Smell Training

A few weeks ago I listened to a podcast about a food critic who lost her sense of smell due to COVID.

For a food critic? Not a good thing. Because smell and taste are, of course, intertwined.

The podcast describes what this food critic — Tejal Rao — did to get her sense of smell back:

Smell training.

It made me think of teaching. First, because, you know, it’s training. Second, because of the issues of loss and healing (not, mind you, recovery, because recovery implies a return to the same ol’ thing whereas healing implies change, growth, regeneration).

As a teacher, coming to the end of this COVID year,

what have you lost?

What healing do you need to do?

What have your students lost? What healing might they need to do?

How might this healing happen? Some lessons from smell training:

• Choose your focus.

• Know that less is more. (Choose just four scents. Don’t drag them in with huge breaths. Take bunny sniffs.)

• Slow down. Take your time.

• Release your expectations of perfection, of getting it right immediately.

• Be in the moment.

• Pay close attention.

• Set up repetitive, structured practice sessions.

• Be patient.

• Listen. (Even if you’re sniffing. Even if you’re feeling. Listen for the scent that’s like a song blasting out of the window of a passing car. Listen for the emotion or memory or image that’s hiding underneath your anxiety or sadness or outrage.)

• Remember. Let your mind bring in associations from your past.

“More than anything else,” says Chrissi Kelly, a smell trainer, “it’s about building up your confidence.”

What a lovely way to heal from the harms of COVID! But what does smell training tell us about

learning in general?

Aren’t all of these recommendations for smell training absolutely, unquestionably relevant for any learning experience?

Mantra: Let’s do some smell training today.