Organs of Knowing
Everything we know, we owe to our sense. Our sense organs are continuously receiving signals from our environment and sending these signals to the rest of our body and brain, where they activate specific regions of our nervous system. This critical ability to sense and respond to our surroundings directly affects our survival and wellbeing.
Simply put: some signals trigger survival mechanisms while others activate healing and longevity.
Roses and Rubbish
Think of your senses as gateways to your mind and body. Though you can't always control external events and stressful situations, you can make small, intentional choices every day to promote healing and wellbeing.
Imagine taking your daily walk to work down and alley full of dumpsters overflowing with garbage. Now swap the rubbish for a bed of roses. Feels better already, doesn't it? But why?
The Garden and the Gate
Essential oils are extracts made by steaming or pressing various parts of a plant - flowers, bark, leaves, spices or fruit - to capture their aromatic compounds. When inhaled, the scent molecules in the oil travel from your olfactory nerves directly to your brain's emotional centre, amygdala. In other words, they get you right in your 'feels'.
Aromatherapy as a practice, uses essential oils for their therapeutic benefit, to improve both psychological and physical wellbeing. Oils can be used both as an alternative to, or alongside conventional treatments and can be inhaled, used topically or taken internally*.
If essential oils represent a medicinal garden, then Aromatherapy acts as a gateway to the healing it offers.
An Essential Relationship
You may have heard the phrase, 'The body keeps the score' (Bessel van der Kolk) or 'Our issues are in our tissues' (author unknown). Indeed it does, and indeed they are.
The relationship between our thoughts and emotions and our body, is arguably the most important connection of our lives. Becoming aware of ourselves through our senses is central to emotional repair, transformation, and recovery.
As an Aromatherapist, it's a privilege to be trusted with another's personal and intimate worries. And, I've been fortunate to witness incredible change in so many clients who've found real and intense relief from the work we do together.
*Consult an Aromatherapist before using essential oils internally or topically.