We all know coffee is for waking up, whether first thing in the morning or as a means to get over the afternoon slump. Sometimes we will have coffee after a fancy dinner when we still have to drive home with our full bellies. Generally, we know too much can make us jittery and addictions to coffee are real. Cold turkey leads to coffee-jonesing headaches.

But the question has been and continues to be: Is coffee good for us?

Coffee contains caffeic acid, which protects the brain against oxidative stress, decreases inflammation, and may reduce cancer risks, so I would say, there are benefits to drinking coffee. But did you know there are benefits to smelling coffee?

According to a study published by the National Library of Medicine through the Integrative Medicine Research Publications, inhaling the aroma of coffee enhances cognitive parameters, including the ability to pay attention, quality of memory, and an increased alertness. This is just from smelling the coffee! Further research showed the aroma of coffee affects brain waves and decreases heart rate, which means increased attention without the extra jitters.

Modern Peasant coffee perfumes start with extractions from perfectly roasted, exceptional coffee beans. The extracts are then layered with essential oils to accentuate the scents of the single origin beans. In other words, there is real coffee in those coffee perfumes. Real coffee that can support you with focus, alertness, and a calm mood.

In honor of National Coffee Day, September 29th (should be a month!) use the CODE: LOVECOFFEE for 15% off all Coffee Perfume purchases. See if a coffee scent in the afternoon can take the edge off without the jitters. 

Sumatra: Dark coffee bean with floral undertones + Rose

Burundi: Dark chocolate-y coffee bean + Lemon

Marte Alemu: Bright, creamy Ethiopian coffee + Jasmine

Esther’s Peru: Medium Roast coffee with notes of citrus + Wild Orange + Tobacco

Have you ever felt "less than"? Less than is the feeling of not being enough. It is associated with performance anxiety, imposter syndrome, and other depressive self thoughts. That is learned behavior. I learned it as a child through my parents, my older siblings, other kids at school, and, of course, comparing myself to everyone around me and always coming up short. But whether I was an outcast because of other people's mental wellness issues, the fact that I was the odd black kid out of an entire grade of 40 kids (and only one of two black families in the school K-6), we will never know. And, frankly, does it matter?

What matters is I am a grown-ass woman who must learn to feed and keep herself. Whether anyone tells you or not, how you feel about yourself is directly tied to your earning capacity, the lifestyle you will enjoy, and how much reciprocal loving relationships are in your life. In the immortal words of Ru Paul, "If you don't love yourself, how the hell are you going to love somebody else?"

Experience teaches us how to close off from intimate connections. Our brains are wired to keep us safe. One way it keeps us safe is by keeping great mental records (memories) of what has been good to you and what has been painful for you in past experiences. If a memory has been stored with what I will call a negative charge, it acts as a safety reminder, "This looks like something that has hurt us before!" This is true of open flames on stove tops, as well as situations and people.

I remember a friend dating a guy and it was going really well. So well, in fact, that he invited her to come to band rehearsal and meet his band mates. As we all know, meeting the inner circle is a big, positive step in a relationship. Well, she went and he was testy to her all night, actually rude to his band mates , and clearly overly jealous of even the most benign conversations she had with his friends. She did not understand what had happened. I asked her how his last relationship ended. She said, his girlfriend of many years cheated on him with a a now-former band mate. I thought, well that tracks for the behavior.

He became triggered when he saw her friendly interactions with his band mates. It would have set off the memory of his last girlfriend and the betrayal. He probably thought the way she was trying to be welcomed into his inner circle, i.e. "please like me and give me approval", was flirting. Was she flirting? No. But he was triggered, i.e. the pain of the last betrayal was stored into memory with a big-ass negative charge. He saw something that reminded him of the situation and reacted. Let's face it, we do not make good decisions when our trauma is triggered.

To love oneself is to support your own personal growth. To support letting go of past hurts so you can live unshackled in the here and now. A great step is to clean off these negative charges and store memories with a neutral balance charge. This process is best when anchored with a scent that feels cleansing to you. The scent will allow you over time to not only clear these issues faster, but store that memory with a positive-leaning memory of feeling refreshed, lighter, and maybe even cathartically clearer than before the meditation.

Feeling loveable starts with knowing you are loveable. That means YOU must love you. The more you take steps to untether yourself to past hurts, the more capable, whole, and happy you will feel. You have the power to affect your world. Step one is retracing the steps that made you feel less than in the first place. Not to blame, but to release and forget.

Choose one triggering experience (i.e, not feeling good enough to do something, not trusting people, no trusting yourself, etc.) You will not cure EVERY issue associated with this feeling at once, but you can heal some layers of the onion of pain that makes up the idea of Not Good Enough, or I Can't Trust Anyone each time you use the meditative practice below. Remember, nothing happens all at once, but each step forward is a lighter step towards the freedom to be 100% you and 100% present in each moment. And that, you will find, is real freedom.

Anchoring Scent Practice
Use a scent that feels clearing, whether a eucalyptus diffuser, burning a sage bundle or whatever. Be safe when burning materials and be sure their is some ventilation in the room. Too much smoke is not good for nasal passages or lungs. Room sprays, perfumes, and diffusers are also a great way to introduce the scent that works for you.

Now close your eyes for a meditation. Allowing yourself to be grounded and connected to the Earth. Breathe through to relax muscles and step into a deeper sense of calm.

Now we will use your imagination. First, we will travel to the center of your head and here we will access your Control Center. This is the place where you can control everything in your life. I usually picture something reminiscent of the Captain's Chair on the Star Trek Bridge, but you can picture whatever feels right for you--a throne, the perfect gaming station with all the controls, whatever.

From your Control Room bring up a screen and ask that memories associated with whatever is triggering you be shown on the screen. The memories fly by, but they are light and blurry. The idea is not see and reexperience all the traumas connected to your triggering moment, but rather to let them flit by on the screen. Your brain will do this without your needing to select and assess each one.

Now imagine a tank, resembling a fish tank rises up around the screen and begins a deep cleansing of everything on the screen. Breathe the scent deeply and feel the detritus of past experiences cleansed away. There will remain a dark, sludge like substance that gathers at the bottom of the screen that remains in the tank, as we allow the newly cleaned memories on the screen to rise and re-file themselves in your memory files with a neutral charge. The dark sludge of the negative associations remain in the tank.

These we wash again with the intention of letting these triggering moments go. This is not a "forgive and forget" moment, rather a release of the poison associated with these triggering situations. Continue to breathe. As this sludge is cleaned a second time through the tank you watch as the sludge becomes lighter in color and less dense in mass, until it is a light grey fog in the tank. We then allow a rinse of rose gold light to shine through the gray fog, taking over he gray and watch as the fog becomes lighter and lighter and then disappears from the tank. All that is left is the rose gold light.

Now allow the rose gold light to filter out leaving the clean clear tank. Thank the tank and yourself for doing this work. Continue to breathe and allow the now empty tank to sink back into the floor.

It may seem like you have not done much, but you have leap-frogged your experience past old memories that can block your view of what is happening in truth, in real life, in front of you. Continue to breathe. Thank your control panel room at the center of your head and allow yourself to move out of this space, close the door, and inhabit the entirety of your body. Feel your body sitting, hear the sounds in the room and beyond, smell the scent you have added to anchor this experience and slowly, gently open your eyes.

You may find that the new experiences that tripped your trigger wires are not as upsetting as they used to be. In fact, you may wonder why that "thing" does not bother you as much. You are learning to take control of your present by being less attached to all the things that hurt you in your past.

Supportive Scents
Modern Peasant offers natural, supportive scents for sensitive people. These are our recommended formulas for this exercise. Spray to set the space and clear the energy that no longer serves you.
Cleansing Room Spray (Palo Santo + Lavender), Tough Love Room Spray (White Sage + Rose)

Aromacology Helpers
The aromatic forms of these plants can be used including essential oils, extracts, hydrosols, or, of course, the fresh natural plant. If you are using essential oil add a few drops to a carrier oil like coconut, almond, or even olive oil before applying to your skin.
Palo Santo, Sage, Lavender, Pine, Cedarwood, Lemon, Cypress, Juniper, Eucalyptus

You probably don’t imagine your perfumer will talk to you about spirituality–even though, some of the first perfumers were Egyptian priests. You also may not expect discussions of current Western Allopathic dementia treatments and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy–even though Perfumers were some of the first “physicians” mentioned in the Bible.

I believe the ability to smell is an undervalued skill–until you lose it. I also believe that because the olfactory bulb is part of the amygdala, scent has the power to effect us emotionally and can be used as a tool for our mental health.

I am not your average perfumer. I am the nose for Modern Peasant (tagline: Scents for Sensitive People), a Board Member for the Institute of Art & Olfaction, a Reiki Master Teacher and an educator in natural perfumery, meditation and more.

Meditation methods and practices tied to scent and memory have helped me retrain my brain towards happiness by reminding me I was loved/capable/(name your self-esteem attribute) by connecting each feeling with a particular scent. It’s not a new concept. Why do you think realtors bake cookies in a house before an open house? The smell reminds people of home, mom baking in the kitchen when you walk in the door! Good way to plant an olfactory subliminal message to help people feel more at home, connecting personal memories to the house you want to sell .

I still feel all the feelings and can get very sad when life hits me with the unexpected Tower (tarot reference for “when shit in hits the fan despite your best efforts”). But the bounce back is quicker now and the spiral down phase has a limited window of opportunity now. My most unexpected ally in my quest for contentment in life? My sense of smell.

This blog is meant to be a guide to happiness that literally asks you to Follow Your Nose. My methods may not work for everyone, but try an Anchor Scent Practice and see if this method is effective for you. It is not about solving all your problems at once. That solution does not exist. As my mother always said, “It’s always something.” But buoyancy is possible and in my world it starts the same way…breathe through your nose.

You may not expect a perfumer to offer deep thoughts on life, the cosmos, emotional well-being and everything at no cost. But I am the Modern Peasant, so read on.

Have you ever walked into a kitchen where cookies are baking? As you wade into the sweet aroma of sugar, flour, and vanilla you are transported for a second to your childhood. Sweet memories surface and you feel more "at home." 

Your sense of smell is directly linked to the memory center in your brain. This is why realtors bake cookies just before an Open House. They want you to associate the at-home-happy memories with the house they are trying to sell. Aromatherapy and natural perfumes work on the brain in the same ways.

Your sense of smell interacts with the amygdala through its direct link with the limbic system. This is evolutionarily the oldest part of the brain. The Olfactory cortex is part of the limbic system, which is part of the brain that processes emotions, survival instinct (fight/flight), and memory. 

Essentially, this means we can intentionally use smell to trigger happy thoughts, empowering memories, and balanced emotions. You don't have to wait to stumble across a kitchen of baking cookies to trigger happy thoughts. You can create happy memories, while purposefully associating them with a smell, so each time you encounter that smell it is a callback to that feeling.

Furthermore, aromatherapy and natural perfume contain essential oils and other plant extracts that can chemically trigger emotional reactions. According to Dr. Alan Hirsch and his research team who have conducted over forty-six studies involving over 12,000 people natural scents when aromatized into a room can affect the room’s inhabitants.They discovered products were viewed better when encountered in a pleasant smelling shop. In another trial a mix of florals helped calculus students increase their rate of retention by 230%. His Las Vegas study involving aromatized gambling machines increased player spending by 45%. 

Modern Peasant invites you to use these same fragrant alchemical processes to increase confidence, decrease stress and anxiety, and more. Aromatherapy and natural perfumes can be blended for delicious intoxicating aromas, as well as their alchemical psychological effects. In short aromatherapy and natural perfume can positively affect mood.

A mix of lavender, clary sage, and chamomile (Calming Room Spray) decreases adrenaline and stimulates the parasympathetic nerve to restore a sense of calm. Beyond that, once experienced, the smell will enhance this feeling of calm every time you smell it. Why? Because now the chemical associations of the natural perfume formula and memory are working together, bringing reminders of the sense of calm experienced again and again. The magic of scent and memory, coupled with the science of aromatherapy molecules and their effects on the brain create an alchemical tool box for mood enhancement.

Imagine the power of a scented meditation where you smell a natural perfume designed to encourage optimism (Light Bringer). Throughout the meditation, you focus on engendering feelings of hope, self-reliance, and being supported by the Universe. Perhaps you attach a mantra, “My luck is changing for the better. I am positively expanding my world every day.” That deep sense of accepting the truth behind these words, discovered in the meditation, becomes part of your stored memory--connecting the beautifully effective molecules of jasmine (uplifting) and honeysuckle (joyous, decreases anxiety & stress). Everytime you wear the scent. You have immediate access to that optimistic state of being. 

Your sense of smell can save you by alerting you that something is past its expiration date. Your sense of smell can transport a full grown adult to their childhood kitchen. Your sense of smell can support you on your journey to peace. Your sense of smell coupled with the power of aromatherapy blended into beautiful natural perfumes can offer you a road of olfactory bliss that leads to a more positive mindset.

The alchemy of scent awaits you. What will you smell today?

The story goes, Ogun, the god of iron and innovation, had grown depressed by the state of the world—the state of humanity ceaselessly using his gifts to bully and injure. So, deciding he could see no more, he took himself and his gifts into a cave. To stay.

With Ogun gone from the world, civilizations began to break down. Obatala, his father and King of the gods asked him to come out. “There is no beauty left in the world. I am staying here. “

Shango, the God of Justice, tries to reason with him. And still Ogun refuses to leave. His mother, Yemanja, the Goddess of the Ocean tries to flood him out.

And still Ogun refused to leave.

Iyansa called up her army of the dead. Ogun quickly sent them back to peace and, still refused to leave. This back and forth with the gods trying to trick, reason, and bully Ogun out of the cave (while the world slid back into the Dark Ages) were unsuccessful.

As the gods discussed new tactics to get Ogun out of his cave, Ochun cleared her throat. Ochun, Goddess of the Sweet water, known for her beauty, her sensuality, and her deep and abiding sense of self-respect said, “I can get him out.”

The gods laughed, “You! What can you do to get him out?” Obatala stepped in to restore order before Ochun got mad and took herself away again  (but that’s another story). “Ochun, if you can bring your brother from the cave, you can save humanity.”

Ochun looked back at the gods who still giggled. She flicked her hair over her shoulder and slowly straightened her dress over every curve of her body. The giggling ceased. Dry throats attempted to swallow. Ochun had that effect. She was sensuality incarnate and neither god nor man was immune. Slowly, sauntering towards the cave her hips beat out a rhythm that churned rivers and smashed with force against the rocks in a waterfall. Just as quickly, the water pooled into a basin dug from its own force and tenacity.

Ochun’s newly created lake was just outside of Ogun’s cave. Sacred plants of basil sprung up, showing this to be a protected space, cleansed of lower energies. Shrubs of honeysuckle, fragrant in full bloom, cast a sweetness into the air. She knew the perfumed breeze would announce her and, so, she stripped off her dress—appreciating every sensation of the air against her naked skin—and waded into the water.

Ochun began to lather her body sensuously with honey, slowly washing and rubbing the honey across her neck, her breasts, her belly...And Ogun stood erect before her—out of his cave.

The moral of the story—besides the obvious aphorism of attracting bees with honey—is to never underestimate the power of scent when coupled with a woman embracing her divine sexual energy.