A Smell Of Inspiration 

Complete solitude and silence, a walk in nature, music, or even standing on your head? There are many ways to get into a thoughtful place and spike a person’s creative process. Creativity is a rare and precious commodity. Also, it’s subjective, deeply personal, and sometimes difficult to capture consistently. But how could one activate that creativity and thought process within? Many artists have their unique ways of gaining inspiration. But what if by only using a fragrance, one can help the creative process flow? Find out more about these creative processes and how scent can influence this in A Smell Of Inspiration. 

If you’re a creator or artist you have to have amazing innovative ideas all the time, so to have a continuous flow of creativity and inspiration, artists may well go to great lengths to help their thought process. Some may use the most uncommon ways to birth their visions, Especially a few of the most famous minds in the world.

Carry-le-Rouet, Made by Salvador Dali (1930), Image made by Fleur Chattillon

One of these creative minds is the painter, most famous for his surrealist paintings, Salvador Dalí. He had an exciting way of using his lack of sleep in order to spike his creative process.

He would get himself sleep deprived and while sitting in a chair, Dalí would hold a metal key in his hand over a metal plate, and as soon as sleep began to overcome him, the key would slip from his fingers and clang noisily on the plate below, waking him from the brief moments he had barely lost consciousness.

This practice he used, took advantage of hypnagogia, the transitional state between when you’re fully conscious and asleep. During this time, people can experience visual and auditory hallucinations. Which would help him with his surrealistic paintings.

The Three Dancers, Made by Pablo Picasso (1925), Image made by Fleur Chattillon

But Dalí was not the only painter that had this unusual technique to gain creative insight. Pablo Picasso, the Spanish painter, and sculptor and one of the most influential artists of the 20th century, used singing for his inspiration.

He would close his eyes and sing or hum to himself. This way he believed that ideas and creativity that already exist in his imagination and the charm of his inner world would be nourished in the lush gardens of his mind. He would visualize colours that would come to him based on the emotions that the singing would bring him.

“To draw you must close your eyes and sing”

Pablo Picasso

Another creative mind that was considered one of the most influential authors of the 20th century, famous for his book ‘In Search of Lost Time’, was French novelist Marcel Proust.

He used complete solitude as a way to get his creative process flowing, which is a pretty common way that people use to gain creativity, but he practised this in an extreme way.

Image made by mroczknj

Imagine being in a space, blocked out by noise and the world completely, so quiet you could hear a pin drop, well Proust did that. He lived most of his life in a small room with encased walls of cork and blocked-out windows to keep out noise and be undistracted while writing.

Although some of his habits of isolation may have been due to his poor health, it’s also clear he used solitude to free his mind and focus on his work. He often slept during the day and worked at night, and once he became so absorbed in his writing that he didn’t stop for three days.

The technique used by Igor Stravinsky, a Russian composer most famous for his ballets, might need some practice before it could be used. In his book, written by himself, he admitted that he began each day with exercises taught to him by a Hungarian gymnast, and then he stood on his head. He did this to clear his brain.

It turns out, there are several benefits associated with the inverted pose of standing on your head, including improved circulation and detoxification of the adrenal glands.

Last, but definitely not least, this particular individual uses a quite dangerous way to get creative. The Japanese inventor of the floppy disk, that has over 3000 patents to his name and a Nobel prize, Yoshiro Nakamatsu, almost drowns himself.

He claims that the closer he is to death, the more creative he gets.
By putting himself underwater in a deep dive to come up with new ideas, he stays under the surface until he attains his flash of genius, which could happen just a few seconds before death.

All these examples are in these cases proven methods that worked for the people who were using them, but with most of the techniques, it is needed to perform some sort of action. But what if you could help your creative process by only spraying a particular smell in the air? An idea-sparking scent was created exactly for this purpose; Free The Birds’ ‘Beautiful Thinking’ room fragrance was made from ingredients that are scientifically proven to help spark creative thought.

Created in collaboration with acclaimed independent and entirely self-taught parfumier, Sarah McCartney, founder of 4160 Tuesdays, the limited-edition Beautiful Thinking room spray blends a host of natural ingredients in a functional fragrance that doesn’t just scent your space but works on a mental and olfactory level to enhance imagination and focus, too.

The several different ingredients and notes all have their own purpose. There is Peppermint, which helps to improve mental functions, and Clearwood blended with Patchouli for focus.

Then they’ve used Virginian Cedar, a woody note that is traditionally used to improve cerebral function. Blended with Cashmeran Velvet, the notes evoke trees and forests, which are in turn scientifically proven to boost our sense of well-being and Rhubarb, a note that smells suspiciously like Cannabis – for expanding the mind.

The scent is housed within a refillable and recyclable glass bottle and can be used anywhere to get into a creative zone and help the inspirational thought process along the way.

If you enjoyed reading A Smell Of Inspiration then why not read Aquila, The Eagle?

To Buy the Beautiful Thinking Room Fragrance 2023 go here

.Cent Magazine London, Be Inspired; Get Involved