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French morning sunrise, clutching a white china cup of boiled lemon water, I perch sleepily on the step, overlooking my purple garden. The soft hum of bees in the background of nature chanting their rhythm. Now I am lost in the aroma of lavender, closing my eyes, the sun is on my face and all I need now to awaken my dream is to breathe in the aroma. My fifth sense, forever grateful to remember the morning sunrise. Every time I smell lavender, I am transported back to my French mornings.
Our powerful fifth sense, can trigger a memory long lost.
The sense of smell can hold a memory in our brain which has the ability to be triggered many years later. This sense is so powerfully linked to parts of our brain which evoke emotion and memory. Our senses will often surprise us when certain smells trigger an unexpected memory. This fifth sense can take us back to places and events in our past. Oranges and cinnamon carry me back to a childhood Christmas arousing a warm feeling, the smell of an aftershave my husband used to wear still has the power to make me feel queasy, the reason being at the time I was suffering from morning sickness. Smells are powerful and throughout history we have not only used them to give us pleasure but to aid our health, physically and mentally.
Smelling salts used since the 17th century worked by reviving someone who felt faint. We can also be woken by the smell of coffee brewing in the morning and bacon sizzling in the kitchen sending messages to our sleepy brain that breakfast is nearly ready.
DID YOU KNOW, the smell of a lemon has the ability to lift your spirit if you are feeling a little low. Try it.
The first thing we do when presented with a bunch of flowers is to smell them. Although the scent is not put there by nature to attract us humans, we have throughout history replicated these aromas in our perfume, our cosmetics, and washing powders and cleaning materials, scented candles, and air fresheners. The list can go on, we are without a doubt, attracted to floral scents of nature. Cleopatra the Egyptian queen, filled her ship with rose petals and waded through them to meet Mark Anthony. What was on her mind? For years we have linked romance to the scent of roses and other sweet-smelling flowers.
Essential oils
There has been a huge interest in recent years in essential oils and their benefits to health and self-care, providing solutions to everyday needs. Users delight in the aromatic experience enjoying their ability to promote a calm and pleasing experience, uplifting our mood and relaxing our body. I recently took some yoga lessons where the practitioner used oils at the end of her lesson by dropping a few drops of geranium into the palms of our hands as we took a few moments of calm to manage our mood and emotions.
Essential oils have been used for centuries, The ancient Greeks, Romans, Chinese, and Indians have used them in rituals. Whether or not they fully understood the effects of these oils, it took until some research in the 1990’s to help biologists understand that by inhaling a certain scent could cause specific chemical sensors in the body and brain to react and these had the ability to enhance and change our mood.
Using your fifth sense
A distant relative who turned blind at the age of 29 due to an illness expressed to me that he had never been able to see so much since he had learned to use his other senses, including his sense of smell. I had always been fascinated by his remark. A blind person has to focus more on their sense of smell and learns to use and develop it which many of us just take for granted. Many Covid sufferers lose their sense of smell and taste. Both are linked. Without your sense of smell, your taste is impaired.
So like a breath of fresh air to lift our spirits, maybe it is time to ‘wake up and smell the roses,’ as the saying goes. It makes sense to pay attention to our senses and to nurture them. Living with an impaired sense of smell can be debilitating. When I gave up smoking 11 years ago it was like I had landed on a different planet. I started to smell different aromas and my food tasted 100% better.
Awaken your senses. A mini Master Class in Essential oils.
If you are in my neck of the woods. Jalon Valley in the Costa Blanca, join us on Wednesday 2nd June for a lesson with the wonderful Pauline McGough who is an expert when it comes to using essential oils. She will be running a mini master class and there will be a lunch after. I will also be there sampling all her amazing oils. Leave me a message in the comments below, and I will happily send you the details.
PLEASE NOTE, The above event on the 2nd is now fully booked, Please leave your name below if you would like me to contact you about a future event.
Have a happy day…….. Lauren.
Useful links https:
essential oils to order https://simplyessentialsolutions.com/
Improve your sense of smell https://boomboomnaturals.com/blogs/news/how-to-improve-sense-of-smell
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