Obsession of the month: ridding myself of negative energy. Sounds startlingly hippyish coming from me, the most cynical person in existence, but it’s true. I am spending so much time in front of a computer screen these days that I can almost feel my mind ‘buzzing’ when I go to bed. Even when I’m away from the computer there’s the iPhone to be staring at, and even when I’m taking some time out for good old reading, I’m poring over the Amazon Kindle!

So I have developed a bit of a habit recently and that’s spritzing myself with my Chakras whenever I get up from the computer and leave the room. Well, not every time, but a lot of the times. I mean, if I pop to the loo, I don’t do this whole dancing ceremony with feathers on my ankles and wrists, chanting and writhing about in a mist of essential oil blends, but if I’m going off to have some lunch or I need to have some good, quiet thinking time, then I spritz myself with the Chakras.

‘Chakra 2’ from Aveda, a balancing body mist, promises to balance the ‘pleasure chakra’. Now, I have no idea what that actually means, but this body spray does make me feel more content and relaxed after I have used it, so it’s a keeper. If Aveda could please make a spray for balancing my ‘I’ve been writing for ten hours and still haven’t written 5000 words’ Chakra then I would be eternally grateful. I would bathe in the stuff! I can’t really explain the scent to you – although you could wear it in the same way as a traditional fragrance, it’s much more than a perfume. Perhaps it’s partly psychosomatic, but I really think that the different essential oils have an effect on mind and soul (I suppose that’s what the whole aromatherapy thing is all about!) and so it’s almost a treatment rather than a mere fragrance.

(Next week: plants, and how speaking to them can enhance your life.)

Aveda Chakra 2 Balancing Body Mist, £26.50 from AVEDA ONLINE and Aveda salons worldwide.