This lesson considers the role of smell in our orientation to the world.

We’ll explore another extraordinary bone - The ethmoid which sits at the top of our nose and also forms part of the base of the cranial skull. Here’s a representation from the front ..

It’s like a space ship that sits below the front of the brain or perhaps a wizard hovering in the air. The next image is from above. It’s sitting in front of the sphenoid and temporal bones that we explored in the last two weeks.

Are we glorious creatures or what?

I’ve been feeling quite different in this last week. I’ve realised how often I feel my head as a two dimensional area with a point of focus. Bringing awareness to the whole head has created a sense of lightness and ease.

How does smell contribute to the way we navigate the world?

I remember once in my early twenties I was working in a bottle shop packing a fridge below the counter. A perfume entered the room and it seized my attention. All thought stopped as I lingered in the nuance of its presence. My nostrils were drawn along the river as I stood and turned. She was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen .. but it was her smell .. All I could say was ‘Oh my God! what is your .. your perfume?’

She laughed then took a slender bottle from her handbag. She made her purchase then left me there, basking in the remainder of her breath and the tingle of her pheromones. The curious thing was how enveloping my reaction was. I was transparent .. my body opening and closing as I breathed.

For most of us that type of engagement is rare and often linked to memory but it is nevertheless present as a factor in everyday life. Whilst the sound of our inner voice is often dominant we nevertheless make unconscious assessments of people and situations with our sense of smell. We don’t notice it at the time but those occasions when a scent triggers a powerful memory are a good case for how influential our sense of smell actually is.

It runs deep.

What will happen if we consider our nose as both a navigator and instigator of movement?

This brings us to the larger theme of this series. How do we open or close ourselves to our experience of the world? How does that involve the structures of our head and in particular our face?

This blog post relates to the 3rd lesson in the Central Limb series. You can find that lesson by clicking here

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The Central Limb 3 - Softening the bones of the face