It is a fact of life that we all age but who said it has to be all down hill? I’m sure you have run across those individuals who as they age, seem to get younger and younger and perhaps even run circles around you. Yes genes may have a small part to play but it is actually how the person treats their body, mind and spirit in the stresses of life that determines how healthy they are throughout their life span.
Stress is necessary in life or else we would never be able to get out of bed in the morning. However, stress can also shorten one’s life and lead to chronic and acute illnesses. Stress is a survival mechanism that protects the body against threat, whether it is real or imagined. Problem these days is that our normal body’s stress-response system never quite goes back to normal after a stressful event leaving people feeling constantly stressed, tense, or nervous with that fight-or-flight reaction constantly turned on. Literally, we become stuck on over-drive and can lead to what is termed “sympathetic override”. The sympathetic nervous system shuts down every non-essential function like digestion and begins producing lots of hormones like adrenaline, cortisol and serotonin. In order to make these hormones, vitamins and minerals are pulled out of the body’s tissues. These hormones flooding the system are acidic, so the body is flooded with acidity. We say in stressful times, that we are “running on adrenaline” which means an excess of these acidic hormones in the body. In this acidic environment, the body then produces osteoporosis, arthritis, cancer, and all the various degenerative diseases. This is the sympathetic nervous system gone amok.
Western medicine terms these consequences as simply part of the aging process and will treat the symptoms rather than the causes. This usually involves prescribing multiple pharmaceutical drugs.
Potentially, all essential oils can help combat stress. Some of course are more effective than others but overall, essential oils may provide the most successful way of coping with the various problems associated with and caused by stress. Don’t just think of the relaxing and sedating oils—there are also oils that produce a parasympathetic action while others produce more of a balancing action. Sedative oils may help reduce the symptoms of stress but don’t overlook the power of certain oils to encourage the production of the feel good hormones—the endorphins and enkephalins.
All of this to say aging doesn’t have to be a spiraling downward into chronic illness and pain. We have oils to support the body in times of stress that in the end will give us a better quality of life and healthier aging. Want to learn more about stress and how essential oils can help us reduce stress and its effects on your body and mind? Go to my book on Essential Oils Can Help You Deal with your Stress available in my bookstore. There you will learn about those oils that can help keep you balanced and out of sympathetic override.