AROMATHERAPY
Photo manveer* on Flickr
Have you ever walked into a temple and smelled rotten meat? May be a rare sight in some tribal temples? But in the temples I have visited, the smell of flowers, sandalwood paste, turmeric and kumkum is there. No matter which religious or spiritual place you visit, it is consecrated with some sort of a fragrance. There is a reason for this. Our body has 50 million olfactory (smell sending) receptor cells and a human can detect upto 1 trillion different types of scent.[i] which is far more than the colors we can see – 10 million [ii]. So shouldn’t we question – why do we have this extraordinary ability and how can we use it?
We need to acknowledge and use this almost super human power. We see that all animals use this power for their survival, to find food, water, shade and to run away from predators but they do not have the consciousness that can connect them to divine for self-realisation. You have. And thus you may use sandal oil, cedar oil, rosemary oil to uplift your energy level and gain much more spiritual intelligence.
Aromatherapy is not just for the mind and body. Aroma touches the spirit. It touches a very subtle part of you that you can not deny. When the smell of chandan/sandal essence travels to you, you immediately find yourself calm and centered. When the essence of rose or tuberose touches your spirit, it changes your mood to love. When peppermint smell comes, it opens your entire body in a way that no passage anywhere can remain blocked.
Although the contemporary practice of aromatherapy may be a 100 years old, the use of oils, essential oils, incense oils to heal the body, mind and spirit can be traced back to major ancient civilisations. May be our ancestors learnt through trial and error but looking at the mere amount of trial and error needed to gain the kind of knowledge that resides in ancient texts, mind does wonder if they had access to a faculty of human mind that could detect by the smell – its use and function. Like my cat eats grass when it wants to vomit. How does he know? Who taught her? Does he have access to a faculty within him that gives him this knowledge by the mere smell of the grass?
I believe we all have this innate faculty – to know what is the use of an oil by just smelling it. Yet somehow we lost have that knowledge because we are so disconnected from our inner voice which some people call as ‘intuition’. So we must gain knowledge by texts.
Aromatherapy can be used for :
- Beauty
- Mood and Emotion Regulation
- Massage for relaxation
- Healing
- Mind and Spirit
Essential oils are formed from flowers, herbs, resins, roots, citruses, trees, woods, spices, grasses, seeds and shrubs.
There are some oils that may lead to skin reaction and even boils. So, we need to be careful with our use of essential oils. And oil blending is also an art and science. This need to be learnt properly from a trained and experienced aromatherapist.
But none-the-less, there are many useful and safe oils that you may keep at home and use regularly.
I use many essential oils. Will share my list of oils soon…