Spa Magement Article #3

"Every natural feature, sea, sky, rainbow, flowers, musical tone,- has in it somewhat which is not private, but universal, speaks of that eternal benefit which is the soul of Nature, and thereby is beautiful" -----Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1860

The Spa is the setting for pursuing one of our most basic human drives: the pursuit of beauty. We seek to duplicate in our human form that which we know as perfect in Nature. Essential oils can lead us on this path. For this pursuit we desire high quality, esthetically pleasing essential oils. You have within you the ability to choose for the finest oils. I offer a 2000 word course,

" Essential Oil Esthetics Lite" and upon your graduation you will be able to choose the finest Rose Otto among an aromatic chorus

line-up!

Aromatherapy, which I like to spell as "AromaRx," as it denotes a therapeutic prescriptive intent, is the renaissance of the aesthetic use of the sense of smell. The pursuit of beauty thru physical therapeutic essential oil benefits are the twin engines driving Aromatherapy. What a perfect match this is for the Spa trade!

As the Spa director you made the commitment to offer Aromatherapy treatments and to use the essential oils. Before you is the daunting task of choosing your supplier. How do you choose the therapeutic quality essential oils for your Spa practices and therapies? The choice is clear. You want the highest therapeutic quality, most esthetically pleasing essential oil.

Of course, you will insist on the usual parameters for choosing your supplier. An importer that purchases direct from the distillers can offer excellent prices. The importer should stock an abundant selection for your specific company needs as this is critical to your success. Efficiency in filling your orders and responsiveness to your exacting needs is required. After choosing your supplier, the final choice is a matter of choosing the quality of the oil. Simply stated this is a matter of esthetics, a sense of what is the most beautiful in an essential oil.

Describing beauty generally, much less in an essential oil is something only poets do. Ah, these aromatic descriptions, such as the scent of a rose on a Summer's evening, slips thru our lips and fingers, words are at the tip of our tongue and elusively languish at our nostrils! How can we ever hope to choose for beauty in our oils?

It is my belief and contention that we are at birth born with an innate desire to seek beauty which could also be described as the pursuit of the divine or at least the knowledge of the natural world. It is our birthright to know what is genuine, authentic, and inspiring.

Seeking beauty is something we all do. Worldwide, no matter the culture, we all recognize and agree on beauty of face and body. A beautiful smile is simply that. It is beautiful. Who can resist picking up and touching a fallen iridescent feather, a surf-side perfect seashell, or an unusual rock?

Collecting beautiful experiences of the senses is deep in us all. We want the best. My first childhood taste of pineapple was of the canned variety. I liked it, but it tasted of the can, and my sense was if I could taste a fresh pineapple I'd like it much better than the canned. Satisfaction came with my first taste of a fresh example of the grocery store variety. This was better! Revelation came with eating pineapples in the fields of Hawaii and Portugal. I tasted liquid sunshine condensed as brown sugar, the aromatics playing tag with my tongue and nostrils.

Although my first taste of pineapple was only a shadow of the real thing, my body knew there was a better pineapple-experience waiting for me! This is the hard wiring of our senses talking. This inner sensory talk is easily translated to choosing high quality essential oils.

The human drive to seek beauty is in the hard-wiring of our limbic system. Our limbic system controls the drives of hunger, thirst, and sex which is experienced thru the five senses. Our senses tell us whether an experience is "good" or "bad" and all possibilities between. We seek a sensual life. But, humanity is not at rest with an experience that is black or white, or simply sensual. We seek the highest level for our senses. We call this experience beauty. We know that we have connected with beauty when we register an inner explosion of excitement and energy.

As an essential oil importer and supplier it is my constant drive to offer only the finest quality essential oils. This is a drive I've had since childhood. My career pursuit started with Rose Otto. I simply had to have the very best. I'd obtain a sample and evaluate it. Afterwards I'd have the nagging suspicion that there was "better" quality available. I'd find a better quality, and then again the same inner experience would drive me to find another superior sample. You will experience the same inner dialogue when choosing for quality among essential oils.

Ceremonial rituals set the stage for an event to unfold to its best effect. Let me put forth a set of etiquette rituals for "meeting and greeting" essential oils. This sets the stage for appreciation of what is possible.

"Welcoming"

Welcome the essential oil into your presence as you would an honored guest. Prepare yourself to look and feel good so you can be at your best for your guest. You want your essential oil "guest" to be comfortable so prepare a room that is of Summer-like temperature and humidity, both of which are important to smelling a scent at it's optimum. It is important that you have not just eaten as this will interfere with your evaluation. Also, do not evaluate in a room filled with other scents or even music. The music will distract from your full use of your scent sensory skills.

It is best to evaluate an essential oil on a paper scent strip. But, many essential oils do not come into their own until warmed on the skin. You might want to evaluate the essential oil both ways.

"Meeting and Greeting"

Be silent when "meeting and greeting" the essential oil. Let the essential oil "guest" say "hello" first. Let your attention be your nose. This evaluation is a type of meditation, a meditation for the limbic system! You are a receptacle for the essential oil's scent and ultimately its message. The medium is the message! Be empty, be open, be clear. You will get the most information if you have no preconceived expectations and hold no judgments.

"Equilibrate and Equipose"

Before saying "hello" to the oil and beginning your conversation, take time to equilibrate and equipose to the oil. When we meet a new friend we take in a multitude of information from their physical looks: a flash of their smile, the brilliance of their eyes, their body-build and choice of clothing. The same experience can happen with the essential oil evaluation.

Find yourself at equilibrium, at one, at the same level, at peace, with the oil. As you internalize this experience of becoming one with the oil, an intuitive "bio-speak" understanding will be at hand. Put yourself in your "guests shoes" and walk the mile. In this case, the shoes might be roots or bark or petals!

"Synthesize"

Having no language for scent your mind will synthesize the experience thru the other senses: as colors and visual images, musical compositions, textures, shapes and forms, as taste, or sensations such as hot and cold.

"Attunement of Emotional Messages"

Listening to this information attune to the emotional messages. Scent plucks the heart strings! You are the harp! Record the music! The scent will talk of emotions of time, places, and events. A full range of emotions can be perceived: from bitter anger to passionate sensual love.

"Conversation"

It is time to start a conversation with the essential oil. When you meet a new friend, your curiosity runs high and many questions are asked. Do the same with the essential oil. For example, ask why the essential oil gives you a sense of security and peace or of irritability and frustration.

Now it is time to draw together the data. The above ritual prepares you to make an evaluation and judgment. It is time to be critical and make a conclusion.

Through all the above steps the finest essential oils will engage you to a high degree and offer the richest and fullest set of experience. Did you register an inner explosion of excitement and energy? Did you recognize beauty? The oils that do not pass muster will literally fall flat and are experienced as "flat, no life, no energy." When you meet someone new you are often gauging the experience on a scale of genuineness and authenticity. Oils that fail to meet your highest standards will lack that experience. But, this does not mean the oil is not "genuine, natural, and pure." It only means that your "new guest" is lacking in depth of soul!

It is also useful to put into words and make a description of the oil. First, the words will elude you, but the more you practice this exercise the easier it will be. As you develop your own language to describe the oils it will be your own ruler for the next example.

Let's go thru the above etiquette steps with an example, Rose Otto.

For "Welcoming" the Rose Otto you will have a drop or two on a scent strip and wait for it to fill the air space around you. You will want to sniff this strip when the drop is wet and glistening, a few minutes later and hours later. This will give you an idea of its range for tenacity.

For "Meeting and Greeting" It will be difficult to meet this particular oil with no preconceived notions! Who does not possess a psychological history with Rose? Rose is outspoken; you will not have to wait long to hear it speak first!

"Equilibrate and Equipose" with the Rose and find its biological intelligence. Draw the Rose into your consciousness. Feel its thorns, resilient stems, and velvet-soft, dew-kissed petals. You will have floral awareness!

"Synthesize" with the Rose and find the visual images of

Rose- colored clouds, sensations of warmth and morning dew, tastes of rich spices and honey. What music do you hear?

"Attunement of Emotional Messages" you will hear a story of deep and abiding love, a companion for a lifetime.

"Conversation" with the Rose Otto you may want to ask why the Rose has chosen to be symbol of spiritual and divine love.

It is necessary to learn the basic parameters of what each oil should be. Once you have the data you can internalize it, reach deep, and then choose for the finest oils. "The nose knows." Listen to and trust your instincts. Spend time with your limbic system. It is your best teacher for choosing beauty in essential oils.

The following are my guidelines taken from my remarkable"conversations" with essential oils.

Lavender Vera:

Lavender gives a feeling of inner peace. The experience is of hand holding by a healer. It is sweet, smooth, soft floral and herbaceous, with tiny touches of balsamic woodiness, and a twinge of fruit. It should not be green or flat or hit you on the head with "purple," rather it should be a mist of purple.

Peppermint:

Peppermint is an active healer. It is energizing and refreshing. It offers a balance between hot and cold, cooling and numbing. It is soft, round, not sharp and peak-like. It is clean and dry, not weedy, too green, dead or flat.

Vetiver:

Vetiver gives a deep instant connection with Earth's creatures. It is smooth, luscious, dark, complex, leathery, horsey, woody, with bits of chocolate, molasses, honey, and a twist of lime. It is not dirty or burned.

Clary Sage:

Clary Sage gives us gleeful, childlike euphoria. It is ethereal, soft, hay-like, herbaceous, with earthy and bittersweet twinges. It is not flat, dead, musty, dirty or too earthy.

Jasmine Absolute:

Jasmine celebrates the sacred aspects of sex. It is warm, sweet, heady floral, somewhat human, well balanced, with delicate touches of bits of tropical fruit. It is not flat or smell like gasoline.

Rose Otto:

Rose Otto is deeply loving and welcoming and promises lifetime companionship. It is euphoric, warm, deep, floral, complex, sweet, spicy, rich, honey-like, and tenacious. It is a soft

rose- colored cloud and uplifting. The overall effects should not hit you over the head with a mallet, but rather as a loving embrace.

Chamomile Roman:

Chamomile Roman gives an inner feeling of innocence, comfort and healing. It is dense, sweet, smooth, soft,complex, heady, with floral, herbaceous, luscious apple and tea notes but not bitter. It is not flat, empty, vapid, or watery.

I cannot conclude without acknowledging my aromatherapy teachers, John Steele of "Lifetree Aromatics" and Michael Scholes of "Aromatherapy Seminars". Both teachers have been my inspiration for learning the esthetics of choosing the finest essential oils on earth. Michael Scholes taught me to listen and learn the biological intelligence of the essential oils. John Steele taught me to apply my skills as an artist to a new medium, essential oils.

The choosing, selecting and enjoying for high quality, beautiful essential oil is a skill that is easily acquired which is no different from approaching and enjoying any other art form, such as music or painting. Human beings are divinely designed to recognize beauty. It is recognized in a heartbeat. Dante (1265-1321) said,

"Heat cannot be separated from fire, or beauty from The Eternal." We seek and yearn for it . Is it because beauty is an experience of immortality? It is certainly a way of knowing the secrets of Nature's laws. With the understanding and use of the finest essential oils we become the microscope and the magnifying glass of Nature and Beauty.