It is the beautiful season of spring. The sight of flowers blooming all around indicates that happiness is in the air, giving way to happy days ahead. Happiness is indeed connected to flowers – research conducted at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, proves that the presence of flowers triggers happy emotions, heightens feelings of life satisfaction, and affects social behaviour in a positive manner.
The study, titled An Environmental Approach to Positive Emotions: Flowers by Jeannette Haviland- Jones, Holly Hale Rosario, Patricia Wilson, and Terry R. McGuire, was published in the Evolutionary Psychology Journal in 2005. In three separate studies, the researchers were able to show significant evidence that flowers have very positive effects on people.
The researchers suggested that people who received flowers expressed increased genuine positive emotions, lasting up to several days after receiving them. “Additionally, people receiving flowers were seen changing their social norms. For example, in the study, participants that received flowers stood closer to the people that presented the flowers, even though these presenters were strangers. This is fairly remarkable as these “social distances” are well established within different cultures and are difficult to overcome,” says Dejan Kristan, marketing director of Flowers Canada Ontario.
In the third study, the researchers were able to show that the happiness flowers provide was cumulative, in that people who received more flowers were happier than the people that received fewer. “Astonishingly, they also gathered evidence that the memories of people who received flowers were improved!” adds Kristan.
Including the presence of flowers in your lifestyle has a lot of benefits – mentally and physically.
Kristan states that there are studies suggesting that flowers can help with:
1) Concentration and memory
2) Help clean the air you breath of impurities
3) Enhance learning for children who are around plants
4) Reduce stress levels for people who nurture plants and tend to gardens
5) Being around plants improves relationships between people and the compassion they feel towards each other
“There is even a study, Effects of Flowering and Foliage Plants in Hospital Rooms on Patients Recovering from Abdominal Surgery by Seong-Hyun Park and Richard H. Mattson, that suggests flowers help patients recover after surgery!” points out Kristan. According to the study, patients with plants in their rooms experienced lower pain intensity and pain distress, lower systolic blood pressure, and had higher room satisfaction than patients without plants in their rooms.
Plants within a working environment can affect employees in a positive manner. One research paper found that employees with plants in their offices expressed higher job satisfaction and a higher overall life quality rating than employees with no plants in their offices.
According to another study, plants in an office environment significantly reduced the prevalence of both neuropsychological (fatigue, headache, concentration problems, etc.) and mucous membrane symptoms (itching or irritation of the eyes, running or stuffy nose, cough, etc.). “Any office environment struggling with any of these issues could look at introducing flowers into their workplace as an interesting and inexpensive tool to help alleviate some of these problems,” advices Kristan.
To get the maximum benefit, Kirstan suggests choosing flowers of vibrant colours. “In the study, “An Environmental Approach to Positive Emotions: Flowers”, a theoretical explanation is put forth that we may be attracted to flowers, in part, because of our “primate trichromatic colour visual system” and that our preference for certain colours may have evolved from the importance of finding ripe fruit against a green background.”
Also, go with the flower you like. “That is the one that will probably affect you the most. If you are thinking of giving flowers, have confidence that whatever variety you choose, the person receiving them will likely have a positive emotional reaction,” shares Kristan.
He recommends taking up gardening as an activity to not only be around flowers, but also stay fit. “Gardening is great exercise and some estimates put the number of calories burned per hour of gardening between 200 and 400.”
To know more about these beneficial blooms, Kristan recommends reading an article published in the Journal of Environmental Horticulture titled Economic, Environmental, and Health/Well-Being Benefits Associated with Green Industry Products and Services: A Review by Charles R. Hall and Madeline W. Dickson. This article is a literature review of all the recent studies involving flowers and summarizes their many benefits.
In conclusion, he says, “Nobody is saying that flowers are going to solve all of your problems. They most likely will not. But, you may find that you too start experiencing some of these benefits and maybe you find that flowers make you a little bit happier, or a little bit calmer, or a little bit healthier. After all, wouldn’t we all like to be a little happier, a little calmer, and a little healthier?”
