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The word anosmia was virtually unknown amongst the general population until last year when COVID-19 arrived on our front doorsteps and took over world news.  So what is anosmia?  Anosmia, is a complete loss of sense of smell, and is often caused by an illness or head trauma.  

Because of COVID-19, the world has learned more about the sense of smell and its importance to emotional wellbeing. As Dr. Rachel Herz states in The Scent Guru Group’s Smell Training Guide,  “most fundamentally, our sense of smell gives us a sense of our self, our feel of connectedness with others, and is a central component to the overall quality of our life.”

This is happiness:  "I lost my sense of smell and taste when I had COVID in March. Several months later, I was surprised to still not be able to smell and taste. The world seems a bit flat and uninteresting without those two senses. Luckily, I contacted Ruth and she sent me her wonderful smelling kit. The variety of scents and the easy use of the applicators motivated me to use the kit fairly regularly. A doctor explained it to me like this: When you injure your leg, you do physical therapy to regain your strength and agility. This is like physical therapy for your sense of smell. Both taste and smell have improved greatly with the use of the oils, but taste is definitely in the lead. I've still got a ways to go until I fully recover, but this lovely kit has speeded up the process for sure. Many thanks to Ruth and The Scent Guru Group!"
- Cristina Y., L.C.S.W. Connecticut

An Essential Awakenings® activity is easy to conduct.  Anyone can do it, and a lot of it is instinctive.  The smell prompts can be used as a guessing game that stimulates the mind and challenges the audience to think and express how they would describe the aroma or for storytelling time.  Everyone has a story, and the facilitator can lead the way by telling their own stories connected to the aromas.

Shifting Paradigms:  This month's final blog is about my experience at the National ASHA (American Speech-Language-Hearing Association) convention in Orlando.  Every new experience is new learning for this 60+ entrepreneur who is just trying to help humankind in a very unique and innovative way.

In honor of those suffering from dementia such as Alzheimer's:  June is Alzheimer's and brain health awareness month, and The Scent Guru Group is offering 20% off of any Essential Awakenings® Smell and Memory or Mindscent® activity kit using the discount code HOMECARE2019 at checkout.  

Science Daily's on line magazine has reported that neuroscientists at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum in Germany have investigated which brain area is responsible for storing odours as long-term memories. As a scent expert, and daughter in law of a woman who suffers from Alzheimer's it gives me great satisfaction that scientists seem to be focusing more on studying the sense of smell and its link to memories.     The impact and prompting of memories through smells has been evident to me during the 15 months I have been giving smell therapy sessions at assisted living facilities and senior centers to raise awareness of the importance of the sense of smell in our lives. With more than 550 attendees, I have been witness to quite a few recalls that would probably not have been prompted had it not been for the smells that I administered.  Some examples:  One woman at the Hebrew Home in Riverdale was prompted by the smell of fresh cut grass, but connected the smell with the memory of making pumpkin pie from scratch. She described in detail her process of taking out the threads and seeds within the pumpkin as it had been yesterday! Another woman who did not speak at all during a session all of sudden spoke out and stated that she had a lilac bush next to her house.  She did not say where her house was, but the smell of lilac in the session prompted this memory.  It was that one moment, and moments like that can be precious.   The sense of smell is often taken for granted, and I believe it's so important to make sure you practice smelling every day in a mindful way:  Breath in... smell the coffee or tea you drink in the morning, the food you eat, your skin, your leather jacket and build up your olfactory memory bank!   To read the Scientific Daily article, please go to this link: <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/12/171222092552.htm>

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday because it signifies family togetherness and sharing what we are thankful for. But Thanksgiving shouldn't be the only day we express our gratefulness -- it should be every day.  I am forever thankful to companies like Firmenich, Orlandi, Givaudan, Mane USA and Symrise who believed in me and my product concept when I presented the Essential Awakenings Smell and Memory tool kit idea in 2016.  I also thank Atria of Stamford, River House of Cos Cob, The Greens of Greenwich, and The Hebrew Home at Riverdale who embraced the innovative sensory program I developed with the goal of enriching the lives of the elderly through the sense of smell.  It was through these smelling sessions that allowed me to develop the best kit I felt would benefit caregivers, families and the program directors at senior homes. I am also grateful to my husband who supported the product idea from the very beginning and encouraged me to continue when things were challenging.  Finally, all of us should be thankful for the scientists who are studying the causes of Alzheimer's and the caretakers of our loved ones who suffer from the disease.  So for this day and always, I hope that you will share your own sentiments for what you are thankful for and cherish your elders for what they have done and taught us. November is Alzheimer's Disease Awareness month, and so for today until the end of the month, The Scent Guru Group will be offering 20% off of all purchases. Consider a purchase that would be a gift to the entire family.

Many are aware of what is called the "Proustian-moment" from Marcel Proust's "Remembrance of Things Past" recalling a moment in time through the sense of smell at tea time. There are other authors who have given us vivid descriptions of smell that allow the reader to escape to an imaginary place.  Here is an example written by Willa Cather describing one of my favorite smells that takes me back to the farm, and into the kitchen after my mother baked bread: "Everywhere the grain stood ripe and the hot afternoon was full of the smell of the ripe wheat, like the smell of bread baking in an oven. The breath of the wheat and the sweet clover passed him like pleasant things in a dream.” ― Willa Cather, O Pioneers! Freshly baked bread is considered one of the most alluring smells, and I don't know any country in the world that does not include it in their daily meal.  It's no wonder that there is a saying "you have to break bread" with someone who you want to get to know.  For me,  bread is home and togetherness. 

I had 12 seniors in my smelling session this AM at River House in Cos Cob, CT!  Some adjectives used when smelling their paper strips: "sweet" "it's nice" "soft" "strong" "clean" "powdery" "vanilla" & "chewing gum".  From the session, we talked about smell memories from baking, Christmas, and about how much we all liked ice-cream and chocolate.  Storytelling is a big part of smelling sessions, and is an easy way to engage our seniors in conversation. Today, I talked about how rose, jasmine, ylang and iris are picked by hand by farmers for use in perfumery.

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2015/08/06/smells-trigger-memories.aspx

I just read an article about a new perfume that one of my favorite perfumers, Frank Voelkl of Firmenich developed for the young exciting fashion designer, Jason Wu, and how the scent of jasmine took him back to his childhood home in Taiwan. Jasmine is one of the "essential smells" in the Scent Guru Group's Essential Awakenings Premier Edition.  Women for many years have worn perfumes with jasmine as one of the main ingredients and one of the most famous: Joy by Jean Patou, which, for many years was known as the most expensive perfume out on the market. One smell of the jasmine in my kit could take you back in time, or to someone who used to wear it.  Great memories can live forever.