The warm, soothing aroma of sandalwood can help you to relax your mind and open your heart to love.
You can use the healing aroma of the sandalwood tree to promote feelings of peace and serenity and also to ease various ailments of the digestive system. As it is more expensive than many oils, you are more likely to come across it as joss sticks, incense or in scented candles than as oil, but burning any of these can be just as therapeutic as using a vaporizer to infuse a room’s atmosphere with its healing aroma.
Sandalwood encourages your stomach muscles to produce gastric juices, easing nausea, colic and gastritis. It also stimulates the production or urine and causes muscles to contract, helping to flush excess liquids from the body. Its antiseptic properties help to fight infections.
It also improves dry and cracked skin by drawing natural oils through the soft tissues to the skin’s surface, making it a valuable ingredient in many toiletries.
Sandalwood is a natural antiseptic and preservative, making it useful in soap, beauty creams and other toiletries. It also contains several beneficial compounds.
Santalols: Small molecules called santalols give sandalwood its distinctive aroma. They kill bacteria and also help you to sleep, as they are natural sedatives.
Tannins: These compounds can help to stop bleeding, prevent infections, tighten loose tissues and protect and heal damaged skin.
Light your joss stick, lie back and feel your mind, body and spirit unwind as the powerful aroma calms your spirit and conjures up visions of warmer climes.
Breathing in the aromatic smoke from your joss stick can help to lift melancholy and promote restful sleep. It subdues aggression and irritably, promotes compassion and openness, enhances meditation and clears thought processes.
Sandalwood is particularly good for stress relief, especially when combined with lavender or bergamot.
Other Eastern, woody fragrances such as cedar and frankincense add to the feelings of peace and calm that sandalwood can promote.
Sandalwood is also an aphrodisiac, and can stimulate a sensual mood.
The magical scent of sandalwood stimulated the base (seventh) Chakra, improving self-identity and trust. In the Ayurvedic healing tradition, it promotes energy and enthusiasm, increasing your self-esteem and joie de vivre.
Burn sandalwood during a full moon to increase spiritual vibrations inside your home.
Burning sandalwood near your door welcomes your guests and attunes them to your home’s positivity, encouraging them to leave their doubts and anger outside.
Sandalwood essential oil is relatively expensive but if you do splash out, you can use it in weak dilutions as follows.
A few drops in a washbasin of hot water create a steam inhalation to ease acne and cracked or dry skin.
In a vaporizer or your bath it will dry up excess mucus, easing bronchitis, wet coughs, stuffy heads and diarrhea.
You can use sandalwood’s antiseptic, anti-inflammatory and mildly pain relieving properties to soothe rashes and itchy skin. Simply mix a few drops of essential oil in with your usual body lotion.
The strong aroma give off by joss sticks makes them a good tool to use during gentle visualization or mediation exercises. A simple joss stick visualization can add spice to more mundane tasks.
1. Light a joss stick when you are ready to start exercising, such as on an exercise bike or walker, or during aerobics.
2. As you exercise, close your eyes and breathe in the heady aroma, letting your mind drift with its scent/
3. After a few deep breaths, imagine that rather than being in your room or gym, you are cycling along a mountain path, perhaps in the Himalayas or India, under a warm summer sum. Imagine the aroma coming from the beautiful trees that line your path.
You will soon find that in this way your exercise period goes much more quickly, and is far more enjoyable.
