Part 4: Default to YES! The Power of Sensory Grounding

Unlocking the Power of Scent: Aroma Cognition and Sensory Grounding

Welcome to episode four of our six-part series. I'm thrilled that you're still here with me. Whether you're incorporating these insights into your daily life or diligently taking notes, I'm right alongside you creating that journal page. Today, we're diving into the fascinating relationship between scent, memory, and meaning.

The Power of Scent

This episode focuses on something I term "aroma cognition" and the incredible influence of sensory grounding. We've previously discussed the nervous system, thoughts, and the body, but now it's time to explore the senses, which connect all these aspects.

One of the fastest ways to shift your state of mind, thoughts, or emotional patterns is through your sensory intake, particularly scent. I once wrote an article about "Why Scents Make Sense," which caught on because it redefined scent from merely something pleasant to a meaningful aspect of our lives.

The Neurology of Smell

When you inhale a scent, its molecules bind to receptors in your olfactory system. These signals travel directly to the limbic system—the emotional and memory center of the brain. This unique pathway bypasses some of your brain's higher filtering systems, allowing scent to impact your emotional state rapidly and often unconsciously. This is why smells can evoke vivid memories or alter your mood instantly.

Scent also serves as an alert mechanism, designed to signal dangers or changes in the environment, showcasing the profound role of aroma cognition.

Essential Oils and Aroma Cognition

Essential oils, with their volatile and aromatic compounds, play a vital role in our understanding of aroma cognition. Oils like citrus, known for their uplifting limonene, or lavender with its calming linalool, have been studied extensively for their impact on mood and stress.

More than just chemical reactions within the body, aroma cognition involves the intentional pairing of scent with thought and emotional intention, forming powerful neural pathways. For example, associating cedarwood oil with calming thoughts can create a sense of grounding and safety.

Practical Applications

Implementing aroma cognition is si

Transcript

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Welcome to episode four of our six part series. Glad to, that you're hanging in there with me and I hope that you're putting these things to practice or taking good notes if you're listening to them all at one time and creating that journal page because, I've been creating that journal page along with you and I'm really excited about it. Today we're gonna talk about scent, memory and meaning. This is Where I came up with aroma cognition and the power of sensory grounding has seen this change lives. It's changed my life, and so I wanted to put this in here to share with you because we've talked about the nervous system, we've talked about thoughts, and we've talked about the body. So now we're gonna talk about something that connects all three of those things, and that's your senses. We had that little practice That I shared with you about naming five things you can see, four things you can hear, and hopefully you got the chance to try that and see how it works out. It's also a really good one to, reset the moment or even play it at the dinner table. You can make that into a game to help your family, also train their brains to automatically integrate one of those practices into their world. so we're gonna talk more about the senses. One of the fastest ways to shift your state, your thoughts and even your emotional patterns is through what you take in. This is why scent is so powerful. I wrote an article after doing some research in the healthcare setting, and the editor wanted me to call this Why sense, make sense. I thought it was a little cheesy, but it really, it kinda took hold in our environment anyway. because it brought the scent, from being something like, oh, that's just nice. Its nice that, that smells nice to something that really made sense to incorporate in our lives, Out of all of your senses, smell has a unique pathway in the brain. When you inhale a scent, the molecules travel through the nose and bind to receptors in your olfactory system, and from there, signals are sent directly to the limbic system, which is the part of the brain that's involved in emotion and memory and behavior and motivation, specifically areas like the amygdala and the hippocampus. What's fascinating is that this pathway bypasses some of your higher filtering systems of the brain. Which means that scent can influence your emotional state quickly and often unconsciously. That's why smells can instantly take you back to a memory, shift your mood, create a sense of calm or alertness. senses of smell can also make you more alert to your environment and maybe, designed to point out dangers or things that you should be aware of, things you should move away from. It's not just poetic, it's neurological. And there's a lot of chemistry involved, and I'm gonna talk specifically about essential oils because that is where I came into really understanding all of this and understanding it's not just essential oils that we have in our little bottles, but those. came from someplace, that came from plants, that came from our environment. So on various levels, we experienced these chemical compounds in our environment, in the woods, in our homes, and essential oils are. More just concentrated versions of this, right? So essential oils are made up of volatile, Aromatic compounds, different oils have different chemical profiles, which can influence how they interact with the body and the brain. For example, laminine that is found in citrus oils. So when you peel an orange or you, squeeze a lemon. That is you're experiencing some Limon, and that is associated with uplifting and energizing effects. Then we have olol, which is found in lavender that's been shown to support relaxation and reduce anxiety, even managing, normal blood pressures. these components have been widely studied. You can go to PubMed and search limonene or any of these chemical compounds. A lot of them have been isolated and studied, and this is how we know now sesquiterpenes that are found in oils like cedarwood or woods. may support grounding and emotional stability. Now some studies suggest that inhalation of certain essential oils can reduce perceived stress, influence heart rate, and blood pressure, and improve mood and relaxation. here's what I want you to understand. It's not just about the oil and the chemical responses in your body. It's also about the association that you create with it. So what is aroma cognition? aroma cognition is the intentional use of scent to support thought awareness, emotional regulation, identity formation, and behavioral change. my training in natural healing started with essential oils probably about 14 years ago now. I had the opportunity to do research, which required me to really learn the chemistry when I started learning that and started, really seeing how these oils and these chemical compounds worked in our bodies. And then being exposed to really studying scent and, the olfactory system, noticing how it works with our memories. It made sense to try it out, to try if a certain aroma. Was paired with a thought or a cognition practice, could we create that conditioning so that every time I experience cedarwood essential oil, I automatically have the thought that I have around this, that I automatically feel grounded and safe. It's not about smelling something and hoping it works, it's about pairing a scent with specific thought, intention or state. I've had clients do this with coffee so that can they create a certain thought, intention or state every time they smell coffee? Because coffee is a part of the daily life and it is an aroma'cause your brain learns through association when you repeatedly pair a scent, a thought. An a state, your brain begins to link them, and over time the scent becomes a cue, it's a signal or a shortcut. Now, I like to use essential oils, first of all, because they're pure and safe, have multiple other benefits, but you can literally use any aroma. I am not a recommender of fragrances that we find in candles or perfumes, but. It probably would work the same way. It just wouldn't give you the physiological benefits. it probably would work the same as far as the scent goes. You smell a candle and you automatically have an association. But you have to be intentional because some of the mixtures of the candles, for example, the ones that have vanilla, might also trigger memories that come from somewhere else in childhood. So this is something that you do intentionally with this aroma. But neuroscience of association is something where I really wanted to focus on with this.'cause this is based on a principle in neuroscience that often is summarized as neurons that fire together, wire together. I'm sure you've heard that before. When you repeatedly activate the same pathways, they become stronger. So if every morning you inhale a specific oil, you brew your coffee. And then you anchor it into a thought practice, a calm and grounded state. You begin to build a neural pathway that connects those experiences and eventually the scent itself can trigger that state. Scripture speaks to the power, ascent, and sensory experience. Also in second Corinthians two 15. We are the aroma. We are the aroma of Christ. There is something about scent that carries meaning. Presence, identity, and even memory. throughout scripture, oils were used not just physically, but symbolically for anointing, healing and for preparation. Scent was never about fragrance. It was about connection. And plant medicine has a history, that goes back centuries, and so we can learn something from where all of our healthcare started would've been grounded in plant medicine. Now it's evolved over time to something else, but the origins are still there. So there is something to this that we can pull from to enhance our own lives. So let's make this really practical. We can choose one oil or aroma. If you don't have oils, it doesn't have to be complicated. Maybe it's something uplifting like a citrus oil. Maybe you do eat a orange or drink a orange juice or something like that every morning. but I like to use wild orange, or something calming like lavender or grounding like cedarwood. so take that oil, inhale it. From the bottle or put a drop in your hand, put it in your diffuser and pair it with a thought, something true, something intentional. Use your clarity loop. Thought maybe you want to turn something around that you discovered that, a thought that constantly please in your head that in that has a tendency to get in there, interpret a lot of your circumstances, so choose that thought. Intentionally. You might say, I am steady. I can handle this. I am being guided. I'm fully supported. And then inhale the oil. Slowly. Take a breath, repeat the thought, and notice your body. If you do this consistently, especially in moments when you want to reinforce that state over time. You are training your brain to cooperate with you in the way that you want to show up in the world. Most people try to change their life through effort alone, more discipline, more willpower. But your brain responds powerfully to patterns and associations, sensory cues. So when you use scent intentionally, you create that bridge between body, mind, and meaning, and that's where change becomes more natural and more integrated and for sure more sustainable. Now, we've talked over the last couple days about this journal page. I want you to create with some important questions. And so as you go throughout your day, I want you to ask yourself, what sensory environments am I creating for myself? I love this question because it will lead you to. Making every room in your house, every space in your life, a sensory environment that enhances your overall wellbeing, that leads to this who you are becoming and who you want to really become, moves you forward. And the second question is, are they supporting the person I want to become? So if there's a lot of noise or something that doesn't smell good or a chaotic space, what sensory environment am I creating for myself? we can make those little changes. Now, this is an invitation to be more intentional, not just with your thoughts, not just with your habits, but with your environment, with what you take in, with what you pair with meaning. So tomorrow morning, or even right now, take a breath, choose your scent, anchor it to truth, and then move throughout your day to default to yes to your extraordinary self.