How to Use Essential Oils to Elevate Your Yoga Practice
Have you ever tried using essential oils during your yoga practice?
Wondering if there’s any benefits to doing so?
As you’ll see in this guide, yoga and essential oils make the perfect pair.
Combined they may give you more focus, help you stretch deeper, and leave you feeling better and more refreshed than before you started.
To learn why that is and to make sure you’re practicing safely with essential oils, we’re going over all of that and more today, starting with why it’s ideal to combine them.
How Essential Oils May Boost Your Yoga Practice
While essential oils can be used in a variety of places and for a number of different reasons, one of the best ways is using them to enhance your yoga practice.
Depending on the oils you choose, you can set the right mood to help your mind and body relax and unwind from the stresses of life.
Or they can help you focus on your breath in difficult poses so you can tune out the rest.
You can even select oils based on your current state or the one you’d rather be in.
So if you want to enhance the mood you’re in, you can find oils to support that goal (more on this later) or you can take control and use essential oils to turn around a negative mood or ease out of a stressful day.
Plus, if you decide to use an essential oil diffuser, you have a built-in focal point to perform double-duty.
Focal points allow you to relax your mind and tune into what matters, in this case, steadying and relaxing your body.
Keep an eye on your essential oil diffuser focal point for tough balancing moves like half moon and eagle, which require you to steady your gaze on still objects.
And if you choose an essential oil diffuser with LED lights, you can practice in a dark room and rely on the warm, glowing light that’s emitted.
Adding essential oils to your at-home practice transforms your space so you feel like you’re at an expensive yoga studio, even if one’s not in your budget.
Consider the following precautions before you begin so you can safely enjoy the experience.
How to (Safely) Use Essential Oils During Your Yoga Session
Out of respect for other people and their sensitivities, it’s best to only use essential oils when you’re practicing yoga at home.
After all, if the oil you choose to wear at a studio starts a chain reaction of sneezes, it’s going to be very challenging to keep everyone focused.
Another important tip to remember here is that you don’t ever want to apply the oils in places that come in contact with your mat. This can cause a slippery situation and may increase your chances of injury.
To avoid this, pat your essential oils on your skin or use a roll-on oil specifically designed for yoga; apply to places like your neck and chest instead of your wrists, hands, and feet.
By placing the oils on these specific spots, they will be close enough to your nose that you can smell the oils throughout your practice without having to worry about leaving any slippery trails.
Keep in mind, you should never apply the essential oils directly to your skin without first combining them with a carrier oil, even if they’re high-quality. Because of the volatility and potency of essential oils, doing so may cause skin irritations and burns.
By combining essential oils with a carrier oil, you’ll eliminate these issues altogether.
Another option here is to add a few drops of your essential oils to a necklace or bracelet that’s made especially for this purpose.
This gives you another way to smell the oils throughout your session without having them touch your skin to do so.
Using an essential oil diffuser, as previously mentioned, is another great way to spread the benefits around.
A few drops of a high-quality oil is all it takes to fill up an entire space within minutes.
There’s one more factor to consider before you start using essential oils during your yoga practice.
It’s always best to choose an oil you know well and have experience with; If you try to experiment with a new smell and it turns out to be one you or your sinuses don’t like, you’ll end up distracted and out of focus instead of tuned in.
A good rule of thumb is to choose oils you’ve previously used and enjoy for more than 15 minutes at a time.
Since your yoga practice is probably longer than this, you want to make sure the scent can hold up with your senses for the duration.
If you need helping finding the right essential oil to elevate your yoga session, this next section is for you.
13 Best Essential Oils to Use While You Practice Yoga
To figure out which oil may be right for you, answer the following questions:
- How do you feel in the moment?
- How would you like to feel during or after your yoga session?
- Are you interested in changing your current mood or enhancing it?
- What do you need to do that? (e.g. a quiet mind? More focus?)
- Do you need help focusing on balance in tough positions or relaxing your muscles for deep stretches?
Next, see how your answers compare with the following lists and you should be able to narrow down a scent right for you and your yoga session.
For a Relaxing, Restorative Practice, Choose These Oils
These essential oils may be able to calm and relax both your body and mind:
For Increased Focus, These Oils May Help
This next set of oils may be able to give you the energizing boost and increased focus you need for a yoga workout. They’re also perfect for starting your day off right, waking up a sluggish afternoon, and uplifting a funky mood:
Use Essential Oils to Elevate Your At-Home Yoga Practice Today
With all the beneficial reasons for adding essential oils to your yoga practice, you’re ready to choose an oil that perfectly balances what you need.
For a complete list of the essential oils we offer, check out this page.
Once you have your oil selected, add a few drops to an essential oil diffuser or to a carrier oil. After a few deep breaths in and out, you’ll have what feels like an expensive, transformative experience.
You may also want to try a pre-made essential oil roll-on blend for yoga specifically.
With 100% pure Lavender, Peppermint, Clary Sage, Rosemary, Frankincense, Basil, Clove, and Marjoram, it may help deepen your yoga practice while warming up your core and uplifting your mind and spirit.
Don’t believe us? Try it out for yourself. Namaste!