What is "smell" psychotherapy?

In people's living environment, there are a lot of different smells permeating the air. They have different effects on people, can inspire different emotions such as love or hate, sadness or joy, and even change people's behavior. During World War II, fascist gangsters became bloodthirsty. They became murderers in the smell of blood.

1. Odor and smell

Everyone’s sensitivity to smell is different. Experiments by scientists have proven that most people can identify at least 4,000 different smells, and some people can even identify more than 10,000 smells. This is because the olfactory cells in the nose are directly connected to the most basic parts of the brain. This part used to be called the "olfactory brain", but now it's called the "limbic system." It regulates motor muscle activity as well as basic impulses such as sexual desire and hunger, and even complex emotional or sentimental psychological activities.

In foreign countries, some scientists have discovered that there are "transfer hormones" in the smell. This transmitter is used by many organisms for olfactory communication. For example, your cat rubs its cheek against your thigh to express welcome and affection; your dog will hover around you with its head and tail wagging, which also expresses affection and welcome to you. All these prove that smell can play a role in communication. If you intentionally abandon your cat or dog in the "wilderness" far away, they will still "come to you" and return to its "home" before long. The reason can still be explained by the "transfer hormone" in the smell.

Someone once told a "joke", but from the perspective of "odor therapy", this "joke" cannot be completely regarded as "nonsense" without scientific reason. There was a mother from Shanxi who had difficult labor and was very painful when giving birth. Later, a "smart man" came up with an idea and asked someone to bring Shanxi mature vinegar. After the mother smelled the strong smell of vinegar, she had a normal delivery. Why is there such a "miraculous effect"? This is because the fragrance of mature vinegar can penetrate into the blood meridians and open up the orifices. You may know that there are many medicines in Chinese herbal medicine that use the principle of "aromatic and invigorating the orifices" to treat diseases.

Memory psychology once talked about a point: olfactory memory is particularly clear in memory. Many people can clearly remember the smell of their childhood, and this smell can evoke complex emotions such as beauty and disgust. So, how is smell "recorded" or even "imprinted" in people's brains? The way smell is recorded and imprinted is much more complex than visual images and auditory sounds.

Scientists are exploring ways and means why smells can be "recorded" in people's brains. For example, why can babies who are only a few days old recognize their mother's scent? Why can’t we remember some smells that once affected us, as if they never entered our consciousness?

2. The relationship between smell and health

Speaking of this, some people may ask: What is the relationship between "smell" and people's mental health?

About everyone will have some different experiences: waking up in the fresh air and feeling relaxed and refreshed; but in a crowded car full of sweat odor or even body odor and foot odor, You will feel dizzy and nauseous, and your thoughts will be disturbed; in the "smell" filled with the aroma of wine, fish and meat, you will also feel the joy and joy that the festival brings to people. Some smells calm your mind; some smells make you irritable; some smells uplift you; some smells make you drowsy, the list is endless. After a Russian takes a sip of Votka, he puts a pickled cucumber under his nose and smells it carefully before eating it.

Some Western scientists are experimenting with using a special smell to reduce workers' worries and tensions. They believe that good smells can improve work efficiency in factories and offices; reduce the level of aggression and violence in prisons; add good smells to textbooks, which may increase students' interest in learning; and use scents to enhance people's memory. wait. Mike Tok, an American scientific researcher, once studied female college students in the same dormitory at the University of Chicago. Their menstruation appeared at the same time. Mike Tok believed that this phenomenon was probably caused by a certain smell.

3. Odor therapy

Odor therapy can be classified into "sensory stimulation therapy". Some hospitals in the United States have used sensory stimulation therapy for comatose patients and have achieved initial results.

For example, they used bells to stimulate hearing, toothpaste on the tongue to stimulate taste, and acetic acid to stimulate smell to treat patients who were in an extreme coma due to severe brain damage due to a car accident. After a few months, the patient Miraculously awakened from coma. This is due to the fact that patients constantly receive sensory stimulation, which arouses their clear consciousness and restores their clarity of mind. You see, the prospect of psychotherapy is very broad, isn’t it? Is scent therapy a promising form of psychotherapy?

For the sake of mental health, it is recommended to take walks in the woods and beside flowers. Smelling the fragrance of flowers will make you feel happy. The reason is that the aromatic oil molecules of the fragrant flowers will stimulate your olfactory nerves, causing Your cheerful mood. Of course, due to different types of flowers, people will have different feelings about the fragrance of various flowers. For example, orchids and tuberose give off delicate fragrance; osmanthus, rose, and jasmine give off strong fragrance; oleander and hydrangea have strong fragrance; lilac flowers have light fragrance, etc. Among all flowers, people love the fragrance of roses the most, because the concentration of rose fragrance is suitable and it is particularly pleasant to smell it without any pungent feeling.

What is very interesting is that when harmonious incense is mixed with each other, it often produces a pleasant aroma; when uncoordinated incense is mixed with each other, it produces an unpleasant smell. Based on this principle, we can achieve harmony in color and fragrance of flowers. A French expert on flowers once distinguished the similarities and differences between dozens of different flower scents and listed seven different categories of scents. He created a "fragrance scale" by imitating the "scale" of music (do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti). These seven types of fragrance can be divided into lavender, lilac, rose, violet, thorn and so on. Represented by ball flowers, moonflowers and magnolias.

This French expert on floral fragrance found that any pleasant sound that is harmonized on the musical scale (for example, do~fa; do~so) can also be combined on the fragrant scale to create a pleasant smell; and vice versa. , notes that sound discordant on the musical scale also don’t smell good on the fragrant scale. People can use the incense ladder to smoothly mix out many different spices, and it can also be used as an important reference for choosing potted flowers for planting.

It is recommended that young friends keep a few pots of flowers, which can make you happy and comfortable. You may also wish to refer to the advice of this French expert on flower fragrance and carefully select some potted flowers to place in the house. They should not only look good, but also make them smell better.

From a mental health perspective, projects that use smell to improve mental health in daily life have yet to be developed. At present, some scholars at home and abroad are conducting various experimental studies in relevant aspects. If you are interested, you can start to speculate and discuss on a small scale based on your actual situation and specific conditions, combined with your own personal needs.