We take a deep breath in through our nose and suddenly an entire movie flashes before us. We zoom back into reality confused as to where the time travel had come from. The power that smells, flavors, sounds, and clothing can have. They capture moments of our lives and hold onto them to share home videos every time they visit. Unannounced and uninvited they come like a loyal friend. We often forget what scents mean to us, how flavors can conduct our emotions like a conductor in front of an entire orchestra, and how a shirt can remind us of a day that we thought we wouldn’t be able to remember without a photo. Our brain is a storehouse whose files track back to our beginning. We often feel as though we lose or discard information and memories as though our body just naturally deems them unimportant, but every so often we are proven wrong. How can those simple things cause an overwhelming impact?
Science
I shall not pretend to be a scientist and to have all the answers off the top of my head. But, per my research and understanding, we have nerve cells above our nasal cavity called the olfactory bulb which is the department in charge of what we smell. And not to bore us all with technical terms, what we smell has a straight shot to our memory bank in our brains. This causes them to be locked in a safe room, given no time to escape or be kidnapped. This explains why scents are the top keeper of secrets. But what about the others? With taste being another teleporter, we need to take a step inside. We have five senses. We learned this when we had to take the blindfolded taste test when we were in school. And we have even tested that theory when we hold our noses to purposefully block flavors out.This proves the fact that we eat with our noses. Complex flavors touch our noses first and travel to the factory. They also split and take a fall to where our food is being diced into a more appropriate size. We often forget that our nose and throat connect; this causes the smells of food to sit comfortably waiting for the day they are needed in our memory bank. With music, we often remember the way that things guide our emotions and music is the leading lady. It triggers the limbic system of our brain causing memories to pour out. With our clothes, it is a matter of sight. It carries sentiment and emotion due to us needing a physical memento to sew them to.
Flash From The Past
I was talking with some friends the other day about how different outfits are linked with old memories. And it’s true, I have clothes in my closet that have made me feel a certain negative way so I avoid them. Then I also have clothes that share a bond with an experience that brings a whirlwind of joyful emotions. I had this favorite shirt growing up that was blue and brown, I wore it all the time. When I think of it, I think of this one time that we were visiting family in Chicago and we took a bike ride along the beach and we all stopped for ice cream. I wore that shirt countless times, but for an unknown explanation, that’s the memory. Or how a particular dress I had worn is linked to certain emotions experienced while wearing it at a particular time. There is also the way that the scent of plumeria brings a wafting comfort, smelling like my mom when we were kids. The smell of hairspray transports me back to backstage of all my dance performances. And the smell of wet pavement and freshly cut grass makes me think of spring from when I was in middle school. The taste of PB&J’s shares a memory of adventures with my sister, while honeycomb cereal brings me back to my first summer at Colorado Ballet. Or how the song 2002 will forever make me think of the summer of 2020. We don’t choose what will channel our catacombs of memories. But, like a surprise party, we are left astonished and in total shock.
Two Way Street
Not every memory is a happy memory. We will experience situations where we are rushed to a place we honestly would rather stay clear of. We breathe it in; overcome with a feeling we thought we had forgotten. But, if we lived in a world where we never remembered the bad or sad stuff, we would be less inclined to enjoy the memories of the good stuff. And, without the difficult moments, we would never learn to move past situations, correct our mistakes, or miss someone we have lost. Although, that’s not to say that PTSD is not a real thing. PTSD is the king of the memory bank and that is only something prayer, time, and hard work can heal. But, like people say, no rain no rainbows. We can’t escape our past and as hard as we might try, we were designed to never fully forget. Each person carries different circumstances, but in each of those, we can allow ourselves to be surrounded by physical things that bring out even the deepest feeling of warmth and comfort. Even those who claim to have forgotten what they had for breakfast are capable of being pulled into a flash from the past. It’s crazy how our bodies are capable of such ingenuity. How we set ourselves up to have a memory linked to us. We prepare special foods on different occasions, we wear scents so that people with think of us when they smell them, we have different phrases that are repeated enough so when heard in a different context they hear our voice, and we revisit outfits that we know carry nostalgia to help the file finders reach to the back.
Nostalgia
I have always been a nostalgic person. I also tend to remember random useless details to moments I never realized were important to me. It is different for everyone and a shared memory might be remembered or triggered by different circumstances. It’s an unpredictable world walking through the streets of triggers and long-lost mental souvenirs. I feel as though a lot of my difficult memories are associated with old clothes that I have, and so many good memories are linked to scents. The warmth that takes over when something smells like my childhood is an unmatched feeling. It causes me to take a second from my reality and bask in that cloud. The worst is when a scent we recognize from our past slaps us across the face in a mocking tone causing us to struggle to place it. It’s one of those instances that haunts us the rest of the day until our brain workers are finally able to unlock the file. Nostalgia is great and having the ability to tap into our past storehouse can be such a blessing. But, we need to remember that we don’t live in past moments. We need to enjoy time travel, but then carry on with our reality.
Memories have the power to bring people back together or continue to pull them apart. They are strong, powerful, and unavoidable. Triggers help us to be reminded of where we came from and to help us to remember the beauty of the present. I love that our brain was designed to copy and save smells, tastes, sounds, and fabrics. Hope this was able to bring up a fun memory while you were reading. I know it brought up many for me! Enjoy the weekend! And don’t forget to comment a memory, subscribe, follow on Instagram, and share with anyone or everyone. Thanks for reading Allie-Cats!
Dru Allie
Here are a few resources I used:
Vanilla does it for me. When ever I smell strong vanilla I remember a variety of things from usually my highschool days, old boy friends, school dances, even some strange thing that happened in class. I love it when something, usually a scent, but quite often old clothes or patterns, bring a flash from the past. Good or bad memory it always brings a smile and a longing for days gone by.
Thanks for sharing yours Dru.