The previous review study indicated that changes in mood could take place in as few as 20 minutes. 3 How Do Plants Help to Improve Mood?Īnother wonderful benefit of indoor plants and plants in nature is the natural boost in mood people experience from a brief period of exposure. Indoor plants or time spent outdoors may help individuals recover from mental fatigue faster and reduce anxiety. In this way, plants may attenuate systems activated when we experience stress signals, mellowing the body’s fight-or-flight response, lowering blood pressure, and providing a better experience when accomplishing various tasks. Analysis of the collected data indicated that participants felt more soothed and relaxed after the plant-related task versus the computer task and that exposure to plants reduced the cardiological response to stress. In a study of 24 young adults, two groups were tested to compare physiological responses like heart rate and blood pressure to a computer task and a plant-related task.
To combat the overwhelming feelings of stress, researchers recommend keeping as few as one to three small or medium plants within several feet of you while indoors.įurther, recent studies focused on plants and stress have revealed that plants can specifically work to modulate the stress response.
For many people, stress can be a negative contributor to mental health conditions and even substance use disorder. When given the opportunity, stress can take over the way you think and react to a variety of situations, leaving you physically and mentally drained. Given this evidence, the authors concluded that plants can cause changes in stress levels, improved concentration, boosts in energy levels, increased focus, and more. In general, this manifested as an increase in positive emotions, a decrease in negative ones, and even a reduction in physical symptoms that were causing discomfort. Researchers Han et al published studies in the Journal of Sustainability that showed even the addition of a few indoor plants brought about what the researchers termed positive psychological perceptions.
The increased amount of time we spend inside may directly contribute to our increased feelings of isolation and depression.Ī recent review study explored whether bringing plants indoors would help alleviate depression and other mental health conditions. Perhaps it’s no coincidence that depression is one of the main causes of disability on a global scale. Today, people may spend up to 90% of their day indoors. Our exposure to the natural environment is more limited than ever before. Regardless of your age, lifestyle, and mental health concerns, there may be many ways that plants can benefit mental and emotional wellness.
This research has built a greater scientific understanding of how spending time in natural settings and cultivated gardens alike can help to improve mood, reduce stress, and inspire you to participate in more physical activity and positive behaviors. It may surprise you to learn that when it comes to mental health, there has been extensive research into the power of nature. For example, consider the power of nature what is it about plants and spending time in nature that can inspire improvement in mental health conditions? However, techniques to care for your mental health are often much more mysterious and tend to be less concrete than strategies for improving physical health.
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