Seriously, what do mean indoor plants can help reduce work related anxiety

So if low stress and clean air is something you're interested in, consider investing in a few indoor plants for work.

 

Feeling anxiety at work is a pretty common and normal occurrence for professionals. In fact, a recent study by Harris Interactive showed that more than a third of workers, 35% actually, say their jobs are impacting their physical and/or emotional well being in some way, shape, or form.

 

Even worst, another 42% say job pressures are interfering with their personal relationships.

 

So it's clear that office professionals are feeling a bit anxious at work to say the least.

 

Seriously, plants can help reduce the latter.

 

First reason to get a plant in your office space is simple: Because taking care of plants gives busy professionals some recovery time to calm their nerves when they need to step away from an issue for a few minutes.

 

(You know what I mean. Those times when you need to step-off because you can't resolve that stupid javascript or PhP bug. Or when you need to step away from the whiteboard workflow or code diagrams that you just sketched out because your solution doesn't make sense and is driving you fu*king crazy.)

 

Instead of stepping out of the office and wasting your money at a Starbucks, try tending to a plant for a few minutes? It's amazingly relaxing... just sayin'....

 

Another reason to get yourself some greens: It might seem a tad silly on the surface, but study after study has consistently demonstrated the mood boosting abilities of indoor plants. It kinda makes sense from an evolutionary standpoint if you think about it. For example, the first tangible link to humanity started about six million years ago, with a primate group called Ardipithecus (they began the path — no pun intended — of walking upright).  However, humans didn't really start spending a vast majority of their time completely sheltered until around 6,000 years ago.

 

Given the above the evolutionary math is simple folks: ultimately, humans predominately evolved in a natural setting, surrounded for example by a multitude of trees and open space. And lots of greenery. Thus, natural evolution is one of the contributing factors as to why a vast majority of us feel more comfortable and at ease in a greener setting.

 

Another major reason to consider getting a plant? They clean the air in a major way. For most city dwellers, air pollution is easy to spot - either hanging over the city, or sputtering from a tailpipe of a diesel truck for instance.

 

The funny thing is indoor air pollution is just as prevalent, but not as easy to spot unfortunately. The most common sources of indoor air pollution is caused by volatile organic compounds (VOCs) as well as other elements.

 

Have you ever passed by a nail salon? They tend to have a very distinct smell right? The culprit? Acetone, which by the way is a fairly nasty chemical, and in fact its major usage is for dissolving and cleaning up other chemicals. (The organic chemistry folk term it the organic equivalent of water.)

 

This is interesting because  a recent article from the Scientific American reported that in just 12 hours, Draceaena plants were able to remove nearly all the acetone present in an airtight chamber similar to a nail salon.

 

Think about it, if these suckers have this much cleaning capacity, imagine what they can do for the air quality in an ordinary office like yours.

 

And you have to think that a nice clear air working environment can have nothing but positive impacts for both you and your colleagues as far as I'm concerned.

 

There you have it, at least 3 reasons to get busy and tend to some greens in your office space: (1) tending to plants gives you a quick break and context switch, (2) being in a natural setting has a evolutionary calming effect, (3) plants simply clean the air we breathe in every day and make the air quality of the office environment better.