Last week I urged you to listen and make noise. This week, let's talk about your wonderful sense of smell. Have you ever walked into a kitchen, smelled your favorite food cooking and had your mouth water? Or have you ever had a person walk by you wearing a scent that someone from your past wore, eliciting all kinds of pleasant memories? Or maybe you've kissed the head of a newborn and become entranced by the sweet scent? That, my friends, is the power of smell.

Smell can transport you to another time and place, and it can have physical and psychological benefits when used therapeutically – just think of aromatherapy. Try it right now – think of your ultimate favorite food. Visualize it in your mind. Picture it vividly. As you do so, inhale and smell what you're imagining. How does it make you feel? Do this same exercise with your favorite flower. You can even recapture memories of trips you've taken or people that you've known with this exercise.

Breathe it In

This week, I want you to cultivate your sense of smell. Open your nostrils and inhale right now – what do you smell? If you're only smelling stale air, try lighting a scented candle or burning incense. Play with different scents and notice how each one makes you feel. Before slipping into a hot bath, add some aromatherapy drops to enhance your bathing experience.

Scent-sational Resources

To help you get your scent on, here are some helpful resources:

• Books: Aromatherapy: Scent and Psyche: Using Essential Oils for Physical and Emotional Well-Being, Colour Scents: Healing with Colour and Aroma, The Magick of Aromatherapy: Use of Scent for Healing Body, Mind, and Spirit

• Scents: You can find Aura Cacia products (I bought an Aura Cacia mini fan that diffuses the wonderful scent of sage years ago and I still use it) at most health food stores; one of my favorite scents is Blissful Heart and I highly recommend it; if you find the selection of aromatherapy products confusing, you can go with simple, ole' Johnson and Johnson who sells scented (with the calming scent of lavender) baby oil, bubble bath and lotion.

This week your pleasure experiement is to open your world to the power of scent. Become more aware of scents and how they affect your sense of well-being. Enjoy all the pleasures that scents bring!

Have a pleasure-filled day,

Diane

Diane Cesa is a yoga practitioner and teacher, lover of life, tea drinker, adventurer, eternal optimist, nature fan, blogger and self-proclaimed pleasure maven.