Weekly Prompt No. 20: Using Your Nose As A Guide

The olfactory sense is powerful, but often overlooked in favor of sight and sound. This week we'll add smell to our sensory experience of nature.

Photo by Ruslan Zh on Unsplash

My dearest reader,

Smell is thought to be the oldest mammalian sense. It hits deep into our brains and can trigger memories long forgotten. (Every time I smell eucalyptus, I’m right back at the bus stop in first grade feeling the heat roil up off the concrete sidewalk on a hot spring day.)

It’s also an efficient warning system. Some smells can make us recoil, trigger headaches, and/or nausea causing us to back away from the source. Scents can even alert us to illness. The only inkling I had that my cat was in renal failure was that he smelled like nail polish remover. It’s also linked to our well-being. Certain aromatics can calm us, energize us, activate our brains, help us sleep, or make us fall in love.

The sense of smell is intimately connected to our other senses, too, so this week’s prompt is an add-on to last week’s prompt regarding Sight and Sound. As always, lean into the I Notice, I Wonder, It Reminds Me Of framework, gather your nature journaling supplies, and head outside.

Prompt

• Get settled in your sit spot, or anywhere you are exploring.

• Add metadata to your journal page – place, weather, date/time, how you are feeling, etc.

• Go through the Sight and Sound prompt.

• And then this prompt to tune into your olfactory sense :

  • Take a deep breath, dropping your diaphragm to your hips and letting the air flow into your lungs through your nose. You should feel your belly, then your chest expand, but your shoulders should stay put.

  • Now exhale, pushing your diaphragm up, and letting all the air in your lungs naturally flow out of your mouth. Let yourself relax as you exhale.

  • Repeat this cycle in inhalation/exhalation two more times. Let yourself relax on each exhalation.

  • Quick Note: I know this may be a weird way to breathe for some, but trust me it’s the most efficient way to draw your breath deep into your lungs and to push it out. Your brain will get a nice hit of oxygen, heightening your senses. Plus it’s relaxing. Practice it a few times and, if it helps, visualize your diaphragm as an elevator that starts underneath your ribcage and descends towards your pelvis, sliding up and down your spine. As the elevator goes down, the lungs fill with air. The reverse when the elevator goes up. 

  • Are you relaxed? Good!

  • Now take a regular breath in through your nose (and don’t forget to exhale - don’t want you to pass out). What do you notice?

    • Describe any scents you smell. 

    • Is it pleasant? Does it smell acrid, smoky, damp, floral, musky, moldy, mossy, etc?

    • Can you pinpoint the direction it’s coming from?

    • Can you identify its origin? What is making that smell?

    • Does it linger or dissipate quickly?  

    • Is it a single scent or are you smelling multiple fragrances? 

    • Is it linked to anything you see or hear?

    • What does it make you think of? 

    • Does it trigger any memories?

Record all your sensory observations in your journals using words, images, and numbers. And that’s it! This will add yet another layer to your nature journaling practice. Have fun nature journaling!

xoSusannah

---

Will you consider upgrading your subscription? Paid subscriptions fund all content creation and activities that happen here. Cricklewood would not exist without the support of its readers. That is why in addition to the free nature journaling themes and prompts, paid readers have access to the Tiny Owl Dispatch and the Cricklewood Campfire.

Tiny Owl Dispatch is a way to inspire you on your journey to becoming a citizen scientist/naturalist/better human by sharing my own journey with more personal content. It’s a space where we can learn from nature and each other as we rewild. Cricklewood Campfire is a podcast of oral storytelling, essays, meditations, and folksongs - just what you’d expect to hear around the campfire!

Whether or not you choose to subscribe at this time, please know I treasure all my subscribers and am so happy that you are nature journaling with me!