Having house plants really adds something special to your home – but is just a matter of good looks and a fresh smell. What are the actual benefits of having house plants?
House plants can enhance your life by helping to reduce stress, improving the air quality, and can even help to give you a productivity boost for studying or projects. Many believe that they even help you to recover more quickly from illness, by creating an environment at home that’s more natural and less clinical!
Today we’ll take a closer look at each of these benefits and you can see for yourself – plants are more than just pretty, living décor – they actually enhance the quality of your daily life. Let’s take a look and you can see what you think!
Table of Contents
They Reduce Your Stress Immensely
Plants can reduce stress in a number of ways. For instance, we know that certain colors can affect moods. Reds tend to be more aggressive, while light blues and dark greens can be considered soothing colors.
Beyond this, a study by the Journal of Physiological Anthropology found that simply tending to your plants can lower your stress levels. By taking participants and dividing them up into 2 groups and giving each a task – Group A, to repot their plants and group B, to perform a simple computer task – they found some interesting results.
The group that repotted plants had a greatly reduced heart rate and blood pressure reading than the group that did the computer tasks. It might be compared to petting a dog or cat — taking care of living things makes us calmer and more at peace!
Plants Improve The Air Quality Naturally
Plants reduce the CO2 levels in the house and produce fresh, healthy oxygen, and it’s something you’ll definitely notice in the home. You can also take it further by going with aromatic plants, such as Meyer Lemon trees to give your home a citrus scent, or flowering plants to create a soothing floral fragrance.
You can even make distinctive scents for every room in your house. All it takes is careful plant selection and taking good care of your new plant. It’s definitely worth the time!
You Can Get A Productivity Boost
While we aren’t sure if it’s a matter of that fresh oxygen or the colorful displays of plant life giving the brain a creative boost, numerous studies have shown that productivity – especially in creative endeavors – can increase by as much as 12% by the simple addition of plants in your study area.
Once 2007 study entitled “Psychological Benefits of Indoor Plants in Workplaces” was published by the American Society for Horticultural Sciences and found that workers who has plants in their cubicles tended to have fewer sick days and increased productivity, as well!
House Plants May Even Hasten Recovery From Illness
When you feel ill, it is easy to become depressed in the bargain. While we aren’t certain why it happens, studies have shown that people with physical or mental illnesses tend to recover more quickly when plants are nearby.
This happens enough that ‘Horticultural Therapy’ has become a popular addition to many illness treatment regimens. It makes a little sense when you think about it – living inside homes of dead wood, plaster, and brick are the modern norm, but our bodies are designed to survive and thrive in Nature!
In Conclusion
As you can see, there are a number of benefits to making houseplants an important part of your home decor. First off, they reduce stress and improve the overall air quality. They can also give you a productivity boost and if the Horticultural healing trend is any indicator, they can even hasten recovery and promote good mental health.
Don’t take our word for it, however, but get a few houseplants of your own and take good care of them. Within the first few days, we guarantee you’ll notice the difference that they can make!