Self-Soothing with Smell

Self-soothing strategies are skills that will help you calm your mind and body. When I work with my clients who have a history of chaos, abuse or neglect in their family growing up, they often did not learn how to sooth themselves in a healthy fashion. That’s why it’s so important in the beginning to build those skills.

These suggestions are ways to use your sense of smell to help soothe yourself. These are just some ideas, it is often important to find ways to take these skills with you. So for example, keep some scented hand sanitizer on you so it will be there whenever you need it. When coming up with your own ideas remember that smell is an incredibly powerful way to provoke memories, so in order to make this a soothing skill, make sure what memory or emotion the smell bring up is something pleasant. For me, the scent of cinnamon rolls fresh out of the oven evokes positive, warm fuzzy memories.