A 'Sensual Affair;' Visualization and Aromatherapy

This blog is dedicated to my Pharmacology Professor Dr. C.

Get ready to have your visual and olfactory senses stimulated! In this blog I will cover two new, wonderful coping strategies: Visualization and Aromatherapy.

Just days prior to starting medical school, I was diagnosed with colitis; a severe inflammatory bowel disease. The proctitis flares were and still are awfully painful and incapacitating what with all the blood loss, fever spikes, food intolerances and black outs to name a few symptoms. Moving to a new country away from home and family for the first time, and the rigors of medical school did not help as these stressors worsened my chronic ailment. The enteric nervous system (the gut; sometimes called the second brain) has more than a million number of nerves, and this system of mine was and is constantly under attack. This made it extremely difficult for me to focus on my studies. I started to isolate myself and had no energy to interact with others. It all felt very bleak and pointless (some days it still does). I was officially diagnosed with depression and anxiety. Little did I know that the two (my physical and mental health) were interlinked. My school professor/psychiatrist informed me that having a chronic physical ailment makes one more vulnerable to mental health ailments. My body was not able to make enough dopamine and serotonin that usually keeps one’s mental health in check. In layman’s terms, I was not producing enough ‘happy’ hormones. This mind-gut axis is a complex connection being bi-directional. Just as a distressed gut sends signals to the brain, similarly a troubled mind sends signals to the gut, putting the individual such as myself, at a greater risk for mental health ailments.

According to Jennifer Wolkin, a clinical health and neuropsychologist, “Parsing which came first, the stress or the gut distress, becomes challenging and most often this bidirectionality between enteric and central nervous systems is a vicious cycle of great discomfort.”

No matter how vigilant and mindful I am about my food habits, stress levels, physical activity etc., sometimes it just takes one bite or one stressor to upset my entire mind-gut axis leaving me in debilitating physical and mental agony. I am still learning how to sync my two moody teenagers; my mind and my gut. I have a ‘gut feeling’ that it’s going to be a lifelong learning process.

I had to find a way to get through those rough days. Fortunately I crossed paths with my Pharmacology Professor, Dr. C who also mentored students. She guided me with the correct medicines for my depression, sent me articles on how to keep my mind-gut axis in check and also gave me pep talks where she would enlighten me about different soothing techniques to calm my nerves. One of them was Visualization. Dr. C said that whenever I started to feel hopeless, despondent or if a panic attack started to creep in (especially when studying for exams or during an exam), I should visualize my cheerleaders. These cheerleaders could be anyone; family members, friends, fictional characters, inspirational idols etc. And so I started to do that. I visualized myself being on a basketball court trying to shoot a three pointer like my team’s life depended on it. I would visualize my parents and friends sitting in the bleachers cheering me on. I would also visualize cartoon characters such as Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck reminding me of the movie Space Jam! This visualization method would help encourage me and I would feel like ‘Yes I can do this!’ It was and still is one of the ways I got and still get through some of my difficult times.

Since then I have come up with some of my own different visualization techniques. When you feel a sudden surge of negative emotions such as anger, sadness, loneliness, despondency, try one of the below mentioned techniques and see if they help:

1) Visualize your happy place whether it’s the woods, the sea, a coffee shop or your comfortable bedroom! Soak in the elements of your happy place. If anyone is a fan of the famous sitcom Friends, you might remember the episode where Phoebe was trying to help Monica get over her break up with Richard by asking Monica to picture her happy place. Even though Monica was unable to do so, I think it helps if you really try! It definitely helps me.

2) You could think of a happy moment or a person and the feelings and emotions associated with that particular moment/ person. For example when your grandma made your favorite dish when you visited her, or the time you found out your high school crush had a crush on you too! Turn those negative emotions into those old wonderful emotions associated with that happy moment/person. If anyone is a Bollywood fan and has watched the movie Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham, you would remember Shah Rukh Khan telling his younger brother Hrithik Roshan in the movie to close his eyes and visualize their parents whenever he faced an obstacle in life.

3) Visualize playing dodge ball with the negative emotions you are feeling. Visualize each emotion, for example stress, anger, anxiety, loneliness etc., as people and you were knocking each of them out with your dodge ball. There is a game similar to this on the ‘Happify’ app called 'Negative Knockout.' Try it out. It’s free!

4) When you have a negative thought or emotion or if you have had a fight with someone, first process your emotions mindfully. If there is no solution at that moment, try to put that thought, feeling or person in a balloon (I picture a red balloon because the emotions I mostly feel are anger, frustration) and then release the balloon. Basically just try to let go of that emotion, that person who upset you and allow the balloon to float away from your mind and body.

5) When I am in pain, I imagine small, angry, red faces in the area that is hurting at that moment. Then I practice mindfulness meditation and visualize turning those angry, red faces into green, smiling faces. (Red symbolizing Stop and Green symbolizing Go or in this case Letting Go of the pain). I try to soothe my pain in this way. Of course it depends on the severity of the pain! But this is what I try to do first before taking painkillers.

If you find it difficult to procure a soothing image or visualize on your own, you can try Guided Imagery. This entails looking at calming images that you can easily find online, or using apps such as Happify (I use this one), Zen or Calm to name a few to help you with one of the Visualization techniques I have listed above.

Aromatherapy: Switching gears to our other soothing technique; aromatherapy.

Did you know that aromatherapy, also known as essential oil therapy, is an ancient therapy that was designed to alter mood and physical symptoms? The National Association for Holistic Aromatherapy describes aromatherapy as "the art and science of utilizing naturally extracted aromatic essences from plants to balance, harmonize, and promote the health of body and mind" (Reynolds et al., 2018). The essential oils are volatile, aromatic compounds found in different parts of plants, including the stems, leaves, roots, and the seeds. Over the years, thousands of essential oils have been identified, and depending on the therapeutic effect that is desired, particular oils are selected and used by individuals either internally, topically or aromatically. For the purpose of this blog, I will focus on the health benefits of the aromatic part.

Essential oils, through our olfactory system or sense of smell, affect our physiology, emotions, and behavior by stimulating hormones and neurotransmitters. Recent research has proven the benefits that this safe and cost-effective complementary and alternative therapy has on one’s physical and mental health. For example in one study conducted, sweet marjoram was shown to reduce pain, ginger reduced nausea, while lavender and marjoram reduced anxiety.

In another study conducted in a palliative care environment, where nurses care for patients with serious life threatening diseases, a mix of wood, frankincense, blue tansy, blue chamomile, and spruce, were used. The nursing staff reported a decrease in their stress levels and an increase in positive mood. They felt "more grounded" and relaxed and these calming affects were transmitted to their patients as well! This was reflected by a less blood pressure variability and decrease in haloperidol administration (a medicine that is used to control agitation) which was interpreted as low stress levels in the patients. Moreover no adverse effects were reported by the health staff, patients or their visitors when aromatherapy was used.

In yet another study, a component of lavender called linalool, was shown to have anxiolytic (anxiety reducing) properties in mice. In fact it seems traditional medicine has used lavender as a treatment for anxiety in individuals. Aromatherapy seems to provide a foundation for using lavender extracts as an “anxiolytic to alleviate preoperative stress and thus contribute to place patients under general anesthesia more smoothly. In addition, for patients who may have difficulties with oral or suppository administration of anxiolytics, such as infants, utilizing linalool odor to help reduce anxiety may be a convenient and promising alternative” (Harada et. al, 2018). These studies thus suggest a lot of scope in the field of aromatherapy.

I have always loved candles, for both their visual and their aromatic qualities. After learning about the visualization and aromatherapy soothing techniques, this passion makes a lot of sense! Whenever I feel blue I light a candle, and I feel the internal darkness being eradicated and replaced by the external light of the candle’s flame. The flame symbolizes one’s internal power and strength acting as a reminder that we can diminish our internal darkness even if it’s one candle at a time. Sometimes just one candle is all it takes. That’s visualization for you. Then the aroma of the candle definitely puts me in a better mood and that’s aromatherapy. In this way I am able to reap the benefits of both the soothing techniques. I use vanilla or lavender aromatic tea lights, floating candles and lavender incense sticks. It’s amazing how a simple and cost effective alternative therapy can uplift your mood. Why not give it a go? Even though I have discussed lavender for the most part, I think you can use any aromatic candle that helps boost your mood, morale, and soothes your anxiety and decreases your inner darkness.

I hope you find these coping strategies as effective as I do. Do message me or post your comments on the forum page about what techniques worked for you! I would love to hear your stories.

To end I would like to thank my Pharmacology Professor Dr. C for everything. She has been there for me through my tough times. She sent me flowers (not once but twice!) when I was hospitalized and underwent my surgeries. The beautiful flowers and her encouraging messages once again acted as visual and aromatic aids that gave me hope. We are still in touch and she continues to mentor me. I am so grateful and blessed to have such angels in my life. Thank you Dr. C. Lots of love and gratitude.

Image: My floating aromatic lavender candle :)

References:

1) Meet Your Second Brain: The Gut. How what's going on in your gut could be affecting your brain: https://www.mindful.org/meet-your-second-brain-the-gut/

2) Using Aromatherapy in the Clinical Setting: https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/899328_1

3) Linalool Odor-Induced Anxiolytic Effects in Mice: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnbeh.2018.00241/full