Smelling To Feel Alive
Escaping routine and numbness.
I recently returned from a trip that gave me lots of new and meaningful experiences, which made me reflect on something (olfactory, of course) that I wanted to share with you.
In a time when the world is so uncertain and incredibly volatile, it’s normal to feel a little numb and disengaged. But I’d like to suggest that we can use smelling to feel more alive. And by that I mean to experience real moments of joy, curiosity, and connection, which we humans so desperately need.
Allow me to explain…
Have you ever noticed how when you drive the same roads every day, you don’t think about where you’re going, you just do? You’re subconsciously led to the place where you need to go.
Case in point, most of the time when I drive to the grocery store I don’t even know how I got there - the whole time I’m daydreaming about other things. Can you relate?
In our daily routine, I would argue, we move through the world unaware, disengaged, and apathetic to the world around us. We just are, we just do.
But have you ever noticed what happens when you get lost? When you mistakenly take a wrong turn and don’t know where you are?
You come alive!
You suddenly have to consciously think about what you're doing, calibrate where you’re going, and evaluate how you’re going to get “back” onto the right path.
You’re immediately hyper-connected with your surroundings. You notice everything and are evaluating with all of your senses.
Where am I?
What surrounds me?
What gives me a clue about where I need to go?
You suddenly feel alive because you’re actively using all of your senses, including your sense of smell.
If you think about it, on a daily basis you don’t actively smell your surroundings. Or, I should say, you don’t notice your surroundings because your olfactory system is regularly experiencing the same smells. They’re familiar, in your olfactory memory bank to draw from, and a reference for any change that might occur in the world around you (ie. dangers like smoke and gas).
But reflect on when you return from a trip away and you enter your home. You can notice the smell immediately, right? It’s precisely because you’ve been away for a while that the smell is evident.
Smelling the world around you is such a wonderful way to feel alive. Here’s why…
When you take the time for new experiences, specifically smelling experiences, you open yourself up to the possibility of joy, excitement, and connection.
Experiencing new, novel smells is the same feeling you have as when you get lost. You wake up, you pay attention, and you feel a rush of excitement. What is this? Where did it come from? What is it telling me? You’re suddenly present and engaged … you feel alive!
These new smells take you out of your comfort zone. They make you feel something. They’re prickly, uncomfortable, unfamiliar, and yet they open you up to new possibilities of experiencing the world; of really feeling something.
Maybe these new smells even tell you something about yourself. Maybe they reveal something you needed to hear. Perhaps they’re a whisper that offers guidance and new possibility.
Smelling can take you out of the “happy,” the banal, the ordinary, and elevate you to feel a sense of vitality and joy for new experiences.
Because isn’t it great to really feel alive? To not feel stuck in a boring routine that keeps you unaware and desensitized?
Smelling can give us that.
During these quiet summer months, I invite you to get lost with your nose. To go down unexplored paths, veer away from the familiar… and feel alive, really alive.
Let me know how it goes.