Aromatherapy is an ancient holistic therapy that can be used alone or in combination with other therapies. Modern research has enabled the benefits of essential oils for physical, mental and emotional health to become more widely known and accepted again.
Aromatherapy is the use of essential oils and plant oils to harmonise, nourish or heal the body.
Essential oils are aromatic compounds extracted from the leaves, flowers, bark, roots, stems, resins and seeds of plants, or the peel of citrus fruits, and are used for both cosmetic and medicinal purposes.
These oils are made up of hundreds of chemical elements that give the plant its specific properties and medicinal benefits. Modern scientific research has shown that one of the reasons why essential oils have so many, sometimes surprising, healing properties is that they contain concentrations of the plant’s essence from which they are extracted.
They are extremely small at the cellular level and therefore easily penetrate the skin, are absorbed directly into the bloodstream, cross the blood-brain barrier and the cell membrane. Therefore, they are very efficiently utilized in the human body. As we are talking about medicinal properties and active ingredients, it is essential that every essential oil is tested, certified, 100% pure, therapeutic quality.
‘When inhaled, the essential oils have the capability on a cellular DNA level, to completely erase the memory of emotional trauma. Dr Joseph Ledoux of New York Medical University feels that the effect of inhaled oil vapours upon the amygdala gland could be a major breakthrough in the releasing of stored emotional trauma. The synergistic effects of smelling an essential oil influences the vibrational energy of our cells and thus helps us to heal on all levels; physical, emotional and spiritual.’
Dr Malte Hozzel
‘With the modern research on Aromatherapy it is becoming evident that one large factor responsible for the multiple surprising healing effects of essential oils is that they are a more concentrated expression of the plant from which they stem.
Aromas have a potential emotional impact that can reach deep into the psyche, both relaxing the mind and uplifting the Spirit and thus, Essential oils, with their concentrated aromatic energy, profoundly affect our minds and our emotions. Our sense of smell is estimated to be 10,000 times more accurate than our other senses. Once registered, scent travel faster to the brain than either sight or sound.
Our sense of smell links directly to emotional states and behaviours often stored since childhood. It is the only one of the five physical senses that is directly linked to the limbic lobe of the brain – anxiety, depression, fear, anger, and joy all have their physical expression in this region.
Inhaling the fragrance of an essential oil means that the odour molecules travel up in the nose where they are registered by the nerves of the olfactory membranes within the nose lining. The odour molecules stimulate this lining of nerve cells and trigger electrical impulses which are transferred to the olfactory bulb in the brain. From the olfactory bulb these impulses reach to the limbic system of- ten referred to as our emotional control centre.
Because the limbic system is directly connected to those parts of the brain that control heart rate, blood pressure, breathing, memory, stress levels, and hormone balance, essential oils can have profound physiological and psychological effects.’
Dr Malte Hozzel
I recommend you the following incredibly interesting TEDxTalk on the importance of smell in fragrance marketing and its effects on us.
Feel free to contact me if you’d like to book a fragrance session, an individual consultation or if you have any questions.