Flower fragrances, leaf aromas and wood incense… there is hidden power in these natural scents obtainable from the world’s incredible variety of plant life. Natural aromas, when released through heat or diffused through water can purify the energy of space, often to an extent that can surprise us. Pleasant smells add a great deal to the feel-good ambience and can even bring specific benefits to our living and working environments.
Knowing how to use the right scents can add fresh dimensions to the practice of feng shui. The idea is to get familiar with inhaling the smells of fresh flowers or the aroma of leaves, and infusing the space around us with their essential oils.
Aromatherapy is not a new science, but in recent years this extra dimension that awakens the sense of smell in one’s everyday life has become an increasingly popular way of bringing even greater potency to the energy of homes and work places.
I love having fresh flowers in my home as much for their beauty as for their scents. These are often so subtle I take them for granted, but they add so much to the happiness ambience of my living space that I decided to expand the presence of scents within my living environment. In recent months, I have gone further, especially after a friend presented me with a special diffuser that sends the most minuscule molecules of water infused with essential oils into all the different corners of my home. There are several fragrances I am extremely fond of which I want to share with you.
Four are derived from flowers, and two are wood smells. These have increased my productivity and enhanced my interactions with those I love that I really want to tell you about this new space enhancement method that deals with the power of fragrances.
You can take in scents as fresh flowers or as aromatic woods, or you can buy their essential oils and have them diffused into the air via a diffuser. Essential oils come in small bottles and can be expensive, but you only require a few drops each time, so they are actually great value for money! You just need to make sure they are natural all the way and not synthetic mixes of chemicals. Remember to read the labels!
There are scents that can make you feel good about yourself, imbuing you with higher confidence levels. Then there are scents that can cut across depressive moods, dissolve anger energies, or heal wounded hearts.
When you make use of scents, you are using your own sense of smell to activate a dimension of your personal power that is often overlooked. The sense of smell is subtle unlike the senses of hearing, seeing, tasting and touching; and it is this subtlety that takes you into deeper levels of wisdom.
When you have accustomed yourself to this new awareness, you can even begin to develop your personal psychic powers. In time, new understanding will emerge when you start feeling the full magnificence of your own capabilities. That is when you will of your own accord add positive visualizations into your thought processes. That is when you will transcend into new levels of psychic awareness, opening the door to a great deal of magical realizations!
You can start by infusing your home with any one of these six scents. The flower fragrances are jasmine, ylang-ylang, honeysuckle and lavender.
Fresh jasmine flowers are easily obtained from vendors outside temples, especially Indian temples, because they make such beautiful garlands of scents that are excellent for draping around sacred statues or for placing in front of altars. They can also be obtained from flower shops in Chinatown. The scent of jasmine is exquisitely expensive when bottled, but it is also one of the most delightful. It is however almost impossible to procure truly pure 100% jasmine oil. Thus I prefer to inhale this scent through fresh flowers.
The fragrance does not last long, but just a whiff can awaken psychic awareness. Jasmine is also excellent for heightening the emotional intensity of love rituals – such as kissing, hugging, or making love – and when any room is filled with the fragrance of jasmine blooms, this strongly enhances ongoing relationships. It is therefore an excellent fragrance for young lovers.
Jasmine can also help single women attract a new and satisfying love relationship, in the process dispelling depression and any feelings of insecurity. Just breathing in its smell has a calming effect on the physical body.
When you get used to the scent of jasmine, it can penetrate deep into the psychic levels of your awareness, when it can evoke divine energies in you, connecting you to the celestial side of yourself. This is why jasmine is almost always used in sacred prayer rituals.
Ylang Ylang gives off one of the most calming of scents and it works fast too. This scent is universally regarded as a soothing scent, and has the effect of lulling you into such a relaxed state of mind, you can easily fall asleep if you are in a room that has this scent being diffused into the atmosphere. When you wear or inhale ylang ylang, it is sure to calm you down. Its fragrance is sweet and distinctive.
In 2015 when there is expected to be a great deal of anger energy being released into the center of enclosed spaces, diffusing ylang ylang is an ideal way of transforming fierce hostile energy into calm, restful energy. Just a word of caution – this is an aroma that should not be used excessively. When you inhale it over long periods of time, it can cause headaches or nausea, so do use it sparingly.
Honeysuckle is surprisingly good for achieving weight loss. Collect a few strands of honeysuckle and place them in a jar of water on your dressing table. Each morning, visualize yourself slim and trim, exactly the way you want to look, and then inhale in the scent of the honeysuckle. Strengthen the fragrance when you feel yourself eating too much; it has the effect of reducing your appetite. Honeysuckle can also be inhaled to strengthen your instincts and to attract money luck. In the old days, this was the flower placed in homes with residents that wanted to attract the “scent of money”. This is an easy plant to grow in your own garden, so it is an accessible scent.
Lavender has always been a huge favourite of mine. Once many years ago, I stood in front of a huge lavender field and the fragrance relaxed me so much and lifted me so high that I felt I could fly! Today, lavender has become such a universal favourite that it is easy to smell in soaps, fragrances, bath gels and body lotions. The scent is so pervasive it is in the air long after the flowers wither.
I love having a lavender bath as it is the most powerful scent to soften my attitude towards everyone. It subdues negativity, dissolves anger energy and gets rid of all hostile thoughts. Lavender makes me feel more loving towards everyone, and I would even go so far as to say that it can reprogram my conscious mind.
Lavender makes one feel loving without necessarily filling one with sensual desire. Indeed, in the past, lavender was the scent used by those who wished to stay celibate yet affectionate.
This is a peaceful scent. It calms stormy, uncontrolled emotions and has a beautiful balancing effect on the mind, causing those who may be irrational to become more even-tempered. If you suffer from insomnia, nothing works better than a few drops of lavender sprinkled on your pillow.
The Wood scents are Cedarwood and Pine
Cedarwood is quite rare and not easy to find, especially Atlas Cedarwood, which I so adore. I used to smell this scent through its wood shavings (obtained from Pilgrims’ bookstore in Katmandu), but now that I have a diffuser, I find I can get the essential oil that allows me to diffuse this scent into my workspace. I find it so excellent for writing, as it keeps my mind clear and very awake. It aids my concentration and really enables me to think creatively without getting distracted.
I am told the scent of cedarwood promotes spirituality, so I use it during my daily meditations and prayer sessions. I find that inhaling deeply when this scent is diffused really does enhance my meditations tremendously. I love using it and recommend this scent for anyone who would like to connect more directly with their subconscious levels of awareness.
Fresh Pine aromas are incredibly magical! Indeed, walking through a pine forest is one of those exhilarating experiences that honestly everyone should do at least once in their life! The crisp fragrance of pine drifting in the air heightens your senses so much you will feel that it is healing you and purifying your body all over. Indeed, inhaling the smell of pine needles has such a healing effect that just placing some cut pine branches in a sick room is said to speed up healing.
Next time you get your hands on some fresh pine, crush some in your hands and then rub the sap onto your fingers before inhaling the scent. Inhale deeply and visualize yourself being purified and protected. Pine fragrance is also loved by the wandering spirit beings of your space, and many high mountain people offer the scent of pine by infusing it into the air through the medium of fire.
I offer pine three or four times a week in my home where I have two incredibly-scented pine trees. This is part of my regular incense-offering ritual. The fragrance appeases the spirit beings and dispels all obstacles, making our lives more pleasant. This way, scents can truly add a powerful extra dimension to our good feng shui.
