They may look pretty and smell lovely, but it seems the power of flowers goes even further.
That is according to Bloom & Wild, which carried out research into the deeper psychological impacts of plants as part of the recent Mental Health Awareness Week.
They delved deeper with the ‘flower power’ study, finding blooms elicited biochemical changes in the body impacting happiness, helping to alleviate feelings of depression and anxiety, while also boosting productivity and creativity. The ‘Flower Power’ Test found some interesting results for how it helped boost people’s moods:
- 90 per cent said they found focusing on something creative helped to reduce their stress levels.
- 84 per cent said flowers had an overall calming effect on their mood.
- 53 per cent said they felt relaxed or at ease when arranging flowers.
The experiment also indicated that flowers have a long-lasting impact on our immediate workplace, with 75 per cent saying they felt some reduction in their stress levels after working with flowers in their workspace and 50 per cent said they felt more productive after having flowers in their workspace.
Bloom & Wild also spoke to Lowri Dowthwaite, a specialist in psychological interventions at the University of Central Lancashire, who says humans react so positively to flowers because of our evolution.
“There are many psychological theories about self-actualising, which is about becoming your true self and being a whole person. It’s about connecting to where you came from and nature is where we came from. When we’re with nature we automatically feel more at home,” she explained.
