Discovery Health has a sensuality test that I took recently, and it got me thinking about the nature of sensuality, and in particular the sensuality of scent. When we talk about sensuality, it’s usually in the context of sex, and while a sensual nature can certainly enhance your sex life, there’s more to it than that. Much more, in fact.
Sensuality is about experiencing your world with all your senses. It is enjoying the song of a bird, the feel of the breeze, and the colours of springtime. Most sensual experience is described in terms of sight, sound and touch, but little is devoted to the sense of smell beyond describing a flower or perfume in broadest terms. This strikes me as just a little strange, as scent is far more likely to trigger a memory, or attract you to good food than sight or touch.
The Power of Scent
My sense of smell has always been very important to me. Even today, I can smell ripe blueberries half a block away! Our scent can convey far more about our health, state of mind, and emotional wellbeing than any other indicators. I can tell how Dawne is doing on any given day just by her scent, no matter how hard she tries to hide it from me. (She does this when she is feeling really poorly, and doesn’t want me to worry.)
Some years ago we had a dog named Natasha. Natasha was very protective of pregnant women. On one particular day a friend came over, and Natasha wandered over to do her usual sniff-and-beg routine, when she suddenly started circling her, and not allowing anyone (including her husband) to come anywhere near her. We had only seen this behaviour when someone we knew was pregnant, but so far as anyone knew, this was not the case, as Daph and her husband had decided that two children was enough. As it turns out, Daph had gotten pregnant with number 3, and didn’t even know it yet! but Natasha did, all from Daph’s scent.
This happens because your scent is wholly made up from your own biochemistry, as it is, right now. When you are angry, certain chemicals are dumped in your blood stream. This affects your scent. When you are happy, the same thing. Also when you are sick, tired, energized, etc. In fact, every single emotional, physical, and mental state that you can imagine is reflected by subtle changes to your biochemistry, and it all comes out in your scent.
Perfumers have known this for centuries. They will be the first to tell you to never rub perfume on our pulse points. Rather, you should dab it on, for rubbing the perfume breaks the molecular chains, causing them to mix with your chemistry in different, and often undesirable ways. Just to note, I’m talking about real perfumes here, not that cheap crap you get at Walmart. In my opinion, it doesn’t matter how you apply that stuff, it always smells bad.
The Sensual Nose
I suppose that what I am trying to say is this: to be a truly attentive lover, you must cultivate your sense of smell, for her scent is the single most powerful indicator of what she needs from you, right now. Enhancing your ability to smell your world will magnify your experience of that world to a degree that you can’t begin to imagine. I often smell rain up to an hour before it arrives, letting me know that Dawne is going to need an umbrella if we are going out. My sense of smell helps me to respond to her needs even before she knows what they are. And when she’s in a lovin’ mood, well, that smell simply drives me up the wall!
The better you can experience your environment through scent, the more you will be able to respond to that environment. There is a huge wealth of experiences and information waiting for you, as close as the tip of your nose. It’s also kind of fun to let people think that you’re psychic, because of the way you always seem to “know” things, heh. I’m a bad man….
Oh, the sensuality test? I scored 83, which according to Discovery Health, means the following:
“You are one sensual human being! Yours is a hedonistic attitude, and you deeply enjoy the sensual pleasures that life has to offer. Your senses are also inextricably linked to your emotions and certain sensual stimuli can evoke strong feelings. Therefore you tend to be emotionally passionate. Because you get so much pleasure from your senses, you are eager to experiment in life. This is positive since you can make great discoveries and experience a lot of pleasure. It is important, however, to keep yourself in check since people who delight is sensual pleasures are at a slightly increased risk for addictions (substance, sex, love, etc.). All in all, you have the innate ability to use your senses to enjoy what this life has to offer!”
Sounds about right to me… what’s your score?
5 Comments
I am sitting at my desk right now moved to tears. I am SO blessed that you joined my neighborhood. I just now came to see “who” you are and I find THIS. Such beauty and truth that I know and understand down to my bones. Someone else told me about the sesuality test, which I did, but then I didn’t dare tell anyone that I got 100% on it. And had the same reply that you’ve pasted above. And I can honestly say I am sensual in the true “sense” of the word and that I have no addictions as the above paragraph kindly warns against. And the only thing I would change in that paragraph for ME, is that I will never keep myself in check.
:)
This is a remarkable remarkable site. I applaud you loud and clear. Thank you.
Great post…
I agree…our scent is a powerful tool…as are our other senses!
Cheers
Great post. I totally agree. Scent is very important in many ways in the way we
enjoy our food, in creating the perfect romantic settings, in imprintng messages in our brains. These are just a few. Right now, I’m writing this while i’m sleep deprived, so my
brain is not functioning to its fullest capacity. Also enjoyed listening to your music.
They’re my kind of muisic.
86. pretty accurate.
I am just loving this post. Smell is a very important sense to have. I love candles and fragrances of all kinds. Smell is very reliant in getting the full flavor from foods and almost required. I got an 81 on the test, its pretty cool!