Sense of Smell
Enliven your experience by continually refining your sense of smell.
every day we’re bombarded by sensations, including scents and odors, that can help us feel more alive. This pattern talks about how to tune into your sense of scents.
The air we breathe is filled with scents, but we rarely notice them. In cities, some of those scents are less than pleasant, but blocking them out can cause us to miss the good ones.
-
Your senses are your source of experience. Leonardo DaVinci was well aware of this and tried to refine all his senses.
-
One of the uses of our sense of smell is to detect rancid foods and other toxic substances. Personally, I always seem to be able to detect unpleasant odors (leaking gas, a dead mouse under the couch) more quickly than the pleasant scents.
-
Other animals, such as dogs, have a much keener sense of smell than humans, but that could well be due in part to the fact that we don’t practice it. I’ve heard of a magic trick where several objects are placed on a table, and the magician leaves the room. Before she leaves, she asks one of the guests to choose and object, pick it up and hold it for a time while she’s gone. When she comes back, she can easily tell which object was handled because of how it smells. Try it and see what you think. If we pay attention, we are much more capable than we we give ourselves credit.
-
The following ideas for improving your sense of sight come from How To Think Like Leonard Da Vinci by Michael J. Gelb:
- make ’smells’ a theme for the day
- make your own perfume
- study aromatherapy
-
The ability of odor to affect mood is well known. Aromatherapy is a technique that uses specific odors to help people focus better, relax, improve their energy, and more.
Therefore:
Enliven your experience by continually refining your sense of smell. Pay attention to how specific odors affect your emotions or your energy level.
To find scents that you enjoy or that affect you in ways you want, Experiment with different essential oils or visit the perfume counter at a local store; while on a Walk, make a point of cataloging the scents you encounter