Senior SEO manager Beau Brink says that "good smells" are his go-to coping mechanism, particularly when he has persistent anxiety. "I think it started when I was in high school," he recalls. "I liked to drive to school really, really early so that I could have some alone time and go for a walk. There was a bakery down the street from my school, so the surrounding few blocks always smelled like croissants first thing in the morning."
This continued for Brink as he aged. "When I lived in a walkable neighbourhood in my 20s and [was] really struggling, I figured out where all the good smells were: a banh mi place, an apothecary that sold soaps, a spice store, a bakery."