As a fitness professional with over ten years in health field, I believe “science” of exercise has created another worrisome (and unnecessary) “checklist” to add to our already overly burdened lives.

Now, average health enthusiast spends a great deal of their energy and time concerned with: counting calories, whether this exercise is “best” exercise, what is “right” number of reps and sets and how can I get “maximum exercise benefits” in least amount of time.

Of course, lets not forget that a great many of us are motivated to not only exercise for health reasons but also because of: fear of being overweight, fear of not fitting in and fear of not looking good.

Additionally, exercise itself is a physical stress. The traditional “no pain, no gain” philosophy is based upon pushing ourselves past our physical comfort zones in order to decrease body fat while increasing lean muscle mass. The very nature of this philosophy produces more physical discomfort than it does physical pleasure.

A simple health rule is that painful experiences cause our bodies to close down (leading to aches, pains and eventually dis-ease) while pleasurable experiences helps body to open improving balance and health.

With all this stress associated with exercise I believe our focus has shifted from improving way we use and live in our bodies to worrying if we are exercising “correctly”. This has left us little room to enjoy this process of getting to know our bodies better.

However, this philosophy may not be healthy for you if:

1.Each day your body is under significant amounts of mental and physical stress. This unreleased stress eventually evolves into physical discomforts, aches and pains. This can prevent you from moving freely and thinking clearly.

2.You find process of exercise to be painful or boring. If during exercise you find your body tightens even more, then all you are doing is deepening a negative or unpleasant association between your body, exercise and stress.

A few years ago, my quest for simplest yet most compelling scent of all, vanilla, led me from avenue of pure aromatherapy grade essential oils into back alleys of synthetic fragrances. I had found a marvelous vanilla absolute from Madagascar but when my supplier vanished I was left minus sensuous aroma that I knew and adored.

Yes readers, I did something desperate: I ordered my first vanilla fragrance oil [commonly referred to as an f.o.]. When it arrived a week later, I looked at 1 ounce amber bottle and even before opening it I just knew it was a sham, an impersonation of vanilla bean; a mockery of nature. Carefully opening bottle, I took my first whiff. Surprised, I took another, longer sniff of vanilla f.o. It smelled like vanilla, no question about that! The cost was kinder on my credit card, and amount was larger too. But what happened when it was poured into a batch of soap? Would it hold up in my new concoction of oils that were blended into whipped shea butter? In my online research I’d read of scents smelling great out of bottle [OOB] but turning into something quite different when added to bath & body products.

The world of aromatherapy is comprised of scents that originate directly from plants and their various parts: flowers, roots, fruit, bark, or leaves. If you buy a bottle of lavender essential oil from a reputable source you will find it has four attributes listed on label: country of origin, Latin [botanical] name, part of plant used, and method of distillation. [Cold pressed, steam distilled, etc.]. Highly principled suppliers will even provide a fifth element, principal constituents in classifying their essential oils. I was accustomed to this type of information readily provided for me. When I saw that plain brown glass container with just words “Vanilla fragrance” and supplier’s name and address, I knew I had indeed taken my first shaky steps down that shadowy alleyway.