The healing power of smell; how does it work?

Tue, 03/09/2010

One of the most powerful, but the least utilized, senses among humans is the sense of smell. Humans have the capability to distinguish 10,000 different smells. However dormant, different smells have a profound effect on the human mind and body. Smell stimulates parts of our brain that control our emotions, moods, memory and learning. It is said that about 80 percent of us sense the flavour of an item only through smell. The sense of smell is so powerful that it can arouse our appetite, warn us in case of danger (like fire), kindle our sexual self and elicit a surge of deep-seated memories in our mind. The nose is believed to affect 75% of our daily emotions. We “perk up” when you smell the aroma of freshly ground coffee. Our mouth waters remembering the smell of freshly baked apple pie. And so on.. Smell gains power from the fact that it is connected with the emotion-generating areas of the brain or the limbic system.

It works like this: when you inhale an aroma, you stimulate cilia, the fine hair lining the nose and the tiny membranes of your nose which in turn trigger electric signals to the hypothalamus of your brain. The hypothalamus is the seat of various activities of the body and controls and integrates parts of the nervous system, endocrine system, heartbeat, respiration, sexual arousal and blood sugar levels. The limbic system also wields power over the most basic emotions in your body like anger, pleasure, sadness, fear etc. So, when an aroma hits your nose membranes, it immediately makes an impact on your brain and thereby, the other parts of the body. This happens instantly, unlike the medications and drugs (which take time to dissolve into the blood stream) and hence, plays a great role in relieving people of pain and diseases.

Aromatherapy works only with scents derived from natural living sources, such as flowers, seeds and roots. Synthetic scents have 'smell' but no energy, and any sensitive nose can readily tell the difference. Natural aromas carry a potent, concentrated charge of active bioelectrical energy which enters the body through the lining of the nose and quickly exerts powerful therapeutic effects on all cells and tissues. An obvious example of this is smelling salts; a mere whiff of this powerful aromatic agent instantly revives the faint by jolting the brain with a strong pulse of bio energy absorbed directly through the nose.

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