CANDLE AROMATHERAPY
IMPROVED MEDITATION, WELLNESS & SELF CARE
The second equally important ingredient i a great scented candle is the wax. Most candle lovers by now know that paraffin wax has potentially harmful effects on health. However Soy, its favored and much vaunted replacement, also comes with potential negative health effects.
The fact that soy wax comes from a plant has been highlighted as therefore being safe. It is not. Soy has to undergo several steps of chemical treatments in order to transform it from an oil into a wax. And as with all instances of chemical interference, the potential for dangerous effects should not be taken lightly. Lastly most of the soy being transformed into wax was already grown with standard chemical fertilizers and treatments to produce higher crop yields.
THE BEESWAX SOLUTION
Beeswax is the solution for avoiding the chemical load of Soy Wax. Organic coconut oil and soy oil itself allow Beeswax to give a better candle burn for a longer time without having to worry about inhaling chemicals.
Because a good scented candle disperses its smell throughout a room, and that scent lasts for a relatively long time, it gives you the opportunity to have your brain and ultimately your mood transformed into feeling states of calm, relaxation and positive outlook. And when you insert the practice of meditation into those feeling states, you get to leapfrog into those brain wave states that are the hallmark of deep profound meditation.
Everyone has heard of the so called monkey mind, and I suspect that more than a few of you have experienced it. The monkey mind is that overactive state of mind that can make meditation really difficult to settle into. However your mind’s tendency to become overactive is a non starter when it’s dampened by a great smelling candle. Instead it is the positive zen like emotions that will be in place as a result of the way in which the Limbic System is affected by the processing of scent. Any intent of your mind to respond in over activity, is stalled; it’s on hold!.
Now imagine adding music, chanting or a great guided meditation and I’m sure that you can see how easily and how quickly you could be transported to pure Nirvana. I’ll even go one step further. Carry out the entire process with one other person or with a group of like minded individuals and, well, you have a group of good tempered relaxed meditation addicts.
WHAT MAKES A GREAT SCENTED CANDLE?
Scent interacts with, and is processed inside the human anatomy. A smell doesn’t stop at some imaginary border outside your body, instead odors go from your nostrils into your brain. Scent is processed and sent to areas of your brain known as the Limbic System. This is the part of your brain that decides your mood, memory, behavior and emotional responses. This is why just smelling something associated with a memory, will take you back to the time, place people and emotions.
Incidentally, the Limbic System is also calmed by music, meditation, yoga, mindful breathing. And a divinely scented candle is also one more very effective way that you Limbic System can use ti relax you and put you in a great mood!
Have you ever found yourself delighting in the sweet smell of a rose or some other flower?. How did it make you feel in the moment?. Did you feel good, perhaps even happy? If you’ve ever had that simple pleasurable experience, then you’ve experienced aromatherapy in its most basic form.
Of course a rose also offers beauty, which engages sight, another of your senses. So that you have sight and smell being stimulated together. And having your brain engaged in processing two incoming complimentary stimuli, is key to the concept of deliberately using scented candles as aromatherapy.
SCENTED CANDLES AS AROMATHERAPY:
HOW YOU CAN USE THEM BOTH AS MEDITATION & SELF CARE AID.
A great scented candle has two equally important main ingredients. The first is, no surprise, a scent that you find particularly agreeable, and that invokes positive feelings and emotions inside you. Candle scents should have a combination of tiered scent levels, provided by natural aromatic compounds found in essential oils. These compounds can come from flowers, seeds, bark , roots and other parts of plants.
Chemically created fragrances for their part can smell really great, and they have the advantage of being usually much less expensive than pure essential oils. However with chemically created fragrances, there is always the potential of inhaling harmful residue.
Remember, you’re actually inhaling the molecules of whatever the fragrance is composed of, into your anatomy. Into your brain to be precise
