Inhale a wild scent

Its beautiful scents aren’t just for the bees: take a few seconds on the way to work or school to inhale the perfume of a wildflower, a plant or the leaves of a tree.

The psychology of smells is so interesting! The scent centre of the brain (the olfactory bulb) is intertwined and really close to so many important parts in our head. The emotional centre (amygdala) and the learning centre (hippocampus) trigger a ‘conditional response’ when we inhale a new scent for the first time. This means that from then on, the scent is associated with what we were doing and how we felt at the time. Amazing!

Take a deep breath. What can you smell? And where does it take you?