Reset Day 4 How and What do you Smell?

labrador puppy smelling a flowerToday you’re invited to engage with the sense of smell

Here’s how you might structure your day of smelling…

 

 

 

 

 

Setting the tone

As soon as you wake up, go and make your first drink of the day, whatever it is.

If, for example, it’s tea, start by smelling the teabag! As it brews, have a sniff and as you lift it to your lips for that first sip, pause and observe anything that you can smell. If you have it with milk, you might have noticed any smells in the fridge. Remember, they don’t have to be pleasant. If there’s something delicious in there, observe any physical responses or thoughts…

5 minute practice

For this you are invited to either go outside if you have your own space or stand at an open door or at an open window. Or even move around.

Set your timer if you need to, close your eyes and allow any smells out there to come to you.

See if you can detect at least 5 different smells. Focus on the quality of these smells – their strength, pleasantness or unpleasantness (what is about them that makes them one or the other?), how close are they?

Come inside and close your eyes again. How can you tell from your sense of smell that you are inside?

Suggestions for the rest of the day. You choose how many and how often. Be creative with your own ideas for opportunities to sniff out your world.

 

  • Mentally, or on paper, list 5 of your favourite smells and seek them out today. As you inhale their scent, try to label it and think what associations it brings to mind.
  • Do the same with 5 unfamiliar smells or ones you don’t normally notice.
  • When you shower, take the time to close your eyes and smell any of the products you use. How do they make you feel?
  • Before you eat anything today, allow yourself to smell a couple of mouthfuls as you bring them to your lips. Close your eyes to savour any aromas on offer and notice how the body responds.
  • Try and get outside at some point whether it’s in a rural or urban setting and as you walk from one place to another notice 5 new smells. Try to sniff out a scent you wouldn’t normally notice.
  • If you go shopping today, observe what smells hit you as you walk through the door and when you walk around. With each notice if you find them pleasant, unpleasant or simply neutral.

At the end of the day, reflect on the following prompts in your notebook

  1. What were your 3 favourite smells from today and 3 you found unpleasant? Why?
  2. How did you find your day of smelling the world? Did it reveal anything new to you?

 

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