Botanicals For Becoming Series: Aromatic Intelligence

This audio shares: How Scent Shapes Psyche, Energy & Presence.

You’ll explore the energetic language of the fragrance families, woods and roots, herbs and leaves, florals, citruses, resins, and spices, and how each one interacts with the psyche, the nervous system, and subtle energy.

This is both practical and contemplative. You’ll learn how to work with aroma to calm the mind, anchor the body, soften the heart, uplift the spirit, and attune your inner compass while also understanding the crucial difference between natural plant essences and synthetic fragrances.

The session includes a simple embodied practice to help you sense how scent lands in your body, develop discernment, and deepen your relationship with the intelligence of plants.

A gentle, grounding exploration for anyone drawn to self-regulation, sensory awareness, and the wisdom carried through scent.

Consider it a map to your inner landscape.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to this audio all about the fragrance families and the psyche.

Now,

When you step into the world of aroma,

Of essential oils,

Of fragrance and aromacology,

Which is the study of scent on the effect it has on the brain and the emotions,

You are literally opening a doorway into this wonderful world of depth,

Of beauty,

And there's no way I can possibly cover everything and you wouldn't want me to in this one recording.

But what I am going to do is distill it down,

Which is one of my gifts.

I study things deeply and then I distill it down to pass it on.

And then my recommendation to you is to see what really sparks your curiosity and then follow that,

Follow your nose,

Follow the scent of what sparks your curiosity in this.

And I invite you to go deeper with it.

I invite you to explore and really enjoy this garden of fragrance.

It's like a whole new world opens up every time I step into aroma,

Working with the essential oils,

Blending,

Creating natural perfumes,

Learning more about it,

Understanding the effect on the psyche.

It's like a playground of delight.

So I really hope you enjoy this sharing.

And as ever,

Please ask questions,

Feedback,

Let me know what you know.

This is the way we all learn and the way we all share our information and what our experiences are,

What happens for us,

And it's all valid and important.

So if you haven't listened to my other audio on fragrance,

I invite you to go there.

But today,

What I'm going to focus on is speaking about certain fragrance families and the psyche.

And then I'm going to go into a little bit more deep diving into benzoin.

And maybe I'll leave that for a separate audio.

Maybe I should leave benzoin,

Her own audio.

Okay,

Let's start with the fragrance family in the psyche and let's see how we go on.

So we kind of split the,

I'm speaking particularly about essential oils right now,

And the different families.

And we're going to look at woods and roots,

Herbs and leaves,

The florals,

The citruses,

And the resins,

The balms,

And the spices.

And what I'm going to do is give you a little overview,

A map,

If you like,

Of how the psyche and the energy works with these different family,

With these different flavors,

These different scents,

These different aromas.

And let's begin with the roots,

The woods and the roots.

As you would imagine,

They're very,

Very grounding.

They're very earthy.

They're all about slowing down,

Particularly the roots about anchoring and about supporting embodiment from this firm footing,

From this finding our feet,

From this sense of safety and presence within ourselves.

These woods and roots essential oils really help to ground in,

If we talk in the chakra system,

The root and the sacral chakra,

So that lower part of the body,

The supportive rooting down.

So things like cedarwood,

Things like vetiver,

Patchouli,

Sandalwood,

They have this earthy,

Woody,

Root-like ability to ground us in.

And that's what it does with our energy.

That's what they do with our energy,

With our psyche.

They bring that sense of grounding,

Of anchoring,

Of slowing.

And one of my favorite points to work with with vetiver,

And when I talk about points,

I'm talking about acupoints.

I'm a Roman point therapy facilitator teacher,

And I'm still learning.

I've been learning it for four years,

Guiding it for this year.

So we take the vetiver diluted.

I'll speak about this more in another audio because otherwise it's just going to go too deep.

But you dilute the vetiver,

And then you place a drop,

Light touch,

On kidney one,

On the bottom of your foot.

You can look it up online where that point is.

And it's light touch.

Aromapoint therapy is all about the energetics of the acupoint and the inner nature of the plants,

The oils,

Meeting and creating this catalyst,

This shift,

This reorganization,

Recalibration.

And if you're interested more in this,

Look up my Aromapoint Mastery.

I teach more about this in that.

But you hold light touch there for one to three minutes on both points,

On both feet,

And you wait for a shift.

Now that's kidney one and vetiver.

This is the point and the oil that I use when I realize that I'm starting to get too much in my head,

Or I've overwhelmed myself with the amount of information I've taken in,

Generally scrolling too much on the phone.

Or if I've got too much happening in my life,

I just take that moment,

Those minutes,

Sit down and apply.

And there is something very powerful and profound when we repeat these small patterns,

Rituals,

Practices again and again.

It interrupts,

Let's say,

The loop of doing,

The hamster wheel of doing.

And it actually places your body back into a sense of remembering,

A sense of presence,

A sense of like,

Oh yeah,

This is what I do and I relax and I calm.

And that's one to three minutes.

Okay,

So let's get back to it.

Then let's move on to the herbs and the leaves.

These have this clearing ability to bring clarity.

And within the chakra system,

We look at the solar plexus and the throat here.

So the herbs and the leaves,

They can be stimulating,

They can be clearing,

They can be sharpening the mental focus,

Enhancing the breath.

They can be things like basil,

Rosemary,

Peppermint,

Eucalyptus,

You know,

They're all very stimulating,

Very clearing,

Sharpening mental focus.

And eucalyptus,

As we know,

Really helps with our breathing.

So turn to the herbs and the leaves.

I mean,

This really is very oversimplistic because I tell you more about certain herbs and leaves within the Aromapoint Mastery journey that I guide people on.

But let's just keep it very oversimplified for now.

Clearing and clarity,

Work with the herbs,

Work with the leaves.

I've oversimplified that,

But I think it helps to give you a guide within the psyche and the energetics.

And then we come to the florals.

Now the florals,

Heart,

Throat,

Heart opening,

This,

You know,

I see the throat and probably have learned this along the way as being this bridge between the heart and the mind.

And the more we can really focus on bringing attention down into the heart,

Into the throat,

It starts to open up that often blocked bridge between the mind and the heart,

Especially if you are somebody like me who overthinks everything.

And so the more attention that can be brought down to the heart,

Back into compassion,

Back into speaking what wants to be spoken,

Finding the way to communicate,

To share your truth,

To share your feelings,

The better.

And so these florals are great for doing that,

For softening defenses,

For cultivating that compassion and that sensuality and this nuanced emotional opening.

So rose,

Jasmine,

Roly,

Ylang-ylang.

Again,

I go more into these in Aromacoin Mastery and I'll share more about them within Substack as well in the Aromatic Journal as we go along.

So citrus,

Uplifting,

Creativity,

Bergamot,

Sweet orange,

Grapefruit,

Lemon,

Very brightening,

Enlivening,

Lift the mood,

Creative confidence,

Really the ones to turn to when you need a bit of liquid sunshine or brightening or uplifting of the mood.

The citrus are really good to use in the area of the solar plexus.

This area really stimulates movement and creativity and upliftment.

So then we come into the resins and the balsams,

The mystic bridge between the third eye and the crown,

That which is matter,

Us,

And that which is above.

I don't want to get into that conversation,

But this bridge between the more,

Between matter and spirit,

Between above and below,

Great to use with the third eye and the crown.

So we've got frankincense,

Myrrh,

Benzoin,

Copal.

They can be very meditative,

Stabilizing.

They help you to surrender.

Often this human journey can get so incessant.

We feel like we're hamsters on the wheel and go,

Go,

Go,

Do,

Do,

Do,

Be,

Be,

Be.

And actually they really help to facilitate this aspect of surrender that actually just feels so good within.

When we surrender,

It feels so good in our being and we remember the truth.

We remember the truth of who we are.

We remember a state of being that isn't run on this nervous system over stimulation.

This connection to the numinous brings us into contemplative states,

Great to use when you're meditating or when you're looking just to slow right down.

And then lastly,

We'll speak about the spices.

I'll speak about the spices,

This,

The navel,

The heart,

Fire,

Initiation,

Spice,

Activating and warming and great for the digestive fire,

Generally digesting life,

Digesting what is going on,

What is happening,

Cinnamon,

Clove,

Black pepper,

Cardamom.

These are all examples.

You know,

They're this catalyst,

This warming aspect that awakens courage,

Passion,

Transformation and great,

Great,

Great ones to use when you need to stir the inner fires,

When you need to really weaken up that inner flame that perhaps might have got maybe not blown out because,

Well,

Or maybe blown out and you really want to just stimulate that inner fire.

Really good to use if there has been,

You know,

A period of illness or when you feel like life has knocked the wind out of your sails,

Spices are really,

Really good to use for the psyche,

For the energetic shifting and moving.

I want to come on to something that is really important within this conversation around the awareness of what it is that you are smelling in terms of when you're working with these fragrance families.

There are so much synthetic fragrance copies on the market,

But they don't have this complexity and depth.

They don't have the life force of the essence of the plants.

You may notice that they give you headaches.

You may notice that they can kind of just dull you a little bit.

And as you get to work with aroma more and more,

You'll start to understand the nuances,

The difference,

The subtleties,

Because when you step into this field and train your nose,

Train your attention,

Your focus,

Your awareness around fragrance and aroma,

You'll start to be able to pick out where the synthetic fragrances are.

Many,

Many oils are adulterated nowadays,

And they can actually evoke some sort of pleasure,

But they can also irritate your mucous membranes.

They can be hormone disruptors and really dull emotional sensitivity over time.

So really make sure you know where you're getting your oils from,

Some great suppliers.

You can always ask me if you want some recommendations.

But just in terms of the energetics of these synthetic fragrances and the psyche,

Energetically they're flat.

They're stimulating but not harmonizing.

Natural scents carry this living vibration.

The plants have been around way before we have.

They've got so much wisdom that they transmute and transport through their aroma and many other ways.

So if you're really interested in this,

Start to understand that a high street oil or a cheap oil that you can get off the internet most likely is full of synthetics.

But that doesn't mean to say that you need to spend a lot of money on essential oils.

There are certain ones that will be more pricey just down to the way that they are created and the amount of matter that's needed to create the essential oil.

And I would also recommend just getting to know them slowly but surely over time.

You don't need to get every single essential oil.

You can pick your favorites and start to get to know it.

So yeah,

Just really start to become aware of that.

Synthetics tend to stay quite static in their scent whereas natural aromas and fragrances evolve and breathe.

So you can feel like there's this aliveness,

This layeredness.

And as I've said,

The synthetics can feel flat.

They can give you headaches.

They'll just be a bit too overpowering or a bit like,

And this isn't the same as when you smell an essential oil and think,

Oh no,

I don't like that one.

It's actually slightly different or quite a lot different.

Trust your body.

Your body will relax with the naturals but will tense subtly with the synthetics fragrances.

So synthetics can feel very overstimulating but yet also flattening.

Notice as you start to work with the aromas or if you already work with them,

What makes you expand and what makes you contract and start to feel the difference.

Read the energy of your body.

Read the messaging of your body.

It always feeds back to us.

And develop your sensitivity to these cues as you deepen your connection with each and every oil and the living intelligence of plants.

And I'm going to give you a little practice that you can try.

So choose one natural essential oil that you love.

And what you're going to do is you're going to sit really comfortably and bring your awareness to your breath.

Do the things that make you calm and settle and take that time just to do it.

Stretching actually can be a really good way to indicate to the body that it's time to relax.

And tensing and relaxing the body lets the muscles,

The mind know,

Okay,

This is how I relax.

Often we're carrying so much tension around with us that by actually tensing the muscles,

Then the muscles are,

Oh,

Oh yeah,

Now I remember how to relax.

So once you've got yourself relaxed,

Inhale the oil and observe where the scent lands,

How you take it in.

Take a journey with it.

How does it land in the body?

What happens to your breath?

Does it evoke certain emotions or memories?

What happens with the mind?

Notice how things change as you breathe.

Does your breath rise?

Does your body ground and soften?

Does it expand,

Brighten?

So this is a really simple practice to attune your inner compass to develop your relationship with the intelligence of the plant that you're working with.

And there's another one you can do.

If you have a synthetic fragrance,

Of the same oil,

I invite you also to then work in that way.

After you've done the natural one,

Feel the contrast.

Notice what happens in your body.

Use your body as a compass.

You're training your perception to sense this vitality within the natural oil versus an imitation.

And then you'll,

Over time,

Just get very,

Very astute to this.

If you're just going to work with a natural essential oil,

You're lucky enough not to have any synthetics,

Then stay with that practice and allow yourself to rest in the messaging that you're receiving and then let it evoke words,

A piece of art,

Maybe some cooking,

Maybe some creating of a tincture,

Of a blend.

Perhaps the oil is telling you what it wants to be blended with and try something.

Explore that.

Or maybe it's taking you,

Well,

I don't know.

Let's see what comes up.

So that's your little practice.

So I hope you've enjoyed this audio feedback to me.

Let me know any questions you've got,

Any ahas you've got,

And I will see you,

Well,

And speak to you in the next one.