Why do I love the smell of Jasmine, while my sister thinks it stinks? I never gave much thought to how personal smell was until I started making body scrubs and oils. My sister Michelle, and I, are opposites on so many things, yet we find common ground in many others including smell. We have begun to recognize that scent is not only quite personal and stems from many life experiences, but is indeed one of the truest barometers of who people are. The stories we hear prove the theory over and over again, that smell is one of the strongest emotional senses we have.

We have begun to ask our customers why they love a certain scent and why they abhor another. Stories come out about beloved family members or friends or even a moment in a particular relationship. One woman said she hates anything lavender, because there was a bouquet of it on the table in the crowded hospital where she sat for hours waiting to have her broken arm cast in plaster. Another woman said that she always liked a particular scent, until her roommate, who smelled similar, made off with her college boyfriend. The answers are always interesting, always passionate and sometimes quite poignant, with traces of the emotion left on the face of the teller as they "smell" the smell in the far reaches of their memories.

The olfactory system in short, takes a scent from the nostrils to the brain, stopping to be recognized as a particular fragrance along the way. Throw a life experience into the mix as the brain is registering the scent, and you have just learned to like and/or dislike a particular smell based on the emotional association you just made with it.

I myself finally pinpoint the reason I love the smell of Jasmine. There was a room in my grandparents home that had a life-like 3 foot doll that I spent hours playing with. The scent in the room was a combination of my grandma's heady perfume and a bit of camphor, which has a musky sweetness all its own. My sister, being 7 years my junior, was considered "too young" and never allowed in there. Her memories are completely different and therefore the smell of Jasmine or anything similar is simply "awful" in her mind.

Michelle is a "fruity", I am a "floral" and we find our middle zone amongst the "citrus", however, as we experiment and work together and bring new scents to our fragrance line, we are allowing for new memories, thereby opening our minds as well as our nostrils.

So, what smell are you?

To read the headlines, it is no wonder people are walking around in a perpetual state of stress. The economy is in flux, a new administration is on the way and unemployment is at frighteningly high levels. The stress of caring for ourselves and our loved ones grows as quickly as the pile of unpaid bills. We begin to feel anxious, tired, and depressed. We continually ask ourselves how will we be able to do anything to get out of this seemingly endless mess. Our first instinct is to take care of, and give to others and forget ourselves. However, similar to airplane emergency oxygen situations, when the instructions lead you to secure your own mask prior to helping others secure theirs, you are not going to help others very well unless you help yourself first. This theory has proven itself time and time again.

The key to stress reduction is the ability to allow ourselves to indulge in small selfish necessary pleasures. These stress reducers need not cost anything, and this is not as "selfish" as it seems, either. The actions are actually self-loving, instead. The small act of taking care of oneself, on a daily basis, not only makes us feel better about life and ourselves in general, but it also empowers and enables us to perform other tasks more effectively and with more passion for others, because we do not feel neglected in the equations. That is a winning combination.

Small pleasures include: taking one day a week to go to bed earlier or to sleep in, even if only for an additional 15 minutes; taking a short, brisk walk as often as possible, actually absorbing and appreciating your surroundings; petting a beloved animal for a full 5 minutes; sitting outside, or by the window, with a steaming cup of something, watching the world go by and feeling good about having stepped off its whirlwind for a full 10 minutes; calling a loved one just to say hello, making sure you only discuss happy things; cooking a healthy dinner with family or friends and making it a joy, not a chore; watching a situation comedy just for the laugh of it; taking a longer than usual bath or shower, maybe with some music playing, and pampering yourself with a treatment that will invigorate, smooth and soothe your skin and body. More pricey but obviously fantastic stress reducers are: facials and massages; shopping sprees; going to the movies, theater, museum or something of that type; lunch or dinner out with friends; vacations, etc., however, those are not everyday pleasures and specialists agree that the key to dealing effectively with stress is to care for it on a day to day basis.

No matter which small pleasure we choose to indulge in, the end result will be the same. Taking care of oneself encourages feelings of self worth, self renewal, self awareness and self love that will in turn translate to a better, more productive and ready to face anything attitude.

The world, its beauties, its problems and all of its never ending stream of "stuff" will constantly be thrown at us without explanation or warning, and there is not much that can be done with the majority of it all. Our reactions to it are the only thing we have control of. If we allow ourselves the selfish little moments along the way, we will face our challenges with a lot less stress no matter what.