Valentine's Day Flowers-More Than An Expression of Love

This Valentine’s Week, millions of roses will be delivered to express love.  Plants and flowers have a long tradition of being a source of love, joy, healing and celebration in many cultures. In fact, it has become such a common practice that many of us probably share and use plants indoors without any conscious awareness of their benefits. 
 
Research supports the practice of bringing nature indoors for our wellbeing.  A small study conducted on residents in a rehabilitation center in Norway (1) found that indoor plants, “were pleasant to look at and elicited feelings of relaxation and positive emotions which contributed to opportunities for reflection and contemplation. They expressed a feeling of connectedness to nature: a feeling of wholeness and spirituality elicited by the nature elements. They also expressed that the presence of nature elements contributed to a sense of being taken care of.”
 
A larger study (2), also conducted in Norway, of employees of who work in public and private indoor spaces found that greater contact with indoor nature resulted in less job stress, fewer subjective health complaints and less sickness absences.  The researchers concluded that the indoor plants influence the social climate at the workplace. 
 
What power do the plants have to elicit these types of responses in us? One research study (3) showed that perceived attractiveness is increased in rooms that contain plants and may be what leads to decreased feelings of stress.
 
This Valentine’s season when we share the gift of plants and flowers we may be expressing more than our love, we may be delivering wellbeing.

How do you feel around plants and flowers?

Coming up next week: Plants that work well indoors.
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 #Valentine'sDay #Flowers #Plants #healing