[This is Part 1 of a three-part series on smelling well and smelling good.]
I’m a HUGE believer in Aromatherapy—a form of alternative medicine that promotes psychological and physical well-being. The basic premise is you take of whiff of something and your brain reacts (usually in a positive way). I swear it works. Or maybe I just like to smell stuff.
Never underestimate the value of your nose. Or I should say, the ability to smell. The sense of smell is fascinating. It is part of our evolutionarily primitive brain related to basic survival. (This will be expanded on in Part 2.)
In addition, our sense of smell directly affects our behaviors and mood. It is related to motivations (like anger, fear, and sexual pleasure). It is linked to associative learning and spatial perceptions.
It is also the sense that is most closely linked to memory and emotions. This is because the olfactory bulb in the brain is part of the limbic system—which controls the storage of memories, based on how huge an emotional response is associated with the event.
Ever smell something and immediately you are harkened back to another time and place? One fragrance that always does it for me is sniffing a carnation. It reminds me of taking a bath at our house in Garden Grove when I was around five years old.
Attention Baby Boomers: Do you remember way back when that type of granulated bubble bath that came in individual packets a box shaped like a Kleenex box? The packets were made from a semi-opaque paper like wax paper, and you could see the colors of the granules through the paper. The colors were based on the flower fragrance they represented. There was a flower drawing on the outside of the packet, such as gardenia, rose, violet, lily of the valley, carnation, and maybe others.
I LOVED this bubble bath. The entire box smelled divine. You were supposed to put one packet in the tub per bath. I liked to put three or four. This prompted my Mom to scold me and say, “Quit being lavish!”
That was one of my Mom’s favorite comments: “You’re too lavish!” (I must have heard it a thousand times growing up.) Lavish was NOT a good thing to her. She was a product of the Great Depression. I always thought it was a good thing. My philosophy: “If a little bit of something is good, a whole lot of it is better!” Hence, the more bubbles, the more color, the more fragrance in the bathtub, the better.
Back to SMELL.
In a previous blog I wrote about living in Palm Desert, CA and what the air smelled like after it rained. It’s one of the best smells ever. It made me feel peaceful and hopeful.
A few months ago I tried a new shampoo by Aroma Organics. It’s the closest thing I’ve found that duplicates the desert-after-a-rain scent. I use this product sparingly as I don’t want to run out. (I bought it on sale at Safeway and they don’t sell it any more. Darn the luck!) The ingredients contain oil from a plant called awapuhi—a relative of the Polynesian wild ginger family. Maybe it’s this plant’s odor that appeals to me.
I’d like to stick my nose in a container of this shampoo all day—it smells that good to me. I’m on a mission to find more awapuhi products to see if they conjure up the ‘essence of desert.’ I’ll let you know.
Meanwhile, what are your favorite smells and what emotions do you associate with them?
