The Well-Oiled Workplace

If you have found your way to this page, chances are you already have a coach or mentor guiding your professional development. You most likely also engage in activities that support your physical fitness and other health goals, perhaps in the form of nutritional support, mindfulness, stress release… or something similar.

However, there’s one powerful self-care tool that you may not yet be including in your regime… pure essential oils.

The ‘well-oiled’ workplace
When we talk about ways to improve performance and reduce stress, it’s unlikely that your nose would be the first thing that comes to mind. But here’s why it should be.

Smell is the strongest of the senses and it’s an extremely powerful way to influence brain activity. The olfactory bulbs are part of the limbic system and connect directly to the areas of the brain that process emotion and learning. That’s one of the reasons why something we smell will trigger a memory or remind us of something or someone – and it’s also why we are now seeing the rise of ‘scent marketing’.

One advantage of pure essential oils is that they can be used in combination with all your other wellness strategies to enhance their benefits. It’s easy to use them at work – simply plug a USB diffuser into your laptop or in the car – and carry a few of your favourite oils wherever you go.

Something in the air?
People who work in enclosed air-conditioned offices not only tend to get more coughs and colds, they frequently report stuffy noses, dry or sore throats, headaches and lethargy. Those whose job requires frequent air travel and hotel stays are even more susceptible to these types of symptoms.

It’s not only air-conditioning that’s a concern when it comes to ‘sick building syndrome’. Many office environments are a haven for hidden toxins. There’s the outgassing from furniture, carpets, fabrics, and veneers in office fit-outs, moulds and other allergens, and chemicals in cleaning fluids (especially those used on carpets and most surfaces). Poorly maintained equipment like photocopiers can emit ozone and nitrogen dioxide. Aside from this cocktail of toxic chemicals, many office and retail spaces compound the problem by using air-freshening or air-deodorising sprays and various forms of air-scenting.

Most conventional air-freshening products contain synthetic fragrances and nerve-deadening ingredients (to prevent you from smelling properly), or they coat your nasal passage with a thin, oily film to ‘block’ unpleasant odours. These masking fragrances might overpower the original nasty smell, but they don’t actually ‘remove’ or ‘erase’ bad odours. Far from offering a solution, they add to your toxic load – negatively impacting your health. Not unlike smoking in the workplace, how many companies would continue to use synthetic air-deodorisers and ‘scent-marketing’ if they knew they were causing harm to their employees – and their customers?

Cultivate wellness at work
Research carried out by the University of Queensland showed that an office enriched with plants makes staff happier and boosts productivity by 15%. Professor Alex Haslam from UQ’s School of Psychology also found that adding plants to a workplace made it a more “enjoyable, comfortable and profitable” place to work.

These results confirm other studies showing that certain plants have the ability to detoxify and purify the air.

With hot-desking and other flexible working options on the rise, it’s not always possible to have plants on your desk. And travelling with plants in pots may not be the best use of your luggage allowance, even if it were permitted by Customs!

Nature in a bottle
Research shows that pure essential oils have the power to affect mood and energy levels within seconds. On the other hand, synthetic fragrances, including those designed to replicate smells in Nature, simply add to your toxic load.

Everyone’s tolerance threshold for toxins is different, but even if your nose can’t tell the difference and you feel no negative effects now, your body knows. When it comes to your health, the compounding effect operates in the same way as in your bank account. Lightening the load now is like putting a dollar in the bank every day of the month – with interest.

The use of pure essential oils dates back to ancient times – they were mankind’s first medicine. Although scientists continue to travel into remote jungle regions to discover new plants for medicinal purposes, these days a plant’s ‘active constituents’ are more likely to be synthetically reproduced in labs. Aside from being much cheaper to produce than the real thing, the synthetic version can be patented and replicated – whereas Nature cannot!

True essential oils are distilled from flowers, roots, leaves, fruits, seeds, grasses or wood. Although they are becoming increasingly popular, few people realise what’s involved in their production. Due to poor regulatory laws around labeling, much of what’s passed off as ‘pure’ essential oil these days is actually synthetic or adulterated – and even the one percent of essential oils sold that are pure can vary enormously in quality – and hence in the benefits they deliver.

Taking Positive Action… naturally
Having the healthiest possible work environment is in everyone’s best interests. Regardless of whether your workplace actively embraces a wellness policy, by choosing to incorporate essential oils into your working day you become personally empowered:

• to reduce your toxic load
• to protect yourself from being vulnerable to air-borne bacteria and contaminated surfaces where germs can flourish (especially during ‘flu season’)
• to boost your brainpower, clarity, inspiration, creativity, motivation, purpose, energy and vitality, decision making, and fun – and…
• to be the very best version of yourself.

It’s not only possible to feel good at work – and still have plenty of energy left for your personal life – it’s essential!