Hypnotherapy & Aromatherapy
Have you ever wondered why real estate agents suggest baking a batch of cookies right before an open house? What is the first thing you think about when you smell fresh baked cookies? Does it make a house feel more like a home? Why do you suppose the perfume industry raked in 31.4 billion in 2018 (https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry- analysis/perfume-market) and is only expected to continue to grow?
What they know is: the Nose Knows… Our nose has a direct line to our memories and emotions, good, bad, and indifferent, and our memories and emotions are the domain of Theta, the Subconscious Mind.
So, how exactly does this relate to hypnotherapy? Hypnosis involves relaxing the body and the conscious mind to work directly with Theta (see my previous blog entry for a description of Theta brainwaves) to create change. One of the tools used during hypnotherapy is an “anchor”.
An anchor is introduced during the hypnotic state as a way to get back that feeling of relaxation reached during trance when life throws one of its many steaming piles of crabapples right in your face.
For example, if you suffer from anxiety, the session will start with an induction to reach a trance, or Theta brain wave state. Once you are in Theta, the suggestion that you feel calm and peaceful, even in the crabapple situation, is made. Then the therapist would ask you to press the thumb and forefinger of your right hand together to anchor in the feeling of peace and calm, and to press these fingers together anytime you feel anxious to immediately recall this feeling of peace and calm in your mind and body. The pressing together of your thumb and forefinger is the anchor to the feelings of peace and calm.
Since smells connect powerfully to the Subconscious Mind, it makes sense that aromatherapy can be an effective an anchor. For example, adding a lavender, (already known for its calming properties), essential oil, with a suggestion that the smell of lavender will bring feelings of peace and calm, will help anchor in those feelings every time you smell lavender.
They have also experimented with aromatherapy, hypnosis and epilepsy, pain management, and a variety of other applications. See the below articles for some additional reading.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1059131103001614state.
https://www.livepositivelytoday.com/hypnosis-essential-oils
Please feel free to contact me with any questions about this or any other topics you would like to know more about. Book your free 15-minute consultation here.
Tracie
Blog Photo Credit:
https://www.brainfacts.org/thinking-sensing-and-behaving/smell/2015/making-sense-of-scents-smell-and-the-brain
Wilson. Nature Neuroscience, 2012
