The Power of the Sense of Smell.

Whenever I light incense, it takes me right back to India, and brings back a memory that I thought had long been forgotten. India holds such an incredibly special place in my heart and I still say that it feels like a second home to me. I find the smells so comforting and familiar, and I associate those smells with such life changing, poignant, exciting and inquisitive times. All those emotions in one smell! I literally light incense and doop cones every. single. day. It feels like a big hug when I come home, I feel a deep sense of peacefulness, but ultimately something that I can’t put into words.

The other day I walked past someone in the street and as they walked past I got a huge waft of the woman’s perfume, and it took me right back to my primary school teacher and memories of being a child in that particular classroom I was taught in.

The smell of coffee brings nostalgia from so many different places. A lazy cozy Sunday morning at my parents, my step-dad downstairs reading the paper and listening to Cerys Matthews on radio 6. Visiting my dad in America and coming downstairs to the smell of his filter coffee machine bubbling away. The ritual of an espresso after my meals when I lived in Italy.

Rose reminds me of my grandma, as I’m sure the soaps in the bathroom were always rose and geranium scents.

There’s a particular smell of food mixed with spices that reminds me of my Grandma; and the hearty, comforting stew she used to make, that literally no one could try to replicate.

The smell of burning wood and bonfire always reminds me of Bonfire nights as a child, eating lentil soup and crusty bread before going out to watch the fireworks. Cold crisp mornings and dog walks.

There is a specific smell that makes me and my sisters laugh every year because it only happens once a year, and we forget how strong and memorable this smell is until it creeps up on us and into our nostrils… Waking up on Christmas morning to the wafts of what can only be described as something similar to dog food, but which is actually the Christmas turkey roasting in the oven! Being a veggie/vegan for the last almost seven years now (!), you can imagine that smell hasn’t got better with time! But every year it does make us laugh.

When I was about 8 or so I remember I used to have a sticker book, and I vividly remember one of the stickers being a scratch and sniff which was lavender smelling, and I was so obsessed with smelling it that it used to give me headaches! A definite love hate relationship. Now with the work I do, I’ve grown to love lavender again because I find it so incredibly calming and heady in a good way.

These smells can literally trigger parts of our brain to dig out a memory that you had long forgotten about. There’s something incredibly magical about that. A pathway to the past.

It’s also so interesting in that we are all so uniquely different in how we react to different scents, from one person to another. What is dreamy to one person could be offensive to another. Some people love a floral perfume, some people love a heavy heady scent, and some people gravitate more towards a light and zesty number. I always find it interesting in the shop when we set up, because my colleague will always use lots of tea tree and eucalyptus and very powerful fresh clean scents to set up the rooms; whereas I like a bit of a combination of fresh, but also musky, aromatic tones like Jasmine, Ylang ylang and lavendar.

I guess it all depends on mood as well. I have briefly touched on this in previous posts, how a scent can conjure up a way of feeling. In the winter I think I need more zesty limes and oranges to give me a bit of oomph, lift me up and energise me. To bring a bit of sunshine to my life!

When I turn my clients over I will always put an essential oil on a tissue before covering their eyes, and make sure that they take three deep inhales of whatever I’ve chosen, before moving onto massaging again.

I pick and choose depending on what I feel would be best for my client, and really enjoy doing that. At the moment eucalyptus is the one I’m gravitating towards. It really clears the sinuses out after lying down for a while, it’s strong but in a good way, fresh and stimulating but also calming. A singular smell can conjure up a lot of feelings and emotions.

If someone comes to me and I know or feel that they are particularly stressed, or feel like they need a more nurturing and comforting treatment, I love applying lavender, rose, or moke flower. I do love a musky soothing scent it has to be said.

This small act of three long deep inhales can be really powerful. It soothes your parasympathetic nervous system so that you are telling your body and mind to relax, rest and digest. The scent on the tissue literally makes you stop to breathe, but actually breathe in properly and fully. It makes you pause, focus on the breath, on the smell and be fully present in that moment. I think that is so important. Massage is relaxing and fantastic for our bodies, but it can also be stimulating, especially if the massage you’re receiving is more on the remedial and deep tissue side of things! Lots of techniques and pressure, it can be a lot of take in, our minds are keeping up with all the movements and sensations and working out where they are and figuring out what they’re doing (maybe just me, so hard to fully relax as a therapist yourself!), so those momentary deep inhales lets your mind body stop, breathe, be still, and be totally present.

My ethos and belief in the benefits and purpose of massage will always be that it’s good for your physical body but so incredibly healing for the mind. The two are interwoven and not separate, so what affects one affects the other and vice versa. I make every treatment with my clients a sensory experience. From sight- candles and cosiness, smell- incense and essential oils, sound- the music I play reflects what I enjoy and hopefully evokes a feeling in them that it does me, and the obvious touch.

How lucky are we that we get to experience the sense of smell. It’s something we totally take for granted and something I’ve been thinking about a lot recently.

I’ve been volunteering for Macmillan at the Horizon centre here in Brighton for over a year now, which is pretty cool, and I absolutely love when my monthly session comes around. Volunteering is probably something we all wish we could do more of, and sometimes it can fit into our schedules and sometimes it can’t, and we do the best we can to offer what we can. I wish I could do it more, but I’m happy in knowing it’s a regular thing I do, that it doesn’t ever feel like an unrealistic commitment and is just a total joy. I know how much those treatments given are appreciated, and if I can make people’s days that little bit brighter or less heavy, then that’s all I want.

I digress, but basically my session last month was a really special one for me. For confidentiality reasons I can’t speak much about the work I do there or the people I see, but I met a very wonderful man who was just full of the most amazing stories to share with me from over the course of his life. I absolutely love hearing stories of the ‘olden days’, and if there’s a story about how they met the love of their life thrown in there too, then I’m in my element! Such a sucker for a soppy love-filled story.

Sadly, through this particular client’s illness and the treatments he’s had, he has lost all sense of smell and taste. I know how important these senses are, but when you hear it from someone who genuinely doesn’t experience those things anymore, it really gets you, and I felt for him deeply. Life’s biggest pleasures come from the smell and taste of your favourite things, that familiarity and knowing. I asked him what he missed the most and they were both things that would be top of my list too. Coffee, and fresh bread.

He eats because he has to, but without taste or smell, what enjoyment does he get from it? I’ve read a few articles about ‘Anosmia’, the loss of smell, and unsurprisingly it can cause depression and a feeling of being cut off from the world.

My client after had to cancel last minute, so I extended his session purely for my own selfishness of listening to his wonderful stories, which he couldn’t believe I was interested in, but was such a passionate story-teller I think it was a win-win for the both of us… plus a longer massage for him, so it wasn’t all about me…!

“Smell is a potent wizard that transports you across thousands of miles and all the years you have lived.
”

— Helen Keller

Ali ChandlerOctober 3, 2019