Why Do We Love Candles?

Celebrate - Delight - Please - Captivate - Stimulate Warm - Calm - Excite

Have you ever thought of all the reasons people use candles - for celebrations, romance, spiritual purposes, to light up your dinner table or just for relaxing. The National Candle Association (NCA) tells us that 7 out of 10 American households use candles regularly. Sales are increasing at 10-15% per year. If you are already a candle user, or even if you are not, see if the uses we discuss are familiar. Maybe you'll find new uses for candles.

AMBIANCE

Light and fragrance are the most effective and easiest way to improve your home’s mood and ambiance.  Home interior candles allow you to provide both.  They create elegant subtle lighting and beautifully decorate your home with texture and color. Their fragrances can be tailored to fit any mood or environment. Studies show that soft light is calming on the body. Relaxing with candlelight can help reduce stress. Who can resist a quiet candlelight dinner or a few candles set about the bedroom for that perfect moment? Candles in the bathroom make it warm and relaxing while bathing. Home interior candles add an air of elegance. Candles create an instant mood in any room of the home. Designers around the world choose to add candles for accents in all rooms of the home.

APHRODISIAC

Set the mood for love with candles. The smell of patchouli or rosewood sensual candles is said to be an aphrodisiac.

AROMATHERAPY

Aromatherapy is a natural healing alternative that uses the oils extracted from flowers, herbs, fruits other plants and even trees. The benefits of burning aromatherapy candles may be experienced when the fragrance is inhaled. These oils act on the olfactory nerves that lead from the nose to the brain. They contain antibiotic, antiviral, and other therapeutic properties.

Aromatherapy candles are usually a combination of scents to provide relief to a variety of ailments. For example, Cinnamon Clove Mandarin has a very spicy aroma that acts as a stimulant. A mixture of Honeysuckle and Chamomile creates a relaxing atmosphere and rejuvenates the body after a long, hard day.

In addition to mood altering scents, there are certain medicinal qualities in aromatherapy. Lavender not only creates a feeling of deep calm, but also soothes the nervous system and stimulates the immune system. Combining the soothing scents of aromatherapy candles with a hot, relaxing herbal tea bath is a great stress reliever.

Each person has an individual sense of smell. It is important to use the fragrances that you find attractive.

HOME DÉCOR

Candles also add to home decor. Nothing beats an array of pillar candles of various sizes as a center piece for a coffee table. Candles also bring color and warm fragrances to bathrooms, dens, and bedrooms. In fact, for very little money, the necessary little touches that finish a room can be handled with candles.

 Combine candles of uniform color or varying shades of one color in a variety of shapes and widths, using a unique combination of candle holders.  This display can look wonderful even when the candles aren't lit.

Try different size taper candles in a direct line down the center of the table, spaced three inches apart in order of height. Make the tallest candle the center with shorter ones going down the line on each side.

Make a centerpiece by placing a column candle in a pottery bowl and surrounding the base of the candle with smooth stones, or try using a porcelain bowl and surrounding the candle with faux pearls.

Fill your fireplace with candles.  Vary the height with bricks or stone blocks to create the atmosphere of a glowing flame.  This is great to do in the spring and summer when it is too warm to light a fire.

While candles are great for mood setting, they are just as wonderful when enjoyed alone. Get a book, a glass of wine and relax to the warm light of a few candles.

HOLIDAYS

Christmas

Spices, cinnamon, apples, berries and a hint of something special. Today, scented candles continue to enhance Christmas. Pine, cinnamon and gingerbread spice are just a few of the scented candles that have become popular over the years. Even little tea-lights help to spread the wonderful smells of potpourri.

Christmas dinner isn't the same without a couple of candles. Fringed with small wreaths or majestically standing in heirloom candlesticks, their warm glow cradles the faces of family and friends and adds brilliance to the golden hue of a table laden heavy with feast.

GIFTS

Candles can be used as gifts for all occasions. Stumped for an anniversary gift? Tired of giving blenders at wedding showers?  Create a candle-lit dinner for two.  Line a picnic-style basket with linen napkins, two crystal champagne flutes, elegant brass or silver candle holders, and long, romantic taper candles.

CANDLE THERAPY

Using candles as therapy has been around for thousands of years. It has been practiced by nearly every religion. Candle therapy can be used to unite the powers of the mind, body, and spirit. From ancient times to the present, candles lit our way through every advancement. From celebrations and ceremonies to proclamations and processions, the candle's flame has always been a metaphor for the soul. It possesses a tranquil and almost hypnotic atmosphere to those who allow its power to take them to a very special place.

The candle can reflect the spiritual and ethical changes we would like to bring about in ourselves. It burns as a reminder and symbol of our desires. There are many ways to utilize the power of Candle Therapy. Color therapy, aromatherapy, music and sound therapy can and do overlap within the healing process to create a positive and powerful approach to finding the balanced system. These complimentary systems, along with Candle Therapy, are all configured and intertwined within the practice of its theory and application.

• Need a new beginning? Consider burning a green candle for growth.
• Building a new life? Burn a yellow candle.
• Seeking life expansion and rewards? Use a purple candle.
• Shedding unwanted pounds? Light a red candle to set the mood.
• Want to prompt a peaceful mind, relaxation and success? Try fruit or floral scents.

MEDITATION

Meditation can be enhanced with candles. By lighting a candle that is infused with color, botanicals or essential oil, these fundamental energies are released into the atmosphere and are absorbed by the individuals within the area of the candle. The auric field absorbs this energy and it is taken into the body. The word "aura" is another name for "energy field" or "radiation." Every substance in the universe has a radiation or aura -- and the auras of minerals, plants and animals as well as human beings have special characteristics. Meditation can rejuvenate the auric field.

One of the most beneficial and powerful means of healing through meditation is to arrange candles in geometric layouts around yourself or around an individual. Geometric energy is applied in arranging the candles for specific types of healing. It is said that different geometric shapes will alter and enhance the effects of color and scent. It involves understanding what particular geometric patterns can do by using that particular layout around an individual to heal. Meditating within the center of these configurations, can heighten the entire experience. Here are some examples:

The Square: setting candles in the formation of a square stabilizes the entire physiological system. It grounds, calms and settles the basic life force around the color, scent or meditation being used.

The Triangle: setting candles in the formation of a triangle works as an amplifier. It increases the power of healing especially if the meditation is utilizing color, botanical or scented candles. It makes the meditation more cleansing.

The Cross: setting candles in the formation of a cross will assist in balancing the elements of fire, air, water and earth in the individual thus allowing the benefits of the candle to work more effectively. It affects the heart center (chakra) and can be used with all problems associated with it. It balances our physical energy.

NOVELTY

Candles shaped like animals, fruit, angels, cinnamon buns, soda cans, glasses of beer, cars, Looney Tune characters, or even skulls, can be found.

ROMANCE

Candles are the easiest way to create instant romance. The music can be perfect and the food divine, but if the bright lights are on, the feeling is less magical and romantic. Romantically, the warm glow of candles caresses our senses and softens our silhouettes, creating an atmosphere of love. They stimulate our senses by softening the outside distractions that lamps and other bright lights produce.

It takes little thought and time to place a few candles randomly around a room. Generally, this is enough. But the key to romance is in the details that act upon the subconscious, subtly influencing feelings and choices, which should always include candles.

• Put lots of white candles out on the ground in the shape of a heart. Then have a nice "candlelit" dinner in the middle of it. Make the dinner in theme with the candles, having heart shaped food, like cookies in the shape of hearts.

• Light your entire house with romantic candles. Put them on your coffee table, the fireplace, the dining room table, in the kitchen, on the TV. And don’t forget a soft subtle light in the bathroom. Use various sizes and keep them lit throughout your romantic evening.

• Enjoy the calming sensation of water and flame as you relax with romantic floating candles. When it comes to kindling romance, lighting is an important consideration. Candlelight casts a complimentary glow. Candlelight is relaxing. whenever you're more relaxed, you're more romantic.

• If you are making a special meal. use candles, but avoid the scented kind so they don't conflict with the aromas of your meal.

• Fill a crystal bowl with water and add a few floating candles for a romantic candle centerpiece. The cut crystal will magnify the glow of the candles.  When a smaller decoration is needed, put one floating candle in a wine glass, filled with water.

INDUCE QUITE

Candlelight induces quiet. Light several candles and listen as the volume goes down.

PRACTICALITY

Click the link below to read about the practical uses of candles.

Practical Uses of Candles