Aromatherapy before Meditation
Lately a lot of medical research centers, colleges and universities have published ground-breaking discoveries on the benefits of “Mindfulness Meditation,” “Transcendental Meditation” or just plain old “Meditation.” It’s funny how experts on eastern medicine simply shrugged off this news and said that western science is merely confirming what eastern philosophy has already discovered thousands of years ago. The American Health Association (AHA) has confirmed more than 20 publications of clinical research associated with meditation and all show consistent and positive results on the human mind and body. Further study in this field could yield fantastic results and will revolutionize how we treat medical problems. Then it just hit me: what if we mixed aromatherapy and mindfulness meditation? The result was splendid. In a way this is somewhat a new discovery for us too!
Choose the Stress-Lessening Kind of Aromatherapy
In order to facilitate a state of mind suited for transcendental meditation, you’ll need to attempt to put your mind at ease as well as your 
physical body too! Therefore the best type of aroma therapy in this case is the “calming” or “soothing” aromatherapy. The massage parlor knows what kind of essential oils to use for this massage so all you have to do is just ask them. However, if you need to do it at home, buy essential oils like chamomile, lavender, and geranium. Have someone in the family give you the aromatherapy massage or you can just hire a masseuse to do a home service. When you’ve finished you should be just about ripe to do your daily mindfulness meditations.
Daily Meditations with Weekly Peak Cycles of Aromatherapy
Your daily meditations should be between 20 – 40 minutes long although the latter is much preferable; however, make sure to cancel all your appointments when you go into this trance otherwise a distraction could backfire and only cause you to be more anxious. As you may already know a full body massage using aromatherapy is not recommended to be practiced daily, because it targets your circulatory system and any upset in that balance could prove harmful to your physical well-being. This is the same for Aromatherapy and essential oil meditations. So the best way to incorporate aromatherapy sessions is with your daily weekend meditations.
20 Facts about Transcendental Meditation
Psychologists, behavioral scientists and other experts in the field of human psychology and behavior have published their research in various journals and publications. Among them include Health Psychology Journal, Psychological Science Journal, University of California, Santa Barbara; Annals of Rheumatic Disease, University of Oregon, Frontiers in Human Neuroscience Journal, Psychology of Music Journal, University of Rochester Medical Center, Jefferson-Myrna Brind Center of Integrative Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles; American Journal of Health Promotion, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Health, University of Michigan, University of Leuven, American Psychological Association and the University of Utah. Their research reveals the following facts listed below and all of them are highly beneficial to any human being:
- It decreases stress levels and that it could actually be quantified.
- It reveals your inner self and does away with your ego, which is primarily superficial.
- It makes you a smarter person and that too is quantifiable.
- It can help decrease stress that can lead to serious trauma among US soldiers in war or violence-related stresses.
- It can protect your brain physically.
- It can also sharpen your focus and concentration.
- It will make you appreciate music better.
- It can still help you even if you’re not actively aware of it.
- It helps you in regulating your emotion, regulating your attention, body awareness and self-awareness.
- It makes doctors better listeners to their patients and gives the best medical advice to them.
- It improves your people skills.
- It helps take off some of the load when you’re going through cancer.
- It helps your immune system get stronger and you will most likely not going to call in sick during cold season.
- It helps pregnant women reduce the risk of succumbing into prenatal anxiety during pregnancy periods.
- It helps teenagers find purpose during the identity crisis phase in their adolescence stage of their lives.
- It is the best sleeping pill, ever.
How will this Amalgamation Benefit You?
If all these 20 facts is the kind of benefits that you can get from transcendental meditation, then having an aromatherapy session before you’ll meditate will greatly amplify the effects of meditation, which is essentially better. While chemicals designed to help you perform better is introduced to the body externally, meditation will induce this untapped potential in you from within! You will be at your peak physical and mental condition without getting any needle under your skin and the best thing is that the effects of meditation is controlled and will last longer than any laboratory prepared drugs. Even though aromatherapy is considered a chemically induced relaxant the essential oils are extracts from plants that naturally revitalizes your body and act somewhat as a conditioning agent to prepare you for meditation.
A Liberating Experience
I have actually tried doing aromatherapy massage and then did Yoga meditation afterwards and the inner calm I felt was like nothing that I’ve ever felt before. But you can ignore the sentiments and move on to the stuff that can be quantified. Well, how about being able to do 3-5 more things in 8 hours of work than when I was just on my regular days? Reading books, internalizing them and then apply them to my daily life was also among the things I noticed improved in my life. Having more confidence in facing any life obstacles day-in and day-out is what I gained from this experience, and I just say “bring it on,” to whatever may come my way. I can truly say that this is a liberating experience beyond anything I’ve ever known! I highly recommend Aromatherapy andor Massage to anyone who is just stressed out in their lives.
Johanna Oosterwijk N.D.