It’s Blursday again. I have no idea how many days I have been wearing this same N95 mask.
I am a somatic-stress therapist and bodyworker in Los Angeles, California. As a clinician, in order to safely work indoors, my office honors prescribed Covid mitigation protocols: ritualized sanitizing, staggered scheduling, surgical gloves, sneeze guards (in order to safely reveal smiles to anxious new clients), and masks.
Essential Oils Transform the Mask-Wearing Experience
Last week, when I had had just about as much as I could take of my own breath echo chamber, I decided to poach an essential oil that I use for my office infuser and drop a few droplets onto my mask to improve the environmental conditions within. Ahhh, the sweet smell of Wild Orange. Bells rang and choirs of angels began to sing as the traumatizing stench of stale cotton transmuted into therapy — aromatherapy, to be precise. Brilliant, I thought. Absolutely brilliant!
Now I will have to stay with Wild Orange for this mask, unless I want to play with blending residual scents over time, but just imagine. People wearing regular masks or bandanas can have different masks for different moods.
Use Different Scents to Match Your Mood
Mood-Masks! Imagine: peppermint for a late afternoon pick-me-up or white-jasmine for hint of spring. Lavender is a known crowd pleaser to settle nerves — but why not change it up and make your own proprietary blend. What essential oil makes you feel calm and joy-filled?
Personally, I will continue to just drop oil directly onto my mask, but industrious folk may want to add a few drops of essential oils to little atomizers filled with alcohol to make a homemade spray with which they can scent their array of mood-masks. I may even run out and buy some regular masks just to have a little fun myself. But, I wanted to get the word out to you immediately. I can’t believe it took me two moths to think of something this simple.
“It completely changes the mask experience into a therapy”
As one of my clients texted to me last night, and I quote, “It completely changes the mask experience into a therapy. I have struggled with the mask for months, but now I actually enjoy it! Thank you, Mary.”
People who know more than I do about essential oils may recommend that you choose a high-quality pure essential oil brand for this use, that will ensure that you are only inhaling the best quality oils available.
