Creating positive habits can be difficult to cultivate and stick too. Essential oils can make the process easier and feel much more natural.

How? Just like you and I are part of a family, each essential oil belongs to a family. The chemical family they belong to dictates a lot of the personality and effect of each oil. This is what makes studying the chemistry of essential oils so much fun. It’s that chemistry that’s responsible for creating change in our body and in our MIND. 

Here are 7 positive habits that are made easier by incorporating the right essential oils and blends in your daily routine:  

• Keeping in contact with your family and friends
  Staying in touch these days takes a bit more effort. We have to do most everything virtually, and is it just me or are we busier than EVER even though we’re always home? Essential oils of the Monoterpene and Sesquiterpene families such as Black Pepper will help motivate you to stay connected and give you the energy and stamina to follow through. 
• Exercising regularly
  We say it EVERY January without fail: THIS is the year I’m going to get fit. The only problem is I hate exercising and have no time for it. WELL, making an inhaler blend out of oils primarily of the Esters and Oxides family, including Cardamom, can make you feel INVIGORATED and ready to hit the gym… I mean the online workout video 🙂 
• Staying on a great sleep schedule
  Sleep is by far one of my favorite subjects. The restorative power of a good night’s sleep cannot be underestimated. Consistent quality sleep helps our body systems heal. If we cannot get to sleep or stay asleep, our body takes those blows and it shows up in everything we do (or can’t do) on the days that follow. My favorite essential oil for great quality sleep is Cedarwood from the Sesquiterpene and Sesquiterpenol families. It’s incredibly grounding and deeply relaxing. This will help you to stick to your schedule when it’s time for lights out. Don’t forget that being on a sleep schedule will greatly increase the quality of your sleep. I love diffusing this an hour or so before bedtime. 
• Making professional and personal deadlines
  We are BUSY people. My husband Randy and I are full-time volunteer teachers, and we each hold down pretty time-consuming businesses. Meeting deadlines can be a HUGE challenge. Try incorporating Ginger into your diffuser or inhaler blends. Ginger is dynamic and belongs to pretty much all the chemical families, so it brings a boatload of personality with it. It stimulates will power, restores motivation and helps to combat burnout on any level. This oil will nourish you and help you get that task list complete.
• Changing negative self-talk
  Self-talk is literally the stories, words and conversations that we have with ourselves. It’s our belief system about ourselves, who we are and what we can accomplish. It has everything to do with how we show up and how we feel in our own skin. Create the habit of positive self-talk by incorporating essential oils into your daily routine. They will nourish your soul and change the conversation. Start with Sweet Orange of the monoterpene family.
• Personal Study & Meditation
  This may seem like a strange combination for some. However, my method of teaching meditation is different than what you may be used to. I use essential oils to help retain information and sync deeper into the mind instead of emptying the mind. That makes it PERFECT to go along with deep personal study of any kind, as it will help you retain and apply what you’ve studied. A great oil to support this is Frankincense; it’s one of those special oils with a bit of most all the major chemical families. It’s the king of focus and concentration. Put a few drops in your diffuser as you prepare for study and meditation.
• Eating more vegetables
  We’ve been hearing it all our lives – EAT MORE VEGGIES! Vegetables have been given credit for relieving constipation, cancer, arthritis pain and getting us to a healthy weight, just to name a few. So we WANT those veggies but we don’t want them, right? Our brain controls so much of what we desire, so we want to train it right. The next time you make an amazing salad, the one that you really LOVE the taste of, diffuse Thyme (specifically Thymus vulgaris ct. linalool) of the monoterpene and monoterpenol families. I LOVE the smell of thyme, and it will help you with digestion as well as remind you how wonderful your meal is. Then, the next time you want to crave something healthy, pull out that Thyme and it will help you desire to relive that nutritious salad. Amazing what our minds can do with oils!