Jasmine
- Nicole Dawson Cullinan
- 16 hours ago
- 4 min read
Updated: 2 hours ago
Aromatic plants can impact our nervous systems and be like keys that unlock entire worlds of sensation, feeling and memories.
How can a scent bypass logic and speak directly to your heart?
Smell is unlike our other senses of sight, sound and touch, which pass first through the thalamus - our brain's sensory relay station - before reaching our consciousness. Scents travel directly to the olfactory bulb, which links straight to the limbic system and the centers for emotion and memory, the amygdala and hippocampus.
This is why a scent can stop you in your tracks before you realize why. All it takes is one whiff, and suddenly a lost memory is again vivid in your imagination. Here’s how a simple fragrance like Jasmine sent me back in space and time.
My morning habit is sitting drinking my coffee while gazing outside into the garden. Still in a theta brain wave state… waking up slowly is my speciality. In fact this is when I get my best writing inspiration.
One sunny morning while taking grateful sips, my gaze fell upon Jasmine to the right and Jasmine to the left. We have Jasmine creeping, climbing and spilling over the fences from the neighbours on both sides, literally hemming us in. With its clawing sweet perfume. But in a good way - the intoxicating fragrance reached my nose in wafts on that warm summer morning breeze.
Oh wow I exclaimed unselfconsciously and out loud to myself ‘we have Jasmine all around us’!
Its uplifting fragrance is said to be a symbol of spiritual awakening, enlightenment, and divine connection. Jasmine originates from the Persian word yasmin, which translates directly to "fragrant flower" or "gift from God".
It came again as a thought… the voice in my head said ‘there is Jasmine all around us’…
Hmmm is this a message?
My mind jumped back to six years ago when our beloved sweet little kitty, called Jasmine disappeared. We never discovered what happened to her or found her body.
She loved to hunt and be outside. I think she probably felt hemmed in by our suburban existence because she managed to escape through all the physical barriers we erected. Some wild spirits are not to be contained. Such was her slightly feral nature, together with her black paw pads and unusual wild cat tail. Completely different from her ultra laid back and always hungry, ginger brother, Simba. Like kitty Yin and Yang, these two were in many ways opposite but also as one.
I have since learned there is a name for this type of grief - Ambiguous loss.
Psychotherapist Dr. Pauline Boss says that Ambiguous loss is a type of grief that occurs without closure or a clear understanding of the situation, it is characterized by chronic uncertainty, leaving you caught between holding onto hope and fully mourning the loss.
It certainly feels complicated. They say that healing from ambiguous loss does not require "letting go" or finding closure, but rather learning to live with the reality of the situation - that is, the reality of uncertainty, with a capital ’U’!
A strategy recommended by psychologists is to find meaning by creating new narratives or rituals that honor the present reality.
I now understand my olfactory Jasmine experience and insight to be a sign and a reminder that Jasmine is still with us - in spirit. And that Jasmine blooms all year round in the garden of my heart.
Here's to the fragrances that have a unique connection to memory, emotion and power to heal. And to creating new Plantfulness narratives, to help tolerate distress and accept that our reality - normality, is full of conflicting emotions.
My experience is an example of the healing power of Plant-ful-ness. This is me processing a loss that is ambiguous, and finding meaning through metaphor, memories and the healing power of plants.
In the words of artist and writer Julia Rose Bower:
‘Plantfulness is a way of living alongside plants intentionally, mindfully and fully appreciative of the ways in which they enrich our lives’
Here's to the Jasmine all around us… the one that blooms all year round in the garden of your heart.
For more on Plantfulness read my recent BLOG or download your free Plantfulness Lifestyle guide HERE.
From my wild heart to yours
nicole
By flower, leaf and root, by earth and bone, what's broken mends, what’s lost comes home.” - An incantation used in modern green witchcraft and folklore practices - Anon (adapted)
Postscript:
SO what's in a name? OurJasmine wasn't always called Jasmine. And here's the backstory:
We first named our Jasmine, Ninja! She was a very skittish kitten which I guess is understandable when you are found abandoned with your brother, in a used car yard. We adopted them both from the animal shelter.
But after a VERY traumatic Christmas Eve experience when she was only a few months old, we renamed her Jasmine… True to her ninja nature, she somehow snuck into the washing machine among some clothes and luckily survived a short time in a gentle wash cycle (!!!!)… because she came out smelling like flowers… from the Jasmine scented washing detergent, she was ‘reborn’ as Jasmine. We were privileged to have her with us for 3 more short but precious years.
Since then Simba doesn’t leave our garden anymore but he loves to sit outside at night… maybe he too is sniffing the floral perfume and sensing his lost sister Jasmine.
