Anne. D - Art & Self-Expression -

Another wish of mine is to gently stimulate our sense of smell, combining the fragrance of plants and essential oils with other creative and self-healing endeavors: in creative projects, but also in classes, workshops, private sessions and retreats.

OUR SENSE OF SMELL

No one needs to be a scientist to recognize that our sense of smell connects us to our emotions and memories faster and more deeply than any other sense. Proust wrote about it in a very beautiful and poetic way, long before science tried to prove it. And Patrick Süskind did a truly fantastic job with "The Perfume".

According to researchers, our olfactive abilities are the first of the five senses we develop as humans. Luke Vorsterman says that smell controls our artistic abilities, our perception of space, and our ability to think - among other things.

I never needed any of these explanations as justification for my desire, but I find them interesting.

ESSENTIAL OILS

A magic world of fragrance...

I love working - I mean "playing" - with essential oils. They don't replace the natural smells of nature, but they are an amazing gift from the plant world. First because they smell so good! Second because they are emotionally uplifting, protective, calming, and re-generating. And third because they are some of the oldest, most powerful, and most natural therapeutic agents known. Their chemical structure is such that it can rapidly penetrate cell membranes, travel through the blood and tissues, and enhance cellular function without the negative side effects of chemical drugs.

Very concentrated and powerful, a drop or two of oil of therapeutic grade essential oil can produce quick and profound results at a physical and emotional level. A single essential oil alone may contain hundreds of constituents that are molecularly aligned in exactly the right manner to trigger a number of healing responses in the human body.

Many uses

I would love to show you the different ways in which I have been using essential oils in my daily-life ever since I was a child. I inherited this love from my mother who taught me many of the "natural life-style" ways I know. Here is a sample of the many uses I find for essential oils:

in food preparations

in home-made soaps & shampoo

in face creams and body lotions

in hot baths

as a natural perfume

as supplements

in ointments to soothe certain conditions

for massages and hands-on healing

in hot water inhalations

diffused in a room, etc...

I particularly love to experiment in creating my own blends, as well as discovering new uses, and am always curious about what other people come up with. So I hope you join me to share this delight!

Suppliers
In the US, I particularly like Young Living Essential Oils for which I am a distributor (I can give you my "Sponsoring Distributor Member Number" if you wish to buy some over the internet.)
www.youngliving.com

But there are other E. O. that I buy that are good too. I hear people say that one has to be very careful in buying and using essential oils because there are also many "bad" essential oils "out there". And it is true, but it's like everything else in life, so I go with my intuition on this. Do a bit of research and trust yours as well!

I love Gaia Perfumes. Ani, the woman who runs it, is a truly talented, warm hearted, and delightful being! Her website, designed by her partner, is just as beautiful:
www.gaiaperfumes.com

And I also get a lot of my essential oils in France - said to be the birth-place of E.O. It is great fun to shop there because of the wide variety of high quality and organic essential oils available in many stores.

RECIPES

Stress Reducing Blend

30 drops of Lavender
10 drops of Roman Chamomile
10 drops of Tangerine
5 drops of Cistus
5 drops of Benzoin

Liquid Shower Soap

3 drops of Vetiver
3 drops of Carrot
7 drops of Geranium
10 drops of Sandalwood
3 drops of Rosewood
1 drop of Cinnamon
10 drops of Orange
10 drops of Cardamom

Mix with a bit less than one cup (6.7 fl oz - 200 ml) of natural liquid soap - my favorite being Dr. Bronner's Hemp Unscented Pure Castile Soap - plus a table spoon of Avocado oil or Jojoba oil, or other nourishing but unscented oil.

This website is a work in progress, and this page will expand and improve as well. When time allows, I would like to add various tips and recipes with essential oils. Please come back to visit!

"That our sense of smell is most closely related to our memory is no surprise given its location. Olfactory receptors are located next to the limbic system which, according to anthropologists, is the most primitive part of the human brain and where our emotions reside. It is the site that controls or modifies our emotional and sexual responses, our hunger and thirst responses, and our anxiety and fear responses.

It also controls our artistic abilities, our perception of space as well as regulating our body temperature, and our ability to think. It receives and stores information from all of our senses. Essentially, it's our master control.

When we inhale a scent, the sensation of its odour is first relayed to our cerebral cortex, where cognitive recognition occurs. However, before we are able to recognize the scent, the deepest part of our brain becomes stimulated. Thus, by the time we are able to recognize the pine scent of a Christmas tree, its scent has already activated our limbic system and we are transported back to our childhood memory of decorating Christmas trees from our past.

[...] It isn't surprising, then, that studies conducted by Dr. Rachel Hertz suggest that our memories which are triggered by our sense of smell are more emotional than our memories triggered by our other senses."

Luke Vorstermans