So it looks like there is some variation in what people respond to and how. I was curious about that. I know that there are many smells that bring back old memories and so that seems to mean that different people are going to have different associations with different smells which is why the esential oils thing never made a lot of sense to me. Plus I just haven't responded much to anything I've tried. Lavendar is only soothing to me if it is artificial. I just gave my mom a whole bottle of lavendar detergent I bought accidentally because the smell of it fills my teeny house and is overwhelming. Mostly though I associate lavendar oil with disinfecting scrubs and using a really powerful oil that was so strong that I hated to even get it on my hands. As in eveything people differ although there does seem to be some agreement and my relaxing grapefruit probably isn't to most people (just like how meds work for me! )