Collaborative content As one of our five senses, smell plays an essential role in everyday life. However, it seems it may not simply tell us...
As one of our five senses, smell plays an essential role in everyday life. However, it seems it may not simply tell us whether something has a pleasant aroma.
Whenever our noses pick up a distinct scent, it has quite an impact on our mood. It’s not something that you necessarily always realise, but it seems that certain smells can affect us in these different ways.
They Can Alleviate Stress
Whenever you’re stressed, you want to find ways to relax your mind. It turns out, all you might need to do is find something pleasant to smell.
According to International Flavors & Fragrances Inc., certain scents can reduce a person’s stress level by lowering muscle tension in the shoulders. Fragrances like vanilla are apparently better able to ease stress-induced strain and help people to relax as a result.
This information could prove beneficial to millions worldwide, given that stress is a common aspect of day-to-day life. It could help people sleep better at night and also feel more relaxed when receiving healthcare. These are two areas where stress can play a very negative role, so if certain aromas can combat this, that’s all for the better.
They Can Reduce Productivity
While smells can have a great influence on us, they can also hinder us too. If you have to deal with an unpleasant scent, it can put you in a bad mood. Unfortunately, this is often associated with issues like lower creativity and reduced productivity, which obviously isn’t ideal.
This can be a significant issue if you work from home a lot and find that your house often smells unpleasant. In such circumstances, it’s likely that your drains are the issue, so getting them dealt with ASAP is essential.
If you live in London, you can rely on the Drain Detectives to do that. They provide around the clock service for all manner of drainage issues, whether they be blockages or repairs. If your plumbing doesn’t work properly, bad smells are only natural, so the sooner you get an expert in, the sooner you can breathe easy again.
Why Do Smells Affect Us?
It’s important to note that not all smells have the same effect on everyone. That’s because it’s not so much the scent itself that influences mood, but rather the memory associated with it.
Perfumery expert Karen Gilbert notes that odour molecules are registered in the same part of the brain that’s responsible for processing memory, moods, and emotions.
When you smell something as a child, it elicits a positive or negative reaction that gets connected to a memory. These memories are then recalled when you experience that smell again, leading your mood to either improve or decline.
Smell might sometimes be overlooked in favour of other senses, but it’s clear that it’s just as vital as taste, touch, sight, and hearing. It can lift us up, relax us, and boost productivity, while also having the opposite effect when an aroma is unpleasant. That might make it a bit of a double-edged sword, but the benefits are worth the occasional downsides.
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