What is the Aroma Freedom Technique?

The Aroma Freedom Technique (AFT) is a totally unique way to use essential oils and aromatherapy. It’s safe to use for anyone who wants more emotional freedom in their life, even kids! Since the technique utilizes only all-natural essential oils and guided imagery, it’s safe for all of us!

Most of us have felt stuck at some point in our lives. If you’ve ever wanted to break free from past conditioning or shift your mindset so you can take the action that will make your dreams a reality, you’re going to be super excited by what I’m going to share with you today! And of course, it involves one of my favorite things — essential oils!

Aroma Freedom Technique

The Aroma Freedom Technique (AFT) is a totally unique way to use essential oils and aromatherapy. It’s safe to use for anyone who wants more emotional freedom in their life, even kids! Since the technique utilizes only all-natural essential oils and guided imagery, it’s safe for all of us!

In the late 1990’s while working in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Dr. Benjamin Perkus hit upon a connection between scent and emotion. In developing Aroma Freedom Technique, he has combined 20 years of practical experience as a licensed Clinical Psychologist with 15 years of experience in essential oils to change negative personal experiences into positive reactions.

AFT can help with a multitude of issues that wreck our self-confidence and make life hard:

Negative Self-Talk
Emotional Triggers
Distressing Memories
Self-Sabotaging Behaviors
Fear
Self-Doubt
Bad Habits
Cravings
Limiting Beliefs

What Does AFT Do?

Aroma Freedom Therapy helps you to profoundly connect with what you truly desire in your life and clear any resistance you have to take action on fulfilling your life ambitions. It’s simple and safe. You can even do it yourself! That’s one of the biggest differences from other release techniques—you usually must find a practitioner in your local area with who you feel comfortable. Then you pay them, usually a hefty fee, to help you release the negative mindset that is holding you back. You may need to see them repeatedly over an extended period of time.

Who Needs AFT?

The Aroma Freedom Therapy was designed to help people who are not achieving all that they wish to—which is really all of us in some way, isn’t it? We find ourselves holding back, even though we don’t want to. This holding back is usually due to subconscious stimuli, programmed responses that go back to what is usually perceived as the traumatic events of their past. Since it’s in our subconscious, we aren’t even aware it exists! How are we supposed to deal with it then?

AFT is for anyone that wants to succeed—the athlete who needs to break through to the next level, the entrepreneur who wants to grow her business, or for anyone who wants to be rid of negative emotions that are holding them back and causing them psychological pain.

Aroma Freedom Therapy actually interrupts the cycle of negative emotions and re-defines them. It’s a proven way to break out of the cycle of negativity or quieting the inner critic we all have. It can also be effectively used for releasing chronic pain and relieving the stress and pressure of daily life.

Aroma Freedom Technique Steps

There are 12 steps in the self-directed AFT process. This program was developed with Young Living Oils, so the oils referred to are ones from their lines. The oils used to break free from the cycle are Lavender, Frankincense, and Stress Away. These are pure, therapeutic oils, available for purchase through Young Living.

The steps of this process are as follows:

1. Out loud, state your goal. Say what it is you want to accomplish or become. What is it that you have been striving for? What is it that has been eluding you? Set your goal. Tell yourself what that goal is by stating it verbally. Now, tell yourself if you believe it is possible to achieve that goal. Is it likely? How likely? This may be the most important step, so don’t be afraid to set large, seemingly impossible goals.

2. Why can’t this goal be reached? If it could be, it would already have been accomplished. What’s the first thing that comes to mind that tells you that you can’t? Isolate that thought, hold on to it.

3. Identify the single emotion behind this thought. What do you feel? Anger? Sadness? Fear? Shame? What’s the one prevailing emotion associated with this negative spiral? There may be more than one, but one will be stronger, more prevalent. What is it? Name it. Say it out loud.

4. Where do you feel it? This might not sound like it makes logical sense, but the body holds memories just as the mind does. It used to be thought that memory was held in the synapses of the brain, but with work being done with DNA and RNA, we’re discovering that memory is also held in a deeper cellular level. So what part of your body feels like this emotion? Open yourself to the feeling to the question. Maybe your stomach feels off or your back hurts or your feet throb. Write down where this emotion resides.

5. Close your eyes and let yourself find a time when you felt the same way. When the basic emotion was the same you’re feeling now; when the same part of the body that is holding the emotion now was holding the same emotion. This might be as early as childhood or as recently as last week. Let yourself find this time. It will come if you allow it to and don’t press. Get a visual, either an image or an internal “movie.”

Put the mix of equal parts Frankincense, Stress Away, and Lavender in the palm of your hand.

6. Focus on the memory; feel the part of the body where the feeling resides. Retrieve the image or movie and the thought in step 2—the one that explained why your goal was out of reach. Bring up all the feelings and memories you’ve created in the previous steps and inhale the scent of the oils.

7. You’re going to feel an emotion, probably several. That’s okay. Let it happen, let the emotions play themselves out, and keep breathing the oils as they do. Don’t fight them! Remember, fighting emotions makes them stronger. Accept them, let them ride over you. Let it happen and breathe in the oil mixture deeply. Note any changes in the imagery or the body sensation.

8. You’ve begun to bypass the cycle. Did you have changes to the visuals? Did you get any new insights you hadn’t had before? Did you see yourself a little differently then? Notice as many differences and changes as you can. When you break through the clouds, a little light is bound to shine, so focus on that. Write them down.

9. Restate your goal out loud again. Now, how possible is it to achieve? If it’s less than “likely” then the cycle may still have control. Return to the second step and don’t get discouraged. If you’ve had this cycle a long time, it may take a while to breakthrough. The point is, you can break through it. Just allow yourself the time needed.

10. Now that you’ve jotted down some new thoughts, expound on those. Work them into an affirmation. Reinforce the positive beliefs. You’re training the cycle to veer from the negative and to the positive. The smell of the oils helps to set these in the deepest part of the mind, the part that is active even when the conscious is not. Repeat the affirmations associated with this emotion and body part. Use positive verbs like “I will succeed,” or “I am good,” or “I can reach my goal.”

11. Repeat your affirmations twice each day for three days. Give the affirmations time to sink in and take hold. Say them for two or three minutes each time, continue until you feel them taking hold. You’re resolving the cycle of negativity.

12. Make a plan. You’re breaking through the cycle, now it’s time to take action. Put the new affirmation to work, put the new you to work. Do something that will get you closer to your goal. You don’t have to reach it all at once, just move forward.

Following these steps in the order described will have not only a significant but a profound effect on your life. Can you imagine breaking free from the things that are holding you back in a way that is so amazingly simple?

How Do I Get Started?

If you want to work alone in the privacy of your own home, simply set aside time and follow the 12 steps above. And don’t forget the oils. Young Living Oils are one of the most important parts of this therapy. Remember it’s called the AROMA Freedom Technique. Using the oils accesses something deeper and more primal than that area where the cycle is stored and can break free from self-doubt and defeatist thinking.

The developer of AFT, Dr. Benjamin Perkus has written a book called The Aroma Freedom Technique that can help if you want more details than what I’ve given here. Some people prefer to work with an AFT practitioner. If that’s you, you can find locally certified practitioners of the Aroma Freedom Technique who are more than happy to see you through the process. You can find them on the AFT website here: https://aromafreedom.com.

I also have AMAZING AFT practitioners on my essential oils team, if you would like me to connect you to them shoot me an email: [email protected].

Putting the steps together with the oil in this process will dramatically change your life. Whether you work through this alone, or whether you have a therapist guide you through the experience you can safely say that your life is about to change in new and exciting ways.