Each month, Corinna explores one of the essential oils featured in her Aromatic Soul Journey – a ten-month exploration of ten remarkable plants. Each live monthly gathering introduces the unique qualities of a single essential oil, and a simple aromatic practice to support everyday wellbeing.
Summer has a generosity unlike any other season. Long, light evenings tempt us to stay outside just a little longer. Gardens overflow with colour and scent. Holidays, visitors, meals shared outdoors, windows thrown open to the warm air… Throughout the darker months, it can feel as though we have been waiting all year for these precious weeks.
Yet there is another side to such abundance. Every invitation, every conversation and every lovely experience still asks to be taken in and absorbed. So by August, although life has been full in the richest sense, many of us notice that our minds have quietly become full too. Not unhappy. Not even especially stressed. Simply crowded. And when everything feels a little too full, it can become surprisingly difficult to think clearly.
Our instinct is often to try harder. Yet nature never does. A seed doesn’t scatter its energy growing in every direction. A river never wonders which way to flow. Nothing is wasted. Perhaps we can borrow a little of that same ease.
Most of us keep a bottle of essential oil somewhere – perhaps for the bath or the diffuser. But have you ever noticed what happens before you’ve even named the fragrance? Before your mind has caught up, your body has already responded. Your breathing changes. Your shoulders soften. Something within you has already begun to move.
It Makes You Wonder…
Perhaps fragrance isn’t only chemistry. Perhaps it also speaks to us through its movement.
Some fragrances rise and brighten. Some root and steady. Some soften the heart. This is what I call the Biodynamics of Fragrance – and once you begin to notice it, you can’t un-notice it.
Peppermint Moves in Her Own Unmistakable Way
She clears. If you have a bottle nearby, pause for a moment and breathe her in.
Rather than asking, “What is Peppermint good for?” try asking a different question:
“Who is Peppermint?”
Spend a little time in her company, and you begin to know her as clear, focused and quietly purposeful. She never seems to waste her energy, and she gently encourages us not to waste ours either, helping us remember our own direction.
Here is the part that often surprises people – and it is what I most want to share. Most of us experience essential oils through inhalation or massage. There is another way of working with them that many people have never encountered. A tiny amount of a well-diluted oil is placed onto one carefully chosen acupuncture point – a point whose own qualities resonate with the movement of the plant. When the two meet, something can change almost at once. A clearing. A settling. A small but unmistakable shift in how we feel.
It is as though the body remembers an ease it had somehow forgotten.
Returned to gently over time, these little practices can gradually shift our baseline, allowing calm and clarity to become a little more our natural resting place.
For Peppermint, one of my favourite points is UB10, found in the soft hollows at the base of the skull, just either side of the spine.
Why Not Try It Now?
Take one slow breath of a well-diluted Peppermint oil. Place a tiny amount onto your fingertips and gently rest them on UB10 for one to three minutes.
- No pressure
- No expectation
For many people, it feels as though a skylight has quietly opened and the mind becomes a little more spacious. If you’ve been feeling heavy or mentally tense, you may notice a gentle sense of lift.
This isn’t about doing more.
It’s about becoming a little more directed.
And so often that is all we need.
A gentle word of care: Peppermint is potent and rich in menthol, so a very little goes a long way. Avoid contact with the eyes. During moments of acute anxiety, a gentler oil may serve you better. It is also best avoided during pregnancy and breastfeeding, around very young children and on particularly sensitive skin.
Rather than simply reading about Peppermint, I would love you to experience her for yourself.
I have recorded a complimentary video where I’ll guide you through this simple practice and show you exactly how to find UB10 so you can experience the shift for yourself.
You can find it HERE
If it resonates, you’re warmly invited to begin my complimentary programme, “First Steps into Your Enchanted Garden”, where you’ll discover this gentle yet profound way of working with fragrance to support everyday wellbeing.
Join here: https://ayurvedawellbeing.corinnakitchen.com/first-steps/
You are also warmly welcome to join one of my live Aromatic Soul Journey evenings. Each gathering includes a beautifully prepared, ready-to-use essential oil, illustrated practice cards, access to my private learning platform and a live online experience where we explore each remarkable plant together.
Our live Peppermint session is Thursday 13th August, 7.30–9 pm – oil and cards to work with me live in the session, sent on enrolment.
More info here: https://ayurvedawellbeing.corinnakitchen.com/shop/
Sometimes one Peppermint-infused, clear breath is all we need in the middle of a very full day – just enough to remember where we were heading.
Next month we’ll be exploring the quiet strength and grounded wisdom of Cedarwood.
Corinna Kitchen
Corinna Kitchen is a Senior Licensed Biodynamic Psychotherapist and Ayurvedic Lifestyle Consultant based in Lewes, East Sussex. Alongside her one-to-one work, she leads the Aromatic Soul Journey, a series of monthly aromatic experiences exploring the unique qualities of pure essential oils and simple practices to support everyday wellbeing.
Contact Corinna at corinna [@] corinnakitchen.com
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