Fragrant Mind: Aromatherapy for Personality, Mind, Mood and Emotion

by valerie-ann-worwood

Valerie Ann Worwood's "The Fragrant Pharmacy" has become the classic encyclopaedia of aromatherapy and essential oils. Now, in this companion volume, "The Fragrant Mind", she paves a unique new way for aromatherapy, concentrating on the emotional, psychological and mood-changing effects of nature's essential oils. "The Fragrant Mind" falls into three parts. Part One presents a fascinating background to the subject, and explains how essential oils work on the brain. Part Two explains how essential oils can enhance emotional well-being and promote positive feelings, and includes a practical A-Z section which advises on a wide range of emotional problems, from stress and depression to moodiness and insomnia. Part Three introduces a whole new concept in aromatherapy - personality enhancement - and explains the particular characteristics of individual essential oils and how they can be matched to human personality types. You can find out, for example, whether you are a Floral, Herbie, Rootie, Woodie, Fruitie or Seedie type, and create your own tailor-made personality blends. Encyclopaedic in scope, and based on the most up-to-date research, "The Fragrant Mind" offers a wealth of information in an easy, accessible style, and shows the way in which essential oils can influence our minds and emotions.

Genres: Health, Reference, Nonfiction, Psychology, New Age, Self Help, Spirituality

Paperback

First published June 8, 1995

Reviews

[Robin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although the charts and references in The Fragrant Mind are excellent, in the more descriptive chapters the author takes the viewpoint that modern times are terrible, enumerating the many ways that we are constantly bombarded with stress, such that we all need aromatherapy just to get by. This focus on mental problems, unsafe environments, incompetent medical facilities, and general unhappiness simply doesn’t represent my life. Nor do I find reading about them productive. If I were more prone to worry, I’d feel stressed just by reading some of the chapters. Instead, I skimmed over them, which I recommend.

The most innovative and rather charming idea in this book is that various personality types are represented by different types of essential oils: florals, fruities, herbies, leafies, resinies, rooties, seedies, spicies, and woodies. Positive and negative aspects of each personality are explored. Then some appropriate aromatherapy oils for each personality are listed. The personality types of the individual oils themselves are further investigated, with a quick overview of each oil’s classification, character, and uses to stimulate positive and eliminate negative attributes as applied to aromatherapy patients, plus some elaborative text.

Other handy references include a quickly perused chart of how each essential oil can be used to improve mind, mood, and emotion, and an even quicker reference chart of groupings of essential oils into their personality types and subtypes. There is a large and useful section on health problems, both emotional and physical, and corresponding essential oils for treatment of each issue.

People who want to learn about treating problems and enhancing positive personal traits with aromatherapy will find valuable information in The Fragrant Mind. Often the information is stated in more than one way, which makes it accessible for many uses, but also increases the size of the volume. There is little information about how exactly to mix or apply the oils or combine them with other ingredients, so the reader should know this already or find another reference. While there are 1-2 simple essential oil “recipes” for many disorders, The Fragrant Mind is not about tried-and-true aromatherapy combinations, but rather an invitation for readers to experiment with essential oils on their own, using the general guidelines in the book.

[Laurie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a nice book about Aromatherapy, the Essential Oils and how they work, how to use them, what they can do/deliver, and how to best use them. I refer back to this book often when I am looking for a recipe or a certain blend of essential oils that I would like to use. This is a great reference book to keep in your library if you like to use Essential Oils.

[Lea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book for information on using essential oils for emotion, mood and personality. Many good blends to make for a variety of mental/emotional issues.
The section on Aroma-Genera was quite interesting to me and not something I had heard about previously.
An advanced book for those looking for those looking to enhance their knowledge.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good introduction to using essential oils and reference book.

[Shawna · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must-have for soothing the emotions. Many mental states both positive and negative included. I have used this book in many a tough moment!

[Steve Pifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good resource for essential oils

[Shivani Loka-Laksmi · Rating 5 out of 5]

In depth investigation of oils for psychological states; excellent recipes throughout.
A generous and thoughtful offering. I am glad I have a paperback copy as I will be referencing this book often.

[Rosie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this author! She's so educated, and reading her work inspires me to continue studying aromatherapy.

[Veronika Vasileva · Rating 3 out of 5]

Important book in the aromatherapy world, practical and more as a reference - some things are a bit 'out there' and how is the personality type defined is not very clear - in my mind, it is more in the author's mind that based on reality

[Shawna · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book that explores all emotions and the scents to alleviate

[Noa · Rating 3 out of 5]

No está mal del todo pero es un poco pseudoterapia en varias cosas.

[Diana Yerkess · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful book and so interesting. Can read in depth exactly how oils affect our emotions or dabble in the easy ideas further on

[Chris Haigh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Orange sun, lavender moon, mandarin rising

[Yanet Gonzalez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Aromatherapy described and explained at its best. A book that makes you understand well the role of essentials oils from morning to night time.

[kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really great reference for aromatherapy for mood and emotional support. Little or no info on chemical characteristics of essential oils, lots of info on traditional aromatherapy and how to create blends that support positive characteristics, or treat negative ones. Great as a reference as you can look up based on positive traits, negative traits, or the essential oil itself. The woodie/herbie/floral/spicy characteristics were interesting and it might be cool to figure out what someone is and create a blend for them based on that, but seems time consuming.

[Yassie]

i want to know the book..

[Elaine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not what I expected. I'd like to learn the basics on blending oils for home use. This book had a lot of unsubstantiated and unscientific claims.

[Paige]

Didn't read it yet.

[Naomi Ball · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book has a lot of unsubstantiated claims and of not much practical information.

[Deb · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting BUT really heavy going, I found myself going over the same paragraphs time and time again!

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful reference guide for anyone interested in making bath salts or bath teas or even drinking teas and fragrance sachet.

[Michelle]

Awesome reference especially the 'recipes '

[Patricia Morgunn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great take on using essential oils for mental health.

[Fedora · Rating 4 out of 5]

Libro interessante tra i tanti che ho letto sull'aromaterapia, sicuramente da consigliare. Non fatevi scoraggiare dall'inglese: se lo acquistate nella versione Kindle, la traduzione tramite il lettore vi faciliterà di molto la lettura.