Which Scents are Calming

Like the Lemongrass Essential Oil from Auroshikha, there are several scents that have a calming effect on people.  Calm and agitation all begin in the brain with a release of chemicals in response to a thought or situation. It goes to reason that there are things that trigger a calming response and one of those is scent. Scent is a powerful initiator of memory and emotion. Scents can be delivered using different vehicles such as via incense, via essential oil in a burner, via essential oil put on the body or through simmering whole herb in water *steam method*.  Each delivery method has different results depending on the system used and the person using it.

Some scents used to initiate a calming response in the body are Lavender, Chamomile, Lemongrass, Sandalwood (promotes calm by encouraging a singular focus, thus quieting an excited mind) or really whatever else calms you.  Perhaps a certain scent evokes memory of happy times and places.  Just that happy memory will release the “happy chemicals” in the brain and calm agitation.

The vehicle you choose to deliver the scent can also play a part in the calming process.  Sometimes watching a single, wispy, strand of incense smoke curl up into the air is enough to calm the mind and body.  Some people don’t like smoke and prefer a water bath essential oil burner.  Sometimes, if you are going to be out and about, enveloping yourself in a protective atmosphere of scent can provide that portable calming scent that is needed to get through stressful situations.  Sometimes it is nice just to put a tiny bit of essential oil in with your face cream and apply it to the face or apply some to your hair so only you can smell it.

It is amazing what scent can do for you in your daily life.  It can reduce stress and initiate calm when you need it.  It can also be used in many different forms and ways.  Let your own inner voice guide you as to what and how to use scent in your life.  Life is what you make it; you have choices so why not make it great?  As always be safe with using essential oils and only use oils and incense as directed.

Please leave a comment and let us know what scent you use to encourage that calming response in you!

Japanese Incense-Morning Star sandalwood

Morning Star sandalwood incense is one of our personal favorites here.  The sandalwood is a woody and dry scent.  This great little 50 stick pack comes with a burner to burn your incenses in.  These 50 stick packs of Morning Star are fun because they don’t cost an arm and a leg ($3.10 at Violet and Company), if you do like them there are enough in the pack to enjoy.  If you don’t like them you can give them to a friend to try and you aren’t out tons of money.  You can buy these through our Facebook Store for an additional 5% off (after liking our page 🙂 ) or you can get them in our eBay store or on our website

Sacred Feather Sage on sale just in time for Summer Solstice!

8 inch sacred sage bundles

Grey sage or sacred feather sage is used by some in smudging ceremonies.  Some say it is less potent than white sage; some prefer it.  Give it a try, you might just love it! On sale at Violet and Company for $4.00 for an 8 inch stick.  Leave a comment and let us know which sage you love and why!

Peace

Photo by Vinoth Chandar

Morning Star Lavender Incense on sale!

Morning Star Lavender on sale $2.85!

If you have never tried Japanese Incense, now is the time.  Nippon Kodo’s Morning Star Lavender infuses the room with a delicate lavender aroma.  The sticks, like all Morning Star, have no wooden bamboo core, they are pure incense.  Each package of incense comes with a little ceramic incense holder.  The sticks are delicate, perhaps 3 mm thick, but they burn slowly. And if they should break, no matter, they burn at any size!  We like standing 5 or 6 of them up in a little dish full of sand.  It is a visual and olfactory treat!

See Yourself in Everyone

“Continue practicing until you see yourself in the cruelest person on Earth, in the child starving, in the political prisoner. Practice until you recognize yourself in everyone in the supermarket, on the street corner, in a concentration camp, on a leaf, in a dewdrop. Meditate until you see yourself in a speck of dust in a distant galaxy. See and listen with the whole of your being.

If you are fully present, the rain of Dharma will water the deepest seeds in your consciousness, and tomorrow, while you are washing the dishes or looking at the blue sky, that seed will spring forth, and love and understanding will appear as a beautiful flower.”

~ Thich Nhat Hanh ~

Statue of Buddha in Earth Touching Mudra at Violet and Company Incense