Smell is the fastest way to your feelings: what researchers know about smells and memories

One single breath, and you’re ten years old again. For me it’s freshly cut grass. For others it’s grandma’s kitchen, sun cream or pine needles. No photo and no song does that as fast as a smell. In this article I show you why that is, what researchers have measured and how you can use it consciously in your everyday life.

Why smells take no detour

Everything you see, hear or touch first passes through a kind of relay station in the brain, the thalamus. There it is sorted and passed on before you consciously perceive what is happening.

Smell is different. The smell receptors in your nose pass their signals to the olfactory bulb. From there they reach the areas responsible for emotions and memories without a stop in the thalamus. Experts call this the limbic system. Two parts of it are especially important:

• The amygdala. It evaluates how something feels.
• The hippocampus. It helps to store memories and recall them.

A review by French researchers describes exactly this close connection between the sense of smell and emotions. Smelling and feeling partly use the same structures in the brain. That is why a smell is often already a feeling before you even know what you are smelling.

Memories full of feeling

The US psychologist Rachel Herz of Brown University studied how memories differ depending on what triggers them. The participants connected a special, happy memory with a particular perfume. In the brain scanner they were either given this perfume to smell or shown a picture of the bottle.

The result: the memories triggered by the smell felt more emotional to the participants. And the amygdala was clearly more active than with the picture.

For me, that explains very well why a single breath can trigger more than a whole photo album.

Orange in the waiting room: two studies from Vienna

If smells are so directly connected to our feelings, can they also change a tense situation? That is exactly what a team led by the psychologist Johann Lehrner at the University of Vienna wanted to know.

The first study (2000)

The place: the waiting room of a dental practice. A room where many people sit tensely. For some of the patients, a diffuser spread orange aroma in the room, for the others it didn’t. 72 patients aged 22 to 57 filled in questionnaires about their mood and tension.

The result: the women who waited with orange aroma were less anxious, in a better mood and calmer than the women without aroma. Among the men there was hardly any difference.

The second study (2005)

Five years later the team repeated the experiment, this time on a larger scale. 200 adults aged 18 to 77 waited either with orange aroma, with lavender aroma, with music or with nothing at all. With both aromas, those waiting were less anxious and in a better mood than the group without aroma and without music.

Of course, these are two studies in a special situation. But they show very nicely what many people have long felt in everyday life: a smell in the room changes how we feel.

What I take from this for my everyday life

I use this connection very consciously. Not as a miracle cure, but as small anchors in my day.

1. One oil for one moment: in the morning, citrus runs in the diffuser. In the evening, a drop of lavender goes into my hands. Always the same. That way my brain links the oil to the moment.
2. Before difficult appointments: one drop of orange in my palms, rub briefly, breathe in deeply three times. It takes half a minute.
3. Smell consciously: not on the side, but with your eyes closed. Notice what the smell triggers in you.

Everything I share about oils here applies to oils of outstanding quality. How to recognise them you can read in my article “Pure says almost nothing”. And how to use oils through your nose, your skin or as food is in “Smell, apply, enjoy”.

Your little test for today

Take two minutes. Close your eyes and think of a smell from your childhood. What do you see? Who is there? How does it feel?

Most people immediately have a picture in front of them. And that is exactly the power we are talking about here.

Frequently asked questions

Why do smells remind us so strongly of the past?

Because smell signals reach the areas of the brain that process emotions and memories without a detour. Many smell memories come from childhood, when we experienced smells for the first time.

Does every oil work the same for everyone?

No. How you experience a smell also depends on your own memories. Try out which oil feels good to you.

How much oil do I need for smelling?

One drop in your hands is enough. In the diffuser it’s five to ten drops, depending on the room.

Sources

1. Soudry Y, Lemogne C, Malinvaud D, Consoli SM, Bonfils P: Olfactory system and emotion: common substrates. European Annals of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Diseases 2011;128(1):18–23: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21227767/
2. Herz RS, Eliassen J, Beland S, Souza T: Neuroimaging evidence for the emotional potency of odor-evoked memory. Neuropsychologia 2004;42(3):371–378: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/14670575/
3. Lehrner J, Eckersberger C, Walla P, Pötsch G, Deecke L: Ambient odor of orange in a dental office reduces anxiety and improves mood in female patients. Physiology & Behavior 2000;71(1–2):83–86: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11134689
4. Lehrner J, Marwinski G, Lehr S, Johren P, Deecke L: Ambient odors of orange and lavender reduce anxiety and improve mood in a dental office. Physiology & Behavior 2005;86(1–2):92–95: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16095639/