Happy House Plant Appreciation Day! 🪴
It’s no surprise that being plant parents provides many health benefits to humans— both physical and mental. If you’ve ever lovingly watered, dusted, and admired a favorite house plant, then you know how that beautiful little green life warms your heart and your home.
The biophilia hypothesis was popularized in the mid 1980s by naturalist and writer E.O. Wilson. More than 30 years of research from around the world supports what many of us feel every time we spend time in Mother Nature— the increase of positive emotions and decrease of negative. Simple right? “When people state the common belief that being in nature relaxes them, that it helps them recover from stress and tragedy, that it’s a healing process to be in nature, we now know there’s a solid basis for that,” Wilson said in a 2015 interview with The Washington Post. These days with more and more of us staying inside, living in cities, and living lives more isolated and removed from nature, many of us can begin to feel the disconnect from our Earth, nature, and our environmental roots.
The strong bond we humans feel to plants is potent and powerful. Author of Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer wrote, “In some Native languages the term for plants translates to “those who take care of us.” Studies have shown that as little as 15 minutes spent in a room with plants can have a positive impact on mood and outlook. Plants really do take care of us and in the spirit of reciprocity, we take care of them too.
Today, on House Plant Appreciation Day, and every day—take a moment to thank your plants for all that they give you. Purified Air. Joy. Beauty. Relaxation. Your gratitude can be verbal or through the action of intentionally watering, pruning, and dusting of your little green beauties. 💚
