It’s a bright February day here in Maine, and the sun is actually strong enough that, beaming in my window, it actually warms me up as I sit at my desk. This seems to happen just in time for the wintery-est period in my corner of the world. We’ve had a mild one so far, with very little snow, but things are picking up. The longest, shortest month is here to remind us that we have a way to go before we can plant all the seeds we’ve ordered.
If you downloaded my nervous system guide, you know I love aromatherapy. Even before I started using essential oils, one of my favorite things to boost my mood in February involved the sense of smell. My top two: go walk through a greenhouse just to smell the soil, or put on some sunscreen to remember sunny beach days.
Our sense of smell is one of our oldest and has more to do with our danger alert system than any other. And since our olfactory nerve evolved into the limbic system, we’ve held onto trusting our sense of smell to detect danger. (I like this Khan Academy video that explains it all in plain language.)
Emotions are not "good" or "bad" although we experience them as more comfortable or uncomfortable. Every emotion has a function, and that is to send us messages to help with decisions. Feeling happy encourages us to repeat whatever made us feel that way. Feeling sad or pain teaches us to avoid the cause.
In my therapy practice, I teach people emotions are like a smoke detector that just reacts to the environment. Anyone have a smoke detector that is too sensitive? My brother calls his the "toast detector." We take ours down when we are making a stir-fry or broiling anything.
We can learn to use other senses to decide if our emotion is based in reality. If we decide our inner smoke detector has over-reacted, aromatherapy is one way we can turn off the alarm.
If you are looking for a mood boost, it’s hard to go wrong with citrus or mint. Today’s diffuser blend is Citrus Fresh to match the warm sun, with some rosemary thrown because I need to focus this morning.
PS
(Lots of places are already backordered, luckily one of my favorite farmers has plenty of seeds left, and lots of resources and videos!)
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