This is a summary of an article published in Positive Health Magazine. If you would like to read the full article, click here to purchase a copy of the issue in which it appeared.

Kerry Doyle, an aromatherapist and supplier of natural, organic essential oils, undertook a journey that was intended as an exploration of her senses, to discover the sensuality, the source, and the growing aromatic plant which is the beginning of essential oils.

Her Fragrant Journey took her to a laboratory in Belgium where she experienced cradling a litre flask of neroli orange flower essential oils, "liquid sunshine in a container", and many other wonderful colours and smells. This exceptional experience made her realise that she had not known before what an essential oil really was.

In Provence she met Dr Malte Hozzel who runs his international essential oil business from his sandstone house high in the heart of lavender country. In this rarefied, refined and natural environment she found peace and her own healing. She also came to an understanding of how the gentle, and perhaps cautious, English form of Aromatherapy differs from the French way but has its own strengths in the way that it supports and nurtures.

She finished her Fragrant Journey in the Island of Pourquerolles, a National Park in the Mediterranean off the coast of Provence. It encapsulated in a natural setting all the wonderful aromas that she had experienced in the laboratory in Belgium.

The sense of smell connects us to the world more directly than any other sense. The Olfactory nerve is the only one that can repair itself and it connects to the brain directly without crossing sides as the other nerves do. Aromatherapy and massage are an important means of stimulating sensory awareness and reversing a stress-induced state of exclusively cerebral consciousness.