Wellness Wednesdays - Scent

Welcome to Wednesday’s Wellness Clinic. I can promise you I am not a doctor, a psychotherapist or a preacher, just someone with a lot going on inside her head looking for a way to calm the storm and impart that wisdom to you.

Before I start, I would like to apologise [to myself, it seems] for not bringing you a new recipe for yesterday’s Tasty Tuesday. Unfortunately, I hadn’t made anything on the weekend and no one recipe felt worth sharing this week. But I promise I will be back in a fortnight with something delicious to talk about so watch this space. And now, without further ado, let us get into this week’s wellness tip: scent, inspired by the upcoming Sense of Smell Day on April 24^th.

I am very much a person who loves the smell of things: fresh bread, fallen rain, coffee, new books, to name a few. They’re all your semi-everyday scents which, apart from putting me into the artsy-poet category, make me feel good. And that’s the benefit of our senses. Not only do they help guide us through life, but as with my last Wellness Wednesday – ASMR – treating them and finding out what excites them really can do wonders for us mentally. They can make us nostalgic by triggering happy memories, they can calm us, energise us, inspire our emotions.  And scent is perhaps the most powerful of all the senses. You can be walking along the street and pass someone wearing the same fragrance as your partner; even though you may not be missing them at that moment, your heart rate instantly goes up and you start thinking about them, all because your brain associates the feeling of love with that scent.

Of course, we’re here to talk about what you can do to help your mood and mental wellbeing through the medium of scent. This can be done by identifying what scents make you feel calmer/happier/generally better and finding a way to incorporate them into your life in a readily available format. My relaxing scents are very natural and include rose, jasmine and lavender, as well as lemongrass and sandalwood/cedarwood (a list that I will probably be adding to). Of these, I have found a few in pulse point essential oil roller balls which are pocket-sized and convenient for whenever I need a moment of calm (check out Tisserand). You might prefer to use candles, perfume, or incense if your favourite smells are easily condensed in this way – you’ll be surprised how well some companies can distil smells like the ocean and cupcakes into something you can burn or spray. This can also aid you during meditation, studying/work, or when you have a moment to slow down and tune into your senses.

I don’t have a lot else to share with you on this topic, but I hope this short entry can inspire you to seek out your own feel-good fragrance and bring a small moment of calm to your otherwise busy life.