Your Complete Guide to Aromatherapy for Meditation

Aromatherapy is the use of aromatic plant extracts and essential oils which are commonly used in massages, meditation, or baths. However, aromatherapy can enhance all parts of your day.

There are many ways you can use your sense of smell to deepen your meditation and bring out certain qualities in your life such as calmness, positivity, and focus. Many people don’t realize how many ways we can incorporate the healing power of nature into our lives through different scents.

Aromatherapy & Meditation

The combination of aromatherapy and meditation goes way back in the history of many cultures and scents have always been highly regarded as something that brings emotional value.

The use of aromatherapy oils for mediation is a great way to enhance your meditation and make it much more effective and there are other ways to bring scents into your meditation and use them throughout the day.

It’s easy to incorporate aromatherapy meditation techniques into your entire day with incense, using an essential oil diffuser, using oils topically, or using aromatherapy candles for meditation. Aromatherapy helps us cultivate positive energy throughout the day as if the entire day was a meditation.

Let’s look at some benefits of aromatherapy, how to choose which scent to use, and then we will explore the different tools of aromatherapy, and how to use them.

What are Some of the Benefits of Aromatherapy?

Aromatherapy is a great tool that helps heal the body through the mind-body connection. The chemicals interact with the body to help it relax which can help strengthen the immune system, alleviate symptoms of depression, chronic pain, skin conditions, and inflammation. It can help with many stress-related conditions.

Aromatherapy can help reduce tension headaches, help you sleep better, energize you, and help you with indigestion. Because of how the nervous system, lymphatic system, and immune system interact, as we harmonize the emotions in the body through relaxation, we stimulate not just the immune system but also the body’s natural ability to heal itself.

Whether you’re getting an aromatherapy massage, combining essential oils into a diffuser, or using them topically, you can discover which oils traditionally help with any ailment you are dealing with. While this is not to be used as a replacement for medical advice or treatment, many people use the extracts from plants for common ailments such as muscle pain, PMS, and fatigue.

How to Choose Which Scent to Use

When choosing one of the many scents out there, you can ask yourself what energy you’d like to enhance in your life. One way people like to use aromatherapy is by finding which chakra corresponds with the emotional quality they would like to amplify in their life and finding a scent that activates that chakra.

In meditation, it’s very helpful to focus on the qualities that we want to enhance in our life instead of putting our energy towards what we don’t want. For example, if you’re having trouble finding love, it’s best to focus on opening to love or if you’re angry it’s best to focus on a positive emotion such as compassion.

The Best Scents for Meditation

In this section, we will outline which scent is best for each type of meditation and intention, then well talk about how you can incorporate those scents into your practice in the next section.

Scents for Calmness, Grounding & Stress Relief (Root Chakra)

1. Lavender
2. Balsam Fir
3. Pine
4. Peppermint
5. Myrrh
6. Cedarwood
7. Vetiver
8. Cinnamon

Scents for Creativity, Sensuality & Abundance (Sacral Chakra)

1. Cardamon
2. Clary Sage
3. Ylang Ylang
4. Sandalwood

Scents for Motivation, Optimism & Positivity (Solar Plexus Chakra)

1. Citrus
2. Ginger
3. Black Pepper
4. Coriander
5. Fennel
6. Bergamot

Scents for Self Acceptance, Healing Sadness & Opening to Love (Heart Chakra)

1. Vanilla
2. Jasmine
3. Rose Geranium
4. Cypress
5. Neroli

Scents to Improve Strength, Expression & Vocalizing Opinions (Throat Chakra)

1. Eucalyptus
2. Juniper
3. Basil
4. Chamomile

Scents to Boost Intuition, Focus & Wisdom (Third Eye Chakra)

1. Patchouli
2. Copal
3. Tea Tree
4. Melissa
5. Marjoram

Scents for Awakening, Relieving Depression & Finding Purpose (Crown Chakra)

1. Frankincense
2. Rosemary

Review: Essential Oils For Your Most Common Ailments

Ways to Use Scent During Meditation

Now you know which scents to use, here are some ways to get those mindful smells in your practice.

Add Candles

Natural candles infused with the desired scent can help you bring calmness or cheerfulness to any room or meditation. While the candles made with pure plant extracts may be a little pricier, they will also be more potent.

Burn Incense

Perhaps a more cost-effective option for aromatherapy is incense. This can help your brain remember to stay relaxed and helps clear the energy in your home from the effects of electronics. There are incense cones, smudge sticks, and regular incense sticks and you will need an incense holder for fire safety. Always keep this away from pets and never leave it unattended or burn it near fabrics or flammable items.

Use Oil Diffusers

If you’re smoke sensitive or have pets that make an open flame an unsafe choice, oil diffusers are a great aromatherapy tool. Oil diffusers are great for the office, bathrooms, bedrooms, and your meditation space. There are very affordable diffusers that you plug into the wall and they come in compact sizes so you can still have counter space.

Experiment with Topical Application

Oils, lotions, sprays, and other bath products are a great way to bring the powerfully meditative quality of scents into our meditation as well as other parts of our day. Always be sure to read instructions for topical application as some can irritate the skin and need to be diluted. Some oils are ingestible with water, tea or foods but not all are. Placing essential oils on the wrists, chest, stomach, and third eye is good for meditation, calming yourself, or energizing yourself. If you’re making your own product, generally, you will add 5 drops of essential oil to a tsp of base oil, lotion, or bath gel.

Closing

It is best to look for non-synthetic scents which will have a more organic response in your body. You can also look for oils that are pure plant extracts without a base. Many candles, oils, lotions, sprays, and incense are not made from plants but created in a laboratory and those scents may not be as effective in producing the desired effects. So just remember to look for natural products.

Each time you cook, you can think of it as an aromatic therapy as well. The spices we consume and the scents we use in the kitchen can all be a part of our healing and intention setting.

If you start to tune into which scents, oils, or foods your body is asking for energetically, you may find it asking for certain scents, herbs, and spices that will help you heal and amplify the positive energy in your life. Your body has great intuition waiting to help you harmonize your energy with the help of nature’s gifts.

Choose an oil to wear or ascent to use for the day that relates to the energy you want to amplify. Alternatively, you can use scents to subtly help the people around you and create better energy at home or at work.

Related Article: How To Activate Positive Emotions With Aromatherapy