Hey! It’s been a month and a moon and an eclipse since 11:11!
I hope you’re feeling all new and shiny inside!
When you filled out the Holiday Clarity playsheet, you identified a December scent or scents that you liked. Fragrances can have a powerful and immediate effect on our brain chemistry, mood and thought patterns and, thus, affect our physical sense of well-being, too.
Today, let’s fill our homes and lives with natural scents that make us happy.
Here are a few ideas to get you started: 
Winter heating often creates low indoor humidity. Here’s a way to improve indoor air quality in two ways at once: Simmer some water on the stove. Add some cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger or cloves, or a tea bag containing spice tea. (Good Earth Original Sweet & Spicy and Pike Place Market Spice both smell wonderful.) You can use this same technique with any fragrant herbal tea – such as mint, lemon or berry.
Peel an orange, tangerine or clementine. Leave the peelings out a small plate for a few hours.
If you live near woods, gather a few small fresh pine or fir branches to bring into the house. You can lay these out on windowsills as is, or put them in a vase to keep them fresh longer. If you don’t live near pine trees, sometimes Christmas tree lots will allow you to pick up branches trimmed from the bottoms of trees they’ve sold.
A few drops of vanilla or almond oil on a cotton ball or tissue can make your home smell as if you’ve been baking for hours.
Heat some apple cider or apple juice on the stove and stir in some cinnamon.
Put out a bowl of fresh or dried berries. They make nutritious snacks, and they scent the air.
Cut a slice of lemon. Grate the peel. Leave the slice and the grated peel out on a small plate.
Tie some cinnamon sticks together with ribbon and use them as a decoration.
Pure plant essence oils are sold at most natural grocery stores. Pick up a bottle in a winter scent such as wintergreen, pine or peppermint or a citrus scent like lemon or orange that you will use throughout the year.
(A little warning here: Frankincense and Myrrh are both heavy emotional scents used to help people work through grief and heart chakra issues. For that reason, I do not recommend using these scents in your home if you want to create a happy atmosphere)
You can place a few drops of pure plant oil on a cotton ball or tissue. Please be aware that plant oils are flammable and can stain fabric.
If you have a forced-air furnace, you can place a small strip of fabric across the heat register, approximately 2″ longer than the opening, and about 1/2 inch wide so that it only covers a very tiny part of the opening. Then put a few drops of plant oil on the fabric. Every time the furnace air blows, it will scent the room. (Please do not place plant oils anywhere near gas, wood or electric heaters! They are flammable.)
If you live where it’s warm, gather petals from particularly fragrant flowers such as rose, honeysuckle, jasmine and plumeria or herbs like lavender and lemon balm. Put them out in a decorative bowl. Or tie them up in a small cloth napkin or other pretty fabric. You can also wrap fragrant flower petals in plastic and send them in a card to a friend who lives in the frozen north.
Freesias are a particularly fragrant flowering houseplant available at many nurseries. They come in a variety of colours, and different types have slightly different scents. Some orchids are also quite fragrant. And you can usually buy eucalyptus branches and wreaths at plant nurseries this time of year.
If you like the smell of coffee, pour some flavoured dry coffee grounds – like hazelnut, french vanilla or peppermint – into a small decorative dish, and set it out on the kitchen counter.
Poke cloves into an orange or tangerine and then display the cloved orange as a fragrant ornament.
Pop some popcorn.
In New Mexico, biscochitos are a popular holiday treat, so many people here associate the fragrance of anise with the holidays.
What scent speaks to you of December joy?
Your mission for today:
+ Fill the main living area of your home with a happy natural scent.
+ Then, put on some soft music, sit down, relax and just Be and breathe for 5 minutes.
Extra credit:
Listen again to the Love meditation from Dec 6th, sending Love to a different person this time.
