It’s no secret that we all want to live our healthiest and best life possible, but we might just be overlooking a natural aid growing in our backyards to supplement our healthy regimes. Unbeknownst to many, flowers can impact our health in some amazing ways. After all, we take our health and fitness seriously so we can enjoy our family, friends, and the world around us. This mindset often leads us down a path filled with exercise, clean eating, mindful nutrition, and healthy practices. However, on our journey, we often encounter pricey memberships to our favorite gym, supplements, medications, specialists, trainers, and more.
And we are not alone.
Currently, our fellow Americans are spending 3.4 trillion dollars out of pocket just for annual medical care. While that number is mind blowing, there is a very lucrative market for a variety of other health products that range everywhere from complementary practitioners, homeopathic remedies, natural supplements, self-help books, and more. In fact, the list could go on and on. All we need to do is turn on the television late at night and watch the plethora of infomercials selling us everything from probiotics to exercise equipment.
When we factor in all these little extras to our budget, the true cost of our healthy pursuits can really add up. While our health is priceless, it’s difficult to put a sticker price on staying healthy. That makes it essential that we are always on the lookout for natural and cost effective ways to improve and supplement our workouts and dietary habits.
Thankfully, we can harness the natural properties of flowers to step up our game and help us achieve a healthier version of us. Surprisingly, our favorite blooms can affect our moods and health in some pretty amazing ways. This is refreshing, because we can use this knowledge to supplement our healthy practices with a little Mother Nature and take advantage of how flowers can impact our health.
Flower Power: How Flowers Can Impact Our Health
We have all heard the familiar saying about the importance of taking time to stop and smell the roses, but there might actually be some truth to this adage. Flowers have long been known to reduce stress, boost moods, and show affection. In addition, a majority of the world uses some type of herbal medicine. For example, hibiscus has been used to lower blood pressure, chamomile for upset stomachs, feverfew to relieve headaches, and marigolds to relieve painful sunburns. If that isn’t convincing enough, many indoor plants can help clear our air of harmful bacterias and molds, like the peace lily.
Flowers and Allergies
While many of us automatically associate flowers with allergies and the tale tale signs of red, itchy, watery eyes and constant sneezing, many flowers can still be enjoyed by everyone. The worst pollen offenders are chamomile, goldenrod, chrysanthemums, pigweed, and even our beloved daisies. We all know pollens can wreak havoc on a majority of people’s health, but we can take solace in the fact that there are a variety of hypoallergenic flowers and plants available. For allergy friendly blooms, look for hostas, roses, hydrangeas, orchids, periwinkles, geraniums, tulips, and asiatic lilies.
Mood-Boosting Flowers
There are a multitude of studies available touting the benefits of flowers on our moods. Stress in offices has been shown to be reduced by simply viewing flowers and restaurants with fresh flowers on the tables are have patrons who are in better moods. So when you are feeling down, instead of reaching for that pint of Ben and Jerry’s pick up a bouquet at your local flower shop. Choose blooms known for their calming effects on our moods, such as: blue hydrangeas, lily of the valley, geraniums, roses, and lavender.
A Word of Caution
While flowers and plants offer us a variety of health benefits, we do need to exercise caution when it comes to kids and pets being around certain plants. Many of our favorite flowers, while they look beautiful, can be very dangerous if consumed. Some plants to keep away and out of reach from our sons, daughters, and pets are, as follows: amaryllis, azaleas, daffodils, oleanders, and peace lilies. We can still enjoy these flowers, we just need to make sure little ones and four-legged friends can’t access the plants.
Looking Forward…
Even though we spend billions and trillions of our collective money on health every year, it’s nice to know that we can always simply head outside or bring some flowers inside to improve our health. Afterall, it’s the simple things in life that make our healthy pursuits worthwhile and good health doesn’t always have to cost a lot of money.
To help tap into how flowers can impact your health all year long, we have compiled an easy to follow guide for you to scroll through below: