Transform Your Mindset: From Holiday Chaos to Peaceful Living

Get your guide here: BREATHE in the Season: Aroma Advent Guide

In this episode, we explore the often overwhelming holiday season and how the practices of Advent can extend beyond December to enrich our lives daily. Discover the 'Aroma Advent Attitude'—a blend of neuroscience, emotional regulation, and spiritual rhythms that aim to foster a sense of peace, hope, and joy all year round. Learn how specific aromas can influence your emotional state and nervous system, promoting well-being and resilience. The host introduces a 25-day sensory devotional guide called Aroma Advent, which combines aromatherapy with mindful reflection, breath prayer, and journaling prompts. This guide is designed to help you develop a calmer, more centered way of living, regardless of the season. Join the conversation and embark on a journey toward a more peaceful and fulfilling life.

00:00 Introduction: The Holiday Stir

00:15 The Advent Attitude: A Year-Round Practice

02:56 The Neuroscience Behind Advent Practices

04:31 Introducing Aroma Advent

05:53 The Power of Aromatherapy

08:50 Daily Practices for Aroma Advent

14:26 Join the Aroma Advent Journey

Get your guide here: BREATHE in the Season: Aroma Advent Guide

Transcript

0:00

The holidays have a way of stirring up everything. Joy, nostalgia, hurry, pressure, connection, fatigue. And for a lot of us this season brings both beauty and. Strain. And while Advent is traditionally a four week preparation for Christmas, the rhythm behind it holds wisdom that we need, not just in December, but every single day of the year. And that's where we are right now as I record this. But if you're finding this episode in another time of the year, Stay with me here. Whether you're navigating holiday chaos or simply. Looking for a calmer and more centered way of living. The aroma advent attitude is what I'm calling it can change the entire landscape of your mind mood and wellbeing. And it's not about candles and checklists or aesthetic moments. It's about neuroscience, emotional regulation, spiritual rhythm, and sacred daily habits that reorient you towards what matters most. to get up every day and default to yes to your extraordinary self. All right, let's dig into what this means and how you can bring it into your life today. I love Advent. Always have. I grew up in, a church that set that honored Advent, and I have fond memory. With that, and maybe you did and maybe you didn't, but I want you to hang in there with me. I hope I can offer a little different perspective on it and some value here that you could bring into your own experience. advent is a word that means arrival. traditionally it's a preparation season where Christians ready their hearts for the arrival of Christ. It's kind of hope. Embodied, but underneath the faith tradition lays a universal pattern to slow down, prepare for goodness, make room for meaning, anticipate hope, practice presence, and choose peace. these practices aren't just spiritually significant, they're biologically protective. modern neuroscience reveals what ancient spiritual traditions have always known. First hope increases dopamine, which it boosts motivation, creativity and resilience and peace decreases cortisol, lowering inflammation, and improving immune function. Joy activates the anterior cingulate cortex. Improving emotional regulation, love and connection, stimulate the vagus nerve, strengthening parasympathetic calm. These are all things that we want in our daily life. We want a regulated nervous system so that we can respond instead of react. Your nervous system thrives in rhythms of expectation reflection breath and presence, even if you aren't aware of it. Even if you are severely neglecting it, this is what it's doing. It's trying to regulate and sometimes that trying to regulate doesn't feel very regulated. The advent rhythm helps your body and brain shift out of chronic stress into grounded awareness. So you can show up as your clearest, healthiest and most joy-filled self. And that can be. A challenge in itself, and that sounds like a really big goal, but we can chunk it down and we can break it apart and make this really work for us. It might be take us longer than what the traditional advent season allows, but I'd like this to be a rhythm that we honor for life. All year round. That brings us to the heart of what we're talking about today, and that's what I'm calling aroma advent. this is a way to introduce novelty and, intentionality to this season, and a way to anchor your mind and body and spirit into this rhythm using that. Fastest pathway to calm your sense of smell. These are aromas. So aroma is a, so what I'm calling Aroma Advent is, I've actually created a guide that I'm gonna offer you the opportunity to download Aroma. Advent is a 25 day sensory devotional. You've seen Advent calendars, Lego alcohol books, flowers. okay. coffee chocolates, candy toys. I think there's even a Pez Aroma calendar. every time I open up Amazon or I. It feels like they're everywhere. There's all of these advent calendars that are out there. So I thought, why not an aroma advent calendar? creating that 25 day sensory devotional that guides you through daily practices, combining scripture mindful reflection, aromatherapy ritual aroma cognition practices, neuroscience about why it works in the moment. A breath prayer for affirmation and some journaling prompts. That's what's in the guide. And I want wanna talk a little bit about why aroma therapy, because you are already experiencing that, whether you have essential oils and you know it or not, there are aromas that are influencing your behaviors and your thoughts. Scent is the fastest way to influence your emotional brain, and so it's a really powerful tool to condition some thoughts that we choose and things that we want to be thinking instead of the ones that are conditioned to produce emotions that provoke behaviors and give us outcomes that we don't want. So unpacking that and using this as a powerful tool. Now, first of all, the neuroscience of aroma. your olfactory system is. The only sensory pathway that connects directly to the limbic brain, and that's that center of memory and emotion and safety perception and inhaling an essential oil then can shift your nervous system in less than one second. There's a lot of research that is done using the components of essential oils So that's usually our strongest is the components. Now, when you put the whole oil into the mix, you've got another powerful combination. I've seen this experientially in my own life as well as a lot of anecdotal evidence in the lives of others. research shows that there are certain plant compounds that can calm the amygdala. Those are contained in lavender and Roman chamomile. Promote clarity and memory in rosemary or the citrus oils like lemon and wild orange. Okay. Deep in the paras, sympathetic rest like cedarwood and sandalwood, there are, compounds that increase the sense of groundedness and emotional stability. Those are our tree oils. Patchouli is good for supporting mood balance like Bergamo Bergamo has been. Even the whole oil has been studied with first responders and for PTSD. So there's a lot of really interesting research out there. Larry Sage is another really good one for mood balance. when paired with breath work and reflection and meaning, these aromas become that. Way of regulating a way to prepare your whole self for hope and peace and joy and love. those are our advent themes. So that's why I'm calling this the aroma advent attitude. And it isn't just for the holidays. advent hasn't really even started yet. And I was really needing this week. My week was clipping along pretty well. I was feeling very regulated and then all in one day my nervous system. some things happened and. just one morning to unravel. my nervous system was definitely letting me know that I needed to regulate. so I needed to access one of my aroma cognition practices to bring that back into regulation. Now, aroma, attitude is that daily choice. To move through life with expectancy instead of exhaustion and preparation instead of pressure, presence instead of perfection. This is not about perfection. I've already told you that I had a good week and then it all unraveled. a lot happened in one morning that. Could have given me a different perspective on this week, but it really was an isolated incident that made me feel, very stressed and very unregulated. I. But that's what these practices are, so we can bring peace instead of panic and hope instead of hurry. hope instead of hurry is a big one for this time of year, It says that something good is arriving within me, around me, through me, and then it uses the breath and awareness to make room for it. Mindset is everything, and it really does change your overall wellbeing. And here's what happens When you begin to live from this rhythm, your brain becomes more resilient. hope improves cognitive flexibility future thinking decision making becomes easier, more peaceful, and you have a sense of joy or fulfillment that creates those stress recovery windows. you can have a really stressful morning, day or week and still recover in a way that is supportive to your overall wellbeing. The other thing that comes out of this is nervous system recalibration. each time you're intentional, you can pause orient your brain to the present and reflect. and then each time you reflect, you have those neural pathways that are created towards the calm and clarity that you desire. your spiritual life just becomes more embodied. Instead of thinking about peace, your body starts to experience it and you start to feel joy or fulfillment. Your nervous system becomes open to it. you all know someone that is just in that chronic state of unrest and almost like their nervous system isn't even open to peace or to feeling fulfilled or feeling joy. Well, this is how we do it. It becomes that whole person faith practice And just opens us up to more of what we want and being able to choose those thoughts. Now, fourth, your daily life starts to feel more spacious, even when nothing externally changes. You change, you respond more thoughtfully, love more freely, carry hope more naturally. And this is that kind of transformation that people really feel. It's not about hustle or hype or just rhythm or doing all the things. It becomes who you are. And that's really what we want, right? So how do we start having an aroma advent attitude? There are simple ways that you can anchor this rhythm, and I've mentioned them over and over again if you listen to this podcast. morning arrival, inhaling some frankincense, cedarwood or sandalwood and just saying, I prepare room for goodness today. Now, if you don't have essential oils, maybe you want to. Reach out. I can help you with getting oils that are high quality and oils that I trust, but otherwise, you could use coffee. just as you inhale your coffee in the morning. Think I prepare room for goodness today, and then taking some time in the middle of the day to reset. And say to yourself, clarity is available to me now. I like to use a citrus oil. rosemary is good for this. basil and a citrus oil are really good for this, but use that. Some bright focus oil. if you, with oil, citrus smells are, peel an orange or do something like that. Choose that midday reset aroma so that your brain begins to automatically when you smell coffee, you'll think I prepare for goodness today. these sayings aren't scientific and I didn't do any scientific research on these sayings, so make them your own, but you get the idea. I hope so. Those micro moments in between. I like to set an alarm when I get something that I wanna be thinking during the day or something I wanna remind myself, I'll set an alarm, you can write in your phrase, let this breath be my arrival point when stress spikes, you pause and you whisper. Taking a deep breath and just ground yourself in the moment. These practices will shift biology and thought patterns and mood in the way that you are probably thinking is impossible right now. If you do this, then you understand the power of it, but if you're not doing it routinely, I can feel that because I was like, how's that gonna really improve? These things that are happening are still going to be happening, right? You can't change the behaviors of others. Sometimes you can't change your workplace, you can't change your circumstance. or maybe you can't change it right now, but you can change how you respond to it. You can change the story you're telling yourself about it, what you're believing about it. All of those things are things that you can change. You have a choice. maybe I can help you with that too. You have an opportunity to do a 20 minute clarity session with me and I can help you. Start to put that plan in place and really turn the corner on this to customize something that actually works for you. The other thing is that I'm gonna invite you to join me for aroma advent. If any of this speaks to you, if your soul is craving that calm and that clarity, if you want a guide that helps you to live in this rhythm without pressure or perfection, then I'd love to walk you through. Aroma Advent. It's simple and it's just that a guide that will every day walk you through. If you are somebody who reads scripture, there's scripture there, there's a journal, prompt and aroma, and you can make that your own. I'm going to put in some basic journal prompts so that if you aren't a Christian or you aren't a believer and you're not going to read scripture, skip that and move right to the journal prompt Every day, and then noticing the aromas around you, whether you have oils or not, is gonna be a really powerful experience. It's at least going to be that intentional place and it doesn't cost you anything. So, the link is below to join Aroma Advent and prepare room for what's good In this season and every season If what I share today resonates with you, or if you maybe had one of those days where you just unraveled your nervous system, share this with a friend. Go on that journey together, talk about it, journal about it, and let me know what your questions are, maybe what your obstacles are, and we can go on this journey together. sign up below and I'll send you that guide for taking you through the holiday season. I love sharing tips. I love hearing from you. Let's go on this journey together as you get up every day and default to yes, your extraordinary self.