Feeling down? Spoil yourself with a bunch of flowers

MANY people have found themselves working remotely and juggling homeschooling and childcare at an anxious time.

How can you stay positive and motivated and adapt to this new normal? Bloom & Wild, the British inventors of the “letterbox flowers”, might have found the answer. They investigated the psychological impact of flowers on productivity and stress. The company sent flowers to remote workers with the instructions to track their heart rates while arranging their bouquets after completing a stress-test. After the short exercise, participants completed a survey, along with their housemates or partners.

The experiment found it helped workers relax during a stressful day: 90% said they found focusing on something creative helped to reduce their stress levels, 68% said they felt focused when arranging flowers and 53% said they felt relaxed when arranging flowers.

It also indicated that flowers have a long-lasting impact on our workplace: 100% said they felt happier; 75% said they felt a reduction in their stress levels and 50% said they felt more productive.

Lowri Dowthwaite, a specialist in psychological interventions at the University of Central Lancashire, said humans react so 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,” Dowthwaite said.

The experience of flowers is a visual and sensual experience – it’s the colours people see, the way the flower feels and the scent.

Flowers are known to stimulate “happy” chemicals like dopamine, oxytocin and serotonin in the brain.

“Generally, it will be endorphins that are to do with well-being, so you will experience a release of dopamine which is the feel-good hormone. Possibly serotonin, and oxytocin which is the bonding hormone. For example, if people received flowers from a loved one or a special friend, this can help them feel closer to that person and when we feel close to people we release a hormone called oxytocin which is the bonding hormone – it helps us to feel connected to other people. During times of stress that’s important.”