Mountain View News Saturday, April 4, 2026 
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Mountain View News Saturday, April 4, 2026 
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Michele Silence, M.A. is a 37-year certified fitness 
professional who offers semi-private/virtual fit-
ness classes. Contact Michele at michele@kid-fit. 
com. Visit her Facebook page at: michelesfitness 
Visit her Facebook page at: michelesfitness. 


MOTIVATED BY SCENT 

Walk into any fitness store and you will see shelves full of products 
that promise better workouts. Powders, pills, drinks, and sprays all 
claim they can boost energy, sharpen focus, and improve results. 
Many people spend a lot of money chasing that edge. But what if 
some of the simplest performance boosters were already around 
you—and completely free? 

Believe it or not, certain smells can actually help your body and mind 
perform better. This is not just a fun idea. It is backed by research. 
Your sense of smell is directly linked to the brain, especially areas that 
control mood, memory, and alertness. That means the right scent 
can wake you up, calm you down, or help you push a little harder 
during exercise. 

One of the most well-known performance scents is peppermint. 
Studies have shown that smelling peppermint can increase alertness 
and reduce feelings of fatigue. People who inhaled peppermint before 
or during exercise reported feeling stronger and more energized. 
Some even improved their running speed and endurance. That is a 
big benefit from something as simple as a scent. 

Peppermint works because it stimulates the nervous system. It can make breathing feel easier and help you 
feel more awake. That is why you often find it in gum or mints. Imagine getting a small boost in your workout 
just by smelling it before you start. 

Another helpful scent is citrus, like lemon or orange. Citrus smells are known to improve mood and increase 
energy. When you feel better mentally, your body often performs better too. 

Another benefit of using natural scents is that they are easy to repeat and build into a routine. But there is 
one thing to keep in mind. Your body can adapt and get used to the same smell over time. When that happens, 
the scent may not feel as strong or effective as it did at first. 

The good news is that this is easy to manage. You can rotate scents, like using peppermint one day and citrus 
another. You can also save certain smells just for workouts instead of having them around all day. This keeps 
the brain more responsive. Even taking short breaks from a scent can help it feel fresh again. 

Lavender might seem like an odd choice for performance, since it is known for relaxation. But that is exactly 
why it works. Lavender can reduce anxiety and help you stay calm under pressure. For activities that require 
control and precision, like yoga, golf, or even a steady-paced run, this can make a big difference. 

Being too tense can hurt performance. Muscles tighten, breathing becomes shallow, and movements feel 
forced. Lavender helps counter that by promoting a relaxed state. When your body is calm, it can move more 
efficiently and with better control. 

There are also earthy scents like pine or fresh grass that can have a positive effect. These smells are often 
linked to being outdoors. They can make you feel refreshed and motivated. This can improve mood and 
increase your desire to move, especially for outdoor workouts. 

Think about how different you feel when you exercise in a fresh, natural environment compared to a stuffyindoor space. That difference is not just in your head. Your senses, including smell, play a big role in how 
you experience exercise. 

So how can this help you? It does not require anything fancy - no expensive products or complicated routines. 
Just keep it simple and practical. 

Before a workout, try smelling peppermint or a citrus fruit. You can use essential oils, a piece of fruit, or 
even a mint. During your workout, you might keep a scent nearby, like a small cloth with a drop of oil. For 
calming activities, consider lavender to help you stay relaxed and focused. 

You can also pay attention to your environment. Open a window, step outside, or choose a space that smells 
clean and fresh. Even small changes can make a difference in how you feel and perform. 

The key point? Performance is not only about what you put into your body. It is also about how your body 
responds to the world around you. Your senses matter. And your sense of smell is more powerful than most 
people realize. 

That doesn’t mean you should throw out every product you use. But it is a reminder that simple, natural tools 
can be just as effective—and much safer. Before spending money on the next big thing, take a moment to 
consider what is already available to you. 

Sometimes the smallest changes lead to the biggest results. It just might be as easy as stopping to smell the 
roses. 


Lori A. Harris 


UNLOCK YOUR LIFE 

YOUR DREAM IS STILL VALID 


On holding a vision 
when the 
ground has shifted, 
and what audacity 
looks like in the 
middle of a hard 
season. 

Last weekend at 

the Wisteria Fes


tival, I hugged one 

of my readers. 

She had survived the fires. We had never met 
in person before, but she knew my column, 
and I think she needed someone to see her. 
Not the version of her who was managing, 
coping, and putting one foot in front of the 
other. The version of her that was still raw 
underneath all of that. We both were a little 
undone when we finally stepped back. Neither 
of us said much. We didn't need to. 

I've been thinking about that moment. 

Our community has been through something. 
You don't need me to tell you that; you 
lived it, or you watched your neighbors live 
it, or you're still in the middle of it. The fires 
took homes. They took businesses. They took 
the physical containers of people's dreams, 
the storefronts, the studios, the spaces that 
took years to build. And now comes the 
harder work of figuring out what comes next. 

Do you rebuild? Do you reimagine? Do you 
cling to your memories of historic fixtures, or 
begin anew? Do you let yourself grieve what 
was lost and still somehow hold on to what 
you were building toward? 

That hug was still with me when I sat down 
recently with Ryan Wilson, co-founder and 
CEO of The Gathering Spot, a private membership 
community with locations in Atlanta, 
Washington D.C., and Los Angeles, built 
over ten years as a home for creators, entrepreneurs, 
and leaders. The hug had asked a 
question I didn't quite have words for yet. 
Ryan's story helped me find some. 

Watch for our full conversation soon on the 
Unlock Your Life podcast. But let me share 
what stayed with me, because it belongs to 
this moment, and to you. 

"The trap," he told me, "is feeling like a moment 
is your forever." 

Ryan knows something about hard moments. 
He pitched his vision to 97 people before 
a single one said yes. 97 rejections, each 
one felt like someone telling him his dream 
wasn't worth pursuing. The number itself 
isn't the point. What matters is what it represents: 
the universal experience of being told,
by people who seem to know better, that the 
thing you believe in isn't real. Most of us quit 
long before 97. He didn't. 

He built something meaningful. And then a 
pandemic arrived and made it literally illegal 
to do the one thing his business existed to do: 
gather. And then came an acquisition, a reacquisition, 
and now a season in which the Los 
Angeles location is closing as he searches for 
a new home worthy of the community he's 
spent a decade building. 

Every single one of those moments could 
have been the ending. None of them were. 

What moved me most wasn't the resilience, 
though he has it. It was the honesty about 
what resilience actually costs. Because hold-

ALL THINGS by Jeff Brown 

The Artemis II mission 
marks an exciting new 
chapter in human space exploration, 
bringing astronauts 
back into deep space 
for the first time in over 
fifty years. Not since Apollo 
17 in 1972 have humans 
traveled beyond low Earth 
orbit. Now, under the leadership 
of NASA, Artemis II 
aims to prove that humanity 
is ready to explore farther 
than ever before. 

ing a vision through a hard season doesn't 
just ask something of you. It asks something 
of the people around you. There are moments 
when stewarding a dream means making 
a decision that disappoints the very community 
that loves what you've built. Closinga location people called home. Changing 
something people counted on. Saying: I cannot 
be what I was. I have to become what 
comes next. 

And right now, in this valley, I know some 
of you are living exactly that tension. You've 
had to make decisions that let people down. 
You've had to close something, pause something, 
pivot something, in the middle of a 
moment when your neighbors needed you to 
stay exactly as you were. That weight is real. 
The grief on both sides of those decisions is 
real. 

Disappointing people while holding your 
vision is not the same as abandoning them. 
Sometimes it is the most faithful thing you 
can do, for yourself, for what you're building, 
and ultimately for the community that 
is waiting on the other side of your courage. 

A steward doesn't own the vision. A steward 
is responsible for it, even when being responsible 
is the harder choice 

Ryan used the word steward more than once. 
I kept writing it down. A steward understands 
that the vision is larger than any single 
location, any single season, any single loss. 
The Gathering Spot is not a building. It never 
was. It's determination that people need 
places to come together, to think together, to 
build together. That determination survived 
COVID. It will survive this, as well. 

And here is what I know about this 
community: 

Your determination survived the fires. 

The dream you were carrying before this year, 
the business you were growing, the thing you 
were building toward, the vision you held for 
yourself and your family and your neighbors, 
that is still yours. It may be waiting for new 
ground. It may be asking you to be braver 
than you planned to be this year. But the desire 
that was driving you before the hard season 
arrived? That doesn't disappear because 
the circumstances changed. If anything, it is 
asking you to trust it more, not less. 

That idea you can't quite put down, the one 
that came back even in the hardest weeks, 
even when you were exhausted and not sure 
what came next, that's not noise. That's your 
dream telling you it isn't finished with you 
yet. 

I think about the woman I hugged at the Wisteria 
Festival. I don't know yet what she is going 
to rebuild or how. But I know she is still 
here. Still standing. And so are you. 

This valley has always been full of people 
who build things. Those who have alwaysbuilt things. Those who will build again. 

Now comes the audacity to do it. 

Lori A. Harris is an Integrative Change Coach,
Life Mastery Consultant, and host of the Unlock 
Your Life with Lori Harris podcast. She 
writes the "Unlock Your Life" column for 
Mountain Views News. Watch for her conversation 
with Ryan Wilson of The GatheringSpot, coming soon on the podcast. Learn more 
at loriaharris.com. 

OFF TO THE MOON 

The mission will send four astronauts—Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina 
Koch, and Jeremy Hansen— The entire 10-day flight, which includes Earth orbit operations, 
the loop around the moon, and the return trip, totals roughly 685,000 miles 
venturing thousands of miles beyond the Moon’s far side. They will travel aboard the 
Orion spacecraft, launched by the powerful Space Launch System, which produces 
an incredible 8.8 million pounds of thrust at liftoff. 

Leaving Earth Orbit: After spending about 24 hours checking systems in a high 
Earth orbit, the Orion spacecraft's main engine will fire to increase its velocity by 
roughly 900 mph. This final boost pushes the total speed to the nearly 24,500 mph 
required for the trip. 

The 4-Day Coast: Once the TLI burn is complete, the spacecraft will coast for approximately 
four days to reach the moon. During this time, it will gradually slow 
down as Earth's gravity continues to pull on it, until it eventually reaches the moon’s 
sphere of influence. 

Free-Return Trajectory: The mission uses a "free-return" path, meaning the spacecraft's 
speed and direction are precisely calculated so that the moon's gravity will 
naturally "slingshot" it back toward Earth without needing a major engine burn to 
return home.Re-entry will be at 25,000 mph making them the fastest humans in 
history. 

Unlike earlier Apollo missions that landed astronauts on the Moon, Artemis II is a 
test flight. Its main purpose is to ensure that the spacecraft, systems, and crew can 
safely handle the challenges of deep space travel. From the distance of 250,000 miles 
Earth will appear small and distant, emphasizing both the beauty and isolation of 
space. 

One of the most inspiring aspects of Artemis II is its diverse crew. Christina Koch 
will become the first woman to travel beyond low Earth orbit, Victor Glover the first 
Black astronaut to make the journey, and Jeremy Hansen the first Canadian to venture 
into deep space. It is a very complicated adventure and we all hope for the best 
for the four astronauts and our space program. 

Mountain Views News 80 W Sierra Madre Blvd. No. 327 Sierra Madre, Ca. 91024 Office: 626.355.2737 Fax: 626.609.3285 Email: editor@mtnviewsnews.com Website: www.mtnviewsnews.com