Essential Oils for Mindfulness and Meditation: Relax, Replenish, and Rejuvenate

(Paperback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

A hands-on guide showing how essential oils can support and enhance meditative and mindful practices

Details safe and effective methods to incorporate essential oils into your mindfulness or meditation practice

Explains the many ways essential oils benefit the mind, such as how odors can immediately draw your attention to the present moment, trigger a specific state of consciousness, or provide a way to regain composure quickly

Provides the latest scientific research on the emotional, psychological, physiological, and neurological effects of essential oils on the mind, body, and nervous system

Includes an easy-to-follow chart to help you choose the right essential oil for you

For millennia, the spiritual power of odor--such as from incense or frankincense--has been used to symbolize intention, stimulate awareness of our spiritual self, and accentuate rite and ritual. Drawing on this power, as well as their healing qualities, essential oils can provide the perfect complement to meditation or mindfulness practice.

Outlining the practice and benefits of meditation and mindfulness in combination with the use of essential oils, Heather Dawn Godfrey explains how these practices hone and sustain a conscious awareness of being in the present moment, focusing attention on what you are sensually experiencing and leaving no space for regrets, traumas, fears, anxiety, or anticipation. Providing the latest scientific research on the restorative, rehabilitative, and psycho-emotional healing effects of essential oils, she explains how the sensory experience of odors can immediately draw your attention to the present moment, trigger a specific state of consciousness, such as a deeper meditative state, or offer a way to regain composure quickly when dealing with lifes ups and downs. She shows how many essential oils naturally reduce stress and anxiety, promote a peaceful attitude, support concentration, regulate breathing, and stimulate serotonin and GABA pathways in the brain, making them ideal aids to mindfulness and meditation.

Explaining methods to incorporate essential oils into your practice, Godfrey introduces readers to the Gem essential oils--a group of oils specifically selected for attaining and maintaining a state of mindfulness, as well as a broad spectrum of therapeutic properties--and she provides an easy-to-follow chart to help you select the oil that is right for you. Offering a hands-on practical guide to integrating essential oils into mindful and meditative practice, the author shows how each of us has the ability to self-generate a calm, tranquil, and worry-free state of mind.

Reviews

There is a unique way to enhance psychological well-being waiting to be explored. This book tells you how meditation and aromatherapy, classic tools for modifying the mind, can work together to maintain a state of calm and insight. Familiar oils like rose and frankincense add serenity and inspiration to the practice of mindfulness meditation. Diffusing an essential oil during meditation practice can even return your awareness to that meditative mode if you smell the aromatic oil again later.

The author is an aromatherapist who not only uses essential oils professionally but also conducts research into the effects of these powerful plant ingredients. The reader will find out how knowledge of traditional practice and subjective experience, backed by scientific evidence, is an ideal path for discovery; how mindfulness meditation and essential oil inhalation relieve anxiety or calm the mind, as explained from the perspectives of ancient history, religious practices, and modern complementary medical practice. Scientific studies involving human subjects and essential oils tested in laboratory models are described in easy-to-digest detail that adds value and validity.

Advice on how to use the pure essential oils comes with a thorough briefing on dose and safety--a prerequisite for these concentrated and potent plant extracts. In passing, learning about the many everyday food, drink, and cosmetic products that contain essential oils is an eye-opener on the hidden influences on the mind and body. This book is bound to have a long-lasting impact on both meditation and aromatherapy practices, thanks to its inspired author, Heather Dawn Godfrey. * Elaine Perry, Ph.D., professor emeritus of neuroscience at Newcastle University *
Essential Oils for Mindfulness and Meditation fills an important gap in the field of essential oils. Where many other books are contented with the properties and the handling of oils, Heather Godfrey provides us with a profound scientific background of the different oils and opens up the field toward awareness and meditation. This book is a wonderful guide to using essential oils as valuable helpers for everyday life, as a source of knowledge for well-being professionals, and for a deeper understanding of oneself and nature. * Ewald Kliegel, author of Crystal Wands and Holistic Reflexology *
This interesting book melds the science and alchemy of essential oils and their use in meditation with a mix of personal anecdotes and evidence. Taking the reader on a journey through these highly topical disciplines, it is a timely reminder and how-to guide of the importance of stepping back from the maelstrom of modern life to find a sensible inner balance. * Sophie [Petit-Zeman] Olszowski, Ph.D., Director of SPZ Associates LTD. *
Godfrey, an International Federation of Aromatherapists fellow, skillfully explains how scent works on the brain to create relaxation and how this affects our well-being. Odors that stimulate brain chemicals, such as serotonin and GABA, trigger composure, concentration, deep breathing, and a meditative state to reduce stress and anxiety. Research is presented on rehabilitative techniques to remove negative emotional states, like regrets, traumas, fears, and anxiety. Charts and discussion show the brains hemispheres and the actions of a few essential oils are mentioned, although no recipes are suggested. There are also guidelines for use, healthy foods, and methods, techniques, and tools for application. * American Herb Association Quarterly *

Author Bio

Heather Dawn Godfrey, PGCE, BSc, is an aromatherapist, fellow of the International Federation of Aromatherapists, and an aromatherapy teacher. She has published a number of articles and research papers exploring the benefits of essential oils, such as how they can be applied in the management of ADHD. She lives in Lyme Regis, Dorset, UK.