Shifting How We Express Ourselves

Communicating with an Olfactory Bent.

Everyday we use words to express an idea or feeling, whether it’s through conversation or email. But have you noticed how many of the words we use are visual words? If you pay close attention, you’ll see (case in point!).

Over the past couple of months I’ve been trying really hard to speak and write more intentionally, using less visual and auditory words to get my points across. Let me tell you, it’s hard and requires a lot of conscious effort.

So, why am I bringing this up? Why do I think it can be valuable to shift how we express ourselves through language? 

Well, words give clues about how we think, shed light on our values, as well as reveal how we move through the world. In a nutshell, I would argue that words tell us who we are. 

If you listened to my recent podcast episode How To Be a Smeller (And Why) you know that I believe an important part of becoming a smeller is to identify as one. And that includes using olfactory-centered words to express yourself.

I believe that using more “smell” words can help move our cultural thinking and elevate the sense of smell more. 

That could mean literally replacing sight and sound words with the word “smell” to provoke an immediate shift in perspective:

Or, more subtly, could mean altering the overall message we want to convey.  

Let’s take a look sniff at how we can start to modify our everyday language away from seeing and hearing to smelling.