Olfactory Power

Growing up, my grandparents always had a wood-burning fire on Christmas. I’m guessing the fireplace was used on other occasions, but to this date my childhood mind can only recall Christmases. I could smell it when we pulled up, my sister and I clutching our most treasured doll or Fisher Price speciality from the morning as we climbed out of the family’s brown Chevy Nova.

We stepped into the entryway and shook off coats, the woodsmoke filling our nostrils; the aroma of tradition and family. My sister and I bounded up the half flight of stairs to find my grandpa stoking the fire, welcoming us in his Scandinavian cardigan, donned especially for yuletide. My grandma peeked her head around the corner of the kitchen wearing her holiday crimson lipstick and Christmas apron ( which upon her passing I sport proudly every year in her honor).

To this day, when I smell a natural wood fireplace, part of me swoons, recalling Christmas memories when presents were magical and everyone seemed delighted.

I’ve never realized the power of the olfactory system in school as much as I have this year. Acting on an idea from a teacher Instagram post, I ordered an assortment of chapsticks before the school year started. Orange Fanta, vanilla bean ice cream, peppermint… an array scents and flavors. The teacher online used these, not on the intended lips, but as a small dot on the hand, the idea being students are able to smell what they have chosen for at least an hour after putting it on.

As I’ve learned, much of my job as a K-5 Student Advocate has involved keeping kids regulated and calm in their learning environments. The success of this simple chapstick intervention has made me realize these Instagram teachers are pure genius…

1. It’s an amazing distraction. When an upset student is in the hallway, under a table, fixated on an injustice like having to do math, or worse…the classroom ran out of goldfish for snack, my offer of coming to pick out a scent is just intriguing enough to shift their brains. If I can get them to change locations and topics, we can get to a place of reason and regulation.

2. When I offer the basket of chapsticks, I ask them to pick one that makes their hearts feel ‘happy and calm’. I feel like this plants a seed of hope. We both are well aware there’s nothing magical about the tube of artificial scent and wax, but by suggesting they choose a scent they like, it’s something tangible and sensory to shift their dysregulation to content.

3. They are naturally obligated to take deep breaths. Once we put a small dot on the back of their hands in the space between the pointer finger and thumb, I ask them to take a big smell. “Does it make your heart happy and calm?”, I ask, and 98% of the time the student will smile and nod.

Sometimes they need to come back later in the day for a refresh. The smell has worn out, they say. Often it’s more about the need for a movement walk to my room to get the scent, but it’s one simple way we can help students feel more in control of their big emotions.

Upon reflection, I shouldn’t be surprised that smells are so connected with emotion. The way my aunt’s purse always smelled like a peppery mix of leather and mint gum. The perfume I wore in college; rife with anxiety and new experiences. The baby lotion I used when Charly was a newborn, carefully massaging her chubby legs after a bath.

So I hope your holiday smells like comforting fireplaces, cinnamon cookies, and fresh pine needles. To those who are missing loved ones and powering through hard places this season- take that deep smell of something that makes your heart happy… even if it’s just a moment.