One of the most useful aspects of essential oils is the mood-enhancing properties. Every oil will create some kind of feeling in you. To realize why this happens you need to know a bit about how the essential oils work through our olfactory system: (Following is taken from Wikipedia – text & picture; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olfactory_system)
<<In mammals, the main olfactory system detects odorants that are inhaled through the nose, where they contact the main olfactory epithelium, which contains various olfactory receptors. These can distinguish a new odor from the background environmental odors and determine the concentration of the odor.
These olfactory receptors are connected to bipolar olfactory receptor neurons in the olfactory epithelium, which transduce receptoractivation into electrical signals in neurons. The signals travel along the olfactory nerve, which belongs to the peripheral nervous system. This nerve terminates in the olfactory bulb, which belongs to the central nervous system.>>
1: Olfactory bulb 2: Mitral cells 3: Bone 4: Nasal Epithelium 5: Glomerulus 6: Olfactory receptor cells
You might say that the olfactory receptors in the nose is the only place where the brain sticks out from the skull. In the olfactory bulb (1) there is a series of key-holes which accommodate different molecules. It’s a little like the round peg in the round hole. If the odor molecule doesn’t fit in the key-hole the odor will stay only in the nose, being analyzed by the brain and that’s it, most odors fall into this category. If, however, the odor molecule fits into one of the key-holes it will enter the limbic system of the brain, also called the reptile brain. )Following text & picture is taken from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limbic_system)
- Amygdala:[3][4][5] Involved in signaling the cortex of motivationally significant stimuli such as those related to reward and fear in addition to social functions such as mating.
- Hippocampus:[3][4][5] Required for the formation of long-term memories and implicated in maintenance of cognitive maps for navigation.
- Parahippocampal gyrus:[4] Plays a role in the formation of spatial memory
- Cingulate gyrus:[3][4][5] Autonomic functions regulating heart rate, blood pressure and cognitive and attentional processing
- Fornix:[5][3] carries signals from the hippocampus to the mammillary bodies and septal nuclei.
- Hypothalamus:[3][5] Regulates the autonomic nervous system via hormone production and release. Affects and regulates blood pressure, heart rate, hunger, thirst, sexual arousal, and the sleep/wake cycle
- Thalamus:[3][5] The “relay station” to the cerebral cortex
In addition, these structures are sometimes also considered to be part of the limbic system:
- Mammillary body:[3] Important for the formation of memory
- Pituitary gland:[3] secretes hormones regulating homeostasis
- Dentate gyrus:[4] thought to contribute to new memories and to regulate happiness.
- Entorhinal cortex: Important memory and associative components.
- Piriform cortex:[5] The function of which relates to the olfactory system.
- Fornicate gyrus: Region encompassing the cingulate, hippocampus, and parahippocampal gyrus
- Olfactory bulb: Olfactory sensory input
- Nucleus accumbens: Involved in reward, pleasure, and addiction
- Orbitofrontal cortex: Required for decision making
As you can see the limbic system is situated in the middle of the brain – as if it was the heart of the brain.
The molecular structure of essential oils fit in this key-hole system, so the essential oils do enter the limbic system. The essential oils also transgress the blood-brain-barrier and therefore enters the limbic system through the blood as well. Since many of the molecules in essential oils mimic our own hormones, they can, among other things, help to regulate our hormone-system. Some essential oils are very valuable for mental clarity, help with mood-swings, facilitating sleep and much much more.
In my next post I will tell you a little about the different oils and how you can use them as mood-enhancers. I will also give you dosages and how-to-use tips. Stay tuned!
When I quit smoking I did all the normal things; checking internet and research for information about what happens in the body. I knew I really didn’t want to gain weight so I embarked on a very good dietary plan with detox and I exercised daily. I knew I could use my essential oils for irritation and other mood-swings. So far, so good.
I wrote in an earlier post about an essential oil I picked up: Ravintsara (cinnamomum camphora). I couldn’t really get this oil out of my head so I have been doing some research. As usual there is plenty of misunderstandings between different oils, popular names, botanical names and the chemical properties. What continues to confuse me are the different Latin names but this is what I have found:
I read somewhere; “I don’t stop smoking ’cause I am not a quitter”. I found that really funny and slightly applicable to myself. How many times did I quit? Only to find myself in a state of desperation, sneaking around in the bushes with my illicit smoking, pretending and lying to those closest and dearest to me – and this is when I was well past youth. How embarassing isn’t that!
I was always a smoker. The first time I smoked a cigarette was right before I turned 12, and it was the most wonderful experience. I didn’t feel sick, only a bit dizzy and I liked this feeling very much. I was deeply unhappy and lost in this time of my life, and smoking gave me something nice, something to look forward to. Nobody knew that I smoked, it was my private sanctuary. Both my parents were heavy smokers who smoked everywhere; in the house, in the car, in bed the last thing before sleep and first thing upon waking up. My mother smoked during pregnancy and during breastfeeding. Smoking at this time was most fashionable and even attractive, remember the fashion-pictures of the time? Or the advertisements that went before:
This is Jade. She is 34 years old and she did her last mounted-game competition when she was 30.
Being present or being in the now, is something I have been working on for very long, and it is really not that easy. We think we are present most of the time, but we actually hardly ever are. As I already mentioned in another posting; we judge everything based on something we already know, keeping us in the past or in the future. The present is a constant moment – it has no time. Everything is fresh and new – a possibility of learning or enjoying or maybe even suffering – yes, suffering is also part of being. All emotions are a learning experience, and the now is constantly loaded with possibilities. Changes are now, learning is now, experiencing is now, tasting, touching, seeing, smelling is now. When we are in the past we feel regret and when we are in the future we feel fear. We are constantly searching for our future, looking here, looking there – and the future always seem to elude us since it never comes; Each future moment becomes the present, at which point we completely miss it since we are still searching for the future. In a way we are living like slaves to our emotions; constantly struggling to go forward without ever stopping to reap the rewards.
We need to take a look at how and what we are eating. So many people are overweight and obese, have problems with; concentration, sleep, hormones, digestion, emotions…the list goes on forever. I have been watching this development for a long time and it took me some time to realize that much of it is connected to foods and eating-habits. “We are what we eat” doesn’t mean that we become pigs for eating pork, it is more about health and balance.
Will Allen
Thank you people for such nice feed-back on my post yesterday, I was – again – reminded of the rewards that come when I step past my comfort zone.
