The Scent of a Home
As we go on with our life, we meet many people, go to different places, use various products, eat a variety of food and have innumerable experiences of several kinds. Goes without saying that we can’t and we don’t remember all of them, particularly on a daily basis, as obviously we don’t do the same things each and every day of our life. So the day to day events of our life get stored in a small part of our brain as our memory and get triggered when we come face to face with something that reminds us of any particular place, person, thing or incident. Such things can be anything from a photograph, a movie, a song, a piece of clothing or jewelry, something to eat and so on. Apart from all these, there is one very powerful, quick and efficient thing that brings memories, of times long forgotten, to the fore front of our brain, and this is nothing else but our sense of smell. Incense
Our sense of smell is 10,000 times more sensitive than any other of our senses and therefore, recognition of smell is immediate. Other senses like touch and taste must travel through the body via neurons and the spinal cord before reaching the brain whereas the sense of smell is immediate, extending directly to the brain. This is the only place where our central nervous system is directly exposed to the environment. Smell is perceived by olfactory receptor cells, neurons with knob-shaped tips called dendrites that bind to molecular odorants. When an odorant stimulates a receptor, the cell sends an electrical impulse to the olfactory bulb, where odorant patterns are interpreted as different smells. Because the olfactory bulb is part of the limbic system, the emotional center of the brain, smell influences our behavior, mood and memory.
This explains that when we perceive a smell, we are suddenly reminded of an event that we had otherwise forgotten for years. For instance, a certain perfume or cologne may remind us of some particular person in our life. This happens due to the connection between the olfaction and the memory. So strong is our power of smell that with time we tend to associate certain places with a particular smell as well. For example, the scent of freshly brewed coffee, reminds us of our favorite coffee shop. Same is the case with baked products – bakery. In fact, whether intentional or not, our homes also have a particular smell and this is what people begin to associate us with.
Have you ever wondered that when guests walk into our home, what is the first thing they notice? Is it our lovely new sideboard or the amazingly comfortable sofa or even the massive fifty inch LED television hung proudly on the wall? Unfortunately, as important and impressive these details may seem, they don’t matter if our house smells of musty, moldy air or stinky, dirty stuff. Smell is a very powerful sense, and it can override our other four senses if something foul wafts our way. How our home smells can leave a big impression, so our home’s scent is just as important as its appearance, more so, as we live there.
While there are numerous ready to use artificial products in the range of home fragrances