Homemade candles for your health
Photo by Yan Krukov on Pexels
The soothing effect that candles have is based on how the brain processes smell. The smell of scented candles stimulates your limbic system, the part of your brain that is home to your memory and emotions. Hormones like serotonin and dopamine are produced and help regulate mood. Therefore, your emotional state is influenced by the relationship that exists between scents, memories, and emotions.
When you make your own candles, your creativity also increases positive emotions, reduces depressive symptoms and anxiety, and improves the function of your immune system. The act of creating requires focus and concentration, and multitasking doesn’t work. This state of creative flow is caused by changes in brain function. Your brainwaves slow down. Your prefrontal cortex temporarily deactivates, in other words, it goes quiet, making you less critical of your ideas and more courageous. Lastly, during this flow state, your brain releases large quantities of endorphins, serotonin, and dopamine. These are pleasure- and satisfaction-inducing chemicals that affect creativity and well-being.
The way your brain acts during creative activities is similar to the experience during meditation, mindfulness, and yoga exercises. These activities help you find peace, calm, and happiness by blocking out external stimuli. Like these exercises, creativity can produce a natural high or feeling of joy and contentment.
Finally, you are making a positive impact on our planet. Wax residues often end up in the trash. But you can easily make new candles from them, which are original and also a wonderful gift for Christmas. This way, you reuse, recycle and transform. And if you have kids, they will love to get involved.
“Refuse what you do not need; reduce what you do need; reuse what you consume; recycle what you cannot refuse, reduce and reuse; or transform the rest.”
— Bea Johnson
Utensils
Candle remnants
Cotton thread
Cooking pot
Bowl
Small sieve
Container in which to fill the candle
Pencil
Optional: essential oils
How to do it
Sort candle scraps by color and cut them into small pieces.
Put wax of one color in the bowl and melt in a water bath. Remove impurities and old wick with the small sieve.
Cut the cotton thread to twice the length of the height of the container, tie a knot, and roll up on a pencil at the other end.
Dip the thread briefly in wax, then place it in the center of the glass so that the wick is perpendicular to the top. Place pencil on opening and align thread.
Pour the hot wax - optionally with a few drops of essential oil - into the jar and let it harden.
Tip
If you have different colors, why not put a layer in one color and the next layer in another color in the container? There are no limits to your creativity.
