House plants, this post is an excerpt from my 8m² balcony/garden. The pandemic has changed our social lives and it seems we are living in our minds and our homes pretty much 24X7. Spending time with nature can help a lot in alleviating symptoms of depression, loneliness, anxiety, and stress. House plants are super fun to maintain and good pass time when there is absolutely nothing to do. House plants purify the air and improve health and wellness overall.
If you are staying by yourself, house plants could give a good company and add a small routine in the morning. Caring for plants is an extension of self-love and discipline. You don’t need a lot of space, to begin with. House plants are a great asset to any home in non-virusy times too. Let’s get started on turning our rooms into a forest oasis.
Productivity Tidbits
Before we jump ahead a small note on productivity and how our brains work. Our brains are not as evolved as we think. We have a tendency to avoid things that are hard to do, survival mechanisms in-grained to conserve energy. Our minds feel reluctant to do tough things as a measure to save energy and help us survive. This prevents us from picking the A items on our to-do lists. Assign a carrot to your to-do list and cut down items that seem easy to do but aren’t as fruitful.
When encountered with unfairness our mind jumps to fight or flight mode, a response hard-wired in us for survival. When confronted/ put on the spot it’s a natural tendency of our brain to be defensive and be less objective. Human beings aren’t entirely driven by reason and rationale, a lot has to do with irrational decisions and emotion. The split-second difference swaying our decisions, either way, is a good example.
We constantly have to make decisions every day, every minute, every second. The more things you put on auto-pilot, the more productive you’d get. Avoid making your day to day tasks tedious. Decision fatigue is real. Whether it’s deciding what to eat, what to wear, what to buy it all comes at a cost. Keep things that are important to do within your closest reach and you will NOTICE the difference in what you do As Marie Kondo says let go of things that don’t spark joy, apply the same to your daily routine and you’d find for yourself how effective and fulfilling your life would get.
When making your to-do list → be clear to add in an A, B, C, D, E to your tasks, ensure you absorb in your mind how doing things that are going to help you in both the short and long run are higher up in your priority lists. Do them before the “easier” and “brain fulfilling” tasks you chose over in your daily routine. Optimize your energy and you will optimize your life 🙂
A little bit of greenery in your room and outside your house inspires creativity and restores vitality. Some great plants that are low maintenance and hard to kill would be snake plant, pothos, Syngonium, jade, holy basil, monstera bamboo palm. You could add ferns, vines, and even succulents if you wish to get more involved.
To quote:
“[People] laugh at the stupefying odds against anything accidental growing exactly like this, like us, out of mindless wood… The odds are nothing compared to the first great rolls of the cosmic dice: the one that took inert matter over the crest of life, and the one that led from simple bacteria to compound cells a hundred times larger and more complex. Compared to the first two chasms, the gap between trees and people is nothing at all.”
When you’re a perceptive, quiet human, plant language makes sense. If you listen close enough, you’ll hear it. And the lessons embedded in the leafy whispers are human, too.
I hope you enjoyed reading, please feel free to leave your comments and suggestions down below. Stay healthy! Stay safe.
Akansha
