You may find that you feel better after candle-making, almost like it has been therapeutic. Let’s dive into how candle-making affects you on multiple levels of your being – mentally, emotionally, and physically.
Candle making can be a therapeutic activity, as it can calm the mind through its effects on the brain, is fun, and the scents and colors involved can affect you mentally and emotionally. By using your hands in the process of candle-making, you can reduce stress and experience your own creativity and joy.
Candle-making is a fantastic tool to assist us in our own personal wellbeing. It can be therapeutic in many ways. The color, scent, and creative act of hand-making your own candle and seeing the results of your efforts can bring you great joy and a sense of accomplishment, not to mention the calming of the mind and peace you can experience while doing it.
Candle Making Is Therapeutic In Many Ways
Candle makers will notice that their mood shifts while they are creating their candles as well as afterward as they see the end result of their creation. Even thinking about starting or improving their candle-making skills may make someone feel excited and inspired!
When people can get creative and focus their attention on something that they find interesting, enjoyable, and new, they can shift away from their worries, fears, and stressors that they may be experiencing in their daily life.
As they shift their focus and emotional state through a therapeutic activity such as candle making, they can come back into balance and harmony on all levels of their being. It is not only the act of candle making that affects people, but the colors and fragrances that are used affect our mood.
Candle Making Calms The Mind
Many of us have busy lives and always have something to do or worry about. We are often thinking about the past or have anxieties about the future, therefore we are never really present in the moment. Candle-making makes us come into the present moment and focus our attention on what we are doing now.
Clarity and Focus
Our thoughts can slow down and we can remain clear and focused on the task at hand. Using our hands to create a candle gives us the opportunity to get out of our seats and into our kitchen, where we leave our thoughts and worries behind as candle-making requires our focus and care as hot wax needs to be supervised at all times.
Create Space To Be Relaxed And Still
We create space and time to enjoy the process of candle making as well as taking time to enjoy the candle after it has been made. We can light the candle and remember that we made it ourselves. We can enjoy the color and scent that we used and we can relax into the present moment and allow ourselves to be in stillness and experience the pleasure of our creation.
Joy And Accomplishment
After we have made our candle, we may decide to keep it for ourselves or to give it away as a gift to someone. It may bring us great joy to give this candle to another person, which can be so healing for us. Often it is when we are giving to others unconditionally our hearts open and we feel so much love and joy.
If we decide to keep the homemade candle that we have created, we can enjoy the look of it, enjoy the smell of it, and allow it to remind us of our skills and abilities. It can encourage us to try new things and explore our creativity.
Candle-Making Is Also Fun And Creative
Candle-making is a time when you can be creative and try new things. You get to explore what it is like to use different waxes, colors, scents, and equipment. You get to follow a process and produce a beautiful candle at the end that you can use, moving forward to assist you in your own wellbeing.
Self Expression
Doing an activity that you find brings you joy is essential to your own wellbeing. It is important that you have a creative outlet where you can express yourself. By using your hands and using color and fragrance to express yourself, you get to let yourself play, which you may not do often but can be just the medicine that you need.
Self Discovery
Throughout the candle-making process, you may discover certain parts you enjoy more than others, you may discover a natural skill or ability that you have and you will be giving something new a go. This can boost your self-esteem and help cultivate self-empowerment.
Self Love
Candle-making can also just be an activity that you do out of self-love. You may not be the best candle maker in the world, but you enjoy making them and you love having a beautiful candle to use at the end. Let go of any expectations of what the candle must look like and instead have fun with it and be creative. Do it for you!
The Color And Scent Of A Candle Can Affect Your Mood
We can utilize color and scent to enhance our sense of well-being as they affect us emotionally, mentally, and even physically through the relaxation of our bodies.
Color Therapy
Different colors are known to affect us in different ways. Some colors can affect us in a positive way, perhaps feeling uplifted, peaceful, or loved. Color therapy is a tool that is well known in the alternative medicine field.
If we are candle-making, we can use a specific color dye to enhance our well-being by using a color that we feel would benefit us. Perhaps we may be drawn to using a specific color and we don’t even know why, but on a deeper level, it will offer us the healing that we need at that time.
Scent Therapy
Smelling fragrances when we are using them in our candles can calm us down, bring us a sense of pleasure, and invoke special memories.
Frequently Asked Questions
How Do Candles Help With Anxiety?
The smell of a scented candle can help regulate our nervous system and mood by affecting the limbic brain. A candle’s scent, as well as watching a candle’s flame, can bring us into the present moment, therefore reducing anxious thoughts and feelings.
Why Are Candles So Calming?
We associate a candle flame with being relaxed and calm. Therefore, we naturally feel a sense of ease and peace when we see or smell a candle. Candles are often used when you are having a bath, massage, or in a sacred environment, so when we see them, it immediately gives us a feeling of calm, hope, and positivity.
Can We Use Candles For Meditation?
After we have created our candle, we can also use the candle to do candle gazing. This is an open-eyed meditation practice where you softly look at the flame. You learn to be present and focus on one thing, allowing any negative or stressful thoughts to fade away.
A candle gazing meditation is very therapeutic and may be an easier form of meditation to do compared to sitting and closing your eyes. In this way, you have a beautiful object to focus on that you made with your own hands.
Final Words
To conclude, candle-making is a very therapeutic activity as it can affect us on many levels of our being, therefore enhancing our sense of wellbeing. We bring our minds into the present moment, which is calming and helps us relieve stress. Being able to express ourselves creatively is also very healing. Next time you are feeling stressed, give candle-making a try!
