Fragrance and Aromas
Scents and aromas are powerful stimuli; they can affect your mood and trigger memories or particular feelings. Our emotional body stores and recalls events in our lives that often have a smell or particular scent associated with them. We all experience times when we catch a scent of something that reminds us of a childhood experience, a first love, or a favorite holiday.
Researchers have found that certain foods with strong odors cause penile blood flow to increase. Dr. Alan R. Hirsch tested thirty scents and forty-six odors with men from ages eighteen to sixty-four. His results found that cinnamon buns caused the greatest arousal and that a combination of pumpkin pie and lavender caused an average increase in penile blood flow of 40 percent. Older men responded more to vanilla and men who had the best sex lives reported a preference for the aroma of strawberries. Every scent and odor that was used in the research caused some degree of increase in penile blood flow.
Fine Indian restaurants will often have a small bowl filled with herbs of anise, licorice, and flower essences to chew after the meal. Along with cleansing the breath, these delicacies can also help stimulate the libido.
Dr. Hirsch also studied female reactions, which turned out to be markedly different. Among women between the ages of eighteen and forty, licorice was the most sexually stimulating. The combination of licorice and cucumber caused a 13 percent increase in vaginal blood flow. The pumpkin and lavender combination that the men liked so well caused an 11 percent increase. Women had negative responses to barbecue smoke, which caused a 14 percent decrease, and cherry, which caused an 18 percent decrease. In addition, women had a 1 percent decrease in vaginal blood flow when they were exposed to a variety of men's colognes!
Experiment with ScentsHumans can detect between 10,000 and 30,000 different scents, so have fun experimenting to find the ones that get you and your partner going. Get a variety of essential oils from a local herb shop or health food store and use them in different ways. Try putting a few drops on the light bulb in the lamp next to your bed. Bring a bowl of fruit to bed with you and try feeding tiny pieces to each other. Before you put the bites in your lover's mouth, inhale their sweet scent and let your lover do the same. You may want to blindfold your partner to really enhance the senses of taste and smell.
