ENHANCING SCENTS
and NOSTRIL YOGA
Over the next few days and weeks, whenever you notice a smell, take a moment to let it fill you, and then notice the contrasting smell of your own out breath.
Indoors, where there is no wind, in your own room, most of your in-smell will be a mixture of your own body scent, and your own out breath. This may be reassuring – our own odour is a constant in our changing lives, this is something real and secure – but it is not stimulating.
So, you will need a variety of nice things to inhale. You don't want to inhale the same thing every day, a few days long if you enjoy it, but then it gets boring, and probably has one-sided effects.
Indoors, these days, i often use aroma therapy essential oils. (A practical note on essential oils is at page bottom.) I have little rags and heat them on a lamp... rub them on my nose... (incense or perfumes should be good but i haven't yet experimented with them). In summer, i would advise you to rub your nose in a few roses or honeysuckle... empathise with bees.
Trying to find household equivalents is tricky. In my experience, tiger balm and clove oil don't work so well, peppermint oil is good but somehow thin, deeper smells are better like Vick and tea tree oil.
Our own out-breath and smell is a constant in our experience of ourselves and our feeling of self-identity, and yet (except when we have bad breath) we are totally unaware of it.
Our out-breath and smell can be amplified by drinking something which tastes strong : coffee, whisky, chocolate, or eating a boiled egg, etc. It's better to use one simple recognisable strong taste than a mixture.
There must be hundreds of ways of waking up our sense of smell. It needs to be developed creatively over a period of time. Please experiment and give me feedback.
I have only rare experiences of smelling multiple things and it's not comparable to the panoramic way of seeing and listening – it's a sequence of focus points one after the other.
A notable memory was while sitting outside a bakers, at a cross road in a pedestrian zone with a mild breeze which kept changing direction, and from different directions came coffee, bread cooking, a woman's perfume, cigarette smoke, a nearby vegetable shop, and french fries.
Smell is an ever-changing experience out of doors. Since practising with scenting i have become a lot more aware of petrol smells. I find this unpleasant, but i breathe them in anyway, if i'm aware of them at least i have a choice to move, or not to inhale deeply.
Smelling in Two Different Directions
Experiment with smelling freshly cut onion a few feet away on one side and soy sauce on the other, try to smell both by 'smelling in their direction'. I feel sure animals know the direction of a smell, and that they can smell in two different directions at the same time. I feel sure i can do this.Backs to the Wind
I don't know if this checks out in animal behaviour, but it's a nice idea. Both sounds and smells travel with the wind. So it makes sense to sit or stand with your back to the wind, then you can look-out in front, and listen and smell behind you.Nostril Yoga
The nostrils and smelling are very similar to the eyelids and seeing. But humans hardly ever use their nostrils. We need to do a few stretching exercises. We need a little nostril yoga.
Smells are sensed initially by the tip of the nose and then in the nostrils.
When i smell something strong, or something bad, i recognise it straight away and sense it very clearly in my nose, often at the tip of the nose. This seems logical, it's a wake-up signal, either to contract the nostrils, filter out the bad smell and not inhale; or to savour and take this scent in, to ingest it.
Perhaps you've noticed how the stink of a bad perfume, hangs around in your nostrils for long minutes after the experience.
The nostrils adjust to temperature and smells. Unless you live in a hot land, the in-breath is cooler than the out-breath. Cool and dry air is warmed and moistened by its passage through the nasal canals. The nostrils may even contract a little, to warm or moisten the air on the in-breath.
When smelling-in with a general curiosity for scents on the wind, the nostrils expand.
If you flare your nostrils and just breathe-in, rather than smelling-in, the cool dry air will give you a sore throat. Thus it seems obvious that dogs who flare their nostrils when sleeping, are subconsciously smelling-in.
We can do all sorts of funny things with the nostrils to channel smells, to refine and clarify them and search out the scents. Long forgotten and never used muscles become fully obvious once we start scenting. We sometimes contract the upper nostril while flaring the lower, and sometimes the outer rims narrow and almost seem to hold the smell at the top of the nose... it's all very interesting, but i have no analysis of it all. Discover it for yourself ...
Practical Note on essential oils
When i started i got lots of aroma therapy essential oils from China took a month and cost 1.50 euro per bottle (eBay, go to 'Kiuno' or 'Pyrrla'). Now, i think there are only pre-packed collections at 5 euro a bottle. Search around there are sometimes cheap offers on eBay. I started with 10gm. bottles, now i buy 100gm. they are far cheaper. In some countries you can get them in the chemists and health shops... but they're very expensive, vanilla or rose are common and good.
Back to Chapter Six : Smelling and Tasting
Back to THE PANORAMA SENSES Priority Pages