My Experiments in the Practice of Everyday Life

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January 31, 2013
16 Comment

21 Day Relationship Challenge – Day 18

Embrace Good Smells

21-DayChallenge-BlogPhotoToday’s resolution suggests that you “Embrace good smells.” I’ve become obsessed with the sense f smell, generally—and especially the fragrances that I associate with the people I love. My husband’s shampoo, my daughter’s favorite perfume, the smell of my parents’ kitchen.

Do you associate the people you love with particular smells?

Does paying more attention to this physical sense make a difference to your happiness?

We can all learn from each other, so please post your experiences with the resolution in the comments section below.

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  • Patti

    When I was widowed 13 years ago, the first thing I did was to bury my face in the folds of his work shirt. I slept on his pillow. His scent was the last tangible thing of him, and I held on to it as long as I could, until his scent faded. The sense of smell is extremely powerful.

  • Lynn

    I agree, the scent of smell can bring happiness. I always used to wear perfume. I have not done so in years because of my husband’s allergies. My youngest daughter is extremely sensitive too. Sometimes, I need to just go to a store alone and enjoy the scents there.

  • pseuzieq

    My Mommy smells sooooo good. Everything she touches, her bedroom, even her cats smell fresh and clean and florally-sweet.

  • http://mamaisworking.blogspot.com/ Meikah Ybañez-Delid

    Oh yes, they definitely do! :) I love the smell of my husband after he showered and sprinkled on skin braser and Davidoff perfume. :D My kids right after they showered, too, and would be smelling J&J baby powder. Too bad I was not able to start this challenge. :)

  • http://twitter.com/SadieDing Sadie Dingfelder

    My cheating ex-boyfriend wore Drakkar Noir too! Perhaps men who gravitate toward citrus and lavender are bad news.

  • http://twitter.com/m8safe M8Safe

    Yes! Even with closed eyes I can tell if the one beside me is my guy because of his smell. :)

  • http://www.facebook.com/carolyn.wolfe.1426 Carolyn Wolfe

    My mother died unexpectedly 6 years ago and I was in total despair. I cried every day (sometimes all day, it seemed). One day I noticed that a woman at work had a scent that reminded me of my mother. She told me it was Elizabeth Arden’s Red Door. To my knowledge my mother never used this perfume, but it has a sort of lipstick smell and she wore lipstick all her life. I bought a bottle and sprayed my pillow every night. It was amazingly calming and soothing. I did this religiously, ritually every night for a few years. I don’t have to do this anymore, but sometimes, when I feel low, I bring out the Red Door and voila, it works. Back in my mother’s arms again. Scent is powerful.

    • gretchenrubin

      What a lovely story. How nice to find something so comforting in such an unexpected way.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1506347765 Angela Stanbrough

    I was really hoping that the relationship challenge would be new info, but it seems like this is all recycled from The Happiness Project Book.

    • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1761025540 Marissa Ladyliberty Cantrell

      i like the reminders. i read both books all year long, focusing on the months topics and taylor it to me and where im at in my life. i learn something new about myself everythime i read a passage. and after reading gretchen’s works for so long, i’m willing to bet that she’s working on a new one. it’s just in her nature. ;)

  • Julie

    Every once in a while when I walk into my dad and stepmom’s garage I smell the smells of my grandmother’s farmhouse garage (my dad’s mom). It smelled of birdseed, hay, dirt, and just plain “farm.” When I smell it at my dad’s house it just takes me back to my childhood with my cousins on the farm. Makes me happy!

  • Jillie Z

    Smells can bring back such powerful memories. I wore a particularly strong scented deodorant during the weeks before my grandmother died, and smelling that fragrance years later brought back this overwhelming sense of loss that i had felt at the time she passed. And on a less sad note, Drakkar also brings back annoying memories of an ex-boyfriend!

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1761025540 Marissa Ladyliberty Cantrell

    this is one that the hubs is better at than me. he always has a huge pine scented candle. he has to test every brand, every style, every type (fir, pine, etc). his fave is yankee candle balsam fir.

  • Miljana

    I don’t know if I’m happy person or not, I have alergy of parfumes. The smells can remind me of some persons, situations, things, more or less pleasant. Bring me to childhood, very often. But, when we are speaking of smells, we need not to forget that the sveat of our body is very good indicator of our health. We can perspire, but it may not to smell. If we feel some smell, bad smell of our sveat, that indicated us that in our body there are harmful supstances and toxins. Frst alarm! Don’t think it will disappear as it comes. Drink a lot of water to rinse your inside, and take care what you eat. Don’t enjoy in your “perspirage” and don’t cover it with parfumes and deodorants, wipes and heal it. The same is with breath.
    My comment is not, maybe , so poetic, but useful, anyway.
    I remember something else.from my early childhood. My father was playing with me the game. He put some scarf over my eyes, not to see anything and brought some piece of … food, fruit, vegetable…cloth near my nose, to smell a little and to guess what it was. I liked those games and guessed it perfect.

  • http://www.facebook.com/janine.w.willis.5 Janine Wray Willis

    I’ve read that Jo Malone, the perfumer, once walked through the crowded lobby of a hotel and could tell that her husband had just been there because she could smell him.

  • Kathy Filatreau

    I read The Enchanted April and loved it. I wanted to see it come to life, so rented the movie from Netflix and felt they (the BBC) did a wonderful job of capturing the characters and the nuance of the book. All in all, a happy, enchanted read and watch!

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