There was a time in the past that I would run the other direction when I picked up on a scent. It wouldn’t matter what the source, synthetic or natural. My olfactory bulb, the part of my brain responsible for how the body assesses and responds to scents, was seriously malfunctioning. This part of your anatomy is also a factor if you have lost your sense of smell, so read on. An accurate sense of smell is important for healthy body function and responses and overall health.
The good news is that I have been able to restore my olfactory bulb and body’s normal way of detecting, assessing and responding to scents, even synthetic and harmful scents. You too can achieve this goal. The first step is to believe that it is possible. A heightened sense of smell or even loss of smell can be signs of TILT and body pollution. Before you work on desensitizing your offended olfactory bulb, follow my holistic protocol to completely detoxify your body – stop adding to your body pollution, and remove your existing body pollution.
One of the most important steps in desensitizing your offended olfactory bulb and recovering from multiple chemical sensitivities and tolerant induced loss of tolerance is to gradually allow your brain and nervous system to get used to natural, safe scents, differentiating them from synthetic, harmful scents Start by inhaling 100% pure natural citrus scents like wild orange, lemon and lime (oils pressed from the skin of fruit) from an inhaler or intermittent diffuser. The brain quickly habituates scents and is important to retrain your sense of smell by using an intermittent diffuser. These natural citrus scents will not hurt you even though you think they will. I know this can be frightening to consider, I have been there. You need to take a ‘leap of faith’ based on my recovery and that of my clients using these important steps. An accurate sense of smell is important for normal healthy brain and body functions, including immune system function. When you continually ‘run away’ either mentally or physically from all scents, you confuse your brain, nervous and immune system which will prevent your recovery from multiple chemical sensitivities and tolerant induced loss of tolerance. Order your 100% pure therapeutic grade citrus essential oils and intermittent diffuser here.
It is possible to recover from multiple chemical sensitivities! I have! How did I do it? Read my ebook MCS Gone.
When your sense of smell becomes ‘skewed’ to the extent that you are running in the other direction whenever you pick up on a scent, it is the result of a previous injury probably caused by an exposure to a toxic chemicals. After an exposure to toxic chemicals the body and brain can lose it’s ability to tolerate even small amounts of chemicals, synthetic and natural. This is called toxicant induced loss of tolerance (TILT).
Your resulting heightened sense of smell and offended olfactory bulb response can also be your body’s way of protecting you from re-exposure and allowing your body time to recover from the initial assault. As time goes on your body’s sense of smell should be restored to normal. If it is not restored it is time to look for solutions that will get you there. Why? If your body is regularly mounting hyper vigilant and skewed responses in one part of your body, there is probably additional malfunction in other parts of the body as well as compromised surveillance of situations that need attention. This can be a serious ongoing health challenge.
When you have a symptom of any kind, including being extremely offended by a scent, your body has gone through a three step process:
- Perception – your operating system (body/mind) has become aware of something different through your senses
- Evaluation/interpretation – your operating system (body/mind) has made a judgment about the significance of the perceived (at times possibly invalid) awareness
- Response – your operating system (body/mind) has directed your body/mind’s defense systems to take care of the real or perceived situation/threat.
In step 2 of the process, when your body makes a judgement about the significance of the perceived awareness, your body and mind uses criteria from past experiences. For instance, if in the past you have been exposed to an excessive amount of smelly toxins, your body and mind may evaluate all scents in the present at a 10 out of 10, in terms of threat and harm, when they should be evaluated somewhere between 0 and 10.
Is your body’s valuation for the threat of all scents a 10/10? The truth is all scents are not a 10/10 threat to you although your body and mind may think and believe so. If your body and mind does evaluate all scents at a 10/10, it could mount a skewed response based on the valuation; and send you into an allergic or sensitivity response or on the run.
Changing the valuation that your body mind gives to scents will change the way your body responds to them and eventually your sense of smell with be restored to normal and you will be safe in the presence of scents. Keep in mind that nobody should remain in a location where there are toxic or harmful scents. Although I can walk by pefume counters now without my body going into a 10/10 valuation and threat response – I do not hang around them because I know that synthetic scents can be harmful to my health. Read my blog post FRAGRANCE: Oh How Sweet The Smell and How Potentially Dangerous To Your Health for more information.
How do you change your body and mind’s threat evaluation from 10/10 to a normal 0-10/10 response?
Besides past experiences become part of your body and mind’s criteria for present day responses, there are many other factors that can be responsible for the criteria your body and mind use to respond. Body pollution, memories of past trauma and stressors can also be a factors. Symptoms, including a skewed response to all scents, are just the ‘tip of the iceberg’. To alleviate symptoms, ‘base of the iceberg‘ issues must be resolved.
You can find more natural strategies to help reprogram and restore your body and mind’s way of responding to normal in my book THE WHOLE PERSON WELL-BEING EQUATION.
A NATURAL STRATEGY TO REPROGRAM
YOUR BODY AND MIND’s VALUATION of THREATS (Real and Perceived)
Although this may sound impossible you can change your body’s valuation by continually reprogramming the value of any threat, real and perceived. Try this the next time you smell something (start with a scent that you know will not harm you but may have offended you – eg. smell of an orange). When you smell the orange immediate say in your mind ‘0’ (zer0), ‘0’, ‘0’. Then if your mind goes to ‘oh my gosh’, keep saying zero, zero, zero. Do this every time you smell something offensive and do not allow your mind to go to ‘oh my gosh’. Over time you will have changed your body and mind’s valuation of the perceived threat. Obviously, if the scent are coming from something toxic, you are going to move away from it while repeating.
Book a BodyFeedback™ Interview & Therapy session to help restore your body’s faulty valuation and responding (allergies, intolerances, sensitivities, chronic symptoms). You can learn more about how this works at http://www.mybodycanhealitself.ca/assess.htm
Are you living in a protective bubble? Is your life passing you by? Is it time to get back to your life and feel good?
More ways to reprogram your body’s faulty responding – UPDATING OUTDATED BODY SOFTWARE: For Symptom Free Living.
One of the most important steps in desensitizing your offended olfactory bulb and recovering from multiple chemical sensitivities and tolerant induced loss of tolerance is to gradually allow your brain and nervous system to get used to natural, safe scents, differentiating them from synthetic, harmful scents Start by inhaling 100% pure natural citrus scents like wild orange, lemon and lime (oils pressed from the skin of fruit) from an inhaler or intermittent diffuser. The brain quickly habituates scents and is important to retrain your sense of smell by using an intermittent diffuser. These natural citrus scents will not hurt you even though you think they will. I know this can be frightening to consider, I have been there. You need to take a ‘leap of faith’ based on my recovery and that of my clients using these important steps. An accurate sense of smell is important for normal healthy brain and body functions, including immune system function. When you continually ‘run away’ either mentally or physically from all scents, you confuse your brain, nervous and immune system which will prevent your recovery from multiple chemical sensitivities and tolerant induced loss of tolerance. Order your 100% pure therapeutic grade citrus essential oils and intermittent diffuser here.
Contact me to set up an in person BodyFeedback Interview & Therapy session for more help to restore your normal sense of smell. Attend a ‘environmentally safe for you’ workshop.
Elisabeth Hines, C.N.C., C.B.P. Holistic Wellness Practitioner, www.mybodycanhealitself.ca,
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