What is Aromatherapy?
As the name indicates, aromatherapy is a therapy that uses aromas. Aromatherapy is a branch of botanical medicine that uses volatile and aromatic plant compounds. Because of the unique direct relationship between emotions and olfaction within the brain, aromatherapy can help “unlock” stored memories and emotions. An aversion to a particular smell may indicate something more than just personal preference. It could actually be stirring an unpleasant emotional reaction. Conversely, smells that bring about positive emotions are likely favored.
What is an emotion?
There are so many definitions for that single word. This is possibly because there is no scientific consensus on a single definition. Emotion represents a mental state associated with thoughts and feelings. It is a conscious experience with intense mental activity and a high degree of pleasure or displeasure. Emotion is often intertwined with mood, temperament, past experiences, personality, disposition, and motivation.
The Limbic System: Emotional Center of the Brain
The limbic system, often referred to as the “emotional brain”, resides within the cerebrum. This portion of the brain handles emotional response, hormone function, behavior, motivation, long term memory, and sense of smell. Several other specialized areas reside within the limbic system, including:
Hippocampus – responsible for forming short- and long-term memories
Amygdala – perceives emotions such as anger, fear, and sadness; plays a role in controlling aggression; helps store memories of events and emotions; also plays a role in sexual activity and libido
Hypothalamus – controls reproduction, sleep patterns, and body homeostasis
Thalamus – relays sensory information to the cerebral cortex
In addition to being closely tied to the sense of smell, you can see why our emotions can affect so many other things in our lives. The portion of your brain that governs emotions also plays a part in memory, sexual desire, reproduction, sleep, and overall homeostasis.
Using Essential Oils to Impact Emotion
The exact details of how smells impact emotions are difficult to define. But let’s consider what happens when we inhale an aroma. When an odorant molecule floats through the air into your nose, it lands on tiny hairs inside your nose called cilia. The cilia then start to vibrate, generating an electrical signal. The signal travels up to a receptor cell, which starts to bundle packets of smell information, and sends projections into the olfactory bulb. The smell information is even further bundled into packets that travel to the limbic system via pyramidal cells. Here in the limbic system, an emotional shift occurs in response to the smell. For example, we all know the experience of smelling something that triggers a memory, or knowing that you do not want to date a certain person because you can’t stand the way he or she smells. Although it is not exactly clear how the emotional response forms, it is very clear that it does. Furthermore, studies show that olfactory-evoked memories often create a higher emotional arousal than simply recalling a memory with no associated olfactory stimuli.
Intentional imprinting is a POWERFUL way to take control of your emotions by using essential oils, well, intentionally!
Below are the steps:
1. Choose four different essential oils and/or essential oil blends to correspond with one of the following emotions:
Anger / Frustration
Sadness
Overwhelm / Stress
Anxiety / Fear
2. Now, keep these oils on you or in places where you experience the opposite of the emotions above. You will inhale your selected oil to start imprinting your limbic system to elicit the particular emotional response you want to occur when you want the emotion experienced.
For example, the opposite emotion of anger/frustration is calm. I choose to use lavender essential oil in times of calm or when I experience a sense of calm in my life. Examples of calm moments in my life might be in the evenings after my little one has gone to bed or when I am in the shower taking a few moments to myself for self-care and relaxation. I will inhale lavender at these moments of calm as consistently as I can. Now, when I am feeling angry or frustrated, I need to take my bottle of lavender and inhale deeply. If I have been consistent for about 30 days, then my limbic system should be triggered by the lavender aroma to bring about a feeling of calm.
3. Be consistent. Try to inhale your chosen oil when you are feeling calm, happy, peaceful, or courageous every time you feel that emotion. It will take about 30 days to imprint your limbic system. Be patient with yourself if it takes longer. You need to remember to be intentional and conscious of your use of oils with your emotions.
Below are listed the emotions and the opposite emotions that we want to elicit. There are also suggested essential oils and blends for your consideration. Honestly, there is no right or wrong oil to pair with an emotion. I suggest trying to pick oils that you are drawn to.
Anger/Frustration - Calm
- lavender, bergamot, cedarwood, cypress, rose, melissa, orange, frankincense, geranium, helichrysum, lemon, mandarin, sandalwood
Sadness – Joy, happy, blissful
- orange, geranium, helichrysum, lime, lemon, bergamot
Overwhelm/Stress - Peace, tranquil, relaxing
- vetiver, cedarwood, lavender, tangerine
Anxiety/Fear – Courage, valor, bravery
- sandalwood, bergamot, clary sage, geranium, juniper, marjoram, orange, Roman chamomile, myrrh, rose, ylang ylang.
In his book, Change Your Brain Change Your Life Dr. Daniel G Amen identifies 9 types of negative thoughts which infiltrate our minds if we allow them to. They are labeled as ANTs which stands for Automatic Negative Thoughts.
“Negative thoughts invade your mind like ants at a picnic." The nine different ways your thoughts lie to you and make situations seem worse than they are listed below. Think of these nine ways as nine different species of ANTs. When you can, identify the type of ANT and you can take away the power they have over you.
1. All or Nothing – These are the ANTs that infest your brain when you think everything is good or all bad. It is the same as black or white thinking. For example, let’s say you want to stay consistent and work out a day for 30 days, if you do that, you think you are the most disciplined person on the planet. If you miss a day, you think you have no discipline and give up and go back to not working out at all. A better approach is to acknowledge that you didn’t do your daily workout and then get back on track the following day. One slip up doesn’t mean you should give up entirely.
2. Always / Never Thinking – This is when you think in words that overgeneralize, such as always, never, every time, or everyone. Consider some of the thoughts such as “I will never lose weight,” “I have always had a sweet tooth – I will never be able to stop eating chocolate,” This kind of thinking makes you feel like you are doomed to fail at eating right and staying healthy. It is as if you have no control over your actions or behaviors.
3. Focusing on the Negative – This ANT makes you see only the negative aspects of situations even when there are plenty of positives. “I know I lost 10 pounds, but I wanted to lose 15, so I’m a failure” is an example of this type of thinking. Focusing on the negative makes you more inclined to give up on your efforts. Putting a positive spin on this same thought – “wow!” I lost 10 pounds. I’m on my way to my goal of 15 pounds” – encourages you to keep up the good work and makes you feel pretty good about yourself.
4. Thinking with your Feelings – “I feel like I’ll never make it to the job promotion.” Thoughts like this occur when you have a feeling about something and you assume it is correct, so you never question it. Feelings can lie too. Look for evidence. In this example, schedule a chat with a mentor to talk about simple action steps to make it happen.
5. Guilt Beating – Thinking in words like “should”, “must”, “ought to”, and “have to” are typical with this type of ANT, which involves using excessive guilt to control behavior. When we feel pushed to do things, our natural tendency is to push back. That doesn’t mean that guilt is all bad. There are certain things in life that we should and shouldn’t do if we want to have the best body possible: “I want to eat the chips and guacamole at the party, but I should have the raw carrots instead” or “I feel like staying in bed, but I should do my workout.” Don’t mistake these for guilt beating ANTs.
6. Labeling – When you call yourself or someone else names or use negative terms to describe them, you have a labeling ANT in your brain. A lot of us do this on a regular basis. You may have said one of the following at some point in your life; “I’m a failure”; or “I’m lazy.” The problem with calling yourself names is that it takes away your actions and behaviors. If you are a failure, or lazy, then why bother trying to change your behavior? It is as if you have given up before you have even tried. This negative attitude can be terrible for your mind and body.
These last three ANTs are the worst of the bunch. I call them the red ANTs because they can really sting.
7. Fortune-Telling – Predicting the worst even though you don’t know what will happen is the hallmark of the fortune-telling ANT. Examples include: “I just know that nobody is going to invest in XYZ." "I know that my friends and family will judge me for jumping into XYZ.” Nobody is safe from fortune-telling ANTs.
8. Mind Reading – When you think that you know what somebody else is thinking even though they have not told you, and you have not asked them, it is called mind-reading. Listen carefully to the other person before trying to predict what they have to say.
9. Blame – Of all the ANTs, this one is the worst. Blaming others for your problems and taking no responsibility for your own successes and failures is toxic thinking. For example: “It is your fault I’m out of shape because you will not go with me to exercise.” Whenever you begin a sentence with “it is your fault…” it ruins your life. These ANTs make you a victim. When you are a victim, you are powerless to change your behavior. Quit blaming others and take responsibility for your actions.
Strategies to Overcoming ANTs
1. Eliminate as they attack; write it down and say is this really true?
2. Stop the thought!
3. Start every morning by saying “today is going to be a great day!”
4. End each and every evening by figuring out what went well today.
5. Create optimism with a dose of reality. What am I looking for and what am I going to do about it.
I truly believe if we all pay attention to what our thoughts are, identify them, and stop them, we are on our way to life changing things! ;)
“Your brain is seeking evidence all day for what you are telling yourselves.”
