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How to Get Better Grades Using Essential Oils

Lavender essential oil drops into wooden bowl for getting better grades.

Intro:

Lets face it, studying can be hard and monotonous. Often times the grades we get don’t reflect the amount of time, energy, and effort we put in to studying. However, what if we could hijack our brains and make them more efficient at studying with using something as easy as essential oils?

You’re telling me that I can get better grades by changing nothing other than using small amounts of high-quality essential oils? YES!!! The power of essential oils and the power of your brain are incredible! When you combine the two they’re even more so! But how is this possible you ask?

Memory

In our brains we have two different types of memory. The first, and less beneficial to us, is short term memory which is great for cramming but not maintaining. The other is long term memory which is what we want to improve. The beauty of our long term memory is that it’s located in the same area of your brain as smell is (inferior temporal lobe). This means when you use oils with studying you automatically put more stimulus into your brain with each study session. More stimulus means more neurons firing, which allows memories to imprint faster in your long term memory. IE the secret to getting better grades through using essential oils.

Now on average studying takes multiple repeated sessions to implant the information into your long term memory. Essential oils don’t change that, but it’ll improve how quickly and efficiently that information gets stored. This article is going to cover exactly how you can use these essential oils to improve your grades, the different types and qualities of oils you can use, the different ways you can use these oils, and the other health benefits that you’ll also receive when using the different oils.

Essential Oil Basics

Before we talk about getting better grades using essential oils lets talk about some of the “basics” of essential oils. In recent years the number of essential oil companies has dramatically increased! The variety in companies is great, but this means you need to research which company you choose. You need to make sure you are getting  quality essential oils that don’t contain harsh chemicals. Young living oils and Doterra oils are my top two choices! However, there are other great companies you can use just do your due diligence in picking the right one.

Oil Terminology

Grades:

Food Grade: When you see this term it simply means that the oil you’ve purchased has been proven to stay stable when being exposed to light, heat and air which means it is safe for you to cook with. Great for things like black pepper, peppermint oil, lavender oil, lemon oil, etc if you’re planning to cook with them, but doesn’t matter much for us in terms of using them for studying.

Commercial Grade: This means that the oil is mass produced in high volume. Be careful a lot of your commercial grade oils are produced so quick so they cut corners and will mix natural oils with synthetic oils. You don’t want anything to do with synthetic oils! They are horrible for your health!

Certified Pure Therapeutic Grade: While this is definitely a great thing to see, really this term was coined by DoTerra essential oils and is not actually regulated by any company other than their own. I do personally use some of DoTerra’s oils and they do a great job at making quality essential oils.

Aromatherapy grade / Therapeutic Grade oils: These terms tend to be interchangeable. They indicate an oil that was made to soothe and balance your body and mind. These oils are made to heal the mind or body for the different ailments you may have. This typically indicates that the process of harvesting, distilling, and packaging were taken with more care to ensure they maintain their grade. (Again when it comes to “grades” of oils there is no managing company that monitors this process. You are relying on the companies honesty on this statement.)

Key words when picking oils

Pure Essential Oils: This is what you want! This means that the oils you have chosen are composed only of compounds that come from plant parts and ensures that they do not have additives or synthetic oils in them.

Carrier Oil: A carrier oil is a base oil that is used to dilute essential oils down so that they aren’t as potent. This is important for stronger oils like oregano because they can cause skin irritations. You can use carrier oils such as jojoba oil, almond oil, olive oil, coconut oil, etc.

Patch test: This is where you will take a drop of the essential oil you’ve chosen, and place it on a small patch of skin. Watch this area closely and look for redness, hives, itching or any other sign that you might be having adverse reactions or any type of allergic reactions. It’s best to use an area like your arm over sensitive areas like your face. This is the best way to ensure your body won’t react to essential oils negatively. If you have any medical condition or concerns it is always a good idea to consult your doctor to make sure that it is safe for you to try.

There are a lot of different marketing term that you’ll see out there. Most importantly you are just looking for a pure oil company that has high quality oils, preferably organic essential oils, that will have a positive impact on your body, health, immune system, and especially for us, our study habits. Does the different quality make a difference on getting better grades with essential oils? YES!!! If you add in toxins you slow down your brain and lets face it when it comes to studying we definitely don’t need to do that. Quality matters!!!

Ways to Use Essential Oils

Internal Use: This means that you are ingesting the oil whether in pill form or placing the oil directly in your mouth. This doesn’t help us with studying, but for me I often will take a drop of peppermint on my tongue and breathe in and out of my mouth and nose. Helps to wake me up and prepare me for studying

Essential Oil Diffuser: These are great to take a couple of drops of essential oil and mix it with the water in the diffuser and it will make your environment smell great, but if you do this while studying it also exposes you to that smell to help boost up that memory. While this isn’t my favorite way of doing it because you can’t take the diffuser with you when you’re testing it still does the job.

Topical Use: Out of all the different methods, as it relates to getting better grades using essenital oils this is going to be the best method. You will take a drop or two of an essential oil and apply it directly to your skin (Look back to how to perform a patch test first to make sure your skin is able to handle topical use). Depending on the oil you use you may need to dilute the essential oil with a carrier oil and then apply it to your skin. (I advise the wrist when using oils for studying)

Different Types ofEssential Oils & Their Health Benefits

This is the hard part! The most common question is “well which oil do I use?” The other hard part is I can’t answer that for you because it will be different to every single person. You want to choose essential oils that smell good to you (we want to make studying a positive experience), and you want to pick a variety of oils that smell differently from each other so that your brain can differentiate what subject you are studying (we’ll get in to more of that later). With that said I’ll share my favorite oils that I use for studying.

Lavender Essential Oil:

Lavender across the board is probably the most common oil used. It is a great calming oil so is often used for stress relief, can help you sleep, and just in general gives you a calm and serene feeling. It’s also a skin soother for if you have any irritation. Caution though if it makes you sleepy then don’t use this oil for studying!

Lavender flowers that are used to help to make the essential oil to help you get better grades
Lemon Essential Oil:

Lemon is one of the best essential oils to use! It has a very distinct robust smell that is uplifting and causes positive feelings to run through you. Health wise it can also cleanse and purify the air or any surface it’s placed on. When taken internally it can help aid your digestion, and if you have a pesky sticky situation lemon oil helps to break up adhesive. This one helps to wake up your brain function because it’s an uplifting oil which means it is perfect for studying.

Orange Oil:

Orange is another great oil that is uplifting. It also helps to support a healthy inflammatory response when used internally. Again because it is uplifting it will help to wake up the brain, so another good one for studying. However, citrus oils are all very similar to the brain so I’d recommend choosing either lemon or orange and not using both so we don’t confuse the brain.

Peppermint Essential Oil:

In my opinion there is no better choice than peppermint when it comes to getting better grades using essential oils, but I’m biased because it is one of my favorite essential oils. It is a very strong and vibrant oil that is also very stimulating to the brain (that’s why it’s my favorite! If you want to wake up the brain peppermint is always the way to go). Other health benefits it has is it helps to promote a healthy respiratory function and clears breathing up when used internally (also wakes your brain up to get you ready for studying). Promotes a healthy digestive system when taken internally, and when diffused or applied topically it will repel bugs! Who doesn’t want that!

Tea Tree:

This one has a very distinct smell so it’s a great choice while studying. It also is a great cleaner and can rejuvenate and soothe the skin. The aroma of this one is strong so it is hit or miss on people that like it or not. You’ll have to smell it out to see if it’s the right oil for you.

Eucalyptus Oil:

Another common oil that is used to calm stress and anxiety. It can help cleanse the air or surfaces it’s placed on. It’s considered a cooling oil so can cause a cool sensation on your skin, but can also help open up your airways. Like lavender if it makes you sleepy then don’t use this one for studying!

Citrus oils:

All of your citrus oils will provide an uplifting atmosphere which is HUGE for studying. You can use single oils like orange, lemon, grapefruit, mandarin, lime, etc or you can get an essential oil blend that has all of them combined. Again choose your favorite citrus smell for a subject, but don’t choose multiple citrus oils for different classes. It’ll confuse the brain and mix up the information.

Ylang Ylang essential oil:

This is another soothing / calming oil but also has a flowery smell to it, so some will actually use it as a perfume so you might see the term “perfume grade” for this oil. It is also a great balancer, so it is another favorite of mine for studying.

Rosemary Oil:

The essential oil uses for this oil are endless! Not only does this oil have a pleasant and distinctive smell, but it will help support digestion and respiratory function. It can relieve nervous tension, decrease stress, and can help with fatigue.

Frankincense oil:

They call this oil the go to oil! If you don’t know what to use then this one pretty much does it all. It can help with cellular function (all functions of the body), comforting and uplifting aroma, and can soothe and maintain healthy skin. The downside to this oil is that it definitely does not have an affordable price. It’s a great oil, but it becomes a big turn off for college students or anyone on a tight budget.

The world of essential oils is huge! There are a lot of different types and grades of essential oils you can choose from. The best part is you can get better grades using essential oils regardless of which smell you choose. There are far more oils then the few I talked about! Don’t feel like you have to use the ones mentioned. I just wanted to make sure I shared a few of my favorites. Again just make sure it is a quality oil company you are using, and make sure the oil smells good to you to make studying a positive experience. Stay away from the synthetic fragrances because those can actually slow your brain down and you definitely don’t want that! Remember the quality of essential oils you use is so important! Your brain is under enough stress so no low quality oils!

Using Essential Oils while Studying:

If you made it this far you’ve finally come to the most important part! How to apply all of this knowledge to get better grades! This will work if you’re an elementary student, high school student, college student, doctoral students or really anyone that is just trying to better their memory.

Lets say that I am studying for math, science and english. The best results will come from using  three different oils that smell completely different!!! The actual oil’s aroma doesn’t matter as long as they are DIFFERENT types of smells that are pleasant to you. Did I mention make sure they are different types of smells, because that’s the most important part or this brain hijack won’t work. It’ll help your overall cognitive function, but it’ll confuse your brains memory if the smells are too similar.

For math we’ll use lemon, science peppermint, and english lets use rosemary. All three are vastly different smells on the brain! They also have uplifting responses on the brain to help make studying a positive experience.

Any time you study math you will diffuse lemon or place lemon on your wrist and smell it throughout class/studying. You can also place a couple drops on a cotton ball and smell that throughout. The most important thing is to continuously expose your brain to the smell while hearing and working with the information.

Any time you study science you will use peppermint in the same way you used lemon. Again exposing yourself to the smell continuously while you hear and work with the information.

Any time you studyEnglish you will use rosemary in the same way as the other oils. Again exposing yourself to the smell continuously while you hear and work with the information.

Test Time!!!

No stress this part is easy! You will do the exact same thing that you did while studying! When you take your math test place a drop of lemon on your wrist and smell it throughout the test. For science the same but using a drop of peppermint, and English the exact same but using rosemary. These uplifting and calming oils will help reduce your stress during your tests. Even better though, it will subconsciously allow you to access your long term memory you’ve been building. So if you are someone that changes your answers a lot then STOP! That gut response is everything. Be prepared to read a question and the answers don’t make sense, but one stands out pick that one! That one standing out is your subconscious saying hey that’s in my long term memory and that’s the correct answer. Often times stress shuts down the conscious ability to think, but that subconscious is always firing!

Is it really that simple? YES! Try it out and let us know how you do! Happy Studying!!!

More Helpful Articles

We’ve shown you how to get better grades using essential oils, but also check out our other blog on How to Reduce Exam Stress and Deal with Test Anxiety to make it that much easier to make your school life more enjoyable. Or if you are in a down moment (lets face it we’ve all been there) check out Best motivational exam study quotes for student. Give yourself all the tools and grace needed to achieve your dreams, and don’t forget the journey to your destination can be hard but it is so incredibly worth it!

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