Smell has a genius for instantly returning us to a time and place, making our noses great companions on a walk.
We process smell differently from how we process our other senses. Instead of being filtered through the thalamus, smell travels to our primary olfactory cortex. Smell or ‘olfaction’ is the most primitive of our senses. It helped us to find food and avoid danger thousands of years ago. Despite not using our sense of smell much these days, it’s a sophisticated chemical-sensor device with 350 odour-receptor genes developed over millions of years, and can detect the lightest and subtlest of smells. When we walk we can reconnect with our sense of smell and aromatic compounds found in many plants including pine, rosemary and lavender, which have been linked to alleviating pain and anxiety, the suppression of some cancer tumours, reduced inflammation, improved sleep, enhanced mood, and better focus, attention and memory. Today oils from these compounds are widely used in the pharmaceutical industry, with their biochemical properties having been shown to be anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, antiviral, antiseptic, anti-carcinogenic and antifungal.
The intra-nasal pathway is an entry route to the brain, via the lungs and brain. Scent molecules cross the blood-brain barrier to interact with our central nervous system, causing immediate physiological changes, from changes to our blood pressure and muscles tension, to shifts in our pulse rates and brain activity.
Many of these plants grow abundantly in the wild. For instance, on a walk in the Sierra Nevada, we could come across the aromas of wild basil and fennel, and the trek could become etched on our memories becauses of the link between certain oils and memory.
Plants are at their most aromatic in heat or after rain, but we can also enjoy their scents by rubbing their leaves, berries or petals between our fingers (or by snapping a dead twig) as we walk. We need to make the most of our scent cells as they are replaced every one to two months.
Some walking areas rich in aromatic plant life are: tracks on Mediterranean hills, pine forests, bluebell woods, the damp minty banks of streams and rivers, wooded parks, and rose or herb gardens.
Here are some tips for walking with your nose:
Walk slowly, occasionally closing your eyes, and covering your ears to help direct your attention back to your odour-receptor cells.
Slowly exhale after breathing in an aroma, as the scent amplifies on its return journey past our olfactory senses.
If you smell a flower directly, use a series of short, shallow sniffs to flood your olfactory receptors.
Make the most of warmer days, as many flowers release greater amounts of scents when there are more insects.
Let’s all go for a walk with our noses!
Source: 52 Ways to Walk: Annabel Streets – Bloomsbury Publishing