The smell of nature
Uploaded by: Erika Karman
Objectives:
- - Participants become more aware of their sense of smell and its role in experiencing emotions and memories.
- - Participants strengthen their presence and sensory connection to the natural environment.
- - Participants explore how the sense of smell can support calmness, curiosity, and personal meaning-making.
Preparation: Know the natural surrounding where you take the group.
Tools needed: none
Description
Smell is a deeply primal and emotional sense. Scents bypass the rational brain and go directly to the limbic system—home to memory, emotion, and safety responses. For those with trauma, sensory overwhelm, or cognitive challenges, smell can reawaken calming memories, trigger deep emotions positive or painful, anchor the body in the present moment, gently interrupt digital overstimulation and reintroduce curiosity.
There is a strong association between smell and memory. What memories are invoked for you with certain smells? How might that influence how you explore smell with your participants?
This sensory exercise can be part of a longer nature walk, or it can also be used as a mindfulness energiser when you want to help your group become present and reconnect with their surroundings. It might take as short as 5 minutes, but can go on even for 20 minutes. Decide on your flow based on these possibilities:
Warming-up questions:
- How do you engage and experience your sense of smell?
- When you walk in the forest what are the smells that you are aware of?
- How do you become aware of them?
- What happens when you spend some time with your sense of smell?
First exploration together
- Invite participants to crush a pine needle or smell a piece of bark only if they choose
- Offer to experience from a “scent basket” with different forest elements like dried leaves, herbs, cedar, moss and any other beings in the forest that call to you.
Individual exploration in the forest
- Follow your nose and see where it will take you?
- What smells are you noticing in this place?
- Find a smell and share it with your partner.
- Because of extensive air pollution and because of urbanisation, our survival does not rely so much on the sense of smell as we have in previous times in our evolution. What adaptations can you create if someone let’s you know that they don’t have a good sense of smell or maybe they are sick and have a blocked nose?
Reflection
- How was it for you to explore the sense of smell, beyond the obvious?
- What have you noticed?
- How do you feel after this exploration?
Variations
You must be logged in to add a variation.
Resources
https://www.accessibleforest.com/
Comments
You must be logged in to add a comment.