How a “Plant-Friend” Can Change Your Life?
We all seek an environment that makes us feel good to live in. We want to decorate our house in a way that would represent our personality; we choose our neighbourhood according to our desires and needs. This is a self-care method we apply unconsciously. As we implicitly know that our well-being is significantly linked to our surroundings, we tend to make careful decisions regarding the setting we live in. Because, we know that it is the only way to feel at “home”.
As said, we do all these preferences unconsciously but what if we were aware that we’re doing these to benefit ourselves? Then we could be more aware of what could be good and bad for us, take relevant advice from others and go for the better options. To be able to do this, today I’m challenging you to take a step into what I like to call “envi-awareness”. It’s a totally made up word but what it stands for is so important: making conscious decisions about what you can change in your environment to improve your well-being.
Many researchers have investigated the effects of different home features for years and years now. Which one is better to refresh the air: candles or incense? Which one gives us more peace: roofs or gardens? So many questions were discussed and today I want to dive deeper into one of them to give you some inspiration about home design that could benefit your mental state as well: indoor plants and their contributions to our well-being.
I always believed that plants are our friends who are, sadly, unable to talk; but I never thought it’s impossible to communicate with them. It’s because even just being around them is a source of inner happiness, relief and ease. They grow as we do, which makes them a company on our path of development. They change as the weather changes, just like us changing over the challenges we face. They may not talk with us, but we share a journey together and they ease the obstacles on it.
Let me tell you about the science behind this idea. Researchers from Korea and Japan looked into what could be possible benefits of engagement with indoor plants. Results pointed out that individuals claim that they feel more comfortable, soothed and natural after completing a plant-related task compared to a computer task. This finding was biologically supported as engagement with a plant-related task untriggered the sympathetic nervous system, which basically means relax our muscles, heart rate and many similar components of our body. Thus, it was demonstrated that having indoor plants could help us through many physical and psychological challenges such as stress and anxiety.
Affinity Health also collected some other facts about being a plant-person that could motivate you to get one now. A bacterium from the plant soil is actually triggering the happiness hormone in our brain, which is one of the main supports while fighting with low mood. Additionally, having indoor plants was correlated with increase in creativity and productivity. That’s why not just at home but at work or schools plants may serve a great purpose of being more fruitful. This could directly affect your approach to daily life situations too as allowing you to think more clearly and calmly.
It is also worth mentioning that plants improve the space they are in physically as well. Air quality in the room automatically goes up when plants do their job. Also, the naturalistic atmosphere added by the plants is a great way for us to think about our link to nature; this is especially important if you’re living a city life. Having indoor plants may help you escape from the chaos of the skyscrapers and invite you to a journey where you can relax.
If you want to consciously take care of your well-being; there are many more things to do. Plants are just a great start for it as being a company and supporter at the same time. There’s many more unknown benefits of indoor plants and you can learn them yourself by getting one today. There are plenty of options so be careful about how to choose. Then, leave the rest to your plant-friend to help you in the rough moments.
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Ceren Bayrakçı
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