How our sense of smell reacts to fight or flight and how to harness it’s calming power.

So far in this series we’ve covered 3 of the 5 senses.  Sight, hearing and touch.  This brings us to, quite possibly, the most fascinating one; our sense of smell.

What you might not know is that studies have shown that our sense of smell is the most accurate and fastest sense we have when it comes to detecting threats and recalling memories.  It is also our most primitive sense.

The part of our brain that picks up scent is our olfactory bulb.  When it smells something, it sends it to the part of our brain where emotions are processed called the amygdala and also the part where memories are recalled, the hippocampus. This very reason is why some realtors will bake chocolate chip cookies in a house they are showing because it triggers the easy feeling of home or they will use the of smell of cinnamon to automatically put potential buyers in a cheery and festive mood and they will automatically imagine festive holidays in the home.

Even department stores are known to manipulate our emotions and actions through our sense of smell.  Studies have shown that warm scents, such as vanilla and cinnamon, and simple clean scents like orange and lemon will have shoppers staying longer and buying more.

In fight or flight, the accuracy of our sense of smell is invaluable.

Take smoke, for example.  If our olfactory bulb picks up the smell of smoke, it will process the information and trigger our amygdala to kickstart our feeling of fear and anxiety, thus sending us into fight or flight mode where we will escape danger and protect ourselves.

Scent can bring about memories of traumatic events by triggering memories as well.  Such as someone getting a whiff of the same cologne that their attacker was wearing or the smell of burning rubber could trigger memories of a car accident.

In the same way our sense of smell can be used to manipulate us, protect us or trigger memories, it can also be used to calm us when we are stressed or angry.

There are very many scents that calm us such as chamomile, vanilla, lavender, jasmine, peppermint and bergamot; and scents that make us happy such as citrus, rose, Ylang-ylang and Neroli. The best part about using our sense of smell to calm us is that you can find your own scent that triggers good and calming emotions according to your memory.  Maybe it’s a scent that reminds you of your mother’s shampoo when you were young and sitting on her lap.  It could be the smell of a garage that triggers memories of your father.  It could be something that smells like outside, cooking or a classroom project from third grade.

Mine is the smell of an air freshener that they don’t make anymore.  Every once in a while, I find an off-brand candle that will carry that smell and I just have to get it because it brings me back to memories spent with my grandmother.

Whatever scent or scents you choose, you can’t go wrong as long as it brings you to a happy place, calms you, or provides you with pleasant memories to put you at ease.