Skin Health Magazine Issue #7 / Spring 2018 | Page 8

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Mind
Wellbeing
The Power of Scent
Y
ou’re sifting through tops at your fa-
vourite store and a random girl walks
past. You barely notice her, and yet you
are suddenly, inexplicably enveloped by the
giddy feeling that you’re twelve years old again.
What just happened? Ah, yes. That young
stranger was wearing the same cheap perfume
you dabbled in as a tween.
Such is the power of scent. Inside our brains,
the olfactory system is closely associated with
the amygdala and hippocampus, which handle
emotion and memory. That’s why a picture of
a wet street won’t affect you like actually walking
outside on a summer day and experiencing the
smell of raindrops hitting a hot pavement.
Learning to tap into these associations can
enable us to transform our reactions, to bring
a sense of calm into tense situations, to summon
energy when we feel lethargic.
Brenda Cox, a Cognitive Hypnotherapist and
Life Coach based in Essex, has long used pep-
permint during therapy sessions as an ‘anchor’
smell. This means that later on, when a client
encounters anxieties in the real world, he or
she can take a quick smell of peppermint oil
and instantly re-experience the relaxation and
confidence felt during therapy.
In addition to associations formed through ex-
perience, many scents possess innate qualities.
“Peppermint is a powerful scent because it has
such strong connections with cleanliness, strength,
and feelings of being uplifted,” says Cox.
She points to lavender as another inherently
effective scent. “I like to work with lavender as
a complete opposite to peppermint,” Cox says.
“It is a wonderful relaxing scent and works well
with calming anxiety and sleep issues.”
Studies have uncovered many other scent
superheroes, including these:
• Sage was found to reduce blood pressure
• Cinnamon made drivers more focused
• Orange helped test-takers feel less stressed
• Rosemary improved mental agility
Harnessing the powers of scents can be easy.
“Put a few drops of oil onto a tissue or hand-
kerchief, to access wherever you are,” suggests
Cox. She also recommends getting a small
heated oil burner to spread scent through your
living spaces. And, because it’s portable, you
can take one traveling and make anywhere feel
li