Why we should smell the roses

                             

In his article Art Chester lists twenty-five senses. His thoughts are definitely worth considering. Here is a little introduction to get you on the right track.

"Science Fact: The five senses bring the world into our awareness. But who decided there were five senses, anyway?

Five Senses. In Western culture many things we think we “know” often come from ancient Greece. Sure enough, Aristotle, who has been called the “first genuine scientist,” enumerates the same five senses that we know: sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch. Yet the Greeks were not fixed on the number five: Aristotle sometimes leaned toward four senses, taking taste to be merely a form of touch; and his teacher Plato instead rattled off an impressive list of at least eight senses: hearing, sight, smell, sense of heat and cold, pleasure, pain, desire, and fear.

Nevertheless, five senses are engrained in our thinking. Perhaps because we can easily associate a physical structure (eye, ear, nose, tongue, hand) with each one. Perhaps because five senses were a frequent theme in Medieval and Renaissance art. Perhaps because the most casual search turns up mountains of hits on the subject of five senses, ranging from scientific discussions, to products and services, to metaphorical and poetic works.

Six Senses. When people speak of a “sixth sense” it’s as if they are talking about a third eye, or a fourth dimension, or a fifth cardinal direction – it’s shorthand for some mysterious way of knowing things that we wouldn’t normally expect to know. Advocates of extrasensory abilities such as telepathy would propose ESP as a sixth sense. However, even before the ancient Greeks, Buddhism counted six senses by including the mind as a sense organ. And the mind is about as mysterious as you can get!

Seven Senses. As Charles South pointed out in a note to me, we don’t have to get esoteric to justify more than five senses. Balance, the ability to sense and adjust to gravity and to perceive acceleration, is a fundamental sense throughout the animal kingdom. After all, knowing which way is up and being able to stay on one’s feet is necessary to find food or a mate, and to avoid becoming some other creature’s lunch." The Senses: Sixth, Seventh and Secret Written by Art Chester, US Scientist and author

Some of our senses are overstimulated nowadays and others are under stimulated. Our smell is one of the senses that is exposed to a lot of scents but we don't consciously work to improve it and to use it for our health benefit. Pleasant smells like the smell of delicious food, a scent of a lovely bouquet or inhaling the many perfumes of plants and flowers when walking in the forest are extremely invigorating and pleasant. However, many times our sense if exposed to pollution and unpleasant smells that we don't even realise how badly effects us and our mood or how it makes us sick even. We just take it for granted that this is how our life is in the city. However, there is a simple solution!

When a few months ago I started to use essential oils I became extremely curious how oils work and what is the benefit of using them by inhalation, topically or by ingesting them. Everyone knows that essential oils are pretty things that smell great although many people do not like to inhale them. Especially men have been conditioned not to enjoy nice smell or use essential oils. Definitely not in Australia. 

While in Europe wearing a perfume is a common thing and is part of being well-groomed, in Australia it is less of a part of the culture. At work places wearing perfume or after shave is almost discouraged because of the many people with allergies. 

We all know that the French were the leaders of using essential oils and creating perfumes. With that the scent and the health benefit got separated. There is a rediscovery of essential oils and their health benefits happening right now. There is an essential oils revolution taking place! People are returning to these gifts of nature and turning away from synthetic drugs that don't assimilate in our body and create toxins. 

People are taking back their power from the medical profession and the pharmaceutical companies. Knowledge, that once was common knowledge and was passed in families faded away in some cultures. For little things like cold or headache people did not pop a pill or take antibiotics every time used natural remedies that they had in their cabinets. 

One of the simplest and easiest way to elevate your and your family's mood, to remove unpleasant odours and even viruses, to enliven the air in your home and to protect the health of your loved one is by diffusing essential oils. You only need a few basic oils to deal with most common things in your home and to make an improvement in your health. 

These ten very handy essential oils are: lavender, tea tree, peppermint, chamomile, eucalyptus, geranium, rosemary, thyme, lemon and clove.  

In another blog article I will detail the benefits of these ten oils. 

Now, I would like to introduce you to the pathway of the essential oils in our body when we inhale them!

1. Olfactory bulb, structure located in the forebrain of vertebrates that receives neural input about odours detected by cells in the nasal cavity. The axons of olfactory receptor (smell receptor) cells extend directly into the highly organised olfactory bulb, where information about odours is processed.

2. Midbrain
The function of the midbrain, or mesencephalon, is to control an individual's hearing, motor control, vision, arousal and temperature regulation. In addition, the midbrain also controls a person's sleep and awake cycle. (www.reference.com)

The various functions which involve brainstem mechanism are controlling the respiratory muscles, controlling the vocal cords enabling a person to phonate, controlling pharyngeal, oral as well as nasal passages that are known to cause resonance effect and controlling the palate, tongue, lips and mandible which are involved in articulation control. These all functions are controlled by midbrain periqueductal gray and the cranial nerves 12, 10, 9, 5 & 7. The coordinated activities of laryngeal and oral facial tissues are controlled by the midbrain periaqueductal gray due to which it has control over the way we laugh and cry. 

That is the reason why even if the remaining brain is dead, a person can still laugh and cry. Monamine neurotransmitters are manufactured by midbrain’s nuclei and neurons which are called as dopamine or DA and this DA is more profusely produced inside the midbrain substantia nigra as well as the tegmentum. This Dopamine plays an important role in motor and cognition functioning and the DA transmitter system disturbances are correlated with the development of Parkinson’s disease as well as psychotic abnormalities. (www.innovateus.net/health/what-function-midbrain)

To get your stimulating essential oils please visit www.doterra.com and quote ID:3424449