Aromatherapy relieves stress. Memories of especially happy times are often triggered just by walking past a counter of scented candles and picking up a long forgotten aroma.  The smell of nutmeg can bring back the day your grandmother made sugar cookies.  Immediately some of the stress is relieved because you visualize yourself in a much calmer, kinder time in your life. Take a walk past a bakery, with the smell of fresh donuts or cookies. Breathe deeply and savor the memories.

Not everyone reacts the same to any particular smell.  This is a very personal and individual memory.  Perhaps your best trigger smell is the salty smell of sea spray.  Where I live, the salt marshes have a very distinctive odor emanating from the pluff mud.  Unless you are familiar with the smell, it can be extremely offensive. To those of us who grew up with it, it just smells like home.  Imagine the odor of old fish and other sea creatures, mixed with the decaying vegetable matter of a salt marsh and its mud banks.  It doesn’t take long for beach lovers to become familiar with the odor, and not notice it any more.  Until they go away and come back. This smell welcomes us back home.

No matter where you live, there is an odor associated with it that is only soothing to those who grew up with it.  The smell of a horse barn is only perfume to the horse lovers.  Aromatherapy relieves stress by triggering the memories that are dear to you. Sometimes these memories are buried way deep in our subconscious.

The smell of chocolate, or vanilla, or nutmeg bring back sweet memories to many of us.  Lavendar is a very soothing, relaxing smell. Chamomile tea can help with relaxation and make it easier to sleep. Lemon and other citrus fragrances help with focus, which is just another way to say “shut out the distractions”.

If going to a spa is out of the question at the moment, whether due to lack of time or money, treat yourself to your own spa.  Give yourself permission to just shut out all the distractions of the anxiety and stress producing world.   Go to your bathtub.  Take a book if you like.  Just add some aroma, along with a few spoons full of either baking soda or Epsom salts.  Vanilla extract is a good addition.  The zest from a good sized lemon, just under the hot water as it fills the tub, will fill the room with an invigorating fragrance.  Mint leaves are another “waker upper”.   Dried lavendar leaves are especially relaxing.

There are a number of aromatherapy products on the market, from bath oils to candles.  Treat yourself and relieve your stress.