Odour-Evoked Emotional Memories - Better Health is A Sniff Away
what? a couple of stories from moi’ that hopefully lead to some salient points? what a surprise…
Hello Readers,
The orange blossoms on the tree outside my kitchen window are starting to desiccate. The sweet smell of those small white flowers evokes so many memories.
I grew up in the Central Valley of California which according to the Vegetable Research & Information Centre at UC Davis “is the most productive agricultural region in the world, cultivating more than 250 crops”.1 In the foothills there are orange groves leading to ever more orange groves. When I smell the sweetness of orange blossoms I’m immediately transported back to my teenage self, back to a person who’s trying to figure out who she is and what it is she wants.
Odour-evoked memories2 are when a smell triggers a specific occurrence from your past. It’s not just that you recognise the smell but that, as the name implies, a full blown memory comes to the surface of your consciousness.
Besides a lovely general sense of nostalgia for my 1970’s childhood, the smell of orange blossoms brings up two very specific memories:
The first is my drivers ed experience from my junior year. I don’t know if it’s still part of the curriculum but back then drivers education was a course required to graduate from high school - it had to be done. Besides teaching drivers ed, Mr. *****’s other duties included being one of the football coaches. Now, not to paint all high school football coaches with a board stroke asshole brush, but this guy was a tool. He was one of those jerks who thinks he’s cool. The funniest things to him were to use his instructor pedals to slam on the brakes when you least expected and at other times try to tickle you as you were focused on not crashing the damn car.
Ha.
Ha
Ha.
Yep, it was def a different time - did I mention this was the 70’s? Not only was I not amused, all it did was traumatise me causing my nervousness around driving to skyrocket and the confidence in my skills to plunge. I’m not sure if there’s a direct relationship but turns out I didn’t even try to get my license for another two years.
And, um, how do orange blossoms fit into all this? Well the county roads surrounding the groves are where (under his questionable guidance) early morning driving “lessons” happened. Guess the school district figured we could eff-up and not cause too much harm because there was so little traffic. So the smell yeah, it takes me back.
And I know this sounds like a less than positive memory but I actually look at it as both as a successful rite of passage and the beginning of my a**hole detecting skills, lol.
The second memory is also a mixture of positive and negative sensations but for completely different reasons. It’s of Disneyland in 2008. The last few days I lived in the US, before the kiddo and I hopped on a plane and moved to the other side of the world, two of my sisters and my little sister’s kids spent three days in Disneyland. (I spent my 45th birthday in The Magic Kingdom) Because my younger sister is organised to a fault (in the best possible day) we attacked the park like a well oiled machine. So much *vibrancy* was crammed into those three days and it was a lovely send-off to transition into our new life.
And now the orange blossom connection (besides the fact that Disneyland was built on orange groves).
Included in our Disneyland pass was access to California Adventure Land and one of the premier rides there at that time was Soarin’ Over California. This ride simulated flying over different sites in California including the Golden Gate Bridge, Yosemite, Lake Tahoe, and yes, orange groves! Now here’s the kicker, not only was your “flying” enhanced with subtle movements of your seat and the rotation of the screen but at certain moments smells were pumped in to the space. You guessed it, a whiff of orange blossoms reached you just as you were sailing over the orange groves.
So, here’s my hugely multi-layered odour-evoked memory:
When I rode Soarin’ In 2008 it was the smell of orange blossoms taking me back to my Californian upbringing because by that point I hadn’t lived in California for many, many years but in some way still considered it “home”.
Now when I smell the scent of orange blossoms coming from just outside my kitchen window it’s not only that memory, but it’s also the memory of those wonderful three days with my sisters and the kiddos. It’s a bittersweet one that includes the feelings of our trip being a real launchpad for the beginning of my immediate family’s overseas adventure added to the weight and sadness of leaving my sisters and mom so that adventure could happen.
Okay, so long story short, smelling orange blossoms makes me feel closer to my family and my youth by evoking (mostly) positive autobiographical memories.
And now here’s where I share some of the fun science:
Odour-evoked memories have been shown to bring back more details than those recalled through visual or verbal cues. Research shows that positive smell memories can enhance feelings of well being and decrease indicators of stress, including inflammation.3
Other research shows that these types of memories are easier for patients with Alzheimer’s Disease to recall and can help alleviate loneliness in people receiving reminiscence therapy.
In my last newsletter I talked about how spending time in nature is good for our health and that the sounds we hear are one reason why. There’s also some noise (pun intended) about how the smells of nature also affect our wellbeing.4
How cool is it that we have the power within us to “sniff out” our emotional memories and use them for self soothing and better physical health - bring on the aromatherapy!
It would be remiss of me not to mention that equally, odour-evoked memories can trigger negative memories. For example that result can be common for people with PTSD. However, even if we do not suffer from PTSD a smell can remind us of someone or a situation that was definitely not positive.
I have one really strong odour-evoking, nasty, memory of an old boss who wore way too much of the perfume Opium. This was the late 80’s so was the original formula and to my nose, extremely cloying. I never really cared for it but my ex-boss definitely made me hate it. She was the overbearing owner/manager of a cafe’ that I worked at in my very early 20’s when I was living in fabulous Chicago. She didn’t seem to like anyone (was she just plain mean?) so the night she accused me of stealing I literally tore my apron off and walked out the door. It’s the only job I’ve ever left mid shift and man did I feel justified. Still to this day whenever I smell that perfume I am taken right back to my outrage! (thank the heavens the scent is no longer that popular)
So here’s what I want to know. Do you have any scents that bring a memory flooding back to you in all its technicolor detail? I hope it’s a positive, health promoting one but let me know in the comments, good, bad, or ugly…
Thanks for reading and remember to breathe and move (and now smell) for a more Vibrant life,
xBec
P.S. 🎙️In podcast news Exploring Creativity, Threads & Bones comes back for season two in October. Stay tuned for the short and sweet trailer coming up next week.
P.P.S. 🤎In Dragonfly Pilates & Movement news I’m in the midst of planning one last retreat for 2025. It will be a full day here at the Schtudio and will include movement, sound healing, a creative practice (probably some play with clay), good company and good food. Interested? Hit reply and let me know.
Herz RS. The Role of Odor-Evoked Memory in Psychological and Physiological Health. Brain Sci. 2016 Jul 19;6(3):22. doi: 10.3390/brainsci6030022. PMID: 27447673; PMCID: PMC5039451.