Soothe Your System: The Benefits of Oiling Up for Winter Wellness
Welcome back to the Anxiety Slayer podcast. This week we’re exploring one of our favorite seasonal rituals — a deeply nourishing Ayurvedic practice that helps calm anxious energy as we move into the colder, darker months… It’s what we lovingly call “oiling up” — also known as self-massage with warm oil, or Abhyanga.
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Notes from this week’s episode:
Why Winter Calls for Extra Nourishment
As we move into late autumn and winter, the air becomes colder, drier, and windier. In Ayurveda, this seasonal shift increases Vata, the dosha responsible for movement, the nervous system, and mental activity.
When Vata becomes high or out of balance, we might notice:
Increased anxiety or restlessness
Dry skin, cold extremities
Feeling ungrounded, scattered thoughts
Difficulty sleeping
Tense muscles and fatigue
Warm oiling helps counter these tendencies beautifully by offering the qualities Vata needs — warmth, moisture, nourishment, and grounding.
The Emotional Benefits of Oiling with Sesame Oil
One of the things we hear so often from our listeners is how heightened anxiety can feel this time of year. There’s less light, more rushing around, often more stress… and yet our bodies are craving stillness, coziness, and comfort. Oiling up is like offering yourself a big, steadying hug.
Emotional benefits include:
A sense of calm and safety
Feeling more connected to your body
Slowing down racing thoughts
A natural boost in serotonin and wellbeing
Even a few minutes of warm oil on your skin invites your whole nervous system to settle.
“Oil massage helps to support physical and emotional health by warming and moisturising the skin and calming the nervous system.”
How to Practice Oiling Up (Abhyanga)
You can make this a daily ritual, or start with a couple of times per week.
What you’ll need:
A warming oil like organic sesame oil
(sunflower or almond oil also work well)
A towel you don’t mind getting oily
A warm, quiet space
How to oil up:
Warm a small amount of oil — comfortably warm, not hot.
Start at the scalp. Massage with circular motions.
Work down the body with long strokes on the limbs
and circular strokes around the joints.
Give some extra love to the feet — this really helps anxiety.
Allow the oil to soak in for 10–20 minutes if you can.
Shower or bathe to rinse — but don’t scrub it off.
A gentle wash is enough.
Even five minutes can make a noticeable difference.
A Few Tips for Calming FALL/Winter Vata
Pair your oiling ritual with warm drinks like cinnamon tea, ginger tea, and a weighted blanket or extra blankets when resting.
Keep your ears and head warm when you’re outside—Vata enters easily through the ears.
Gentle self-massage before bed can help ease nighttime anxiety and support deeper sleep.
Make space for quiet and slow, grounding routines… winter is a season of restoration.
Thank you for listening. If you’re looking for more support, don’t forget: our Patreon is now home to the Anxiety Slayer starter course, with a new lesson released on “the fear of the fear”—how we become anxious about anxiety itself. This lesson is free for everyone. Check it out here: patreon.com/anxietyslayer