Why add essential oils to your yoga practice? In a nutshell: Essential oils will enhance your yoga practice.
You practice yoga for some reason. Maybe you want to feel calmer, have more gratitude, you enjoy the sense of presence and more energy or it helps you let go.
Whatever your reason, essential oils will make your practice better, stronger and deeper.
Choose your oils wisely: quality makes a difference. If an oil is not truly pure and therapeutic grace, they can actually cause injury rather than support your practice.
Both oils and yoga work with our physical, mental, emotional and spiritual bodies. Both help us “uncover” our true wellness and vibrancy. Both work on us at a vibrational level.
Can you see how using them together could be the powerful tool you could use to take your vibrancy to the next level?
So, let’s talk about how to be truly intentional with your practice and oil use.
Being intentional with your practice will take your practice, and your life, to the next level.
Often when people get on their yoga mat, they do the same series of poses or simply stretch in a way that feels good.
Really, that is a great start and totally fine if that is all you want to do.
But yoga poses have their own energy to them and can affect you in very specific ways.
Standing poses help you feel you can stand on your own two feet in life to help deepen your sense of independence. Backbends build courage and energy, gently stimulating the adrenals and opening your heart. Forward folds deepen your sense of presence and quiet as well as support a feeling of gratitude.
Then, you can further refine it to look at individual poses. For example, with standing poses: the warrior series builds courage and confidence, tree pose helps you feel balance as you reach for your dreams, standing forward fold helps you feel gratitude from a place of worth.
You can begin to do your practice with more intention by asking yourself: What do I need in my life? What am I working on? And crafting your practice around that intention.
This intention can be as micro- or macro-cosmic as you want.
It could be a simple, “oh, I ate too much” or “I didn’t sleep well” or “I need a dose of energy for my afternoon.” And that intention might be just for that day’s micro-intention.
OR
Your intention could also be a much bigger, global desire you have. Perhaps you are ready to let go of a layer of stress, ground yourself, have the courage to take an action that scares you or step into deeper self-love — intentions that might take a few weeks or months to manifest.
These intentions can be supported with both yoga and essential oils.
Personally, I am frequently working on something in life: a shift or a transformation. It could be tiny or a quantum leap, but there is almost always something I am thinking about.
I choose a regular practice around that transformation that I do most days.
Then, I often have micro-intentions when life brings things up that need attention. A stressful day that needs a release, experiencing a challenging menstrual cycle, an emotional experience that needs attention, etc.
When I sit down on my mat, I decide what I need that day. Do I need energy? Relaxation? Twists? Restorative? Quiet? Where is my body and mind? Maybe I need to be working on my global desire or maybe today needs special attention.
What yoga poses will help with that intention? What oils will help? And then watch your life unfold…
Photo by Amy Zellmer.
Experienced Yoga Educator, Life Coach, Author and Inspirational Speaker, Laura has been in the wellness field for over 30 years. She now specializes in adding essential oils into your Yoga Practice to make the practice deeper and more powerful, including a training for Yoga Teachers. Follow her on Instagram, Facebook and Youtube.
