Our sense of smell is one of our strongest senses and has the strongest connection to our brain activity. Scent can evoke lost memories, rekindle fond moments and induce a state of peaceful nostalgia. Candle aromatherapy helps trigger happy memories, improve mood, focus and productivity and generate happy hormones that keep us calm and stress-free.
According to Dawn Goldworm (Co-founder of the 12.29 Scents), scent, emotion and memory are inexplicably intertwined. Fragrances can control your emotions and influence your behaviour, and it is perhaps because smell and emotions are stored as one memory. They work together to help us understand the world and how we perceive it. This is why our most powerful memories are linked to scent.
I believe the well-being and wellness benefits of fragrances has been underestimated. I want to share with you an effortless technique I use around my home and space. It is called fragrance zoning. Sometimes it is also referred to as scent-scaping.
Fragrance zoning is the art of using different fragrances in your home to trigger specific emotional responses, encourage balance and harmony, and help awaken and direct your emotions. As Freud said, the quickest way to trigger an emotional response is with a scent.
More recently, due to the pandemic, many of us find ourselves working from home. Parts of our home have now become our office, school, gym, rejuvenation space. Our personal and professional lives are now intimately shared. We are now spending longer hours in one room or the same space range. Using different fragrances for different areas in your home, you can subliminally create distinct escape compartments within your home. In so doing, you are emotionally and mentally breaking the monotony.
Use your much-loved fragrances that are definite winners to boost your mood, evoke your upbeat personality or fragrances that remind you of a happy place, a restful holiday or a fond memory you’d love to relive. Or, it could be as simple as a childhood memory of the scent of a rhubarb & ginger pie baking in your kitchen, or the scent of books for your library or zesty pink fizz for a lively get together in your living room. I strongly believe that fragrance zoning is an excellent wellness technique to use. You are creating escape pockets your mind can use to take a break, pause, explore within, reflect and escape to a peaceful place.
Fragrance zoning can also be incorporated into different aspects of your daily life. You can use scents that help you focus and stay alert for your working hours, for example, rosemary, eucalyptus, or bergamot. During your exercises, you can use a fragrance like citrus, grapefruit, pomegranate, vetiver, which are stimulating and fresh, and relax and unwind with scents like rose, cinnamon, jasmine, or clary sage.
Did you know, you can also make your experience even more personal by creating a unique fragrance just for you? Using fragrance layering, you can combine two or three scented candles, known as layering, to make an entirely new scent. try it out… Overall, the benefits of scent-zoning can help you reduce stress, stay relaxed, productive, and positive. Fragrances can allow you to infuse your personality in your environment by inducing a more tranquil and zenful ambience.
Love the idea of fragrance zoning. I’m tired of the same house hold smells. You make a lot of sense in your own lovely way. Thank you.