When I used to teach freshman English classes, one of the biggest and best things I could teach my students was good study habits. It is easy to cram and over study at the last minute only to panic and zone out on the exam the next day. Cramming information into the mind is like waking up late to get to the airport and you haven’t packed yet. It’s a rush job, useless things are packed, and necessary items are left ignored on the floor.
One technique that helps us remember is our sense of smell. Smell, or chemodetection, our oldest sense helps us stay safe in our environments. This is directly connected to our memories so we can remember which areas, foods, or people are safe and which are harmful.
So how does this remotely connect to studying? When we are trying to remember new or difficult information, using smell can help connect new information to old information. For example, lighting a lavender scented candle while studying and then wearing an aromatherapy necklace or bracelet to class with lavender oil in it during the test will trigger the memory which is connected to the lavender aroma. To say that it is truly that easy is an understatement!
We can use smells to change our mood to uplifting (lemongrass), keep us focused (peppermint), or calm us down (lavender). Just thinking of the smell of chocolate chip cookies baking in the oven evokes memories – our brains can’t help but take us back to the smell connected to the associated memory.
Practice including your favorite smell during your daily or weekly meditation practice to help you feel calm and centered throughout your day or week. You can also create combination scents that serve dual purposes, like orange and clove for a calming warm feeling or lemon and lime for a peppy get up & go citrus smell.
No matter what you want to recall, using our olfactory-installed sense of smell is an easy way to combine our physiology to help enhance our spirituality.
✨ Blessings ✨ Blessed Be ✨ Namaste ✨