Lawsagna

The best smell for your brain: the science of olfaction and emotion

What comes to mind if I ask you to imagine that you are at the following places: 

• a bakery,
• a candle store,
• a hospital,
• a rose garden,
• a perfume counter? 

One of your associations is likely to be the sensation of smell because all of the places above have strong aromas.  Does it feel like you can almost smell them?  Those aromas can quickly change your moods and emotions, and evoke memories.  Why do odors play such a significant part in our emotional regulation?

The sense of smell is the only one of the five senses directly linked to the limbic system – the center of emotions in the brain.  According to "Essential Oils Desk Reference," when we inhale a fragrance, the odor molecules travel up the nose where they are trapped by olfactory membranes, protected by the lining inside the nose.  Each odor molecule fits into specific receptor cell sites. Each one of these hundreds of millions of nerve cells is replaced every 28 days.  When this lining of nerve cells is stimulated by the odor molecules, it triggers electrical impulses to the olfactory bulb in the brain.  The olfactory bulb than transmits the impulses to the gustatory center, responsible for our perception of taste, the amygdala, where emotional memories are stored, and other parts of the limbic system of the brain. 

Alan Hirsch, M.D., F.A.C.P., the founder and neurological director of The Smell & Taste Treatment and Research Foundation, explains this quick connection between odors and emotions in his interview for the medical journal Alternative & Complementary Therapies [PDF]:

What makes the sense of smell unique among the senses is that the brain reacts positively or negatively to an odor before identifying the source of the odor.  That is, a person encounters a pleasing smell and his or her reaction is one of pleasure.  Then, a second later, the person figures out that he or she had smelled lilacs.  Visually, one sees a picture of a tree or a cow and first identifies the subject, and then determines whether or not he or she likes the picture.  This is the opposite of the sense of smell; with smell emotional reaction comes first.

As we all know, smells can also transport us into the past.  In one of his studies, Dr. Hirsch discovered the number-one odor to evoke childhood memories.  Can you guess what it is?

We looked at 989 people from 45 states and 39 countries, and found that the number-one odor that made people nostalgic for childhood was baked goods.  After that, it depended on when and where they grew up.  If they grew up on the East Coast of the United States, the smell of flowers made people nostalgic for childhood.  In the South, it was the smell of fresh air; in the Midwest, the smell of farm animals; and in the West it was the smell of meat cooking or meat barbecuing.

It turns out that environmental smells affect our behavior.  In the same interview, Dr. Hirsch reports that people drive more aggressively on days when there is bad smell of air pollution, causing an increase in motor-vehicle accidents.  Bad environmental odors tend to promote aggression, impede learning, and encourage school kids to misbehave.

I don't know about you, but I am about to diffuse some peppermint oil to improve my environment.  It helps with task performance by increasing concentration, enhances athletic performance [PDF], and curbs appetite [PDF].  Smells good to me!

Related Posts:
Do you smell success?
Want to be a better problem-solver in your dreams?
Orientation Series: 21 Steps to Becoming a Better Learner: Memorizing

To learn more about essential oils:  http://www.smartessentialoils.com

How to maximize brain power

"If we want to simplify and deepen our lives, we must simplify and deepen our minds. When we become more centered, clear, spacious, caring, and open, there is suddenly much more room in our frenetic lives for both others and ourselves."
— Lama Surya Das

How do you start your work day?  Do you jump right into your email inbox and get lost in the sea of unread messages calling for your attention?  If so, before you know it, your mind is probably racing from one thought to another, to another.  Unless your primary job function is to respond to email messages, email is a good example of how we give away the control of our schedule in response to other people's agendas and invite overwhelm into our day right from the start.  We also lose precious moments when we can maximize brain power.  How so?

When too much noise and input enters our brain, we become fuzzy thinkers.  In addition, overwhelm and information overload add to our stress levels.  Prolonged stress elevates cortisol, a stress hormone that appears to shrink the hippocampus, a part of the brain associated with memory and other cognitive functions. 

The point is that if we want to be efficient, productive and creative at work, we need to put more thought into how we start our days.  Much like we are better off taking the earliest flight if we want to leave on time because flight delays tend to snowball, we should spend our early work hours on some deep thinking because distractions snowball too. 

You can come up with your own empowering morning routine that can help you maximize brain power for your most important projects: 

• Set your morning agenda the day before.
• Think of a brain-friendly ritual that will signal the transition into the work routine.  You can choose to mediate, take a morning walk, listen to music or something inspirational that can put you in a good mood.  We think better when we feel good.  According to the research conducted by neuro-psychologist Barbara Fredrickson, positive emotions tend to broaden our focus, enabling us to discover more tools and solutions to life's challenges and making us more resourceful.    
• Limit the noise and distractions and spend your precious morning hours reflecting, writing, creating, strategizing, or trying out unconventional problem-solving approaches. 

What's your favorite mourning routine to maximize brain power?

"Mandala: The Perfect Circle" Program at Rubin Museum Of Art

Rubin Museum of Art in New York City will soon host "Mandala: The Perfect Circle" - a series of events dedicated to the mandala:

The mandala, one of Himalayan Buddhism's most ubiquitous symbols, is created as an artistic aid for meditation. Depicting a realm that is both complex and sacred, the mandala is a visualization tool meant to advance practitioners toward a state of enlightenment.

Mandala: The Perfect Circle will explore the various manifestations of these objects, simultaneously explaining their symbolism, describing how they fulfill their intended function, and demonstrating their correlation to our physical reality...The exhibition will also display different types of mandalas, including paintings, three-dimensional works, portable mandalas, and ritual objects that are related to mandala ceremonies.

The programs and events that will take place between August 14, 2009 and January 11, 2010 include among other things a "collection of classic films that explore mazes, keys, and passwords as metaphors for the labyrinthine puzzles of our existence," a problem-solving scavenger hunt that "sends math enthusiasts on a tour of Chelsea inspired by the geometric construction of the mandala," and music concerts inspired by the mandala.  Click here for more information.

States of consciousness: Who would you be without your beliefs and positions?

Who would you be without your beliefs and positions?  This is the questions explored in the article "Evolving Consciousness" by Kaisa Puhakka in the current issue of Shift.  It discusses how we settle into our beliefs and what it takes to shed them: 

Settling into positions and shifting out of them are both intrinsic to our consciousness. When the need to understand is satisfied by an authority we can believe in or by evidence or argument, the mind settles into a position. But our positions can unravel, either suddenly in a spontaneous aha! moment or gradually by painstaking, honest inquiry. Settling and shifting represent opposing tendencies, one inclining toward stasis while the other frees us up for movement. Neither is "good" or "bad"; they each have their value in sustaining human life as we know it. Settling into positions provides anchors for comfort and security. Without such settling, the structures of civilization and culture wouldn’t exist. At the same time, settling freezes positions and makes the capacity to shift more difficult — especially problematic when a certain kind of shift may be needed. Spontaneous evolutionary movement loosens these frozen positions and allows for shifting to take place.

As we develop fluid thinking that goes beyond the limitations of our perspectives, we become better equipped to find creative solutions to the complex challenges our world faces today.  But it cannot be done without awareness:

Awareness is needed to bring light to the shadows in our minds where the opposites of what we affirm lurk—threatening to cast doubts on our certainties. The challenge for awareness is that the modern psyche is complex and multilayered. The play of unconscious and conscious keeps the layers and compartments separate and makes it possible to hold contradictory positions unperturbed. Whenever we affirm a belief, for example, we tend to negate its contrary by banishing it from awareness. The force of the banishment can vary from drastic repression, where the rejected position becomes absolutely inconceivable, to momentary suppression, where the rejected position is set aside but still available for reconsideration and a possible return to awareness.

Click here to access the current issue of Shift and read about the three modes of consciousness that explain how we relate to our beliefs.