Wellbeing and the Power of Scent
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A smell is not simply a smell, they are portals to ingrained memories. The salty briny smell of the beach, or the aroma of your mother baking muffins in the kitchen, a gentle waft of lavender on the breeze which reminds you of a holiday you once took. Just one small sniff can leave us dizzy with emotions and recollections. When we inhale an aroma, it travels through our nose to something called the olfactory bulb in the brain, the stimulus is then sent off to the amygdala for further processing. The primary role of the amygdala is decision making, memory and emotional responses, and it is part of something called the limbic system. A humans “emotional life” is typically housed within the limbic system which is responsible for our emotional and behavioural responses, heart rate, blood pressure, stress, hormone balance and memory retention.
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