9 minute read
It’s Elemental!: Air
It’s Elemental!
Oh, the power of aroma! Whether it is fresh air for our health, aromatherapy for our mental well-being or scents used to assist in retrieving the memories of a victim of a crime, the significance of aroma in our lives cannot be undervalued, especially during the holidays when there are even more delightful scents all around us. When I was younger, I remember being in awe of stories about the police taking victims of crimes back to the location of the crime because the smell would invoke memories that were needed to either help find and arrest the perpetrator or to remember the details to convict. It sounds so complicated. Our bodies and brains are so remarkable. Of the sense of smell, American poet Diane Ackerman says, “Nothing is more memorable than a smell. One scent can be unexpected, momentary and fleeting, yet conjure up a childhood summer beside a lake in the mountains.” In the article “How Traumatic Experiences Impact Victim Behavior and Memory in the Aftermath of Violent Crime,” Chafica Khodr Agha, Esq., Staff Attorney and Program Associate for the National Center for Victims of Crime, explains the reason some specifics are easy to remember and other are difficult or impossible to recall “might be due to fractures in the victim’s memory encoding at the time of the incident(s).” Often, this leaves a person with lost “peripheral details” that could be very important information surrounding the crime. However, Agha explains, one way to retrieve these memories is by triggering them through smell. In the Discovery.com article “Here’s Why Smells Trigger Such Vivid Memories,” Ashley Hamer agrees that smell has “a stronger link to memory and emotion than any of the other senses.” Hamer goes on to explain that “scents bypass the thalamus and go straight to the brain’s smell center, known as the olfactory bulb. The olfactory bulb is directly connected to the amygdala and hippocampus, which might explain why the smell of something can so immediately trigger a detailed memory or even intense emotion.”
Healing Through Nature and the Senses:
Let’s Talk About Air, Aroma and the Holidays So, what do we do when we want to relax instead of trigger all that emotion? Story by Marlys Cervantes/Contributing Writer Many people use aromatherapy as a way to reduce stress in their lives, helping both their minds and bodies de-stress. Aromatherapy is a holistic practice of using essential oils for therapeutic benefit that has been around for centuries. According to a Johns Hopkins Medicine Journal article “Aromatherapy: Do Essential Oils Really Work?”, “When inhaled, the scent molecules in essential oils travel from the olfactory nerves directly to the brain and especially impact the amygdala, the emotional center of the brain.” The article stresses they are used to improve the health of body, mind and spirit. The article says the most popular essential oils include Lavender Oil, which is often used to relax and promote sleep; Tea Tree Oil, which was used by Australia’s aboriginal people for wound healing, and is now commonly used for acne, athlete’s foot and insect bites; Peppermint Oil, known to relieve irritable bowel symptoms and tension headaches; and Lemon Oil, often used as both a mood booster and in homemade cleaning products. I wonder if my mood would change to wanting to clean if …? Although there are far too many essential oils to list, a few that were named as being important in Tori Rodriguez’ report for ABC, “6 Scents That Have the Power to Heal,” were: Sage (blood pressure reduction), Peppermint (stress relief; reduce fatigue), Orange (decrease anxiety; elevate mood), Rosemary (enhance brain power; boost energy), Cinnamon (improve focus; increase concentration; reduce frustration) and Lavender (relaxation; decrease anxiety, insomnia and migraine pain). As you can see, this is only a small selection of the oils available, so there are as many different kinds as there are needs for them. Oh, but sometimes you just need to breathe
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in fresh air to rejuvenate yourself. On NPR’s Morning Edition, Gretchen Cuda reported about Harvard researcher Herbert Benson’s idea of “The Relaxation Response,” where he claims breathing can even change a person’s genes: “Here you can use the mind to change the body, and the genes we’re changing were the very genes acting in an opposite fashion when people are under stress.” His claim is that by using their breathing, people can alter the basic activity of the cells in their minds.
In the same article, Cuda reports on Mladen Golubic, a physician in the Cleveland Clinic’s Center for Integrative Medicine, and his ideas about the influence of deep and structured breathing: “You can influence asthma; you can influence chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; you can influence heart failure,” Golubic says. “There are studies that show that people who practice breathing exercises and have those conditions – they benefit.”
Golubic goes on to discuss a practice that has been around for thousands of years in India called pranayama. Pranayama literally means control of the life force, and it is breath work that has been a beneficial part of India’s regular yoga practice affecting the mind and body.
Although all these breathing techniques are good for us, Michelle Blackwood, RN, in “Fresh Air Benefits,” explains that we should make sure we also have plenty of outdoor time, regardless of the time of year. One of the main reasons is simply that the increase in oxygen to the brain releases serotonin, the hormone that increases energy levels and positive feelings; therefore, making us feel happier. With that, we also have more energy and a sharper mind.
Along with feeling happier, fresh air cleans our lungs. Sufficient oxygen levels help our lungs expand and filter out toxins. In addition, the cells need that oxygen to perform their functions to destroy bacteria, viruses, parasites, and to perform inflammatory immune responses to protect our body. Oxygen also helps the cells keep the digestive system properly working.
Certainly not least important is all of these can lead to better sleep through relaxation leading to a peaceful night.
I love the smells of the outdoors, so it’s easy for me to want to go outside and breathe in deeply. Many of my favorite smells remind me of treasured childhood memories. Freshly mowed grass makes me think of my dad in the summer and being outside enjoying my time with neighborhood friends, and the smell of the saltwater in the ocean makes me think back to trips with my parents when I was little, staying in a beach house and enjoying collecting shells, making sand castles and eating seafood. Now, I love the smells of sage, salvia and wisteria in my backyard. However, my all-time favorite smell is eucalyptus. I’d take these smells over most anything else because they relax my mind and make me feel content.
Pastor Leon Veazey of First United Methodist Church says his favorite scents are “coffee brewing, a fresh rain after a dry spell, bacon frying and pine.” He says the scents invoke better memories of family, such as his early adulthood as a dad.
Scents incite nostalgia, Anjana Deshpande, Philadelphia therapist explained to me, as she told me since she’s been in the U.S., barbecue, autumn and sunscreen are scents that have become important in her memories. However, “the scent of jasmine and marigolds reminds me of the holidays in India,” she said, remembering her childhood.
For many people, it seems the holidays bring about memories of the smells of food, even if we aren’t eating all of it. Echo Blanton, co-owner of Blanton Chiropractic Clinic, says Christmas reminds her of “the smells of homemade baking, like pies and cookies.” For Robyn Boettcher Ryan, Advertising Director for Ponca City Monthly magazine, who likes the smells of vanilla and hazelnut, the holiday’s favorite is “hands down, pumpkin spice.” Even Pastor Leon Veazey went with food on this one, saying, “turkey roasting, ham baking, pumpkin pie (even though I don’t like the taste of it).”
I have to agree with the leaning toward the smells of food. I always loved the smell of a big turkey or ham dinner that my mom made, with my grandmother usually bringing the pies and homemade noodles. Then, one of the days surrounding the holiday, my dad generally made his wonderful spaghetti. Now, ever since I’ve been married, the tradition has been the eves of the holidays, we host the large Mexican feast at our home, and it does smell wonderful. Then, the day of is the traditional meal, generally. We love a big houseful of food and fun conversation. There’s nothing like full stomachs and lots of laughter.
How can we relax this busy holiday season and use the air and our lungs to extend our lives? We just need to remember to enjoy life and breathe in that fresh air. As Gretchen Cuda with NPR explains, “It’s a powerful tool for influencing individual health and well-being. And the best part is all the ingredients are free and literally right under your nose.” Take your dog for a walk, visit your neighbors in the front yard or open your windows, even if only for a short bit of time when the weather is cooler. You still need that fresh air.
