All About Incense
How to Make the Most of Your Incense
Here, at Instabuddha, we delight in providing you with high-quality products that bring more tranquility and peace to your home. Whether you're designing a meditative space or looking for the perfect piece to complement the rest of your decor, we carry just about all the incense, tapestries, and canvases you could need.
If you're looking to add a beautiful touch to your meditative space, for instance, we have a wide selection of hand-crafted, backflow incense burners to help deepen your meditative state.
What's more, our specially designed backflow incense cones have all the scents you'll need to reduce stress, regain focus, and find serenity.
But if you're new to the world of incense, you may be wondering what it is or how to use it. With so many fragrances to choose from, which scents are best for improving concentration? Which should you use after a long day at work?
Keep reading, and we'll guide you through all you'll need to know to make the most of your incense.
What Is Incense
According to the New World Encyclopedia, direct-burning incense, like our incense cones, is made up of two parts:
- a fragrant component that produces smoke and an aroma when lit
- and a combustible component that provides the fuel to be burned.
The Combustible Core
One of the major roles of all combustible cores in incense is to provide fuel for the fragrant materials as they burn. Moreover, it holds the aromatic components together, which allows the incense to burn slowly and consistently.
Depending on the type of incense being made, the core can be made up of plant mucilage, water, and aromatic components like seeds. The other type of incense is made of charcoal or wood, a gum—either Arabic or Tragacanth—and either sodium or potassium nitrate. The gum binds all the components of incense together, while the nitrate oxidizes so that everything continues burning.
The Aromatics
When most people think of incense, they typically think of the aroma first. Whether the fragrant components are essential oils, flowers, leaves, or seeds, they all provide the fragrant smoke that has been associated with some of the most important religious and secular traditions for millennia.
While most people are familiar with traditional standbys like lavender or rose, incense can be made from a dizzying array of flowers, woods, resins and gums, barks, leaves, fruits, seeds, essential oils, or from a nearly endless combination of any of the above. Some of the most popular fragrances include:
- Sandalwood
- Star anise
- Nutmeg
- Vanilla
- Frankincense
- Myrrh
- Tea
- Lavender
- Rose
- And lemon.
How to Use Incense for a More Tranquil Life
Many cultures around the world have historically used incense to repel pests, freshen the air, and to honor their deities or ancestors. But many more use it to travel deeper during meditation.
Though our hand-crafted backflow waterfall incense burners make excellent decorative pieces, they truly shine as meditative aids. The beautiful waterfall effect created by the smoke cascading down each tier is mesmerizing, beckoning the observer into ever more tranquil states of being.
What's more, each of the unique scents in our incense cone set is crafted using pure essential oils. From sandalwood to lemon, they are sure to help you concentrate and unwind at the end of a long day.
How to Use Incense for Aromatherapy
While all our scents are great for relaxation, there are certain fragrances that are better for reducing stress and others that are wonderful for improving your quality of sleep.
Read on for a short run-down of just a few of the fragrances in our incense cone set.
Sandalwood
Derived from the sandalwood tree, sandalwood essential oil is a staple in aromatherapy. Blended into perfumes, candles, and incense, sandalwood plays a huge role in many religious ceremonies and meditative practices.
According to a few pilot and animal studies, sandalwood essential oil is great for lowering levels of anxiety, improving your quality of sleep, and for making you more alert.
Rose
Derived from the Damask rose plant, rose essential oil is both luxurious and great for aromatherapy.
According to some recent studies, rose may potentially help reduce stress, lower levels of anxiety, improve your quality of sleep, and alleviate some discomfort associated with menopause and menstruation.
Lemon
Another essential oil we include in our incense cone set is lemon. Derived from lemon peels, lemon essential oil is not only refreshing but is also a great scent to include in your aromatherapy regimen.
According to some recent studies performed on mice, lemon essential oil may play a role in alleviating anxiety and depression. Moreover, it has also been shown to clear your respiratory pathways, soothe a sore throat, and improve your focus and concentration.
Lavender
Last but not least, this aromatherapy staple is perhaps the most popular fragrance. Most commonly found in everything from body massage oils to incense, lavender's soothing fragrance has been used to alleviate everything from stress to menstrual discomfort.
In combination with sage and rose essential oils, lavender has been shown to reduce the pain caused by menstrual cramps, lower levels of stress, help people fall and stay asleep, and potentially alleviate some of the most unpleasant side effects of chemotherapy treatments.
Tips to keep in Mind for Burning Incense
Whether you incorporate incense into your meditative practice or aromatherapy regimen, there are a few tips to keep in mind to ensure you have a safe and enjoyable experience.
While our incense cones are designed to burn safely within their specially-designed backflow burners, you should always keep a close eye on them, especially when pets or young children are present.
Lastly, be sure the area around the incense burner is well-ventilated and free from flammable materials like curtains or bedding. Also, never leave your lit incense and incense burner unattended.
So, let us turn it over to you. Which incense scents are your favorite, and why?