“Love is first of all madly loving the smell of another. »
Pascal Quignard
According to the Larousse dictionary, the verb to feel means: “To experience a sensation, a physical state, to be affected by it in a pleasant or painful way”. This is exactly our intention from the beginning. You reconnect with your sense of smell in order to smell consciously and thus realize all the benefits of scents on your moods day after day. We are therefore returned to the pure pleasure of feeling, or feeling.
I remember the beginning of my relationship with my partner when I wore one of his shirts as pajamas to wrap myself in his scent and his presence at night. What a beautiful memory. I'm sure you have them too.
Since the dawn of time, smells have reassured you, energized you, calmed you, made you madly in love, but what if I asked which ones? Would you be able to answer me? Rest assured, this is the case for the majority of the population.
To feel
To smell is to meet your emotions generated by the smell. It is an infinitely powerful and revealing mechanism.
The “Smell to feel” approach is more about finally recognizing and giving a place to your sense of smell in your life. It's about intentionally making it part of your daily life in order to discover the smells that bring you joy, those that envelop you and comfort you when life shakes you up or even those that bring you confidence and courage.
Just like your hearing and sight, your sense of smell is continually bombarded with olfactory stimuli, because many industries have fully understood the infinite power of smells to make you feel good. The industry that comes to mind is personal care, whether it's your citrus shower soap to wake you up in the morning, your lavender shampoo to calm you down, it's all about building a caring relationship between the company and you. However, I put a caveat on the type of feeling versus the source of the material felt.
Natural vs synthetic
Just like the pharmaceutical industry, the perfume industry faces the same dilemma: the use of synthetic molecules or plant molecules. This is a titanic war and the lobbying of the perfume giants is just as powerful as that of the pill. Since the release of the iconic Chanel No.5, the first 100% synthetic perfume, this industry has led you by the nose.
I am not here to set up a debate on the subject but simply to expose you to the fact that there is a clear difference in terms of feeling between a synthetic odor and an odor coming from the plant world. In fact, the same goes for all your other senses. Your sense of touch makes the difference between feeling leatherette and real leather. Your eyesight makes the difference between daylight and light from a light bulb. Your hearing is the difference between a recorded voice and in person. Your nose too.
I often compare the synthetic molecule to a photo. When you look at the photo of a friend and you miss them... The simple sight of their image will certainly make you experience a multitude of emotions, but never like meeting this friend in person. There your experience, both emotional and physical, will be complete because not only will you see him but you will also be able to hug him, smell his scent, talk to him, exchange ideas and create a new memory. Only living plant matter can offer you this complete experience, hence the interest in natural perfumery based on pure and living essential oils.
In fact, when you have the pleasure of smelling a perfume composed solely of noble raw materials such as essential oils, you will feel the difference, no pun intended. Indeed, your feeling and feeling will be complete because not only will your body react but your soul will as well. The reasons are very simple, firstly an essential oil is the very soul of the plant, flower or wood and its smell is its language. Secondly, since your sense of smell is directly connected to the limbic system, home of your emotional memories, only a pure essential oil can make you vibrate and go to meet your own memories which are often buried and rendered mute in the hyper activity of your daily.
A flower garden
The feelings of perfumes are multiple and just as varied as a garden of flowers. The universe of your olfactory feelings is a magnificent world which is full of surprise and discovery both about ourselves and the world around us. A smell alone has the power to transport us and transform us forever. The plant world is full of extraordinary allies to help you in your quest for daily well-being. I invite you to go on an adventure with me and intentionally open yourself to the wonderful powers of scent.
Faithful to my practice, I offer you once again this week a simple little olfaction exercise which will allow you to highlight the information received in both parts of this text.
This week I'm going to ask you to do your exercise in the evening, a time when your house is full of everyday smells (meals, laundry, body odors, etc.) but when your ability to smell is at its maximum. Sit in the kitchen after dinner, take a fresh lemon, cut it in half, take a half (flesh side up) and swing it left and right under your nose. Note the scents you perceive. Now drink a tall glass of ice water. Move to a room of your choice that you have ventilated beforehand. Take a few deep breaths to calm down and smell your lemon again. Note the differences in your olfactory perceptions and feelings. You can repeat this exercise with different foods or spices and have fun discovering your olfactory power and the power of smells on you.
I sincerely hope that you liked this text but above all that it opened you to the magic of your sense of smell. Next week: “Olfactory memories, part one ” , in which we will discuss the first three essential elements for creating olfactory memories. Don't miss it!
If this text appealed to you, or you would like to share your experience following this week's brief exercises, leave me a comment and I will be happy to read it!
In addition, I invite you to spread the information and share it with your friends and loved ones.
See you soon
Sylvie-Anne