Creating Moods And Memories With Seasonal Scents

By Author: Tammy Tivis
Total Articles: 4762
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Ask ten different people about their favorite scent and you're likely to get ten different answers, simply because the sense of smell is an integral part of our memory bank, our life experience and our unique place in the world. Whether it's the aroma of frying bacon early on a winter's morning, the smell of crisp sheets fresh off the line, the brisk freshness of an ocean breeze, or the tantalizing odor of simmering spices, our sense of smell somehow imprints itself on our very essence, creating memories that are never completely erased. Marcel Proust, the 19th Century French writer said "...the smell and taste of things remain poised a long time, like souls bearing resiliently, on tiny and almost impalpable drops of their essence, the immense edifice of memory." No one with a healthy sense of smell can deny that we have a great capacity for associating memory and experience with scent. We've all had the strange experience of catching a slight scent in the air and immediately being pulled back into another place and time. Scientists have studied this phenomenon but can't always explain the powerful memories and moods that scent ...
... can evoke. Marketers have long used that power by scenting everything from diapers to car interiors in an undeniably successful ploy to make us buy. But we can also harness the power of scent successfully in our homes, especially when we're trying to create special holiday moods.

Planning what scents we will use for certain seasons should be given as much thought as what we plan to serve for dinner, or what background music will be playing for which guests. The choices are many these days, and it's no longer necessary to slave all day creating the actual pie or fresh cedar bough garland; the same effect can just as easily be obtained by buying one of the many scent choices now on the market, a market that is rich with hundreds of subtle scents in oil, candles, and diffusers. Depending on our choice of guests and the mood we're aiming for, we can almost tailor the scent to the occasion, and everyone will appreciate the refreshing ambience created by burning candles or diffusers tailor-made for a special occasion.

There's good reason that "scent cocktails" have become de riguer in other countries, where stressed out patrons line up for an invigorating 30 minute scent therapy of pine forest, fresh sea air, pumpkin pie, fresh-baked bread, or hundreds of other scent choices that claim to relieve stress and create relaxation and creativity. Patrons are encouraged to lie back and re-live their favorite holiday or vacation experiences as they lose themselves in their favorite scents, often trying to re-capture those elusive memories buried somewhere in a past full of fond memories that may or may not be entirely real.
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