098: A Whiff to Your Success, with Danielle Daniel

The Sex, Money, and Food Podcast
Episode 098: A Whiff to Your Success, with Danielle Daniel

Smelling, Brain Science and Empowering Women with Danielle Daniel

Welcome to this of The Sex, Money and Food podcast! Today we’re talking about a fascinating topic: how we can use essential oils to smell our way to success and well-being.

On this episode of the Sex, Money, and Food Podcast, we’re joined by Danielle Daniel who is a licensed psychotherapist, a Clinical Psychology PhD student specializing in the field of Psychopharmacology (the study of aromatic compounds impact on the brain). In her business, she combines her knowledge with her passion for empowering women to achieve success through emotional wellness.

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If you’ve ever been stressed out and then taken a walk in nature to relieve your tension you know how impactful nature’s scent can be on your mood. Quality essential oils come from nature and mimic what their source does naturally.

Take peppermint for example: the cold pressed oil of peppermint (or any other essential oil) is very powerful. In fact essential oils are 50-75x more powerful than the herb itself. In the case of peppermint one drop of it is equal to 28 cups of peppermint tea!

One of Danielle’s favorite things to do is to have people put one drop of peppermint on their hand, rub their hands together and then rub the oil on to the backs of their necks so it gets into their bloodstream quickly. Also she has them inhale it so it can get into their neural factory pathways and respiratory system to invigorate them and help them breathe deeply.

When I asked her to explain more about the emotional part of aromatherapy she talked about the different effects different oils have on the brain. For example, frankincense is an oil that is good for nearly everything from relieving anxiety to increasing memory to alleviating stress.

If you find yourself triggered by the same experience or emotion you can change that by using certain essential oils. Danielle says she used an essential oil the day we recorded this episode: she was frustrated by something but caught herself in that frustrated mode. Instead of going into a downward spiral about it, she grabbed an essential oil blend and it changed her emotional state within just a few minutes!

I was curious about that and asked her to dig deeper into the emotional aspects of aromatherapy.

According to Danielle’s extensive psychopharmacology research, nature can tell you what something is going to do by what it looks like and smells like.

Take citrus as an example: citrus fruits, like lemons, limes, tangerines, are bright and vibrant. That is exactly what citruses and citrus oils do: they bring out feelings of brightness, happiness and vibrancy in the brain.

Next we talked about being in a forest and the trees in a forest: what feelings do trees evoke? I said trees bring out feelings of being grounded, wisdom and deep roots. Essential oils from trees do just that: they help the brain get present in the moment, get connected and be here and now.

Essential oils that come from trees are oils like cedarwood, frankincense, sandalwood, spruce, white fir. They are grounding and rooted, so they are especially helpful for people whose emotions fluctuate a lot or anyone with special needs.

On today’s episode, we also talk about the emotions that flower essential oils and spice essential oils bring out in us, and what happens when you put essential oils on the various pulse points in our bodies. Danielle goes into detail about the internal intuition our bodies possess about what works for them, and what we need.

You’ll even hear a fascinating story about two horses and their different responses to peppermint and oregano! Listen in for that and more on this episode of Sex, Money and Food with Danielle Daniel.

Danielle Answers The Questions

Q: Rank the following in order, Sex, Money, Food:

A: Right now my sole focus is empowering women and I’m building my million dollar business so I’d say money. Wealth is really something I’m focused on.

Q: There is nothing better in life than…

A: connecting with others - that is the first thing that came to mind.

Q: Your ultimate pleasure in life is?

A: I’m a beach girl! I just love being at the beach - wakeboarding in Mission Bay or surfing out in the ocean.

Q: What do essential oils smell like to you?

A: Nature. I like nature. I read a blog post the other day about how when we’re in nature and how it helps with calming, anxious emotions. She’s a psychotherapist as well and she has a blog about helping people with their anxiety. There are aromas that are in nature and those aromas are essential oils.

Q: What is a mistake or a circumstance did you go through regarding sex, money and food that is has allowed you grow and learn from. Or is there something that you would say...I will never do that again!

A: I would say it was a big turning point for me in my career: I went to San Diego State for my Master’s and got my degree in social work. What happened was I was in my dream job of working with teens with suicidal ideation but I went to school and got my degree in social work because my heart was in helping people.

But I had a big turning point when I was in my mid-30s when I wasn’t married and had been in that dream job for about 8 years, but was living paycheck to paycheck and could barely save to buy the current home I’m in. I loved my job but didn’t know if I could do it til I was 65, I also wanted to travel and do humanitarian work.

I knew I needed to make a change and I knew it was up to me and not waiting on a husband coming into my life; I wanted to show the world that I could be single and successful.

Tweetable: “Different essential oils do different things for the brain!” -

Danielle Daniel

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