Why Use Scent?

It's no secret that as women, we are so busy nowadays with our everyday tasks - work, children, home, exercise, social life, love life... need I go on? - that it's hard to find time for this 'self care' thing that everyone seems to be banging on about. Like I can barely squeeze in a Netflix and chill anymore, it's more like a Netfliiizzzzz because I can only seem to find time to myself late at night when everyone else is in bed asleep, and by that time I'm almost zonked as well. 

What if I were to tell you that you didn't need a heap of time? That sometimes mere minutes is all you to need to stop, inhale, and reset your nervous system? Then read on - but only for a couple of minutes, because I know you're busy and don't have time for a long-winded, boring blog post filled with fluff lol

You know how sometimes you catch a whiff of something and instantly you are reminded of a moment from long ago? Your grandmother's kitchen, perhaps? The rose garden when you were 6? This is because, and I'm going to get slightly science-y here but not much, our sense of smell is directly linked to our limbic system in our brains, which governs emotions and memories. So this is why particular scents can trigger memories. Isn't that amazing? 

But what does this have to do with scenting self care? Because we can train our brains to remember that we felt relaxed when we sniffed a particular scent, that's why! Use your favourite scent when doing the bigger things - reading, meditating, heck even showering if that's all the alone time you're getting at the moment - and in time you're brain will associate that scent with the calm you feel when doing said activity. 

And the next time you are feeling stressed, anxious, overwhelmed or just plain down, stop for a moment, inhale your scent, and let your brain do it's limbic system memory thing and help you feel calm and relaxed again.