Essential oils for soul: Weekly scents and remedies, week eight

doTERRA essential oil blends, Serenity® and InTune®

Focus or daydream?

This post is about Focus and Attention. First of all, I'm not going to talk about ADHD or self-help techniques to get you to be more organized in your days. I am more interested in diving deeper into the root of what drives you to get sidetracked, sometimes in a psychologically-controlled fashion sprinkled with a rebellious undertone, or maybe even hopelessness.

I want to address the issues at hand that are supported with essential oils—ones that set a foundation for a healthy mindset. From that thriving place within yourself, you are then ready to focus on your passion.

Emotions distract

Each person is unique but maybe my own story will help others. What distracts me most are my emotions, whether good or bad. Whatever it is inside me takes me on a train, one that I often stay on if I don't catch myself. I could spend hours at this all while I have an important deadline. 

Its strength increases as time alludes me—my usual relationship with time—and I start feeling that the only way I can have freedom in my life is to do exactly what I want to do in each moment. No one can control me. It evolves into wishing that I could just sit down and get it done, and wonder why I don't (or is that won't).

This is about the nervous system.

Nervous system stabilizing, serenity

I discussed calming anxiety in another post from the angle of fear and sorrow that can take you down. In other words, I discussed calming the negative emotions. However, what I want to delve into here is more about the positive emotions, the dreamlike states that have tremendous power to whisk me away in exhilarating thought and preparations.

A particular doTERRA blend helps to cool down my excitement and shrink the urges back into a dormant state—to be reawakened when I'm available. The blend is called Serenity® (Calming Blend). It was the first blend that I tried on day one of my Ashtanga yoga/essential oil experiments. It has a strong aroma so I feel I was in my own cloud that day. I stopped using it in class (or in public) feeling that it was too strong.

I read something interesting today about Serenity®, as I researched the essential oils that are most likely to encourage the feeling of unconditional love. It is one of them. For me it connects anxiety or an inability to focus with the lack of feeling loved or okay in the moment.

Think about it. When you are at your best moments, feeling your passions arise and your creative state is at its highest, you feel held by something higher than yourself. It's love, whether it comes from a person or higher source. It's a feeling of contentment. You need that first before you can find the best parts of yourself needed for your creations, business ideas, written work, energetic moments, etc.

I've been wearing Serenity® for the last few hours. It's no longer too strong for me. It's perfect. (It's interesting to me how my sense of smell has changed over the course of months, especially as I learn what an essential oil's purpose is.) In my current state, I feel loved—loved by my words, readers, my skin, or anyone who comes to mind. It contains: Lavender, Sweet Marjoram, Roman Chamomile, Ylang Ylang, Hawaiian Sandalwood, Vanilla Bean Extract.

I feel this oil working beyond the nerve pathways within me. Fact: as the body is able to relax, more blood is able to circulate to the brain. Voila! Focus.

Focus, focus... feel loved first

Since I'm assessing doTERRA essential oils and proprietary blends and truly love so many of their blends, I have to speak to their blend called InTune® (Focus Blend). I have come to the conclusion that this is a misnomer. What this blend does to me while worn topically is give me a headache. I'm not sure why because each of the ingredients in it are highly beneficial to me alone or in other blends. I've tried this multiple times. Since it comes with a roller ball applicator, I roll it right on to my wrists (the places that I can easily sense while trying to focus). But it doesn't help me focus, become attentive or inspire me.

I believe that this is a good experiment for me and that the act of fixing my inability to focus—just that in and of itself—is the problem and my body is fighting back with the headache. It's like trying to apply a bandaid; I want to get to the root cause. Especially due to the spiritual, calming and sensual components of the blend, focus is the antithesis of these for me. Just saying.

InTune® contains Amyris, Patchouli, Frankincense, Lime, Ylang Ylang, Hawaiian Sandalwood, Roman Chamomile. Sounds familiar, huh. I'm in an internal squabble with my desires to be "focusing" on my true strengths vs. my supervised brain full of shoulds and musts. Instead, I have dedicated this essential oil to a spiritual quest... Good thinking. I guess I had an epiphany in my moment of "focus."

So, I pried off the roller ball to the applicator and poured in a few drops of InTune® into my diffuser. I dedicated my moments afterward to pranayama meditation. This was what came out the other end: I am loved.

There you have it... Or is it just being lazy? I just read an article entitled, "Being lazy is a sign of high intelligence." :)

[If you want to try some dōTERRA® essential oils yourself, here are two ways to do it. 1) Shop here for retail purchases directly. 2) Join to get wholesale prices. Ships internationally.]

Namaste.

~ Robin Ellen Lucas, M.A.