We love it when people ask what the best essential oils for energy are because it gives us an opportunity to teach aromatherapy in a whole new way. We’re getting off the usual first aid track of what essential oil is good for a cough etc, and getting into an oil makes you feel. Before we get into the nitty of what I mean by that, let’s have a look at what the best essential oils for energy might be.
- Orange essential oil
- Mandarin essential oil
- Tangerine essential oil
- Sweet Basil essential oil
- Ginger essential oil
- Grapefruit essential oil
- Lemongrass essential oil
- Fennel essential oil
- Lemon essential oil
- Black pepper essential oil
What are the Best Essential Oils for Clearing Negative Energy?
1. Orange Essential Oil
You might have noticed, as you looked through the list of the best essential oils for energy that there was a trend of lots of citruses and a few herbs. If you imagine pouring a couple of drops of these essential oils into your diffuser how fast will they come out? These are oils with very small molecules, and so are thin and runny. It’s almost impossible to be accurate with how many drops you use, isn't it? They race faster than you can control the bottle. Because they are so thin, they also evaporate quickly.
In natural perfumery, or when we are blending essential oils generally, we call these top notes or head notes. They tend to be the parts of perfumes that disappear very quickly. They are refreshing, enlivening, and invigorating.
Compare this with trying to drip a drop of vetiver or myrrh, which have large molecules. Those oils are thick and viscous. We call them base notes. Base notes are sedative, soothing, and relaxing. The orange essential oil comes at the top of the list of the best essential oils for energy because it is such a happy oil.
You might see some people write that the best essential oils for energy are ones that are bursting with vitamin C. It certainly does feel like that, however, vitamins are not oil-based and so do not pass through distillation. Nevertheless, even without those vitamins, the orange essential oil is one of the best essential oils for energy because it makes you feel like you’re bursting with happiness, health, and prettiness.
Orange essential oil is not safe during the first 16 weeks of pregnancy.
2. Mandarin Essential Oil
We put mandarin as number two on the list of the best essential oils for energy because it’s interesting to compare and contrast.
The orange essential oil has the personality of an effervescent sixteen-year-old. She’s bubbly bouncy, with a neat, pretty high ponytail bouncing behind her. You can almost feel her enthusiasm for her homework when she gets back, her folders clutched to her chest.
But mandarin is refined, chatty, and erudite. She’s certainly got the energy of an older woman, at a sophisticated tea party in Singapore. Dressed entirely in cream, nothing ruffles her. She chats, smiles, knows everyone, engages everyone, but reveals nothing. You can imagine mandarin, holding her teacup, with her pinky extended, hearing everyone’s secrets, empathizing, but never sharing any of her own.
So the question is, is she always happy, or does she hide her secrets away?
Mandarin is probably one of the best essential oils for energy because she’s not really bothered either way. Life is for living and she can enjoy beauty and entertainment in everything around her. It’s a beautiful oil
Something that sets mandarin apart to make her better than some of the citruses is the way she has been extracted. Most of the best essential oils for energy are citruses. Where most essential oils are distilled, most citruses are extracted by pressing the oil from the rind of the fruit. In this process, tiny amounts of lipids also come through, which are the parts of the oil that cause phototoxicity. However, mandarin is steam distilled as normal and as such, does not have the same concerns about possible negative interactions with sunlight.
3. Tangerine Essential Oil
Tangerine, of course, is another one from the orange family, so it might feel like we are laboring the point somewhat, but bear with us!
We’ve put tangerine so high up on the leaderboard of the best essential oils for energy because of its action on emotions.
They are all wonderful essential oils for energy and positivity, but somehow tangerine acts upon spite.
When you feel betrayed or hurt, it drags you down. It pervades everything eroding any attempts you make to shake the black clouds off.
Tangerine cuts through spite. Just inhaling it for a short time makes you realize they just aren’t worth your energy. It’s a fabulous one.
Another one like that, which doesn’t make the list because it is a bit obscure is celery seed oil. Along with yarrow, these are great oils for empaths who find their energy gets easily leached by other people. Sometimes it’s not about fostering new energy but protecting the reserves you have. If that applies to you, a drop of celery in the bath, or even just inhaling from a bottle after an exhausting encounter can be brilliant.
Tangerine is another phototoxic oil so only use one drop in a blend. Do not put it in the bath, and because it is rich in monoterpenes which can oxidize quickly, do not use old oils. Incidentally, both yarrow and celery seed are nice safe oils to use and like any essential oils, do not use celery seed, tangerine, or yarrow during the first 16 weeks of pregnancy.
4. Sweet Basil Essential Oil
Beautiful, refreshing, and incredibly bossy sweet basil essential oil. Basil is like a sergeant major, looking after a unit in the Gulf. She is terrifyingly strong, barking orders in your ear. We always imagine her at the bottom of a climbing net, on an assault course, demanding you get over t whether you want to or not. We all know we’ll just have to get the job done because life wouldn't be worth living if we don’t!
She sounds boring and a bit intimidating doesn’t she, and indeed you would definitely take notice when she demands her usual instruction to “Get out of your head!”. But when evening comes and the shift is over, she swaggers into the bar, buys a round of beers, and then climbs up onto the table to dance, surrounded by all her mates making a row.
Basil is one of the best essential oils for energy because she is the embodiment of motivation and courage incarnate. She is fun, powerful, and extremely loud.
One Small Tip About the Oil That Ranks Top of the Best Essential Oils to Diffuse for Energy and Focus
Or a big one actually. If ever you want to discover how essential oils work on emotional blockages to relieve physical pain, know that basil will teach you. It is specific for chronic pain, and resoundingly people tend to start to feel a lot better when basil has made them blurt out something they had not wanted to say. Like I say “Get out of your head”. It is one of the best essential oils for focus.
Your ideas find their way down onto paper and you have the guts to make that presentation or ask for a raise, but it’s not unheard of to tell people they are worthless idiots too. Be mindful of the sergeant major.
Again, basil is safe as long as you are not in the first 16 weeks of pregnancy.
5. Ginger Essential Oil
So where sweet basil demands you get active, ginger forces you to go faster. Oh, and you get hotter!
Aromatherapy is originally based on ancient Ayurvedic medicine practices with medicinal plants and ginger is best understood through Ayurveda.
Ginger fuels Agni. Agni stands front and center of ayurvedic medicine. It is the metabolic fire, but it extends further than just talking about digestion. Agni fuels the drive in their personality, the passion, the drive, the motivation, and their heat. It stokes their thought processes, so suddenly their thoughts get bolder, faster, brighter, but their tongues get sharper and quicker too, as does the metabolism too, which is where we came in. You may burn calories faster. You’ll certainly want to poop more!
Everything about life with ginger is stronger, brighter, and faster when you use ginger oil.
Ginger is one of the best essential oils for energy if you don’t want to get out of bed for that run on cold mornings if you feel lethargic and a bit slow or if the cold has got into your bones.
Likewise, if you feel a bit sluggish and bloated because you haven’t been going to the toilet regularly enough, you should be able to work out how to get around that problem now.
Again, the only restriction with ginger oils is not to use it in the first 16 weeks of pregnancy from a safety point of view although, it doesn't make much sense to use it if you are suffering from hot flushes or diarrhea, or you’re in the middle of a heatwave.
6. Grapefruit Essential Oil
This is not only one of the best essential oils for energy, it’s the best for cellulite too. That should tell you something about the oil. Anything with grapefruit in has an effect on fat burning, to some degree, but also grapefruit essential oil is naughty. Like a CanCan dancer in the Moulin Rouge, naughty! She’s cheeky, sassy, and a bit unpredictable and is one of our go-to essential oils for happiness and energy.
It’s not that she’s overtly badly behaved, as such, just daring and funny. You won’t even notice she had no knickers when she lifted her skirt to flash those flawless thighs until it’s too late to check. She knows that. It was her plan all along.
Grapefruit always has a plan. If she were a script writer it would be Lord of The Rings convoluted, with twists that unfold way after you forgot something that happened in the first film. She’s in it for the long game. Grapefruit essential oil has stamina and pizazz.
If you have no energy because work is stressful, boring, or mundane, grapefruit has got you covered.
It’s not particularly oil for focus, as such, because in the CanCan everything is focused on distracting you on that one second when you wish you’d been looking. If you want essential oils for energy and focus because you need to concentrate, then Basil or Rosemary are better friends. But if you need to gush a bit, sell something, or gee someone up, Grapefruit gives you, not only the bubble but the charisma to pull it off.
Be careful with this one again.
Let’s Test Some of the Knowledge You Have Gained About the Best Essential Oils for Energy
Grapefruit essential oil is expressed from the peel, so what do we need to be careful of?
Phototoxicity! Right!
Again, it’s a top note that speeds out of the bottle, which means it has small molecules. Many of the smallest molecules are monoterpenes. What do we have to be careful of with them? Oxidation that leads to skin sensitivity! Correct.
So, is it safe to use grapefruit oil that is older than 2 years old, on the skin? Nope. It is not. (Can you put it into a diffuser? Absolutely! Use up those old essential oils. Don’t just chuck them down the sink!!!)
Grapefruit essential oil is not suitable for use during the first 16 weeks of pregnancy, and also grapefruit essential oil thins the blood. Do not use it topically if you are taking blood-thinning meds, have a platelet disorder, or have major surgery scheduled in the next 48 hours.
7. Lemon Essential Oil
Now lemongrass is an interloper in the ring, isn’t he? Apart from the fact that he has a very masculine feeling to him, of course, he is not a citrus fruit either. But he does have that citral sunshine to boost. We love lemongrass for people who have been ill for a long time. Who is struggling to get their inner resources back after convalescing, or who has been battered down by stress?
Now, where this one isn’t phototoxic (of course) it is still a known dermal irritant. Do not use lemongrass as one of your best essential oils for energy in dilutions of more than 0.7%
So, that means less than one drop in a teaspoon of the carrier, so use two teaspoons to be safe.
8. Fennel Essential Oil
Did you know that the word Marathon is named after the ancient Greek city of Maratho, where a prolonged great battle once took place? It was named Maratho, because of all the fennel growing everywhere. Marathon means “Much fennel”. We like to think of fennel as one of the best essential oils for energy when we get to the 25th mile of the Marathon. When our bodies feel like we have nothing left, we just need a little something to get us over the finish line.
Fennel has an estrogen-like quality, so is wonderful if PMS is draining you, and is fabulous for the digestive system if that is what is making you feel sluggish. Fennel and grapefruit are great essential oils for an energy boost.
It has a diuretic nature, again, perfect if you feel bloated, especially from monthly water retention. Importantly though, we would avoid fennel essential oil during pregnancy completely. Too much action on the water that we want to cushion the baby and we don’t want to screw with our hormones either.
9. Lemon Essential Oil
Lemon essential oil is not necessarily one of the best essential oils for invigoration, but it is such a happy oil. Lemon and orange are the best essential oils for positivity. It has an action on the serotonin receptor that modulates our mood.
Want to feel refreshed and upbeat, then lemon is fab. All the same, things apply to orange oil. Watch the phototoxicity. Only use small amounts. Don’t use old oils and if you have chosen lemon essential oil because someone has told you it would be good for vitamin C, remember you need to get yourself a supplement instead. Lemon essential oil is bursting with energy, but not because of any vitamins in it.
10. Black Pepper Essential Oil
We’ve added black pepper to the list because it acts very much like ginger oil, but not so much. If ginger makes you feel like you are staring in an episode of The Flash, dial it back a bit with black pepper instead.
DIY Diffuser Recipes: Essential Oil Blends for Energy and Motivation
Brightness
- 1 drop Lemon Essential Oil (Citrus limonum)
- 1 drop Sweet Basil Essential Oil (Ocimum basilicum)
Safety: Not designed for Topical Use
Stamina
- 1 drop Grapefruit Essential Oil (Citrus paradisii)
- 1 drop Fennel Essential Oil (Foeniculum vulgare)
Safety: Not designed for Topical Use
Top of The Mountain
- 1 drop Fir Essential Oil (Abies siberiaca)
- 1 drop Black Pepper Essential Oil (Piper nigrum)
Safety: Not designed for Topical Use
Conclusion
The best essential oils for energy address why you are procrastinating in the first place. As you inhale those lovely molecules they reach the limbic system that modulates our emotions. They start you on a path of rediscovery of yourself.
