There is no doubt that our sense of smell is a great help to us throughout our lives. Among other things, smells can make us relive past emotions and feelings or alert us to imminent danger.
What is the relationship between smell and emotions?
One of the main reasons why smell is so closely linked to our feelings and memories is that smells are processed in the area of the brain responsible for integrating all our emotional reactions, especially in the amygdala.
There are several aromas, such as coffee, freshly baked bread, babies or wet earth, that can awaken pleasant feelings in us and even relax us or lift our mood.
And these pleasant smells don’t even need to be associated with a specific event, as many studies indicate that smells are more closely related to the emotions they evoke than to the memories themselves.
It is no coincidence that smell is considered one of the most powerful senses when it comes to extrasensory experiences.
You only need to look at the percentages to see how important it is: as a general rule, we remember 5% of what we see, 2% of what we hear, 1% of what we touch and 35% of what we smell.
Ways in which smell and emotions are related
From the moment we are born we are exposed to countless aromas, starting at the very beginning: while we are still in the womb.
It has been shown that before birth babies are able to perceive smells that can later make them react in a particular way.
Likewise, a smell can make us recall moments in our lives when we associate that aroma with them. This is known as “olfactory memory”. Although it is quite a complex process, it can be summarised as follows to make it easier to understand:
- Inside the nasal cavities there are receptors called the olfactory epithelium, which are able to pick up stimuli and then send them to the olfactory bulb in the form of an electrical signal.
- Once the olfactory bulb has received this information, it distributes it to other parts of the body, especially the limbic system (which is responsible for regulating emotions).
- The amygdala then connects aromas and emotions.
- The process culminates in the hippocampus, which carries out its function of linking this smell to one of the memories stored in our memory.
The truth is that smell and emotions are closely linked. Not only that: this sense is even able to protect us from danger (for example, from fire or a gas leak) and to generate various positive and negative responses in our brain, such as relaxation or rejection.
Undoubtedly, it is of great importance in our lives and one of the greatest generators of emotions and memories.
Related to this article, you can take a look at my biodecoding therapy, where we will explore this and other related topics in more depth.
