The smell that can teleport you back 20 years

Wiking urges us to make memories multisensory. The more senses an experience engages, the more retrieval cues it creates — and the easier it is to relive later. A memory tied to a particular song, taste, texture, or scent has more "hooks" for the mind to grab.

Smell is especially powerful. Because the olfactory system is wired directly to the brain's memory and emotion centers, a single whiff — sunscreen, a grandparent's kitchen, rain on hot pavement — can instantly transport us decades back. This is sometimes called the "Proust effect," after the novelist whose narrator was flooded with childhood memories by a madeleine dipped in tea.

The takeaway is to engage all your senses when you want a moment to last, and to consciously use sensory cues — a specific playlist on a trip, a signature meal — as anchors you can return to later to reawaken the whole experience.