What's That Smell

That's the question we get almost everyday when customers walk into our shop. They want to know the exact product that they could purchase that emits THAT smell. Well, I tell them, that it isn't just one smell and that its a combination of everything we have. And luckily they all seem to harmonize into one heavenly fragrance.

Incense is one of the products I do point my customers toward. Incense is not just used for backdrop during meditation. Research also reveals it has brain health benefits. Science is now supporting what religious teachers have said for centuries — “Incense is good for the brain.” This evidence also appears to support actual clinical benefit, rather than just placebo-type benefits based on belief or faith. There was a recent study from Johns Hopkins University that supported this. According to Science Daily who reported this study “An international team of scientists, including researchers from Johns Hopkins University and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, describe how burning frankincense (resin from the Boswellia plant) activates poorly understood ion channels in the brain to alleviate anxiety or depression. This suggests that an entirely new class of depression and anxiety drugs might be right under our noses.” Pleasant odors have anti-depressive like behavior.

Shoyeido, a japanese incense company founded over 200 years ago have what they call the 10 Virtues of Koh (incense) compiled in the 16th century:

It refreshes mind and body

It removes impurity

It brings alertness

It is a companion in solitude

In the midst of busy affairs, it offers a moment of peace

It enhances a meditative environment

When plentiful one never tires of it

When there is little, one is still satisfied

Age does not change its efficacy

Used everyday, it does no harm