Flowers Make People Happy

Fresh Flowers Can Help you Feel Better

Flow­ers make peo­ple hap­py! In 2000, a study done by Rut­gers Uni­ver­si­ty in New Jer­sey found that fresh flow­ers helped cre­ate greater lev­els of hap­pi­ness and life sat­is­fac­tion among its par­tic­i­pants in the study. A fol­low-up study in 2001 done by Rut­gers found sim­i­lar ben­e­fits among seniors (peo­ple over 65).  Accord­ing to SimplyGardening.co.uk, “In the Rut­gers study, some 81% of par­tic­i­pat­ing seniors report­ed a decrease in depres­sion after receiv­ing flow­ers. Some 40% report­ed mak­ing new social con­tacts, and 72% scored well on tests of mem­o­ry, gen­er­al­ly much high­er than those who were in the non-flower group.”

The hol­i­days can be a stress­ful time for all of us, but it does­n’t need to be! You can use flow­ers to help you calm down.

5 Steps to Meditate on a Flower

Step 1: Hold the Flower 

Take a flower between your fin­gers and thumb. Focus on it it like you’ve nev­er seen any­thing like it before. Can you feel the weight of it? Is it cast­ing a shadow?

Step 2: Seeing

Look at it with great care and atten­tion. Let your eyes explore every part of it. Exam­ine the high­lights, shad­ow, folds and ridges.

Step 3: Touching

Turn the flower over between your fin­gers. Touch the flower petals and head, the leaves with your oth­er hand. How does it feel?

Step 4: Smelling

Now, hold­ing it beneath your nose, see what you notice with each in-breath. Does it have a scent? Let it fill your aware­ness and if there is no scent, or very lit­tle, notice that as well.

Step 5: After Effects

Final­ly, spend a few moment reg­is­ter­ing the after­math of your obser­va­tions. What did you notice dur­ing your prac­tice? Did any­thing sur­prise you? Did you expe­ri­ence any­thing new?

Download the Tip Sheet on How to Meditate on a Flower

Here is a fun tip sheet we cre­at­ed for a class we held at The Hunt­ing­ton Library back in the spring of 2022 as part of their ongo­ing Well­ness series.