The Art of Using Incenses and Resins: Benefits, Techniques, and Tips

You can use incense and resins to help balance excessive water element during winter. 

It’s January, and temperatures continue to drop. Snowstorms abound. Our time in doors has increased. 

This time of year brings many challenges to our health and our overall sense of well-being. 

Health benefits of incense

From the standpoint of Traditional Chinese Medicine, the dominant element for winter is water. This manifests as rainy seasons in warm climates and snowy months in colder climates. Through precipitation, the excess of water element is obvious. 

This also manifests in the body. Excess water element feels like you are moving in slow motion. You may feel more sluggish this time of year. You may retain excess water in your tissues. Water element also is directly related to the kidneys, so this is a good time of year to make sure you are supporting good kidney health by maintaining proper hydration and using juniper essential oil, which has traditionally been used to support the balance of water element in the body. 

However, the easiest way to keep water element balanced is by incorporating more of its opposite element into your lifestyle.

Too much fire is a bad thing. But not enough fire is ALSO a bad thing. Fire is a tool we can use in small quantities, in the right ways, to bring balance to excess water element. 

This means fire!!! And while too much fire is a VERY bad thing, a little fire is a needful thing. Traditionally, the hearth fire kept the entire home warm and cozy through the long winter months, providing hot meals and even light. 

Now, even though we may have fireplaces and wood stoves in our home, most of us are not utilizing those in the same way. 

How can we encourage fire element? Well there are a lot of ways: spicier foods, hot foods, burning candles, enjoying time around the fire, and wearing and decorating in warmer colors are just some of these. 

However, of all of the ways to balance water element by bringing in fire element, burning resins and natural incenses has to be my favorite.

Burning incense is its own ritual, and choosing to do so can help you bring mindfulness into your day. Benefits of using incenses and resins for relaxation are myriad as we will see.

Burning these types of aromatics is its own ritual. As the incense or resin smoke rises to the ceiling, we are reminded of our own prayers and desires. The smoke helps to clean and clear the air. The scent uplifts our mood. And the entire experience represents fire element—stoking the flames of your energy.

Toxicity in Incense

Please be aware that most incenses available on the market are laced with toxic synthetic ingredients that will not serve your body or your intentions to increase your well-being. 

Incense can be healthy, or it can be deadly. Be aware that most incenses—either the sticks or the small pyramids—is laced with synthetic fragrances and unnatural additives. These types of ingredients will actually provoke a stress response in your body, even if they smell great to you. If you want to burn incense, it is worth tracking down some incense made completely with natural ingredients. 

Tips for selecting high-quality incense and resin products

A few years ago I stumbled across just this type of incense at Alpine Botanicals, a now closed apothecary in Nederland, Colorado. I was assured by the herbalist there that these incenses are created from byproducts of the aromatherapy industry that are all natural and plant based. The company that creates these is Savitur Botanicals, a company also out of Colorado, that sources its aromatics carefully and ethically and through the lens of Ayurveda. Unfortunately, it looks like both of these companies are victims of Covid.

Suffice it to say, it is difficult to find pure incenses. I would also suggest checking out Shoyeido Incense.

Tree saps harden into the materials we call resins that can then be burned as aromatic for physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual benefit. 

While incense tends to be on a stick or made into small pyramids of aromatic material, plant resins are very different. These are basically the saps of trees. This sap moves through cracks in the bark to the exterior of the tree where it hardens. It is then collected and can be burned in similar ways to incense. 

My favorite resin of all time is frankincense. Once you start burning this aromatic, you will know why its value was so high in the ancient world. Frankincense has a sweet, balsamic, and slightly woody scent that will give your space ALL of the warm, cozy feelings you want during winter. I use it for spiritual practices, to enhance concentration and memory, and to help myself to dig further into my creativity. Frankincense can be supportive to the lungs and can help to bolster the immune system.

Here is pinon pine resin I sourced from the now defunct Floracopeia. It looks like rocks, but it sure doesn’t smell like that. Light, warm, and woody, this is a scent not to be missed during winter season. 

There are other resins that I may grab —copal or even locally-collected juniper or Russian olive resins. But my new favorite of the moment is pinon pine resin. Pinon pine interestingly does not smell like pine as a resin when it is burned. It has a light, airy, fresh scent that has a fair amount of sweetness in it as well. I have been burning it in the mornings to cleanse and clear my space and energize my mind for work. 

Mountain Rose Herbs, a company I have partnered with for over 20 years, has a nice selection of resins and burnables.

Are you curious about more ways to create leverage in your lifestyle according to the season? Join us for the Eastern Medicine Academy(one year or a season at a time) to find out what ancient wisdom has to teach us about living well. Or, consider joining us in the Rewild + Untame community.

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