Improve Your Mental & Physical Health by Simply Adding Houseplants
Plants are pretty important. It's not new news to say plants are imperative to our survival. Everything: food, construction materials, medicine, oh and the most important of all, the process of taking carbon dioxide and transforming it into oxygen. It will come as no surprise then, recent studies highlight that household plants have a direct impact on our wellness.
There are many reasons why having household plants might improve our mental health, and an unmistakable reason is they’re better to smell and look at. Wallpaper and carpet have a hard time competing with living things and vibrant colors. A recent study further supports this notion in its research that there is a direct correlation between the amount of care required to keep a houseplant healthy and the positive psychological effect it had in the houseplant's caretaker. According to the research, those who share extended periods of time around plants tend to have better relationships with other people and therefore experience heightened levels of happiness.
Fact: Plants Help People
A separate study found that flowering plants provide increased levels of happiness and therefore, having flowering plants around the apartment and ay work is likely to significantly lower stress levels. Science is science. Studies have shown that people who are around more plants are significantly more likely to offer help to others, and tend to have more advanced social relationships. The logic computes, people who care for plants are more likely to care for others, reaching out to their peers and creating strong bonds because of their common interests.
Plants Reduce Stress
Natural aesthetic beauty is known to have a soothing effect, and having ornamental flowering plants around the family home is an excellent way to lower high levels of stress and anxiety. As a result of the increased happiness derived from a home or work space that has plants in it, the likelihood of suffering from stress-related depression is lessened as well. Collective research supports that by having plants in your home or work place, you improve your mental health by activating peace and open spaces to your brain.
Houseplants Help You Remember Your Honey To-Do List
Having ornamental plants in the home and office improves memory retention and concentration. How? The calming influence of natural environments increases a person’s ability to concentrate on the task at hand. Going outside with nature or being under the influence of houseplants inside your home can improve memory retention close to twenty percent, a recent University of Michigan research project showed (Sewach).
Are you convinced yet? Great. Here are some examples of great houseplants to have in your apartment:
Spider Plant
Spider plants are a very popular indoor botanicals, and your kids are going to like them because it has a cool name, spider plant They’re extremely easy to care for, and spider plants are impressively great at absorbing mold and allergens from the air and can be put to good use in parts of the house that are prone to dampness: laundry room and bathrooms. Spider plants are mainly low maintenance, too. Offer them with bright, indirect light and it will flourish. Water the houseplant well but do not overwater, which can lead to root rot. In fact, spider plants are okay to dry out a bit between waterings.
Snake Plant
A study of CO2 conversion in houseplants by Harvard University discovered that the snake plant is one of the greatest oxygen-producing houseplants. In case you're interested, ficus and pothos are two other plants that made the list. One of the best snake plant health benefits is it can make small and ongoing contribution to get rid of toxic air pollutants. It can do more than absorb CO too, snake plant's can absorb benzene, formaldehyde, xylene, and toluene; all of which are cancer-causing pollutants. It's one of the low maintenance plants out there as snake plants can go weeks of being forgotten without losing neither shape nor healthy, vibrant look. They can thrive in environments with minimal light and water.
See any similarities with our two houseplants? If you have kids, we’re hopefully making it easier to get them excited! Who gets Spider and who gets Snake?