oil spotlight: cedarwood

​Cedarwood is a favorite among essential oil users for promoting deep, restful sleep. This essential oil includes sesquiterpenes, which can deprogram wrong information in the cells and bring oxygen to the cells, helping to circumvent any recurring sleep issues and get you fast asleep! You can place one drop under the big toes before bed, or mix with lavender and diffuse while sleeping or getting ready for bed. Cedarwood can also promote healthy hair growth, and can been used in homemade conditioners (often paired with Lavender and Rosemary oils) to help reverse thinning of hair.

Cedarwood can be used for balancing the muladhara (root) chakra, which is associated with survival issues, self preservation instinct, and the fight or flight response. This oil is also associated with the svadhishthana (sacral) and manipura (solar plexus) chakras, which are the next two chakras moving up through the body, and can be used to balance these chakras and enhance a grounding yoga practice. We diffuse and apply this oil to vita flex points in my aromatherapy flow classes to aid with rooting and centering as we flow through practices sequenced specifically for grounding through these first three chakras.

Here are my top 5 uses for Cedarwood Oil:

1. Combine 1 part lavender and 1 part cedarwood in a roller bottle to use for relaxation and sleep.

2. Add to your conditioner (one drop per ounce) to strengthen hair and help reverse thinning or hair loss. You may also add 1-2 drops to your mascara bottle to promote healthy eyelash growth.

3. Diffuse or inhale from the bottle to calm anger and ease nervous tension.

4. Diffuse and apply to vita flex points to enhance a grounding yoga practice.
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5. Add a drop to your nighttime moisturizer to promote healthy, youthful skin (it'll also help you drift off to sleep!).