Some experts think that, be it through the placebo effect of plain ol’ distraction, eating sour sweets may help those with anxiety through stressful smells.

And research suggests that the smell of mint can help those feeling tense, too.

A more seasonal smell, pine, has been linked to increased activity in the areas of the brain responsible for “judgment, feeling, motor activity of the frontal lobe, as well as the memory area of [the] temporal lobe,” too.

Speaking to the BBC, Baroness Kathy Willis, an Oxford University biodiversity professor, said that the smell of a pine forest can make you feel calmer in as little as 90 seconds; an effect which can last as long as 10 minutes.

But a paper from 2001 found that while the scent of pine might soothe us, it only does so in certain contexts.

Why might pine boost our mood?

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