A sense of comfort and happiness can come from any of the senses. With food it is obviously the taste so often associated with nostalgic memories. With touch, we can feel the warmth of a soft knitted blanket, with our sight we gain a sense of feeling from the colours that we visualize and of course with our hearing we have music and those coma triggering meditation sounds. Well that’s a whole topic on it’s own. Smell is sometimes overlooked as something that can powerfully change how we feel. As a Realtor for many years, I can certainly tell you that it is something quite powerful indeed. I have literally had buyers walk out of houses before making it through the foyer because “they didn’t like the smell”. I personally can certainly attest to that awful feeling of not being able to pinpoint that horrible smell a little potato has caused going bad, or broccoli left too long, even in the fridge! It makes you feel like your whole home is dirty, even though that’s likely not the case. Same to be said of course by that feeling of a clean house or a day of laundry. I personally have an array of fabric softeners always available for my laundry smelling pleasure!
The truth is that a smell can trigger fond memories and a feeling of contentment. It can make us feel comforted by our home. Before the days of plug in wax cubes, it was not unheard of to have vanilla extract on in a dish in a warm oven to emit the smell of cookies baking at an open house. (Now there’s baked cookies wax cubes). With so many people wanting to find natural products for their home, essential oils have made a huge impact on the health and wellness industry. There are so many uses that people have written books on the subject.
I have not touched on the magnitude of uses for essential oils. Aside from my diffuser I use, I do like to make some cleaner and sprays.
This is a simple simple simple ( 3 ingredients) recipe to make a linen spray. I use this to freshen up pillows, blankets, duvets etc after I make the bed. It’s great for freshening up pet beds and upholstery as well.
You will need:
-An empty spray bottle
-15-20 drops of essential oils of your choice (I prefer lavender for linen spray but you could use whatever you like or a mix of what you like)
-½ cup of witch hazel (you could also use vodka or rubbing alcohol)
-First dissolve the essential oil in the witch hazel and top up the bottle with water (approx 2 cups)
Start smelling and enjoy your aromatherapy!!
