Ever catch a whiff of something that instantaneously rockets you back to a colorful childhood memory? That’s your nose’s special superpower at work. Our sense of smell has a unique link to the parts of our grey matter that handle emotions and making memories stick.
So how can you tap into that connection? How can you gain some always-welcome memory boost?
Perhaps there’s no one better to ask than memory maestro Jim Kwik, author of the NY Times bestseller Unlocking Your Brain’s Superpowers. This guy knows a thing or two hundred about maximizing your mind’s potential.
Let Your Nose Show Your Brain Who’s Boss
According to Jim, your snout is the strongest path to your memory vault out of all five senses.
By pairing particular aromas with the information you want to etch into your brain, you create potent fragrance codes to trigger recall later. Actors use this trick to master pages of lines, students enlist it to slay exams.
Tools to Make Scents of It All
To infuse your study space with memory-enhancing stenches, Jim recommends a few must-have aroma tools:
- Diffusers to saturate a room with scent molecules
- Portable inhalers for aromatic hits on-the-go
- Spray bottled blends to mist yourself or your area
- Dab on some diluted essential oils onto pulsepoints
Stack the Scents for Supramental Success
These are Jim’s primo picks for essential oil combos to amp up your cognitive abilities:
For Ultra Focus and Peak Concentration:
- Rosemary to recollect like a rocket
- Peppermint for extreme awake-itude
- Lemon to energize and motivate
To Chillax for Optimum Brain Flow:
- Lavender to cut through anxiety
- Frankincense for staying calmly present
- Sandalwood for deeper, stronger meditation
How to Hack Your Nose-Brain Link
To use aromas for max memory, choose 1-3 complementary oils that zen you out while keeping you razor sharp. While hitting the books (or podcasts, or YouTube vids), diffuse or massage those scents. Then re-apply or re-diffuse that same fragrant mix when it’s go-time to blaze through that test, speech, or task. The smells re-activate coding in your brain to retrieve all that learned info.
Potent aromatherapy is just one powerful tool in Jim Kwik’s arsenal for unlocking your brain’s hidden potential. Whether you want academic overachievement or optimum work performance, planty smells can power up your noggin’ like nobody’s business.
The Takeaway
Ready to make your brain bath in essential oil goodness for unreal recall? We’ve got you covered with pure, organic essential oil blends and accessories so you can pave your own scent-memory pathways.