Smells That Trigger Memories

What is the best place to relax and just let your mind wander?? A nice, relaxing bath! How many times have you been using a certain bar of soap and the scent causes memories to come flooding in? Have you ever wondered why it is that our brains associate a smell with memories? I have, so I did a little research to find out exactly why this happens. How many times have you smelled chlorine and it takes you back to your childhood swimming pool? What about the Balsam Fir candle you open the lid to smell and Christmas memories from the past coming rushing in? You get a whiff of the oatmeal cooking and it immediately takes you back to sitting at the kitchen table in your "jammies" when you are six years old? Here's a weird one for me.....every time I smell the pungent odor or tar, it takes me back to my Kindergarten classroom room at North School. They were tarring the flat roof on the school the first year I started.  It seems like it took them forever to get it done! The smell permeated the building and classrooms, and every time I smell that smell I am taken back to Mrs. Gibb's Kindergarten classroom! That is probably one of the most distinct memory grabbers for me! Weird I know, but it's a great example of how the brain pulls memories from smells.  The information I gathered on how this works is this.....The olfactory lobe in the brain is part of the limbic system. The limbic system is an area associated with  memory and feeling. It's sometimes called the "emotional brain." Smells can call up memories and powerful responses almost immediately. The olfactory lobe has access to the amgydala. This processes emotion. The hippocampus is responsible for associative learning. Smells still would not trigger memories if it were for conditioned responses. When you smell a new scent, you link it to a person, event, or thing.  Say when  you smell lilies, it's linked to a funeral home or fresh lumber smell with your first new built home. Your brain puts together a link between the smell and memory. The emotion it triggers is different for everyone, depending upon the experience that was had when the link was made between the smell and event.  That is why some people like a certain scent and others may hate it! So there you a have it...a very simple explanation on why we are attracted to certain smells and why it drums up certain memories.

Every season or holiday I try to come up with a new soap or two to represent that particular time.  A couple of my summer soaps were Summer Days...which was a citronella soap and Lemon Delight...which is an uplifting yellow bar scented with Lemongrass. A couple Fall bars were Orange Cocoa Spice....scented with Clove and Orange oil and Dejavu....scented with Patchouli.  My Christmas bars are...Rosemary Peppermint, Balsam Fir, and Honey Almond Oatmeal....Those are just a few examples of how I try to gear my soaps towards the season or holiday! Like I said in my first sentence above....when you are relaxing in a warm relaxing bath, I would imagine you would want scents that take you to places or bring up pleasant memories while relaxing.  I put a lot of effort in to trying to accomplish blending my scents with the holidays or seasons.

So.....if you want you memories stimulated with bathing or showering, I am sure one of my soaps can help you accomplish this! Go to www.heidisartisansoap.com.  If you would like a bi-monthly subscription delivered to your door every other month with three different soaps go to www.sudsybox.com.