Mindfulness is being in a state of consciousness that makes you aware of the present moment. As a practice, mindfulness helps with emotion regulation, interpersonal effectiveness, and distress tolerance because it allows us to view our mental and physical well-being through a different lens. An effective way to start evaluating your senses is by incorporating flowers.
How Flowers Affect Touch
Touch activates the body’s sense receptors and delivers that information to your brain. Gentle, delicate, and soft textures release oxytocin, a hormone that facilitates trust and cooperation. Most of us will feel a connection to nature and a calmness simply by rubbing flower petals.
To stimulate mindfulness, use a non-judgemental approach as you touch the flower’s stem, leaves, and petals. Feel each texture while closing your eyes and consider how you feel touching each part. What sense does it bring to your band? Do you feel your body tingling, tightening, or relaxing at the touch of the flower? Try to think about nothing else.
How Flowers Affect Taste
Despite popular belief, edible flowers are nutritious and delicious additions to your healthy meal plans and mindfulness sessions. Out of the many flowers you can eat, roses, dandelions, clover, lavender, and nasturtiums are often added to dishes, but not all of them taste the same.
Roses taste like sweet candy, clover resembles sugary green beans, and nasturtiums are spicy and a little peppery. Lavender tastes similar to how it smells, and dandelions, the most unlikely treat, contain a honey-live flavor. If you’re able to find these flowers and wish to experience a mindful, unbiased taste test, ensure they’re washed and pesticide-free beforehand.
As you place the flower in your mouth, what did it taste like? Did you like its texture? Would you add them to your cakes or salads? Then, think about how they fuel your body and creativity.
How Flowers Affect Sound
Our ears provide a lot of information about our environment that isn’t discernible by sight alone. Without it, we wouldn’t be able to hear the birds chirping and bees buzzing while we’re outside searching for flowers. These pleasant sounds calm us and make us feel one with the Earth.
Even if you receive a bouquet from a loved one through the mail, you can still enjoy the crinkling of the paper, the rustling leaves, and the sound of running water as you fill the vase. As you interact with these sounds, think about how they affect your mood. What is it about the natural sounds of wildlife that makes you feel drawn to them? Do you feel a part of their world?
How Flowers Affect Sight
The human retina can transmit 10 million bits per second, which is just as fast as the average computer. Within that time, our brain perceives form, textures, movement, and color. As they’re processed, our minds and bodies react to these elements and can quickly affect our moods.
Regardless of what type of flora you’re looking at, beautiful flowers activate our pleasure centers and bring forth positive energy. Specific colors, like orange, red, and yellow, make us feel cheerful, while pink, green and blue encourage feelings of calm. Flowers display vibrant hues like nothing else, so pay attention to how you feel when you gaze upon their brilliance.
Do you feel mesmerized, fulfilled, or enriched by these flowers? Did you grow them yourself from a seed to a plant? Seeing a flower bloom throughout the seasons is a gift to cherish.
How Flowers Affect Smell
Stopping to smell the roses is an old expression that asks you to appreciate the little things in life. However, flowers play an important role in our ecosystem, as they provide food for mammals and insects. To attract pollinators, flowers utilize their sweet smell and vibrant colors.
Many people use chrysanthemums to improve their mood, jasmine and lavender as a sleeping aid, and snake plants for productivity. Without meditating, you’ve already received benefits from smelling these flowers, but it’s still important to pay attention to their aroma. Inhale and exhale your flowers slowly and try to find hints of delicate scents you didn’t know were there.
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