About four days after I gave birth to my boy, I started to feel, a little uh, sensitive, to my surroundings. That’s an understatement. I was one big blissed out raw nerve. It was like being on a week-long acid trip of hyper happy weirdness. The sound of the bath water running was too loud. I shut the phones off. Television? Forget it! The TV was like a death metal concert in my living room. For the first two weeks of motherhood we lived in a milky monastic silence (and God help you if you knocked on my door.)

Two things that kept me centered amidst the hormones and reality shift: candles and incense. Sound uber woo-woo? Well, I AM uber woo-woo and it surprised even me. I kept prayer candles burning 24-7. In the bathroom, the kitchen, the den. Being able to focus on the light was amazingly steadying. And the same for the scents of amber and myrrh and Nag Champa. A little light, and a little fragrance reminded me that I was connected to something undoubtedly, divinely indestructible.

So, dig this: The Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology Journal published “Incense Can Alleviate Anxiety Depression” (Friday, May 23, 2008).

Religious leaders contend burning incense is good for the soul, but U.S. and Israeli researchers say it can be good for the brain as well…

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. Study co-author Raphael Mechoulam said the findings suggest that an entirely new class of depression and anxiety drugs might be right under our noses.

The researchers administered incensole acetate to mice and found that the compound significantly affected areas in brain areas known to be involved in emotions as well as in nerve circuits that are affected by current anxiety and depression drugs.

In spite of information stemming from ancient texts, constituents of Bosweilla had not been investigated for psychoactivity, Mechoulam said in a statement. We found that incensole acetate, a Boswellia resin constituent, when tested in mice lowers anxiety and causes anti-depressive-like behavior. Apparently, most present day worshipers assume that incense burning has only a symbolic meaning.

…

I’m always on the hunt for primo grade incense. Pure stuff, no synthetics. Let me know what you’ve come across.

Olfactory power!

- Danielle