The Best Essential Oil Scent To Add To Your Home Office

The home office, a space for contemplation, productivity, and concentration, can be an excellent place to use scented oils to mold the environment and produce the results you most want. Certain oils, like cedarwood, are perfect for office and work environments, boosting feelings of calm, focus, and relaxation as your brain processes the scent

Scent is one of the quickest routes to our emotions and memories, as well as our general sense of well-being. The practice of essential oil use implements natural extracts from plants, fruits, and other organics. Such oils can be used as a perfume applied directly to the body or as a scent dispersed through candles and other scent diffusers. They are an excellent way to mold what some call the "invisible design" of a room, ie. the environmental factors that provide an experience that goes beyond décor and furnishings. These elements include light, temperature, sound, and smell.

Essential oils work with the processes of the olfactory system in communication with the brain's amygdala, the organ which triggers emotional response and memory. This can create a rush of feelings to our own sense memory as well as feelings experienced universally when it comes to some essential oils. Lavender oil, for example, is often used as a calming scent to fall asleep to. This works great for a bedroom or nursery but is less great for a home office.

Cedarwood, on the other hand, improves cerebral activity while also producing feelings of focus and calm, relaxing the body but allowing concentration and reducing stress. Distilled from the berries, leaves, and bark of coniferous plants like cedar and juniper, cedarwood oil is great for use topically on the skin's pulse points, in a spray or atomizer, or in a diffuser. You can also spray it on dried flowers or on a lightbulb, which will heat up and disperse the scent throughout the room.

Essential oils can also be used to achieve other effects in your home office. Looking to boost your energy after a long day? Try peppermint or lemon essential oil to get through your midday slump. Need to enhance your creativity? Try tangerine, frankincense, and jasmine. Looking for clarity and vision? Clary sage is recommended. Ginger root essential oil has been known to create feelings of self-motivation and self-confidence, key ingredients to making your workspace feel healthy and productive. Rosemary oil is often a favorite for increasing your memory and cognition, so is great for studying.

You can also combine essential oils to get a variety of results and create your own signature blend with a little experimentation. Whether you apply them to the body or use a diffuser, essential oils can go a long way to maximizing those invisible design details in your favor. With a diffuser, you can also change your scents throughout the day for when you most need them. Try starting your morning with lemon essential oil for energy and finish with some calming lavender at the end of your day to wind down.