BEAUTY

BEAUTIFUL ENVIRONMENTS

Humans, in normal times, spend approximately 80-90% of their time indoors. This number has no doubt increased over the past year with many of our outdoor activities being shelved, and reasons to leave our homes dwindling!

Can having a beautiful environment support good health? And if so, how can we harness this for our indoor spaces?

Indoor plants are a wonderful way to bring some beauty (and life!) to your space. Most of the results on indoor plants and health are mixed, but there are some indications that they may support reducing nervousness, reducing anxiety, improving mood and improve focus on a task at hand. With so many variables (types of plants, proximity, context, people in the studies, it’s hard to say what might be actually supporting the results - basically, we need more information.)

There is a small amount of research on gardening as an activity to support mental health and cognitive decline. Perhaps it is the activity of caring for the plant, or the nature of repotting plants as a hobby that contributes in a positive way.

Most of the research on environments and well-being comes from studies that focus on outdoor nature exposure and human health. The Japanese practice of forest bathing or shinrin-yoku , has been well researched over the past few years - and found to have impactful effects on human health include improving mood, immune function, and lowering blood pressure. Furthermore, the research on exercise in nature is also supportive of improving health - although it’s unclear if this is concretely due to the nature exposure or the exercise. 

Taking a step back from the research, we can understand the many reasons why being outside is supportive for health. While we consider indoor spaces benign, there are actually a lot of environmental compounds that impact our health. These can include dust, volatile organic compounds (VOC) that can result from decorating, off-gassing of furniture etc. Unfortunately, exposure to these compounds, to some degree, is part of the cost of modern living. We can only do our best to dust or vacuum as much as possible, purchase products or furniture that are environmentally certified to avoid these VOCs, and air out our homes as much as possible - or better yet, get ourselves outside!

Some argue that plants can purify the air of these compounds in indoor spaces. It doesn’t seem as if that research is robust enough to say that for certain - but again, if you enjoy indoor gardening and plants, combining this to create a peaceful environment within your workspace or home won’t hurt. We are currently propagating our monstera at the front of our office to add MORE plants to our space. We love our little plant-filled, indoor environment.