The next time you venture outside to get groceries, pick up a bright bunch of flowers to brighten your mood. It’s been scientifically proven you can improve your mood just by looking at fresh flowers. In 2005, Professor Jeannette Haviland-Jones set out to see if flowers have power. She sent baskets of fruit, candles or flower designs to recipients and recorded their reactions. The flower-recipients showed pure joy and remained happier days later than the folks who received candles or fruit. Professor Haviland-Jones posed in her paper published in Evolutionary Psychology:
“Given that there is little theory to guide us, what explanations might we present for these findings? We suggest that the explanations fall into three categories: (1) simple learned associations of flowers with positive social events, (2) associations of flowers with food that could be part of an evolutionary response promoting food search, and (3) flowers as specially evolved human sensory mood enhancers.”
So, whether it is from an association of other good memories or just some cheerful colors or the thought of re-birth in spring, flowers can help pull you out of the doldrums. Trust us, we know it’s true.
