Being relaxed helps you absorb and retain more information to recall later. Create a variety of blends with just this handful of essential oils for the kids' bedtime stories or SATs to focus your older kids in their 'party fueled' college years or for your storytelling adventures. Delve into essential oils for reading, studying, and storytelling like your favorite book. Devour every morsel of information and be forever changed by it. Grab essential oils like Rosemary, Lemon, and Peppermint to boost your brain and cognitive function. Let them enliven you and drive you forward with a laser focus or use Lavender, Ylang-Ylang, and Vetiver to relax you. Use the blends in rollerballs, diffusers, scented candles, or essential oil necklaces to get the results that you want…and fast.
Books are a massive part of my life. I have many books.
People come into my house, look at my bookcases, and ask, "Have you read ALL of those"?
Well…. Yes, yes, I have.
(Apart from the odd 'still to read' stack here and there throughout the house).
I'm at a point where I find it hard to focus and concentrate on reading for extended periods, which annoyed me more than a little. Along came my 'Bibliophile Blend,' chock full of essential oils to encourage, concentrate, focus, and keep my mind on task. It works a treat! Just one of my exciting and effective blends for book lovers.
It's World Book Day on the 23rd of April, and you might like to make some blends for yourself and your family to encourage the love of books and reading in your household.
- Storytime is at bedtime for your wee ones, and you want to encourage quiet.
- You may have teens studying for tests and exams, and they are getting more than a little overwhelmed and fractious with it all.
- Your young adults are burning the candle at both ends and need some focus on their studies rather than college parties.
- Are you studying yourself and need to boost your cognitive performance, develop some focus, and encourage concentration?
Whatever your needs, you will find the perfect blend here or enough information to develop your own incredible essential oil blends.
How To Develop Your Blend With Essential Oils for Reading, Study, and Storytelling
First, we need to look at what qualities we want to instill in ourselves or our family members with the essential oils, depending on the discipline pursued.
Let's have a look at a few.
| Discipline | Qualities and Feelings to Instill and Encourage | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reading | Relaxation | Calm | Peace | Comforting |
| Studying | Balancing | Refreshing | Concentration | Focus |
| Storytelling | Stimulating | Enlivening | Uplifting | Sensuous |
Knowing what qualities and feelings we want to achieve from our essential oils will help us define the suitable oils for our book-loving blends.
Depending on our individual needs, we can add essential oils that either calm or stimulate.
Look at the best essential oils for reading, studying, and storytelling.
The Best Essential Oils for Reading, Study, and Storytelling
Aromatherapy is a beautiful art when it involves selecting gorgeous and fragrant essential oils to affect a change in our moods.
Here, we need to look at a range of essential oils to span the various disciplines of reading, studying, and storytelling.
Bedtime reading to your child might differ from reading a research paper for work or a novel on a balmy Sunday afternoon. Therefore, we need to consider our essential oil choices more carefully.
Studying requires more than just concentration and focus; it also needs discipline and memory recall. If stressed by learning, we must consider adding essential oils that calm our anxieties. We may be getting bored and need a kick start with something refreshing and enlivening. All of that is within our control when utilizing aromatherapy.
Storytelling can be a joy but can leave you with a bundle of nerves and stage fright if you are not used to it. Focusing on choosing essential oils that boost our creativity, stimulate us, and bring us to life. It makes for more captivating and animated storytelling when you can relax on the part of the storyteller.
Also, think about setting the scene for your audience, engaging and delighting their senses, and creating a sense of place with sensational scents. Let these ravishing aromas help bring your story to life and add color to the 'pages' of your incredible adventure.
Bring On The Heroes Of The Story, The Essential Oils Themselves
Rosemary (Salvia rosmarinus)
Rosemary's fragrance screams freshness and is one of our most refreshing essential oils. It helps to enliven our mind, engage our brain, fine-tune our focus, and laser points us in the right direction.
Intensely invigorating, is it an excellent choice for the study or work weary amongst us when we need an uplift or a quick refresher?
Moss (2012) found that the constituents present in Rosemary 1,8-cineole improved cognitive performance.
Rahbardar (2020) found that neuropharmacological investigations have validated the 'anti-anxiety and memory-boosting of rosemary.'
Therefore, this research means it is a fantastic choice where we need to improve our cognition and memory recall.
Rosemary is a potent essential oil, full of solid constituents and properties. Therefore, there are a few more safety considerations to be aware of than usual.
Safety:
- Rosemary contains constituents proven to be pro-convulsive for some people, be cautious with this essential oil if you have epilepsy.
- The stimulant nature of Rosemary may also stimulate your blood pressure, so those with Hypertension - High Blood Pressure need to use it with caution, if at all.
- It contains constituents that can be neurotoxic and can affect psychosis or delusory issues like schizophrenia; use with extreme caution if you experience or are diagnosed with any of these.
- If you have any of these conditions and wish to use Rosemary, please consult your relevant medical professional for advice and supervision.
- Please do not use it in the first 16 weeks of pregnancy.
Peppermint (Mentha piperita)
Peppermint is an excellent essential oil for that beautiful, refreshing energy that washes over you like a welcome wave—putting a spring in your step and a bit of zest back in your day.
Use it to improve focus, clarity, and alertness. Let it help you retain information better and then recall it with clarity and accuracy.
An essential oil that does give you a SUPER- boost.
Soleimani (2022) found that acute coronary patients benefited from inhaling peppermint essential as it reduced their anxiety in the ER, which is a pretty extreme circumstance. However, it also means we can utilize those constituents in peppermint essential oil to reduce and calm our worries and study-related anxieties.
Safety:
- The chemical constituent, menthol, can slow respiration. Therefore, this is one to avoid for children under 6.
- Please do not use it in the first 16 weeks of pregnancy.
Ylang Ylang (Cananga odorata)
This is one of our more sensuous essential oils, and I love how calm and cosseted it makes me feel. I have included it here; it is perfect for bedtime stories or a lazy Sunday afternoon reading marathon. Watch out for its headiness; use it for only about an hour at a time, or you could get a headache.
My main reason for its inclusion here is for storytelling when you want to captivate your audience and give them a sensuous multifaceted experience to remember. It's perfect for setting the mood and relaxing the audience, blended with Lavender and Vetiver, dialing a bit of that Lemon in to keep them beautifully relaxed but also present and alert!
Safety:
- Not suitable for use in the first 37 weeks of pregnancy.
- Stick to a maximum dilution of 0.8%.
Vetiver (Vetiveria zizanoides)
I am the first person to advocate using Vetiver to help you sleep, so you may question my inclusion here to help stimulate you too!
Research by Cheaha (2016) found that the stimulating effects of Vetiver may be beneficial for learning and memory processes and could be used as a stimulant to improve alertness and task performance.
Remember, when relaxed, we often take in more information and squirrel it away in our memory banks more effectively than if we were experiencing stress.
We like it here at VINEVIDA as one of the best essential oils for improving your memory power.
Safety:
- Please do not use it in the first 16 weeks of pregnancy.
Lemon (Citrus limon L (Burm.) F. )
The Citrus essential oils are well known and widely utilized across the globe for their stimulating, refreshing, and enlivening effects. Zesty, zingy, and perfect for pepping up your step, Lemon is no exception.
The research study of Migiwa Komiya (2006) supports the hypothesis and theory that the chemical constituents of Lemon essential oil affects our mood positively and helps to alleviate the symptoms of anxiety and depression. Not only that, but it can boost our energy and ability to concentrate and focus.
When we have a boost of energy and a willingness to focus, it can boost our motivation levels and push us further than we realize we are capable of.
Safety:
- Please do not use it in the first 16 weeks of pregnancy.
- A lemon essential oil can pose a risk of phototoxicity, so stick to a maximum dermal level for 2% dilution.
- Please do not use it on children under 2 years old.
Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia)
Lavender is a widely utilized essential oil for calm and relaxation. It is perfect for bedtime reading, relaxing, and reducing your worries and anxieties during work or study.
When we reduce our stress, we improve our chances of storing and retrieving information we have read or learned. Stress can negatively affect our abilities to learn new information and retain it.
Lavender essential oil helps us retain that by relaxing us and relieving tension. It helps to improve our ability to remember and recall that information.
Safety:
- Please do not use it in the first 16 weeks of pregnancy.
How to Use Essential Oils for Reading, Study, and Storytelling
You can use essential oils for reading, study, and storytelling. We shall look at each discipline in its own right and focus on the best ways to maximize the essential oil blends to get the desired results.
It might be as simple as combining your essential oil blend with a carrier oil and using it in a rollerball or popping it in your room diffuser.
You could make room sprays or scented candles; your imagination is your only limit here.
Reading
Generally, our reading is for pleasure and leisure unless it is for work or study. A snatched moment of indulgent treat or a pure immersion into a blissful afternoon among the magical pages of a book.
Reading books to children and sharing stories can give them new learning experiences and be an intrinsic part of their development. Including reading novels in your everyday life is vital to your child's development.
Scholastic has plenty to say on the benefits of reading aloud to your child in their KIDS & FAMILY READING REPORT-THE RISE OF READ-ALOUD.
It is crucial when reading with children that it is about relaxation and not a pressured chore; that way, they will enjoy it more and engage more fully. Let your child also take the lead in choosing the book, turning the pages, and asking questions.
One of the easiest ways is to use our essential oils blends in a diffuser. You could use this in the room where you read, even if that is the child's bedroom. Do your research on the essential oil diffuser most suited to your needs.
If you want a 'quick fix,' you could use your essential oil blend in a room spray to set the scene.
Placing an essential oil diffuser in the room where you usually read yourself can introduce that atmosphere of calm and relaxation that is conducive to a spell of indulgent reading.
However, if you are wading through work papers and find it a little stressful, use your essential oil blend in a rollerball and use it at your pulse points instead.
We have some wonderful diffuser blends for book lovers of all ages and essential oil blends for bibliophiles everywhere!
Study
A buzzword these days is 'engagements students'; they are what every school and college want because it means that the more a student is engaged with their work, the more successful outcomes they are likely to have. A student's learning experiences tend to suffer when the student is bored, dispassionate, or otherwise "disengaged."
Engaged students would show a degree of attention, curiosity, interest, optimism, and passion in what they are learning or being taught, which extends to their motivation to learn and progress in their studies.
Using diffuser blends at home is a very effective way to help with focus and concentration, but when your child is at school or college, they make better use of a roller ball applied to their pulse points at times through the day when they need it.
I used to slide an infused piece of tissue or fabric into a ziplock bag for my son to carry at school and have an excellent deep inhalation before his studies. We also used this method when he felt overwhelmed by bullies and needed to de-stress and relieve some anxieties too. It was very influential on both counts.
These days kids tend to use essential oil necklaces or aroma pendants.
A room spray can be used to set the scene when you first get to work, and maybe an hour or so later, you need a boost and spray another blend to give you a kick start. Room sprays are a great idea when you need a variety of potential effects to hand. They are quick, easy, and cheap, so making 4 or 5 blends is within reason.
Storytelling
The act and art of telling stories are almost as old as time. Before writing was invented, all recording history was verbal and passed from person to person.
Historically, many cultures worldwide would expect a new guest to come and regale them with stories in trade for a lovely meal and fine hospitality. They would have been disappointed were the stories found to be lacking.
Whether you share written stories, stories steeped in the history of time, or your personal stories, you want to deliver them with verve and joie de vivre to capture and captivate your audience.
The art of storytelling and telling a good story requires creativity and wondrous memory recall.
If you are telling stories in a group, setting the scene is vitally essential, and scent can be another element of the story. Imagine telling tales of a Sicilian Farmer and his magical cow where you have Lemon, Marjoram, and Sweet Basil wafting through the intimate venue.
Feel free to utilize scent to set the whole scene of a room. You can use an essential oil diffuser for a more consistent and long-lived fragrance, or you want different parts of the story to have varying aromas; room sprays are excellent for those quick bursts of scent to amaze and delight your captive audience.
The Best Blends of Essential Oils for Reading, Study, and Storytelling
All these essential oils blends contain just three essential oils, and I will give you the number of drops needed to make a pulse point rollerball.
Rollerballs make for excellent study aids. Slide them into your purse or pocket. Perfect to pop into backpacks and pencil cases to help keep the kids uplifted and focused throughout the day.
They are straightforward: mix one of the essential oil blends below into 100 ml of Sweet Almond carrier oil, mix thoroughly, and use a funnel to decant into your rollerballs. Cap and lid tightly and label accurately and clearly and date. This is important from a safety point of view if you send it to school with your child.
Use your pulse points up to 8 times a day.
Here are my favorite essential oil blends for reading, studying, and storytelling that you can use interchangeably with the tutorials in the 'More Ideas' section.
Make it yours; make it work for you!
Just before we begin, let's quickly look at the difference in dilution rates needed for adults and children.
Based on using 100 ml of Sweet Almond carrier oil.
- 3% dilution for healthy adults = 60 drops,
- 2% dilution for people in a weakened state = 40 drops,
- 1% dilution for children over the age of 6 = 20 drops,
- 0.5% dilution for children aged 6 months to 5 years = 10 drops
We do not recommend using essential oils on children under the age of 6 months old unless it is an emergency, which is unlikely within the scope of this article.
10 drops of essential oil based on using 100ml of carrier oil at a 0.5% dilution rate.
If you plan for your child to put this on their skin, keep the blends at 0.5% for those under 6's or 1% for those under 16's; for adults, use a 2-3% dilution rate.
If you do not use this topically, i.e., on the skin, use the 3% dilution rate instead. This is great for using in-room sprays and diffusers.
Essential Oils Blends for Reading
It is a beautiful gift to be able to read, and that is why it is so important that we pass this skill to our children and delight their growing imaginations with tales from wondrous lands and far-flung places.
Fill their bedtime stories and dreams with magical beasts, triumphing over adversity and tales of how even the little guy can win.
As adults, sinking and disappearing into a good book for the afternoon is a luxury, so make the most of every morsel and minute and set your scene perfectly. Create an atmosphere to not only relax you but engage you and stimulate your beautiful brain.
Here are two entirely different essential oil blends for reading.
| Storybook Bedtime Blend | ||
|---|---|---|
|
Essential Oils Needed 10 drops of essential oil based on using 100ml of carrier oil at a 0.5% dilution rate. |
||
|
4 drops of Lavender Essential Oil |
4 drops of Roman Chamomile Essential Oil |
2 drops of Vetiver Essential Oil |
| Safety: Do not use it in the first 16 weeks of pregnancy. | ||
|
How to Use:
|
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|
More ideas: Room sprays are wonderful for children’s rooms or even just setting the scene on the sitting room sofa. Alternatively, you could use an essential oil diffuser to infuse the air with wonderful fragrance. |
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| Lazy Afternoon Blend | ||
|---|---|---|
|
Essential Oils Needed 10 drops of essential oil based on using 100ml of carrier oil at a 0.5% dilution rate. |
||
|
3 drops of Rosemary Essential Oil |
3 drops of Vetiver Essential Oil |
4 drops of Lemon Essential Oil |
|
Safety: Do not use it in the first 16 weeks of pregnancy. Rosemary Specific -
|
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How to Use:
|
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|
More ideas: Room sprays are wonderful for reading rooms or even just setting the scene on the sitting room sofa. Alternatively, you could use an essential oil diffuser to infuse the air with wonderful fragrance. |
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Essential Oils Blends for Study
We all need a boost sometimes, so here are two blends for aiding study, Laser Focus and Memory Buster. Both are perfect when you need a lift and to feel refreshed and ready to go again.
Remember taking regular short breaks is proven to help. A quick walk and fresh air in the garden with a cuppa help bring you back to the center. Topping that with essential oils is like a crowning glory.
If your young adults are having too much of a good time, you could squirrel away some amethyst crystal chips into the mix. Amethyst is meant to promote sobriety. I used to wear an amethyst ring some years ago, and it was impossible to drink enough to feel drunk wearing it! It was a great deterrent. Try it on your kids. However, if you want to try this, add an antifungal and antibacterial preservative to it as well to be safe.
Remember, if you are making this for adults rather than children, you can afford to up the dilution rates.
| Laser Focus Blend | ||
|---|---|---|
|
Essential Oils Needed 10 drops of essential oil based on using 100ml of carrier oil at a 0.5% dilution rate. |
||
|
3 drops of Rosemary Essential Oil |
3 drops of Lemon Essential Oil |
4 drops of Peppermint Essential Oil |
|
Safety: Do not use it in the first 16 weeks of pregnancy. Rosemary Specific -
|
||
How to Use:
|
||
|
More ideas: Room sprays are wonderful for study rooms or even just setting the scene wherever you are working. Alternatively, you could use an essential oil diffuser to infuse the air with wonderful fragrance. Scented Candles are just as effective. An Essential Oil Necklace is perfect if you are studying on the move or need a boost during exams. |
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| Memory Buster Blend | ||
|---|---|---|
|
Essential Oils Needed 10 drops of essential oil based on using 100ml of carrier oil at a 0.5% dilution rate. |
||
|
4 drops of Vetiver Essential Oil |
4 drops of Rosemary Essential Oil |
2 drops of Ylang Ylang Essential Oil |
|
Safety: Do not use it in the first 37 weeks of pregnancy. Rosemary Specific -
|
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How to Use:
|
||
|
More ideas: Room sprays are wonderful for study rooms or even just setting the scene wherever you are working. Alternatively, you could use an essential oil diffuser to infuse the air with wonderful fragrance. Scented Candles are just as effective. An Essential Oil Necklace is perfect if you are studying on the move or need a boost during exams. |
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Essential Oils Blends for Storytelling
Professional storytellers sometimes use small props and aids to create a visual storytelling aspect. Why not take things to a new dimension, introduce the fragrant element, and captivate the audience by engaging all their senses?
Think of storytelling through the Lavender fields of Provence and the Lemon groves of Italy. Bring Ancient Egyptian tales alive with the scent of ancient Kyphi Incense, Frankincense, and Myrrh; the only limit here is your imagination (and the safety considerations).
| Set The Scene Blend | ||
|---|---|---|
|
Essential Oils Needed 10 drops of essential oil based on using 100ml of carrier oil at a 0.5% dilution rate. |
||
|
4 drops of Lavender Essential Oil |
3 drops of Ylang Ylang Essential Oil |
3 drops of Lemon Essential Oil |
|
Safety: Do not use it in the first 37 weeks of pregnancy. Lemon Specific-
|
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How to Use:
|
||
|
More ideas: Room sprays are wonderful for storytelling venues or even just setting the scene wherever you are working. Alternatively, you could use an essential oil diffuser to infuse the air with wonderful fragrance. Scented Candles can be just as effective and add mood lighting too. An Essential Oil Necklace is perfect if you are trying to calm your nerves and just need the odd pep in your step. |
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| Captivate Them Blend | ||
|---|---|---|
|
Essential Oils Needed 10 drops of essential oil based on using 100ml of carrier oil at a 0.5% dilution rate. |
||
|
4 drops of Vetiver Essential Oil |
4 drops of Peppermint Essential Oil |
2 drops of Rosemary Essential Oil |
|
Safety: Do not use it in the first 16 weeks of pregnancy. Rosemary Specific -
|
||
How to Use:
|
||
|
More ideas: Room sprays are wonderful for storytelling venues or even just setting the scene wherever you are working. Alternatively, you could use an essential oil diffuser to infuse the air with wonderful fragrance. Scented Candles can be just as effective and add mood lighting too. An Essential Oil Necklace is perfect if you are trying to calm your nerves and just need the odd pep in your step. |
||
The Final Word
Whatever your plans, reading, studying, or storytelling, I am sure you will have found the essential oil blend that is perfect for you and your needs.
If not, feel free to design your own, ideally suited to your or your family's needs.
Make sure you read aloud to your kids, help them improve their literary and cognitive functions, engage them in stories and encourage them to ask questions and seek answers. Fuel their imaginations and dreams, and you'll be surprised at how far they can push themselves to excel when they have FUN.
