As with mindfulness, meditation and breathwork, essential oils are great to try when feeling anxious, restless or down. Why? Scents bypass our brain and directly trigger memory and behaviour responses in us. Our sense of smell is the only sense that acts this way, all other senses are interpreted first by the brain.
A recent study shows that smell catalyzes up to 75% of our daily mood. That means we can deliberately use smells that are linked to positive personal memories to boost our mood.
Remember the scene from the movie Ratatouille, when one bite takes food critic antagonist Anton Ego right back to a special memory of childhood? Ever walked into an open house, where the realtor has cookies baking in the oven? These are examples of using scents to affect our mood, mental state and behaviour. We can take control and deliberately use scents to optimize our mental and emotional state.
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