http://www.care2.com/greenliving/which-scent-is-best-for-you.html
Which Scent is Best for You?
By Shannon Sexton, Yoga+
Imagine the scent of fresh-roasted coffee seeping from the kitchen, a bouquet of roses lifted to your nose, or the smell of spring rain as you step outside at dawn. Pleasant scents can lift our mood, spark memories, and improve our cognition, while unpleasant ones can cloud our minds or make us sick. Why? Because there is a direct link between our sense of smell and a part of the brain called the limbic system—the structure of basic instincts that sparks our emotions and memories.
According to Ayurveda, aromas can balance or derange the doshas, which directly affect our health and well-being. So while conventional “aromachologists” prescribe the same therapeutic scent for everyone, Ayurvedic physicians take a person’s prakriti (constitution) into account and tailor aromatherapy to their individual needs. For example, a warming, soothing scent like cinnamon that can reduce stress in anxious vatas can be overheating for a tense, hot-tempered pitta. (Not sure if your dominant dosha is vata, pitta, or kapha? Take our quiz here)
If you’re interested in experimenting with aromatherapy on your own, remember that the scents that appeal to you are probably good for you. But in general, if you know you’re vata-dominant, warming, focusing, calming, grounding scents like geranium, wintergreen, cinnamon, orange, or rose will help rebalance you. Pitta types can opt for cooling, sweet, soothing, hydrating scents like sandalwood, gardenia, jasmine, violet, or lotus. And people with excess kapha do best with warming, light, stimulating, expectorant aromas such as sage, cedar, pine, or eucalyptus.
Mood Oils
Here are a few sample recipes you can try at home (reprinted with permission from Ayurvedic Beauty Care by Pratima Raichur). Massage one of the mixtures on your pulse or add it to any Ayurvedic treatment that calls for essential oil. You can also omit the oil base and put a mixture into an aromatherapy diffuser or a hot bath.
Calming and Warming
This blend relieves anxiety and balances vata:
3 drops each neroli & lemon + 2 drops each jasmine & sandalwood + 1 drop vanilla + 1 oz. pure jojoba oil base.
Calming and Cooling
To quell anger and balance pitta:
5 drops each sandalwood & vetiver + 1 drop jasmine + 1 oz. pure jojoba oil base
Stimulating
This one relieves depression and balances kapha:
4 drops bergamot + 3 drops each lavendar & basil + 1 oz. pure jojoba oil base
Sedating
To quell insomnia and balance vata and pitta:
6 drops rose + 2 drops each jasmine & chamomile + 1 oz. pure jojoba oil base
Grounding and Strengthening
This blend relieves fear and balances vata:
4 drops patchouli + 2 drops each sandalwood & cardamom + 1 oz. pure jojoba oil
base
Consumer tip:
Aromatherapy is so in vogue now that even corporate planners are using “ambient fragrancing” and “sensory engineering” to improve products, increase employee productivity, and affect consumer behavior. But corporate aromatics may do more harm than good because they choose synthetic fragrances over pure essential oils to maximize profits. Synthetic scents are devoid of prana, the life force that natural scents emit. They pollute our bodies (and the atmosphere) with chemicals that, once absorbed into the bloodstream through the lungs and skin, create toxic waste, or ama—the fertilizer for all disease. Synthetic scents can also aggravate the doshas by throwing the nervous system out of balance and precipitating allergic reactions. Whenever you see “fragrance” listed as an ingredient, synthetic scents are being used. So avoid those products and choose ones that say “essential oils” if you want the real thing. In general (but not always), the more expensive an essential oil is, the more pure and therapeutic it will be for your body, breath, and mind.
Shannon Sexton is the editor at large for Yoga+ Magazine.
Yoga+ is an award-winning, independent magazine that contemplates the deeper dimensions of spiritual life—exploring the power of yoga practice and philosophy to not only transform our bodies and minds, but inspire meaningful engagement in our society, environment, and the global community.
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9 comments
add your comment »I have found essential oils profoundly healing and am trying to learn as much as I can about them
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I really love the article. Thanks for a nice article. I totally agree, artificial scents or fragrances are pollution.
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I love the article. There is just 1 problem. I am completely balanced between vata and pitta. Only 2 kapha characteristics apply to me at all. Yet the scents you mention are only partially on target for my supposed types.
I LOVE cinnamon, rose, orange, (vata) gardenia, sandalwood, jasmine, (pitta) sage, eucalyptus, and pine (kapha) when I smell them outside. I HATE all these scents in any other form.
So what am I supposed to do? Grab handfuls of the leaves or blossoms and carry them with me to inhale? Once they are made into essential oils, the scents actually nauseate me.
Maybe this is telling me what I have known since I have had conscious thought. Stay outside in nature. it is best outside. I feel best there. Thanks for the insight.
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Thanks for a good article. I totally agree, artificial scents or fragrances are pollution. I always feel sick straight away whenever I pass in front one of those trendy shops full of joy sticks, so called hand made soaps, or body products and aromatherapy products. And it includes the Body Shop too, with its pretense at using natural and ethical products. The smell that comes out of those shops into the street or a mall, sometimes even with their doors closed, is absolutely toxic. How the poor girls who work in such environment can stand it simply baffles me.
As if there was not already enough pollution in the air, I really can't understand how some people even pay to get more of it. The same goes with women who swathe themselves in strong perfume like Chanel No 5 for instance (which is made with synthetic fragrances too). If you are in a lift with them, it's absolutely impossible to breathe, and also when you pass them in the street. It shows how self centered those people are and how oblivious they are of the other people around them.
What puzzles me here is that you chose to put a photo of bougainvillea and as far as I know they don't smell of anything.
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I think by stating the more expensive it is, she's meaning that really cheap oils are generally just cheap. If an oil is too cheap, like in many popular-mass-manufactured items of today, they couldn't afford to put real oil in it by the amount deceived to be, or the price given. This is TRUE.
Alcohol is bad for skin in the sense that it dries it out in large quantities, or if it's rubbing. The reason for the latter is it has junk added to it to make it unfit for consumption, to relieve the cost of taxes. Prob w/that is we're then putting it on our skin, the poisons, & it's soaked right in. Alcohol itself dissipates fairly quickly & is an awesome preservative that's natural. I use just a small splash in many things I make to keep them from spoiling. Alcohol also helps maintain the aroma of natural oils, & can help them blend better, since water & oil don't mix. Therefore, it's often used w/e.o.'s, &, unless you've got a reaction, isn't really that bad in minimal amounts.
The other concerns stated I found answered in this article.
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I just love aromatherapy oils...anything natural is uplifting or soothing. I try not to use conventional perfumes now after reading that some of them can cause cancers etc. Not sure of the validity on this though. Can I ask if anyone knows if the department store perfumes contain essential oils & are they good for you ? I know they contain a lot of alcohol which isn't good for spraying on the skin. But are they all synthetic ?
Thankyou - a really lovely article. :)
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I love aromatherapy, and try different blends in various ways. But I am always unsure of where to buy the oils. Of course every company out there claims to be pure and green. I guess you just have to do the research & go with your gut after that.
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I love the smell of my herb garden when it first pops up in the spring, the mints, balms, citronella plant and thyme. Later comes the wonderful frangrances of basil and my lily garden. In the house, I love the smell of citrus, cooking garlic and dark chocolate.
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I have to disagree here on a couple of things in this article.
Firstly:You said,"conventional “aromachologists” prescribe the same therapeutic scent for everyone"
As a certified aromatherapist and teacher, I know this is not true. There are many different essential oils suitable for various situations and a well trained aromatherapist will know which essential oil is more beneficial to the client. There is always a choice in aromatherapy when deciding what is best for the client.
Secondly: You also said," In general (but not always), the more expensive an essential oil is, the more pure and therapeutic it will be for your body, breath, and mind."
This is just a marketing ploy for certain companies to push their essential oils. Most essential oils are NOT expensive unless we are getting into something like Rose oil. The majority of essential oils are moderately priced and to say paying more for your essential oils means you will receive a better oil is rubbish. That is a total marketing ploy!
The best advice is to find an aromatherapist you are comfortable with, someone who shows that she knows what she is talking about. Tell people to take a good aromatherapy course so that they are not so easily fooled by all the marketing hype and misinformation around on the Internet. That is what is best for all.
Thanks
Sharron
http://www.serenearomatherapy.com
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