use it as a natural diuretic, to improve focus and ADHD, relief with a cough, makes a good bug repellent, stress relief, helps fight fungal infections, and helps acne.

Ylang Ylang Essential Oil

It is derived from the Cananga Odorata plant. Ylang Ylang essential oil is a floral essence grown in Indonesia and throughout the South Pacific.

Ylang Ylang essential oil also can be applied topically to promote healthy skin and hair.

Originally native to Southeast Asia, ylang ylang is now also grown in Madagascar, the Comoro Islands, and Ecuador. Belonging to the custard apple family, a mature tree can reach a height of up to 39 feet and produce thousands of vibrant, fragrant, yellow-green blooms. Traditionally used in hair formulas to promote shiny, lustrous hair, Ylang Ylang essential oil has a sweet, floral aroma that was historically believed to balance yin and yang. 

A common ingredient in perfumes and personal care products, Ylang Ylang essential oil adds a luxurious and romantic aroma, while also providing benefits to skin and hair. The ylang ylang flower is used to make several types of essential oil, by performing a steam distillation process. The intensity of their scent varies depending on the steaming variants. Ylang ylang extra is the most potent essential oil derived from the ylang ylang flower. This oil is often used as a top note in perfumes, such as Chanel Number Five.

Some great uses of Ylang Ylang essential oil are: 

Apply Ylang Ylang to your wrists and neck for a calming, floral fragrance that you can enjoy throughout the day.

Add a few drops to your facial serum or moisturizer to promote the appearance of radiant skin.

Add it to lotion or V-6 Vegetable Oil Complex and use for a massage.

Mix 1–3 drops with coconut oil and apply it to hair for an aromatic deep-conditioning treatment.

Add it to a hot bath to create a relaxing atmosphere to help you unwind after a long day.

Conclusion:

Although these five essential oils are favorites among many mindfulness meditation practitioners you will need to experiment to find the right essential oil for you. It’s tough to recommend an ideal essential oil because it depends on the style of meditation and needs.

All in all using essential oils to experience the benefits of meditation is a great way to go. They will help increase conscious awareness during meditation and allow for a broad spectrum of therapeutic properties.