Savor Delicious Aromas

Savor Delicious Aromas

This awareness of smell is, for many of us, under-utilized as a restorative resource. Put your sniffer to good use by savoring delicious smells. The aromas from cooking can be almost infinitely varied and complex. As with all practices related to savoring, this is really about allowing ourselves to, as psychologist Rick Hanson says, “take in the good.” We want to build neural structure around things we appreciate and enjoy, things that make us feel good. And the way to do this is to hold them in the spotlight of attention a little bit longer intentionally: to keep the focus on them and allow ourselves to receive them. Many of us have a hard time allowing in the good. We get praised and we shrug it off. We notice something pleasing, and we let our attention move on to the next thing. At a sensory level, with something you want to savor—a moment of connection, a lovely aroma—make it a practice to take it in. You can steady the mind, if you need to, by reminding yourself what you are doing. I’m breathing in this lovely smell. I’m exhaling. Now I’m breathing it in again. On a walk in the woods, sometimes you’ll catch a breath of something on a trail: the moist exhalations of a pond formed from spring rain. Or in a garden, the perfume of an antique rose. In Brasil, deep in the rainforest, I once found myself astonished by the fragrance of breuzinho, the sap exuded by a tree in the Burseraceae family, the same family from which comes copal and myrrh and frankincense. It was like an incense bath in the middle of the rainforest, a mystery of nature: sublime. Take it in…