Smells like a Good Idea to Me
When I was younger I used to love buying scented products which what my brother thought was stupid, so he deemed these items “smelly stuff”. While I was a fan of orange sherbet glitter lotion, but I also noticed so called aromatherapy offerings that made claims about helping people to relax, become more energized or happy depending on the scent. According to Linda Kleinbaum and Jackie Hesse of Garden of Eden in St. Paul, Aromatherapy has been utilized for thousands of years for all sorts of remedies, especially as a relaxant to help alleviate feelings of anxiety. Could it be that my older brother had it all wrong?
Linda stresses that the FDA does not allow them to make any hard and fast claims about aromatherapy, but there have been many studies showing that scents like lavender can help people to relax and scents such as mint and citrus work to lift moods. For people who struggle with anxiety in their everyday lives, aromatherapy is an easy way to help with those feelings due to the reaction that scent triggers in the brain. One of the most important rules of aromatherapy is also the simplest; in order to have a positive effect you have to enjoy the smell. While certain scents tend to help people relax, smell is also tied closely with memory. If certain smells trigger bad memories then they will not be effective. Jackie elaborated by saying that “if you had a teacher who you hated and she wore lavender, then lavender is not going to help you relax.” Smells go through the limbic system in the brain which is tied to memories and the associated emotions so smells that are tied closely good memories will help to boost mood or allow you to relax.
Okay, so aromatherapy can help people who suffer from anxiety by helping them to relax, but how do you even begin to practice? “You can use oil for diffusion, room sprays, candles or you can apply essential oils directly to the skin since they absorb into the blood stream” says Linda. The scents travel through the blood system to have a total body effect. “If you swipe peppermint oil on your feet you will be able to taste it in about a minute” says Jackie. Using any of these methods to deliver the scent can be effective.
A lot of college aged students and young adults obviously don’t have a lot of extra money to spend on an assortment of aromatherapy products. Is it even practical in the context of a limited budget? It turns out that a little goes a long way and that it is not just the scent that is important, but the events associated with it. Jackie insists that the best way to use aromatherapy as a way to relax is to “create a routine and then put a scent with it.” The most effective methods will vary for different people and include spraying a calming scent on your sheets before you go to bed, applying some sort of essential oil to your skin right before taking a walk or taking a bath infused with a fragrance. The combination of smell and routine magnifies both effects. So yeah, there really is something to this “smelly stuff.”
By: Christine Skopec