Natural Reflections: Earthy Aromas
Somewhere underneath the autumn leaf fall, there is a whole ecology at play; fungal decay, microbial activation, intervertebral communication. I’d like to tempt you into closer relation with the world under our feet? How would it be to notice, engage and exchange with the processes of this secret living world and, just maybe, find a way home to a part of yourself through it?
At the time of writing it is still mild in the UK, warm even on some days. I can still sit in my garden in the early morning without a blanket around my shoulders, and with that unseasonable warmth I am noticing the smell of autumn without even raising my nose to it. The earthiness of wet leaves meeting soil, windfall apples beginning to rot on the ground, fungi being fungussy - intoxicating if we tune our senses and intention towards it.
For many of us in the modern world, our homes and buildings effectively seal us off from the wider ecology of the natural world. As such, we are all likely to suffer from some degree of sensory anesthesia - the gradual loss of sensory experience. Simply going outside won’t remedy that for us. Like all muscles and capacities, we need to keep using our senses and training them when they get a bit flabby.
This month feels like a perfect time to elevate smell in our consciousness, before the (hopefully) colder temperature slows the movement of odour molecules making smells less intense and noticeable.
Through November most of the deciduous trees in the UK shed the last of their leaves. The winter trees enter a period of dormancy, a kind of hibernation when metabolic processes slow down significantly and growth essentially stops (hence their rings). During this period of tree dormancy, other beings in their ecosystem, including the essential processes of recycling nutrients, pick up pace. The layer of leaves dropped on the ground over October and November trigger the ‘decomposers’ such as fungi, invertebrates and bacteria to get to work on the autumn leaf litter, breaking down the organic matter and recycling and releasing nutrients back into the soil, thus enriching it to support the cycle of plant and tree life. It is this process that gives autumn that deep earthy smell. The damp rich humus combined with fungal mustyness and mossy scents that, quite frankly, invite my nose right in.
Our sense of smell, compared to our other senses, goes largely underappreciated and under researched - though that is beginning to change. There is mounting evidence that in addition to olefaction’s importance in the vital functions of environmental warning, eating and nutrition, it is also of key importance to our well being.
Indeed smell has the ability to transfer and regulate emotional conditions, and thus impacts social relationships and mood, amongst other things. It is notable that people with olfactory disorders report a significantly reduced quality of life. And perhaps not surprising. Olefaction is our oldest sense and one of the most powerful. The olfactory bulb sits alongside brain regions processing emotions, and has extensive connections to the limbic system memory regions.
There is also evidence that the smell of the earth can tap powerful neurological pathways closely linked to mood, stress levels, and autonomic nervous system functions. This is likely mediated in part through geosmin, a chemical compound secreted by bacteria in the soil, which from an evolutionary perspective may once have helped animals identify environments rich in essential microbes. Even brief exposure to the scent of soil has been found to lower heart rate, marking increased parasympathetic nervous system activity, the part of the autonomic nervous system that counters stress and triggers broad relaxation responses.
Robin Wall-Kimmerer in her book Braiding Sweetgrass explains, “The smell of humus exerts a physiological effect on humans. Breathing in the scent of Mother Earth stimulates the release of the hormone oxytocin, the same chemical that promotes bonding between mother and child”.
My nose led me to, and through, this month's Natural Reflections and I intend to let my nose lead me more over these weeks. Here’s to an olfactory revolution, starting with simply breathing slowly and drawing in the rich array of earthy scents into our nostrils, lungs and nervous system.
Practices
Inhaling the Earth
Spend five or ten minutes drawing in the earthy scents of autumn, particularly the scents close to the ground including the soil.
You might even adopt this as a daily well-being practice up to winter solstice or until the weather gets really cold.
When you begin you might choose to get your nose close to the ground. After a week or so you’ll likely find you’ve attuned and you will begin to notice those scents more easily and on the breeze as you walk in Nature.
Savouring aromas
I just opened a book and it’s aroma hit me. It would have been easy to follow the reason I’d got it off the shelf (it wasn’t to smell it). Instead I stayed with the delight of the scent of the open pages, inhaling them fully, turning away and coming back to inhale again. It’s a smell I love and after just ten or fifteen seconds a memory came - of going to a bookshop after a dental appointment as a child and being allowed to choose a book (the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe). I remember all this vividly and in an instant - so many positive associations.
Staying with the scents we love will almost always bring up a memory due to our brain structure. Though it requires slowing down, following the scent and bathing in it. To enjoy the scent in its own right and to be curious about the pleasurable memory you will likely access. I’d love to hear what scents activate you and their associated memories.
Resources
Thirteen Ways to Smell a Tree; A Celebration of our Connection with Trees. David George Haskell https://www.awesomebooks.com/book/9781856754958/thirteen-ways-to-smell-a-tree
Braiding Sweetgrass; Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants. Robin Wall-Kimmerer https://www.awesomebooks.com/book/9780141991955/braiding-sweetgrass/new
The importance of the olfactory system in human well-being, through nutrition and social behavior. S Boesveldt and V Parma (2021) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33433688/
Physiological and Psychological Effects of Scent of Soil on Human Beings. Morisawa, T., Hanyu, K. , Mori, H. and Tamura, K. (2017) Open Journal of Soil Science, 7, 235-244. doi: 10.4236/ojss.2017.79017 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/319675228_Physiological_and_Psychological_Effects_of_Scent_of_Soil_on_Human_Beings