I’d like to let you in on a little secret...
Our ability to smell is our most underrated superpower.
Not only do scents do things like make our mouth water and our food taste delicious, but they’re also connected to the parts of our brain dedicated to learning and memory.
What this means is that we can actually use scent to help us learn and remember.
How cool is that?
We seem to take this superpower for granted (usually paying more attention to sight or touch, for example), but since starting this home fragrance journey, I’ve discovered three ways to intentionally use scent throughout our days to harness that superpower.
Scent To Re-Center
I tend to fill up my days with to-do lists, errands, obligations, and suddenly my I’ve lost sight of the values I hold dear like gratitude, choosing joy, remembering my worth, knowing I am capable. Before I know it, I’m cranky, flustered, and overwhelmed.
Because scent is so powerfully connected to memory, we have the opportunity to tie those values to a scent that will help us come back to the center.
So is there a scent that you find inherently joyful? Or one that reminds you of giving thanks?
Instead of rushing through your day, pause for a minute, light that candle and allow the scent to be a backdrop to what you’re doing. Every time you notice the fragrance, you’ll be drawn back into that place of thankfulness or deliberate joy or whatever it is you need for that moment.
Scent To Focus
Fragrance can also set the scene for special times of focus. In the same way that you might have a playlist for cleaning your house, I have a work candle. Every morning, I pour myself a cup of coffee, walk to my workspace, and light my candle. It prepares all of my senses for the tasks before me and helps to block out any distractions.
And it doesn’t even have to be for work. Perhaps it’s for a time of meditation, or even for cleaning. Anytime you want to tune out the rest of the world and focus scent can help you do that.
Scent To Learn (even in your sleep!)
Because both scent and sleep are used to establish memories, there are some really cool studies that show that by choosing a particular scent while you’re learning something new, then using the same scent while you sleep, you can better recall the information when around that scent again.
So think about this: perhaps you burn a special scent while learning a new language. That night you put the same scent of diffuser in your bedroom to help reinforce the memories of what you just learned. The next day, you burn the candle again and you find how easy it is to remember what you learned the day before.
Intentionality
The key to this superpower is to use it with purpose and intention. Think about the scents that motivate you, focus you, ground you, inspire you and use them throughout days and seasons when you need them.
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Happy Sniffing!
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Kate Walsh
Owner of Peripeti Home Fragrance + designer of sophisticated scents for your home
