The Accidental Aromatherapist
Michele Snelling, owner of Michele Snelling LLC, always knew she wanted to help people in whatever capacity she could. She just didn’t know how that would manifest, which she says “is the beauty of it.”
In college, she focused her studies on counseling, planning to earn a master’s degree and become a practicing therapist. However, she eventually left school because she felt that working within the traditional narrative of the counselor would block her from getting to a client’s root issue. Due to that, Michele felt she wouldn’t have the healing impact on others in the way she envisioned.
Her choice was the right one for her and for those seeking help from her. In fact, Michele feels that when a client books an intuitive session with her now, their experience will likely be similar to a regular counseling session. However, the guidance and processes she offers them comes not from the traditional narrative, but from her unique intuitive ability, which she believes is her strongest gift.
These days, Michele finds herself helping others in more ways than one. Her own journey with essential oils is an example. Being sensitive to various scents, which can leave her with negative reactions if she isn’t careful, has led her to become what she calls “the accidental aromatherapist.” In truth, Michele didn’t think she’d ever be able to personally use essential oils. However, when she learned that she could tolerate certain ones, she began making blends for herself, ones that proved beneficial to her.
While she never intended to have her own line of products, once it became clear that she was headed in that direction, Michele set out to find the right oils for use in her blends. Luckily, she came across just what she was looking for, oils that were of the quality she required for herself personally, that she would be willing to put her name on and recommend to others.
Michele’s journey with essential oils, along with her intuition, has led her to a deep understanding of how important it is to our own individual journeys of awakening that we learn to clear out the limiting patterns, clutter, and memories that we carry inside. These might not really be ours to carry, she says. Instead, they might have come from our ancestors, passed down through our DNA. She points out that just like we need to keep our physical homes clean and clear of clutter so we know what’s inside, we need to do the same for our homes within. Fortunately, Michele says, essential oils can help us with the decluttering.
While we are all spiritual beings, she says, we are also human and we are always trying to merge the two. So, while each of us comes in with the pretty spiritual stuff, we also have to look at what Michele calls “the pieces that aren’t quite so pretty.” It’s not about closing ourselves off to these less than desirable parts, she explains. In fact, we need to welcome them home. We have to be fully ourselves, free and honest, able to explore what we carry inside us with a discerning eye.
For Michele, the home within is that place where we are most honest, where we allow all of our parts in. She believes it is important for each of us to create and cultivate the home within. She reminds us that it’s a process, that it’s okay to sit with the messy parts, that there is no need to rush through the decluttering process. Things have their own cycle, rhythm, and energy.
She recognizes that there is a lot of noise in the world that vies for our attention, so much so that we can get occupied with it and overlook what’s happening on the inside. She cautions us not to do this because it could cause us to miss out on the joy that awaits us. Michele says that joy is available to all of us if we’re open to it. It comes quietly, she says, adding, “Joy is your soul. It’s your home.” She explains that it’s a choice; it’s a life.
She should know. She is familiar with it. A few years ago, Michele set an intention for the entire year that she would get to know what joy was, because she wasn’t sure if she had a clue about its true nature. She says that in the year she spent getting intimately connected to joy, she found “that joy has a really deep root system.” She explains that we can flow in and out of joy, but that we are never far from it. We can easily find our way back to it.
Michele reveals that when she’s in a state of joy, she finds other goodies are there too, things like creativity, intuition, trust in self, etc., all intermingled. Pull at one of them and you find them all. She might be an accidental aromatherapist, but Michele is so much more: an intuitive, a creative, a finder of joy, a cultivator of the home within. She is a living tapestry—tug on one of her gifts and they all come forward.
By Karen H. Lizon
