Pause and smell the laundry

Spring is in full bloom.  This afternoon as I took my daily walk, my dog Sally and I crested a hill and instead of smelling young lilac blooms, we got hit smack in the face with a cloud of laundry fragrance!  Ugh!

Natural smells tantalize our senses, refresh our spirits and ground us into the present moment.  Synthetic smells do not support our energies,  They are not fleeting but on the contrary they are chemically created to embed their odor into our clothes.  

 Have you ever lived by a train track?  A funny thing happens, at first the train and horn are loud and disruptive.  You are jolted awake each time it passes, you wonder how will you live with such a racket?  After a while, not only do you not notice the horns and rattle but the sounds blend into your daily rhythm.  If you had a good experience, living in the house with a train, later in life when you hear a train, it will probably take you back to your childhood bringing about warm and fuzzy memories.

Well, this is what happens with fragrance. We become desensitized and connected to the fragrance all at the same time.  Our sense of smell is directly connected to our memories and emotions.  We become deeply and seemingly unreasonably connected to our fragrances.  This is not a problem when your memories are of fresh lilacs in the spring or the smell of mountain air.  But what if your memories are connected to the smell of bleach, pine sol or fabric softener?  You may laugh, it is crazy to think you would be drawn to something chemically created.  But in fact, if there is a vivid memory and emotion connected with a fragrance, the three will become intermingled in your senses and history.

 OK, back to the point of my blog today.... If you buy laundry products with fragrance you are in for more than you bargained for.  The fragrances in detergents, in fabric softeners and dryer sheets are made to linger and embed into your clothes.  This lingering odor is even advertised "your clothes will still "smell" long after they have been washed.  (Smell is my word not the marketers)  The longer you use those products the more likely they will become dear friends with your senses.

    Outside should smell like outside.  Sea breeze, lilacs blooming, pine trees.  We get so used to being surrounded by a false connection to our sense of smell, we no longer distinguish between what has life and what was made in a lab.

   The next time you use a product.  Look a little deeper.  What does it smell like?  Where did that smell come from?  What created that smell?  It the chemistry in this fragrance nurturing or detrimental to your health and the health of the environment?

   Not all fragrances are evil and not all smells are healing.  Learn to listen to your senses and ask questions.

As always, wishing you a happy, healthy and healing home,
              Denise