Stimulate your senses for better health and emotional well-being

Stimulate all your senses for better health and well-being

For me, it’s not just the sights and sounds in nature that offer me solace from everyday stresses. It is also what I touch and what I smell around me too. Stimulating all my senses leads to better health and well-being.

Working in the garden and feeling the soil beneath my hands and feet always lifts my spirits. Meanwhile, I experience the sounds of the birds singing, bees buzzing, and grasses and leaves swaying in the breeze. I also take joy in the colours, shapes, and textures of the plants around me. As a result, I feel more connected to nature and the changing seasons.

People have evolved with plants

This is not surprising because people have evolved with plants, so we tend to have positive psychological and physiological responses to them.

Research shows that gardening and viewing natural landscapes can improve physical and mental wellbeing. Furthermore, thousands of people involved in therapeutic horticulture projects report these benefits firsthand. For example, projects include The Restart Project in Glasgow and those coordinated by Trellis. Likewise, home gardeners often experience these benefits through regular contact with nature.

Scent too can play a big role in this improved health and emotional well-being. I feel an uplifting sense when I am stopped in my tracks by a powerful scent. For example, the gorgeous scent of Rhododendron luteum stops me in my tracks every time I pass by.

I also generally feel relaxed when sitting among plants – whether in my garden or a park or enveloped by them in a woodland.

Why is sense of smell so powerful

Sense of smell is linked to the limbic system of the brain – a primitive area. This is the area that is responsible for instinct; it drives behaviour, memory and emotions. Inhaling rose oil vapour has positive effects on brain activity and has been shown to have anti-depressive qualities and a calming influence. This helps to reduce fatigue, stress and exhaustion (Mohebitabar et al., 2017). Positive psychological and physiological effects have also been measured in people inhaling floral scent naturally diffused from flowers (Jo et al., 2013). 

Because scent strongly influences memory, pairing a fragrance with a positive experience such as gardening can enhance its benefits. Furthermore, repeated experiences can strengthen this connection over time. As a result, the same scent can later trigger positive memories and emotions, extending the benefits of the original experience.

SUMMARY

Being stimulated visually and non-visually through the sound, taste, touch and scent of plants and the natural environment, whilst gently moving, is good for us physically and mentally.  The longer we can spend in a plant-filled environment, especially one that stimulates all our senses, including our sense of smell, the better our health and emotional well-being will be. 

So what are you waiting for – get out in your garden, into a local park or woodland and experience plants and nature on all its levels. 

More information

*          The Restart Project is an NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde therapeutic gardening project concerned with Mental Health Recovery in Glasgow. For more information, see The Restart Project

**          We are working in association with TRELLIS, which is the hub of a network of over 420 therapeutic gardening projects throughout Scotland that use gardening to enable thousands of people facing multiple disadvantages to improve their health and well-being. Trellis endorse the general benefits to health of gardening. For more information, see Trellis

See our blog with Five Tips for Incorporating Scent in your Garden

References: 

Mohebitabar et al. 2017. Therapeautic efficacy of rose oil: A comprehensive review of clinical evidence. Avicenna J. Phytomed. Vol. 7 (3): 206-213. 

Jo et al. 2013. Physiological and Psychological Response to Floral Scent. HortScience Vol. 48 (1): 82-88