Finding Your Way Home; The Secrets to True Alignment

Healing Through Scent: The Transformative Power of Aromatherapy with Robin Jones

• Anthea Bell

Share episode

Healing Through Scent: The Transformative Power of Aromatherapy with Robin Jones

Gorgeous listeners, welcome to this week's episode of Finding Your Way Home; a little moment of deep connection, where we dive into the inextricable link between mind, body and realising your most authentic self.

This week, we delve into the story of Robin Jones; holistic health coach, neuro-aromatherapy expert and serial entrepreneur. A woman who, as you will hear turned to the power of scent when her own world (personal and familial) reached its own breaking point. A a mother of 8, wife and business woman facing significant health challenges, she embarked on a mission to truly heal herself from the decades of emotional and physical trauma that rippled through her family. Eventually, she found aromatherapy, and there began a lifelong passion to advance the status and availability of this ancient form of healing in modern times. 

Robin shares with us the neuroscience that makes aromatherapy such a compelling trauma-support tool; how one can use scent on a daily or  bespoke basis to navigate ones emotional landscape and physical ailments; why the sourcing and treatment of oils is so critical to their impact; and the nature of her work with high achieving women, to personal tailor a medicine that will support their deeper expansion. Her own story is woven throughout - generations in the Mormon community, which she continues to serve and support with the flexibility of a modern lens. 

It's a beautiful insight into not only the world of scent, but how powerful our senses can be in reshaping our experience (and perhaps success in) the world. 

Episode Breakdown: 

00:00 The Power of Smell: A Gateway to the Limbic System

01:01 Introduction to Finding Your Way Home Podcast

01:58 Meet Robin Jensen: Healing Through Scent

04:17 Robin's Personal Journey and Mission

06:35 The Neuroscience Behind Aromatherapy

18:06 Faith and Spirituality in Healing

41:41 The Role of Essential Oils in Emotional and Physical Healing

53:11 Custom Blends and Personal Rituals

55:02 Conclusion and Contact Information

Episode Breakdown: 

To connect with Robin:

For more on Finding Your Way Home, including events and learning programmes: visit @ab_embodiment or www.ab-embodimentcoaching.org

And if you've enjoyed the episode, remember to Subscribe and share it with a friend - you couldn't imagine the profound ripple effect your support has… 

With love, always x

I started looking at one of the fastest ways that get into the limbic system, which is the emotional center of our brain, is through smell. It's the fastest. I mean we're talking 60, 90 seconds or less. And so that really fascinated me. And I wasn't new to aromatherapy. I had a holistic health coaching background. I had a massage therapy background. And I had. You know, used essential oils here and there, but I would say it wasn't to the effect that I really started researching the neuroscience behind the aroma therapy aspect. And so when I did that, that's where everything just sort of converged.

Anthea:

welcome to Finding Your Way Home, the secrets to true alignment. I'm your host, Anthea Bell, movement teacher, mind body coach, and lifelong spiritual seeker. This is a podcast about the depth, weight, and profound healing power of connection between mind and body, spirit and soul, and from one human to another. Together with an incredible range of inspiring guests, we'll explore just what connection and alignment mean. How to get there in a world full of the temptation to conform, and how great challenge ultimately can lead to life changing transformation. Get ready for groundbreaking personal stories, conversational deep dives, and a toolkit of strategies to build not just your inner knowing, but your outer world. Let's dive- in.

gorgeous listeners. Welcome to this week's episode of Finding Your Way Home. We've got another little visit stateside today because I have the joy and privilege of sitting in front of Robin Jensen. Robin is a phenomenal woman that I met earlier this year when I was in Miami and. Let's say she is the first introduction on this podcast into the realm of healing through scent. Many of you know that the realm of soma, for me is incredibly broad. What you may not know is that I grew up with a mother who was an aromatherapist and then a kinesiologist. And when I heard Robin speak at Kate Northrop's events and really speak to her experience in Kate's world, but also deeply speak to her spiritual, holistic, health-based business, practice life I felt so charged to invite her onto the podcast and I'm so delighted that we've done it. We've found the time in the diary. And so Robin, please feel to come on air and and say hello to us. Hello. Hello, hello. I am so excited to be here. I feel probably as you did that when you meet certain people you know that there's a medicine each of you can bring, but there's a different type of medicine and synergy when you can come together. And so I was just really excited to have you invite me on here because as you mentioned, I am a very spiritual person and I know a lot of that comes through the body. And I think in recent years I am really discovering that to be more and more so, and how fast, faster healing can occur the more senses that we activate in our body. And as you know, the sense of smell is one of the most powerful and actually activates all the other senses through sense of smell. And so, I'm just excited to see where this goes today and really open to that. But just a little bit about me. I have eight children, which some people will probably just turn off the podcast right there at that point because they're probably thinking, who is this crazy person? But I genuinely love. Everything about Mother. I love being a mother. I, I always knew I wanted to be a mother. From the time I was little, I actually always knew I would have a large family. But funny enough, when my husband and I after our first child, we were like, we're done. Okay. How do people have multiple children? We don't understand this. And the heart kept growing and the calling kept getting bigger. And now in the work that I do, I understand that this mothering role was actually the catalyst and the driving force for me do a lot of the work that I do because I wanted to, by being a mother, it changed the legacy I wanna pass down. So it forced me to look at. What I was doing, where I was going and what had been passed down to me. And I looked at what, what did I want the future generations to look like within my own family? And then helping that and figuring some of that out allowed me to then go beyond, right? It then looked at how can I help others create a different legacy? How can I affect other generations outside of my own? And so, so yeah. So that's really part of what really fuels a lot of the things that I do. It's gorgeous to hear it, and I know from the time that I spent with you that really this this empire that you are now the head of it, it is creating profound change in the lives of the women that you support. And I know that you do that also, you know, your interest is not just in aromatherapy, but it's also really using this to re-pattern. So I think I'm right that actually a lot of your early experience of aromatherapy was also very curiously dipping your toe into neuroscience and what does it take for a human being to change? And I, I'd love it if you'd speak a little bit to that for the benefit of the audience that might not know even what the significance of scent is in cultivating both healing and wider change. So, I mean, really, I guess I need to give some context of what really catapulted me into wanting to, to learn about this. So, I, in my family of origin, so on my father's side and my mother's side, there's always been debilitating depression and mental health disorders. And so far back it was before people had names and words for it, right? So we know, like in my great-grandmother's journals it was just, you know, hysteria or it was you know, some of these other terms flitted about, but a lot of it was sparked with postpartum depression was sort of the, the kicker. And so even in especially the maternal line my great-grandmother was. Bedridden for years after having multiple children. And then my grandmother and then my own mother after she had me for the first five years of my life, I was, she was bedridden. And so I just laid in bed with her the first five years of my life and didn't know any differently and felt so nurtured and so loved by this mother that was doing all she could from her bed. And obviously it wasn't until I got older and saw that that wasn't normal. But I had also older siblings, older sisters who were having children as I was coming of age. And I was seeing also their struggles with postpartum and how it was never, it wasn't just a season, it actually, it was, something that they continued to struggle with. It just never went away. And it ended up moving into different diagnoses and, and, and different things. And so, where it really became real or I should say where it became so unavoidably to where I, I knew I had to do something was when my sister took her life. So my sister had five children and just spiraled and self-medicated and ultimately took her life that way. And so I was actually pregnant with my first child, which was a girl. And so here I am at my sister's graveside actually, and I just. Was distraught, as you can imagine. it's, the amount of emotional layers is just astounding because there is just a flood of everything all at once. And so I remember standing graveside and really having this sort of wrestle with God, with the universe, with everything, with my whole fa like the lineage that everything. And it was just, I was, I just got to this point where I was carrying this, being very then aware of the baby that I was carrying, which I knew as a girl, and I just had this sort of. Just from above and below this force go in me, and it was this mama bear moment where I was just like, no, no, this stops here. And I didn't know what I was going to do. I didn't know what that meant. I just knew I was going to break the chains. I was going to do something because I refused to pass this down. Another generation. And so, it was really at that point, I mean, I, I really do feel it was my sister's death that gave a birth to my mission. And it was, at that point, I just started researching every, I was just out to crack this code of like, you know, why does this happen and why is this happening to our family and what does it, what is depression and, and how does it work? And so as I was really researching that, I really got into how it's not all in the brain. It's not all in the head, that this is really a, a whole body, and started really researching mind body connection. And started researching how much the gut actually plays such a pivotal role that there are more neurotransmitters, which is your serotonin, those feelgood hormones. 90% of them are produced in the lining of your gut. And then understanding that you know, especially in my family where bipolar was a prevalent diagnosis and how much the research that I did was how bipolar and the pH levels in your gut, there's a correlation. And so it was just start, you know, I just was ravenous of just researching and getting my hands on anything that I could find because I knew that just the normal route of going on, medications and go, you know, just wasn't working for my family. The, the antidepressants, the anti anxieties, the medications, they just, they, they helped for a time, but they were not the answer. They were not the long-term answer. And in fact, it really numbed my sister's senses. She, yes, she didn't feel the pain and she didn't feel the agony, but she also didn't feel joy. She didn't fully the full extent of joy. She didn't feel the full extent of her creativity, which is around music. And so I was really out to look at what are things that can help with this, but that don't dull the senses? And that's where I got into more sensory work. I looked at wow, actually by like, activating some of these senses that actually opened the body up more. It actually opened the body up to receive and it actually opened the body up to heal. And so that is then what led me then into aromatherapy. I started looking at one of the fastest ways that get into the limbic system, which is the emotional center of our brain, is through smell. It's the fastest. I mean we're talking 60, 90 seconds or less. And so that really fascinated me. And I wasn't new to aromatherapy. I had a holistic health coaching background. I had a massage therapy background. And I had. You know, used essential oils here and there, but I would say it wasn't to the effect that I really started researching the neuroscience behind the aroma therapy aspect. And so when I did that, that's where everything just sort of converged. I I really started to see that, oh in, in the research that there were actually so many things that could happen through sense, smell, your getting into the amygdala for one, which is where that emotional memory and emotional trauma is stored. How it is able to go in and, and support. You don't have to go into the story of your trauma. You don't have to go into the context with it, that it actually is just through smelling. That oil smelling an essential oil that it can actually release and support. And so that again, just fascinated me. And then the more that I got into it, I. And that was around 2008 is when I really started to really go into this that I just knew this was it. This was the medium that I felt I was so helpful for me and, and I really started to. Just throw throw oils at anyone around me that I could get my hands on to just say, okay, I wanna know that this works in the way that they are saying. And so that then led me to look at, I mean, there's a lot of different essential oils out there. There's a lot of different you know, people who tout aroma therapy. But actually finding a pure medium was important because the essential oil industry is very unregulated. And that was part of the issue of why aromatherapy actually wasn't being taken as seriously, because there was no way for science and research to be able to have a consistent way in which to test because it, the yield and everything was different and the chemical consist consistency was different. And then in 2000. In 10 I I found doTERRA Essential Oils, which was a relatively new essential oil company, but their whole mission was their purity. And so that is the company that I found and aligned with and have continued to do so because of that purity, that consistency. And there's been just so much more research that has been able to happen because of that, which is really exciting. And so being a part of pioneering some of this emotional work with essential oils and, and this much more laser focused way is just what I'm gonna continue to do and where I'm at today. Well, it's so amazing to hear your journey and you know, I think it's, it's one of those incredibly beautiful stories where there is a real transformation that takes place through deep grief. And, you know, you are, I know someone that. You are, I know someone that chooses to see the challenges of life from a place of humility, reflection agency, while also embracing all of the emotions that you have alongside. So the first thing I suppose in, in feeding back is just to really acknowledge what you went through and what you did with it. And that's not to say that everyone has the tools or the personality or the calling to transmute in that way, but for the benefit of those that you now serve. The fact that you were able to is obviously huge and I think probably that really allows us to start to touch on. A little bit of the calling side of this for you. You know, we have jammed on the fact that faith is, for me, a constant curiosity and a warm friend, and we practice in different ways. But I know that faith is profound in your life, and I wonder if you'd be comfortable to share a little bit with the audience about how faith, how spirituality, how religion even have been a part of this journey for you, and perhaps what they have allowed you to do, even as far as your vocation. Hmm. Yes. Yeah, spiritual, my spirituality is very much aligned in my religion of choice. And I would say, you know, as anyone who's I. You know, probably in their forties now that you you have in your twenties is, is really where you're, you're, you know, discovering so much about yourself and your life. And so I grew up a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which a lot of people know as the Mormons. My whole life. That's, that's the religion that I was born into. And so when I talk about a lot of my lineage it was pioneers. It was the Mormon pioneers who, you know, trekked across the United States to have religious freedom and the pioneer blood is very hardworking and it's very pioneering. It's, there's a lot of beautiful things that I, that I have. Taken from that especially within the women of my family who, who do hard work. And they do it in the name of their God, for their family, and they do it also to the detriment many times of their own health., These ancestors of mine that trekked across the country they buried their babies. They buried their children, they buried their spouses along the way, and they kept going because they felt called by God to do so. And so, you know, as I learned about that as a small child, I didn't understand, you know, as you would. As a small child, really what that meant until I've gotten older and really looked at what, like tremendous faith, what like absolute surrender that really was. And then also recognizing some of those patterns that, while that kept them safe and that actually for survival, how those things that were passed down no longer serve me in a lot of those ways. And so to unpack some of these things and to unravel this ball of yarn where, you know, a lot of religion can do, there are religion can suppress it can cause you to rely more on, you know, human than God, right? While it can create a sense of belonging and tribe. There can also be a detriment to that if you no longer feel you can fit in or belong to that tribe. And so I, you know, all of this has been around me. But ultimately I have chosen to, to stay and be active in this religion because of the fruits that it has provided in my own life. And being able again, to untangle what is actual truth versus culture versus you know, just doing those things because the tribe does. But actually having my own connection with God and what that relationship means for me. And then seeing my religion and going to church as humans who are not perfect. But that have a common goal that is similar to mine, which is to radiate the love of God and to be a light for others in the world. And to to have. Progression be my goal, right? To know that I was put here on earth to progress, to grow as a spirit, to grow and to learn in my body. I've been given this body for a reason and a purpose and to learn and to understand what that all means. And so I like to refer myself as a Mormon mystic while I very much of an active member of the church, I, I also very much am a seeker of all truth. And I look at and am very much a student of spirituality in all of its forms and seeing the truth and the beauty that come from, from different religions, from different seekers of truth as well. For me, I. It has been helpful to have a very safe structure in which I am able to tether ball pull and be able to seek and do this, but also very much still keep in line with a lot of the tenets and principles that my religion holds. As the legacy that, again, I wanna pass down, especially to my daughters, where, you know as most religions there, there is you know, women right Play had played a secondary role. And one of the things that I actually really love about my religion and my church is that women have actually played such a large role. In government, in politics, in the leadership in the church and actually has one of the largest and women's organizations, the Relief Society. And so, there's been a lot of beautiful things with that. But then also you still have this other side where in our religion, heavenly Mother. Is very much a present figure, but she's a very, she's also very mysterious. She's very, she's held in such with such sacredness that there's not a lot of open talk about her as say, our Heavenly Father or Jesus Christ. And so one thing that I have loved to do is in my own spiritual practice and in my own prayers, is to pray to my Heavenly Father, but I also invite my heavenly mother in and teaching my children around the presence of Heavenly Mother. And because I have six out of the eight children, I, six of them are, are girls. And so, just teaching them to have their own self sovereignty with their, with their spirit and that relationship with God and what that looks like. But then also to continue to offer the teachings of our church and to have them see the, the value in which it plays around family and all of these things. But ultimately, it will be their choice on how they choose to continue that and meld that into their lives. It's beautiful to hear you talking about it because a, I'm struck by the fact that obviously, you know, each religion has its own associations within popular culture. And actually, you're not the first person of Mormon faith that's been on this podcast. I have a a dear colleague who runs a beautiful movement organization and he's a, a Mormon elder, I think is the word. Hmm. And so I've heard him use the phrase. Our heavenly father and our heavenly mother before. And in British Christianity we don't tend to use those phrase our, we use in prayer. Our Heavenly Father. I, I heard that in church when I was growing up, but the, our heavenly mother was, was not often spoken. And I'm sort of smiling as I'm hearing you because I'm also reminded of the number of more colloquial context in which now people say goddess rather than God. You know, even in, in casually passing out the phrase, oh my God, a lot of the time now I hear people say, oh, my goddess. And although that sounds glib and, and you know, there's a question as to whether people that are not of active faith should use those phrases. The beautiful thing about that for me is this quality of reclamation. And I think we are in a season in the world where there is a different kind of female reclamation than there was during the seventies and eighties and even the decades before when feminism was, was really coming to the fore. And what you're really making me think of is that we get to be with all of it. So when you talk about the beauty of the church and the structure and the discipline, there's real gratitude and appreciation for that. And there is the space and the fluidity to be an individual where there are unique connection to a God of your understanding. And there is deep freedom that I can hear for your children to have their own evolving experience of faith. And I, I sort of think whether you are of a denomination or whether you are not, that's really where we want to be. We want to be in a space where, because none of it is threatening, because none of it is questioning my integrity or my validity of being that all of it gets to be included in whatever unique fit is the best molding for that one particular person to fulfill the life that they are here. To lead. Mm-hmm. So I, I hear all of that as you're speaking and it's really very beautiful to listen to. Hmm. Thank you. Yes. I, I, you know, as you were reflecting some of that back, I, I really do hear a lot of, you know, that, you know, religion can be so stifling and so, and, and I really do believe that that can be depending on the individual and there is, there is a, a sacred masculine that comes in with some structure, right. With some formation and organization. And that can, that can overpower, right? We can allow that to overpower, we can get caught in the rules and in, you know, the letter of the law versus that spirit of the law of why that was brought in or, you know, and same with the feminine flow as you're talking about how, you know, that intuition and letting that individuality. I really do believe that growing up in, in my church because of the history of our church, you know, Joseph Smith, who was our first prophet the, the way the whole religion came was because he went and knelt in the forest and asked God directly. And had a personal revelation that God talked to him directly. And so that's the, that's sort of the foundation. Our religion is based on that You have personal revelation that yes, you have these leaders, but they don't dictate they can, they can bring, again, form function, organization and guidance, but ultimately it is up to you and the answers that you get. And so there, there, there is that balance and it can go into the shadow in any one of those, even in the feminine flow. If I am just like, oh yes, I'm just gonna go with, you know, that can also feel so disorienting and it can feel ungrounded. And so, for me like I said, the fruits have just been so great to have for me. I've been able to hold the balance of that and see tremendous beauty and growth in it. And it sounds like also part of the reason that you've been so committed to doing that, really what you're describing is the willingness to continue to show up even when it might be hard. Yes. Even when it might meet resistance, even when there might be judgments. I mean, I don't know how traditional the, the professional roles that someone within your community would have, but even something like the discipline that you're in, which is, as you say now increasingly, scientifically backed. But 30 years ago, even within a secular context, aromatherapy was really very genuinely considered to be sort of slightly strange witchcraft. And of course, all of it is so beautifully supported now, but the courage that you show in being willing to stay, being willing to stay when it might get tough, sort of the antithesis of, again, what a lot of modern society teaches us, which is use your liberation to flee. And there are definitely contexts where that is the valid response. And, you know, safety seeking is critical and I'm always in advocacy of that. And sometimes you, you shortchange yourself for the learning that you could have and the empowerment that you could grow into if you are willing to stay where you are. What's your experience of that been? Like the, the willingness to stay and also potentially the fear of judgment either from within your community or even outside of it. Yeah, yeah, that's just you beautifully articulated so much of that. You know, it's, it's really been interesting because I think it, it's kind of been another theme in my life that I have also seen is that I've never, I've been able to. Hold both since, since I can remember. And so what I mean by that one in answer to your question is you know, even in, in my family of origin that I have six other siblings, so I'm the only one out of those six other siblings who's still active in the church, all of them have left to a certain degree. And so, I have, so I, I'm bringing that in'cause I have felt it even into the most inner core of my life, those that are the closest to me. And then growing up, a lot, most of my friends were not members of my faith. They were in different faiths. And I grew up in the Bay Area in California, which was a very diverse group. And I think that had a lot to do actually with my shaping of seeing again, so many beautiful truths and beautiful people that all, you know, have a common goal, which was to be better people, be closer to God. And, and though we use different languaging and we identified God differently, we were all sort of trying to do the same thing. And as I have gotten older, and especially I would say being in sort of the, the divine feminine groups that I am in, and a lot of, you know, you hit the nail on the head that even in my aromatherapy journey and, you know, I was looked at as. You know, very much, oh, you're touting the line, you're, you're veering off, you're, you know, what are you getting into? And through all of that, I, I guess I've just really, my, my biggest concern is my relationship with God. I I have always, I would say one of my spiritual gifts has been faith since I was a little girl. I always knew that there was a God I always knew, and I always felt special to God. Not that I was more special than anyone else, but I felt my specialness, I felt. That I was precious to my heavenly parents, and because of that, I wanted to do their will. And so, so it, it has allowed me to be courageous in a lot of ways. And, and one of those was adopting children as well. And just doing some of these things that, to the outside I was told multiple times, like, what are you doing? And, you know, so some within my faith community, and then as I have been more and the work that I do and have branched out so much internationally, I'm getting those questions of how can you be in a religion of, you know, that does this and says this and, and all of this and how, you know, so I, I do get it from both sides. And again, ultimately. My main concern is the, and I don't like to use the word judgment, it's, I'm fine with the judgments of others. Because I know of my relationship with God. Your language is, is beautiful. And when you say my relationship with God, it, to me, the way that I hear that almost in an embodied sense is it's my willingness to come back to what does integrity feel like for me. You know, you mentioned the values that you had gleaned from your faith, and I think whether we operate within a God dynamic or we don't, we have homing beacons of what feels truthful, aligned, authentic, and I think the only question that's ever really, particularly important in life is, am I coming back to that? Am I adhering to that? Is this really. Truthful, or is this coming from a place of wanting to please or protect or avoid or, you know, and, and, and understanding the safety of that landing place as far as your relationship with your heavenly Father and heavenly mother. I can't imagine how peaceful that must be. And I think all of us, even those that are listening, you can have your own equivalent. And that's just when you get really quiet, when you really drop away from the noise of what somebody else might think. What feels like truth for you in this moment? And can you be courageous enough to follow that intuition, that instinct, more than the voices outside of you? Because ultimately, all those voices outside of you are ever speaking is the projection of that person's lens. It's never actually about you as much as you might activate it within them. It was there to begin with. It's part of the reason for me that welcoming as a practice has become so essential.'cause I can't know from my humanness just over here in this one experiential corner whether anyone's faith is correct or not correct or right. Like I, I can't, I ultimately do deeply believe that. I can never know, I can never know for a client either, but I can have an intuitive sense in deep presence with them of what I am called to share. You said before we started the recording, you know, I'm just really grateful to be here and, and I know that I will share what needs to be shared. I will listen and it sounds as though that pretty much sums up your entire experience, both of the church and also of the work that you do in the world. Yeah. Yeah. And it's, as you were talking it, you know, I think that's also why I am so drawn to the aroma therapy is because it's an act of listening. It's an act of, of drawing yourself in, going within. And it's a different form of, of listening. And it's, you know, I, I've always used the term that the medicine that you give to others is the medicine that you've been always seeking. And that is me. I'm, I'm always looking for how I can deepen that listening. I've, I have a, a sacred practice that I do every single morning that I feel has really rooted me into, again, more of that bravery and alignment and attunement. And that is every morning I, I take at least an hour, if not two or three, to have that practice of going within. And it looks like many times putting airplane grade headphones on so I can block out the noise that's in my home. But I journal, so I meditate, I journal and I do prayer journal. So when I'm praying, I. I'm asking very specific questions and to God, who I consider heavenly mother, heavenly Father, and I am asking very specific questions and then I wait and I listen. For the answer that returns and sometimes it takes a while, but I've, it's a real skill that I has become more clear because of how often I've done it. And so the answers come clear and that, I think having a daily practice like that allows me to stay in that alignment and to have that bravery because it actually makes it really easy to not care what people think. When I have that constant reinforcement and anchoring of feeling that love, knowing that I'm loved by my heavenly parents, know that I'm loved and supported by my savior Jesus Christ. And it makes it easier to have those outside voices saying what they need to say. But coming back home every morning to just feeling that support and the weight lifted off of my shoulders and knowing I'm not doing this alone and that I. I can continue that. And when I fall out of that practice, which we all can do, sometimes we fall out of these, these good practices and rituals I feel the difference. I feel like I'm putting out fires and I ca and I do care more and I'm up in my head. But this practice allows me to drop into my body and be anchored and grounded. And so I think that that's also been a big reason of how I've been able to do that. Which reminds me that so much of this is actually about the action steps. You know, I remember someone about 10 years ago saying to me that there's a phrase that, that they use a lot in the communities that I kind of had my second growing up in, which is faith without Works is dead. And it sounds a bit brutal for anyone that's just had that for the first time. But it is very true. And even in the coaching realm that I spend most of my time in now, we really look to find this place between intuition and action. And the idea is, as I make a change in my internal being, in my internal landscape, can I make that more concrete with an action in the material? And can my actions in the material reinforce my return back to the deepest, most authentic version of myself? And so these two you're playing between the, the liminal, the spiritual, the emotive, and then the physical plane. And in a way, you know, I, I do. Absolutely, I do. Yeah. We call it here two-way prayer. And I, I don't have a, a concrete God, but I have a sense of something greater. And so my two-way prayer is just directed to that beautifully unqualified. I. Whatever it is. And doing it through writing for me is profound because what then comes through my hand as the answer is never what I expect. And it has led to some of the deepest, most beautiful experiences of my life, actually. I'd, I'd love us to go therefore back into this realm of aroma and I suppose what might be interesting for the listeners to start to hear about, given that this is such a, a mission for you in a way that is very Mormon potentially, is to find out a little bit about the sorts of challenges that you regularly support people with or this kind of work can regularly support people with. You've mentioned closing trauma cycles through scent. You've mentioned a little bit about bipolar and depression. My sense also from talking to you at the event this spring is that there's a, a, a real raft of things that you've been able to lend your expertise to and that now you craft particular sense for particular purposes for your one-to-one clients. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. So as I mentioned, when I really started really seeing the, the value and almost, I, I actually wanna use the term mission of these oils. I've just seen them open, as I mentioned earlier, open up the other senses. When you're inhaling an odor molecule, it's traveling up that nasal cavity. It's hitting these olfactory bulbs, which are again, directly linked to that lambic system. So literally within moments it's going straight to the brain. And there is a chemical reaction that occurs in these essential oils when they are pure the, the chemical makeup of them is so complex and they're so concentrated. It's taken right from the plant, from the petal of the plant, the bark of the plant, the root of the plant, the rind of the plant. There's different ways of getting that essential oil, but it really is truly the lifeblood of the plant and., The other reason I aligned with doTERRA is because of also how they produce those essential oils they go to where that plant thrives and grows indigenously. And that matters because when you look at Take Lavender for example, which we get in Bulgaria, doTERRA gets in Bulgaria that's gonna have a much different chemical makeup growing in. The, the hills of Bulgaria versus a desert in Arizona, right? The, the makeup of that you take in the climate, the culture, the ecosystem, the how it interacts with insects, how, you know, the story of the land, of where it ca, all of that is infused in that plant. All of that comes into that plant and that essential oil., That aspect is important. But then also you look at the integrity behind how that oil was harvested. And produced. There's really dark ways that other essential oil companies are doing it. There's a lot of adulteration of those essential oils to make profit. And so the other beautiful thing that I love is that they're going to these regions, which are many, are third world countries, they're wanting them to be these generational farmers who have had these things passed down in their families and teaching them more sustainable ways to farm and, and then also giving opportunities for the women there to grow businesses. And so they're really giving back so much and then paying these farmers straight. I really believe a lot of that frequency and vibration and energy also gets into that oil. And so, there's just so many beautiful things that this company does that I feel like that is why these oils carry such the frequency that they do. And so because of that also every plant has sort of this spiritual, energetic story, right? Lavender it's the oil of communication and calm. Physically it can help burns on the skin and sunburns and a cut, it's antiseptic. And so it has all these calming physical properties, but also emotionally it is very calming. It is very soothing. And you have peppermint, which is, we grows in Washington state, actually is where the best peppermint grows. It's very invigorating I use it as like my cup of coffee in the morning. I put it on my temples, I breathe it in, wakes up the senses. Refreshes my lungs. But then emotionally it releases mental fogginess. It's the oil of a buoyant heart. It keeps things light without having to go deep, dark into the depths. And so each oil, I could go down the line. Each one has a frequency, has a story that takes from the region that it's in. And all of that plays into the story. And so when we're looking at them, then that for our emotions, you can literally get so meticulous. You can get so granular with how you're feeling and with your thoughts and your beliefs, and you can match it with a essential oil that can really support that very specifically. I have business partners. Where we have a book and an app that allows people to be able to look up what emotion they're experiencing to even help them identify it actually. And then goes into what oils could be paired with that. And when people read these oil descriptions, my business partner, her name's Amanda Porter, I call her the plant whisperer because she really does and has this ability to really call in and embody and be able to beautifully write some of these descriptions. And when people read them, they weep. When they are feeling something and we look at the oil description, that could be a good partner to use for them. They just, even reading the oil description, the medicine starts to work. And then when they, then when you use that essential oil, we pair it with declaration and a visualization. Again, activating these other senses. The mind's eye visualization is so powerful when you're using that with aromatherapy'cause it can really anchor. And I would say that's one of the biggest things that I see and I love about using essential oils is there are, there are tangible piece to a lot of the untangible especially when we're in this space of personal development and mindset and spirituality pieces. Having something tangible to actually hold onto and when you're using it actually can anchor. All of these things. So then when you're using that visualization again, or even it allows it to become more clearer when you're using that oil, it allows a declaration or an affirmation to sink in to actually be reinforced and create new neural pathways. It, it helps anchor that. It's very powerful, you know, to putting again, the tangible and embodying it and having it be felt viscerally in the body at the cellular level It's a positive, empowered trigger. If we think that creating new neural pathways, then what's happening is every time I associate this belief with this scent, well then of course, every time I smell this scent, I remind the belief, so it's. It's a fantastic way of hacking the system actually. Yeah, it is. And it actually, you know, the reticular activating system, which is a, a very powerful tool that the brain has to sort of filter out what it deems as not as important as other things. All of the senses are filtered by that reticular activating system except for the sense of smell. So again, that just tells us that the sense of smell can bypass any logical things that happen. Any of those filters that keep things from going in the sense of smell bypasses, all of that. So what I love most is that you don't have to think about anything, but if you do, and if you are intentional, it just ramps it up. It's a very beautiful reminder also of our capacity to proactively change our state. I'm looking across the room because I have some very beautiful incense from Goa and when I am working with clients, I tend to like the incense between them. Most of the time I'm actually doing those sessions on Zoom, but there is something about the ritualizing of clearing the space that is very important. Actually. I create a clean template for the next person that walks in. And so what you're also making me think of is how important fundamentally for human beings ritual actually is, and how much we have strayed away from that. And we ritualize all sorts of other things. We ritualize success, we ritualize a gourmet meal. We ritualize certain forms of spending. We ritualize football, but actually individual. Rituals of the kind that you're describing that are deeply attuned to connecting me to the most intrinsic version of myself, or the version of myself that I want to live as. Those rituals are arguably the most important. And I'm so behind anyone that has a, a business or a healing modality that brings us back to that. Mm, yeah. You saying that it reminds me you know, when we look at essential oils I mean, they're ancient and they were used anciently in spiritual and ritual practices. Frankincense, which to this day, I think in Catholic churches use frankincense, incense. And frankincense was found in ancient Egyptian tombs. And Spikenard was what? You know, there's a, a woman in the scriptures who. Cleans the Savior's feet. Jesus's feet with a spike ard. And there's, there's an aspect of anointing with oil. And so, absolutely I feel like essential oils can be brought in to, to do that self anointing, to just have that practice of going within, allowing you to connect in whatever way that that looks like. and the concentration level is important. When you're using an herb, for example essential oils are 60 times more powerful than an herb of peppermint, you'd have to drink 28 cups of peppermint tea. I mean, that's just one example of that concentration. And so using something powerful like an oil in a ritual practice it's just, it's next level. And when you can again, use it alongside any other modality, you know, people do tapping or prayer or meditation or yoga or therapy practices. I mean, I didn't even talk about how many mental health professionals that I I consult to bring aroma therapy into their practice. There's also something in what you're describing, and I know that this is a part of your work, but it can create balance and healing where there is particular imbalance. So one of the things that we talked about, and this might be sort of our closing theme, one of the things that we talked about, I asked you directly when we met, you know, is this something that people use around the themes of fertility and you know, supporting a mother or, or, or a mother that wants to be. And I believe that that is also a facet of the work that you do, starting to really tailor this to what's the physiological healing that needs to be brought online. And then from my understanding, you craft particular blends to support those particular challenges. So, you know, the emotional is not without the physical, right. 80% of our doctor visits of why people visit the doctor are, are actually stress related I almost like to call this a hobby because it's just fun for me of creating custom blends for people. I love to sit down with typically women who, whether it's for their personal brand or it's for something personal, physically going on with them or whatever I like to sit down with them and do sort of what you would call an oil reading What those oils would be that could be supportive to them. So many of that comes from intuition. Some of that comes from these tools that I mentioned earlier, essentially motions, tools and I, I. Love it. It's not something I have blasted on my website even. It's, it's really a referral based thing because it does take a lot of my time and my energy. It is more of a bespoke offering. But definitely something that I love to do. It's so fun. It's like you're an artist, but you're doing it with a, a modality and a toolkit that is also so, potent. So potent. Oh, Robin, I think we could carry on testing for hours, but it has been just such a gorgeous thing to have you. I'm gonna make sure that everyone in the show notes has access to how to get in contact with you, how to learn a little bit more about your group program. But is there anywhere in particular that you would love to point people to if they have questions or they wanna find out a little bit more about your work? Yeah, I mean, you can follow me on Instagram at the Robin Jones. I have just some offerings that I can give that you can put in the show notes that allows people to get to start with one of my favorite kits in Aroma Essentials Kit and utilizing some of those essentially motions tools. That's where I would start. If you're curious and you're questioning what that looks like, those are two things that I always offer to people to start with. And then you can follow me along and just see my world with my family and my work that I do and go from there. So gorgeous. Well, I am gonna be watching this space very keenly. I know that you have a ton of things kind of in the pipeline and your your reach and your your purpose are really growing outwards into the world right now. So it's a very exciting time. But thank you so, so much for being with us.

Anthea:

Gorgeous listeners. I hope. You enjoy today's. today's. episode. To find. More about our. Featured guests. Have a look in the show. Notes.