Why Do Houseplants Make Us Happy?

Keeping indoor plants is a craze that we are all here for.

We love figuring out what the best indoor plants are for apartments, no matter how green our thumbs may be. There are countless articles on the internet with an endless sea of resources (we think ours are pretty darn good, so check those out first) on how to take care of indoor plants of all kinds, so there’s nothing stopping us from creating our own little oasis inside our home!

But why do we love plants so much? What about their precious little leaves and delicate little flowers can give us that spark of happiness merely from looking at them? 

Nature can make us happy, and there’s plenty of science to show that. This extends to houseplants, too, and studies show that having indoor plants can boost our moods, our mental health and even our physical health! Plants really can make us happy! 

Here’s how.

Why do indoor plants make us happy?

Houseplants can boost our mental performance

We spend most of our time indoors where we’re surrounded by artificial light, artificial colors and artificial shapes. When we have a little bit of real-life greenery in our spaces, we tend to latch on to that living energy on a subconscious level, giving us the mental capacity to emotionally latch onto what we are doing. A clearer mindset allows us to focus on what we need to, so keep those desk plants nearby!

Plants make us feel more relaxed

We always hear that being in nature can make us feel relaxed, but why is that? 

Basically, humans have a natural tendency to connect with nature and other forms of life. It’s a term called biophilia which means “the passionate love of all that is alive.” Humans have been living alongside nature since before we could even comprehend the world around us, and for eons we’ve associated nature with the spiritual world. Even if we don’t live as closely to nature as our cave-dwelling ancestors used to, we are still brought up alongside nature in some way or another. Children are taught to spend time outdoors, teenagers are encouraged to seek out nature and adults constantly find solace in the outdoors. We even listen to sounds of nature at night to lull us to sleep! 

In the same way that spending a weekend in the forest helps us relax, having some greenery around us can give that little bit of peace we need. The concept in both situations is the same, just on different scales.

With such an inherent connection to nature, it’s no wonder that a bit of greenery in our normally sterile environments can bring out those deep senses of peace within us. A leafy fern shimmering in the windowsill can evoke that same sense of wonder and peace that we might find in the forest, and even the gentle act of tending to a small plant can reduce our stress significantly! 

Houseplants can affect our bodies

We often hear about the mental benefits of having a houseplant nearby, but it doesn’t stop there! Mental health can affect our physical bodies in subtle ways, but over time they can contribute to great change, good or bad. Thankfully, houseplants affect our mental state in good ways, which means they can affect our bodies in good ways, too.

We talked about the mental benefits of having plants around us already, which included lower stress levels, higher productivity and a calmer demeanor. Well, it turns out that those benefits have effects that ripple throughout our bodies! Over a long period of time, lower stress can lead to lower blood pressure and muscle tension. A more productive mindset leads us to a happier mood which can positively impact our eating and exercise habits. A healthier body leads to better sleep, which in itself can lead to vast improvements in our mind and body. Once the cycle starts, it just keeps getting better! 

Plants give us something to care about

Let’s face it, sometimes it’s really, really hard to feel motivated to do anything. Like ol’ Isaac Newton said, objects in motion tend to stay in motion, and objects at rest tend to stay at rest. And, during a pandemic and being stuck inside for months at a time, one could say that we have probably been at rest for longer than we might have liked. That impacts our mood dramatically, and sometimes we fall into a funk that is just plain tricky to crawl out of. 

Now, the famed physicist probably wasn’t thinking of our couch potato tendencies when he put pen to paper, but it’s a good analogy to go with. Sometimes having something we absolutely have to do, even if it’s something as simple as watering a plant every now and then, can give us the boost we need to get up and get into the mindset of “Okay, I need to make sure that I’m looking after the things around me.”

Watering one plant can lead to dusting the table, while you’re at it, or switching around some of the décor on your shelf. For some of us, cleaning and tidying can be soothing and relaxing if done in a gentle capacity, so adding in the element of plant care and attention can help regulate our emotions a little better. There’s a reason my collection of plants increased dramatically during the coronavirus debacle, and it’s mostly because I needed to feel like I was doing something good. 

(This is where you go to find the easiest plant to take care of, because nothing will crush your spirit more than immediately killing a houseplant simply because it’s too tricky to look after.)

If you’ve got a houseplant, now’s a great time to thank your leafy green roommate for all the subtle endorphins it’s been feeding you. 

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Featured photo courtesy Unsplash/Pablo Merchán Montes