Revive Your mental Health through Scent - Aromachology

Take a whiff of your favorite scent the next time you find yourself losing your composure and becoming nervous about something. There is scientific evidence that this can have a calming impact on the mind and body.

The pandemic has forced us to pay attention to both our physical and mental health. Our mental well-being has been affected by the uncertain days we have spent languishing, wondering when we will get a glimpse of normalcy.

Aromachology (aroma + psychology) is the study of the psychological benefits of aromas. It investigates the psychological effects of odour on the brain. It’s not the same as aromatherapy.

Aromachology is the study of how people respond to various scents. Aromatherapy, although related to mental wellbeing, is really more of a holistic healing procedure that uses essential oils and natural extracts to treat common ailments.

However, few people are aware that a good sense of smell has been linked to our well-being for decades. That the olfactory cortex, which is part of our limbic system and is situated in the temporal lobe of the brain, processes a wide range of sensory stimuli, influencing our emotional reactions and memories. This is why a certain scent or aroma can be so evocative and nostalgic, evoking memories and emotions.

When our brain logs scents — just like a journal entry — when we smell a perfume, our memory records it. The next time you smell the fragrance, it may transport you back to that first positive or negative experience.

A scent may conjure up images of an individual, an event, or a mood. One of the happiest scents is that of a newborn. Your father’s scent is often correlated with safety. The aroma of freshly made cookies is soothing. Many soldiers took scented handkerchiefs with their loved one’s perfume during World War II.

It’s worth noting that, while scents are subjective, some elicit a group reaction. They are used widely and have been adopted in the same way by people all over the world. Citrus-based scents, for example, are commonly used in perfumery and in homes for their cleanliness attribute.