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

Essential oils are here to teach us a lesson

My doTerra essential collection is my greatest treasures.  Until I started on oils I thought that my piano was my greatest treasure and nothing ever will change that.  How wrong was I!

I have been using oils for close to two years and they have truly changed my life physically, mentally,  energetically, emotionally and spiritually.  They changed for the better.

I like to learn about them, watch the best people talk about oils and I educate people about how they can live a life closer to nature and use these lifelines of plants to bring us back to life, be more vibrant, energetic, loving and more be part of this wonderful life on Earth.

When people touch the oil bottles little they know what the expect.  They have little understanding and little respect for these oils.  They are impatient.  They shake, touch, violate these oils instead of approaching with curiosity and patience.

These oils have personalities, they have their own characters, they have their own nature and speed. They are like a child. They grow and change.  Like a little puppy, they will love you unconditionally if you let them.  They are like a beautiful flower, they will blossom when they come in contact with you.  They are like the best lover you had.

When you touch the bottle, take it in your hand and look at it's label, check the colour on the label, it has a significance what colour group the label is.  Feel the energy of the bottle in your hand and let it synchronise with your energy and frequency.  Let it warm to you. Let it entrain to your rhythm or your body to the oil's rhythm.  Feel it, smell it, touch it, look at it before you open it.

Then, let the magic happen and open the lid but still, just feel it, smell it. Do not put your finger to the spout. Do not shake and turn the bottle up side down. Get to know each other.  Like a beautiful creature that you don't want to frighten away. You just want to observe and admire in its own environment. No guns, no thumping, no shouting. Become one with its environment so you can observe long.

If you want to get to know your oil closer, tilt it to an angle with your other palm or finger being under it.  Don't be impatient, don't shake the oil so it would drop faster and don't put your finger to the spout.  Just observe how thin or thick the oil is, is it running fast or slow, is it oozing with aroma right away or it takes time to reveal itself?  Knowing your oils will help you choose the right one for the occasion.

Sometimes you need to be energised so you will select something that is fast and highly energising like Peppermint. Other times you need something that is slow, rich, thick and has immense depth and the scent will reveal itself in layers, gradually with time like Myrrh.

Using essential oils teaches so much about them, about where they come from, about the life those plans/herbs, flowers, seeds lived. They have a lesson to teach us with every drop we use, with every inhale we take.

Sometimes the oil you hate the most at first has the biggest lesson to teach you.  Sometimes the oil that we resist the most is the oil that will help us the most.  Don't be judgemental about a scent.  Be open minded like we should be with people.  Don't judge too fast.  When you get to know someone, when you hear their story, when you learn what made them who they are and get to walk in their shoes you can't hate or dislike them anymore.  There is a story behind every single person.  There is a story behind every single oil.  That's why most oil lovers have quite a great collection. It is great to have a few basic oils but just as you don't want to eat the same food every day, not even your favourite ones or you don't want to be surrounded with the same people every day, the same applies to oils.  There will be oils that you want to use every day because they work and your love them.  And there will be oils that you will rarely touch.  But when you feel the need to use them, they will take you a special journey. They will take you to a far away country, show you landscapes, animals, birds, plants, climate you have never seen. They will introduce you to people you would have never met any otherwise.  They will make you dream dreams you would have never ever had any other way. These oils will transform you as a person you would have never ever would have become.