EMOTIONALAROMATHERAPY

December 2016

BEATING THEHOLIDAY BLUES

Sadness is but a wall between twogardens. -- Khalil Gibran

BEATING THE HOLIDAY BLUES

For many, the holidays are the most joyous time ofthe year. They love the shopping, gift-giving, baking,feasting, decorating, visiting, and parties. Scents ofreal Christmas trees (pine, fir, or spruce smell) orspecial baking (cinnamon, vanilla, allspice) triggerhappy memories. (Even if you don’t have thosememory-scents from your childhood, those smellsusually elicit a positive response). Christmas: one ofthe best examples of the positive effects of certainscents on our psyche!

It’s common wisdom, though, that during theholidays, many people feel sad. Lots of people want tofeel joy and love, happiness and connection—butactually feel a multitude of emotions that might besummed up simply as sad. Are there scents that canhelp turn around that feeling? Yes!

Digging Deeper

When people are sad, they sometimes can’t say why:“I just feel blue.” Sometimes looking a little deepercan help you identify an emotion that more closelydescribes what you’re feeling. Let’s refer to Emotions& Essential Oils, Appendix B, to take a closer look atfeeling “sad.” Emotions & Essential Oils tells us thatSadness is one of the basic emotional states.

But many other emotions may be feeding into thatstate (Appendix B). When we identify as sad, wemight be feeling something more specific, such as:

Loneliness—Has your best friend moved? Has yourspouse been deployed? Did you just start a new job(where everyone is new to you)?

Loss – Have you lost your home, or your job? Haveyou lost a position that gave you pride or identity? Afeeling of loss can come from obvious and not-so-obvious sources.

Grief – A sister to loss, grief is more crippling. Often aresult of the death of someone important to you, itcan also be hiding under the veil of “sadness” fordifferent kinds of losses: Have you lost some aspectof your health? Have you retired and moved to a newcity? Sadness sometimes covers a deep grief for a lifeirrevocably changed.

*

There’s a real difference between sadness and depression.Sadness is sometimes related to hormones and a naturalresponse to many of life’s situations. Depression is a medicalcondition that may need professional attention. When peopleare sad and express their sadness, they feel better, whereaswhen people are depressed, expressing their pain may not givethem relief. Sadness doesn’t involve mean thoughts aboutoneself, or hopeless or suicidal thoughts, but depression oftendoes. Sadness doesn’t interfere with feeling other emotions,while depression often prevents them. If you think you could bedepressed, talk to your doctor. See more at goodtherapy.org.

“I WILL HONOR CHRISTMASIN MY HEART AND TRY TOKEEP IT ALL THE YEAR.” – EBENEZER SCROOGE

Finding Help in Essential Oils

The Take the Wheel class handout recommends choosing an oil for support and reading about it for awareness. Emotions& Essential Oils recommends these oils for:

Loneliness – Marjoram, Cedarwood, Frankincense, MyrrhLoss – Geranium, Ylang, Ylang, Comforting BlendGrief – Geranium, Comforting Blend, Respiratory Blend, Soothing Blend, LimeSadness – Respiratory Blend, Ylang Ylang, Geranium, Peppermint, Massage Blend, Uplifting Blend, Comforting Blend

Here we see the benefit in looking closer at the underlying emotions. You will see a lot of overlap in the oils beneficial forLoss, Grief, and Sadness. If you label your emotion Sadness, and choose Geranium or Ylang Ylang or Respiratory Blend,you will have touched notes in three emotional states—but not in Loneliness. If Loneliness may be the root of yoursadness, you might get more support from your oils if you drilled down a bit from Sadness and chose oils more suited forLoneliness.

But you don’t have to worry about getting it wrong! We’re only beginning to scratch the surface of how and why essentialoils aid in emotional healing, and which oils provide what benefits. There’s a large overlap among many related emotionalstates. Loneliness, as a component of Sadness, might very well abate with the help of Geranium, Ylang Ylang, orRespiratory Blend. But if you weren’t getting the results you hoped for, a deeper look into Sadness (Appendix B) mightreveal a more effective oil, to address the Loneliness aspect, such as Marjoram or Cedarwood.

GERANIUMTHE OIL OF LOVE & TRUST: EMOTIONAL HEALING, TRUSTING,FORGIVING, GENTLE, LOVING,TOLERANT, OPEN

Helping Yourself

Once you’ve selected an oil and read about its properties in Emotions & Essential Oils, you want to find ways to incorporateit into your life. When you choose to address your emotional state by introducing a new, positive stimulus, you caninterrupt the “chemical habits” that may be dominating your emotional reactions. Here are several ideas; but let yourinner voice guide you to one of these, or something totally different, that speaks to you.

Deep Relaxer. If your Sadness leads to worry, try a warm bath, with your chosen essential oil added to the water. Lay back,breathe deeply of the aroma, focus your thoughts on what you’re grateful for, or the fact that you don’t have to doanything right now, or visualize a peaceful earth panorama.

Quick Refresher. Carry your chosen oil with you. Multiple times throughout the day, take a deep breath, breathing in thefragrance, and enjoy a moment or a minute of peace.

Ritual Enhancer. In a quiet room or corner, light an unscented candle (beeswax is nice), wrap yourself in a warm shawl orafghan if you like, and use a diffuser to distribute your scent around the space. (Deep breaths from the bottle will also befine.) Visualize a favorite or ideal scene in nature, or focus on the candle. Or visualize yourself reacting in a commonsituation the way you would want to react (visual role-playing). Or, in this environment, pray, meditate, or simplymaintain stillness and presence, and rely on the oil and the peace to touch a chord and promote your emotional healing.

Remember, it’s about the choice to seek a different emotional state than the one you’re accustomed to. The essential oilprovides a powerful situational change (through scent) and a stimulus that helps break the established chemical patternsof emotional response.

RESOURCES

Sharing the MessageTo teach a follow-up class on emotional aromatherapy for support with beating the blues, follow the outline we’veprovided. Using the tools provided here you will be able to:

First, teach your class the basics of emotional aromatherapy: particularly, how the emotional “response cycle” works.Reference the front page of our Taking the Wheel handout or visit your subscriptions section on Enlighten's website todownload talking points for presenting that material. (There's also a wonderful webinar on this topic available onEnlighten's YouTube channel. Choose "Emotional Aromatherapy Webinar" to hear the content presented live.)

Then, use the content here to follow the four steps on the back of the Take the Wheel handout:

Step 1: Introduce the theme “Beating the Holiday Blues."

Step 2: Guide your class through the process of identifying the emotion or underlying emotions they’re experiencing.To get started, reference the Emotions & Essential Oils Wheel, then Appendices B and D of the book.

Step 3: Show them how to find the essential oils they want to read more about in Emotions & Essential Oils.

Step 4: Recommend uses and practices to help clients incorporate essential oils into their regimen.

Spreading the WordDownload these support graphics and use them to advertise your classes on emotional aromatherapy this month. Ifyou send out a monthly email newsletter make sure to use our pre-designed header graphic. And for those who shareon social media, post the graphics and use your own versions of the following ideas in the comments…

~ Feel better! Join me for a meaningful discussion on essential oils & emotions December 19 @ 7:00. Contact me fordetails.

~ Discover the amazing benefits of aromatherapy for emotions. This month we’re learning how to beat those holidayblues. Contact me for details.

Note: For best results, download our high-resolution graphics from the website. You’ll find them in the subscription sectionunder your personal account.