We are going through some of the toughest times, where everyone has been affected by COVID-19 in some way or the other. The morale is generally low, with prolonged lock downs taking their toll on adults and children alike. Keeping yourself upbeat and optimistic are the need of the hour. Activities such as indoor gardening, orchid growing, and terrariums will add renewed purpose to your day. Bonus: Your joy will multiply when your orchids bloom.

Read on to understand how growing orchids or any other plants can help you beat stress.

Tending to my orchids after my work day, watering them, tidying them up, or inspecting the newest growths and bud spikes, I can feel the calmness and freshness seeping into me and I ponder, who needs to meditate to beat stress? This ‘me-time’ leaves me elated, refreshed, focused and active. I always ask myself, ‘Why do my orchids make me happy?’

While stress has become an inevitable part of our lives, something that cannot be wished away, it needs to be dealt with on an every day basis to come out unscathed by it. Depression, anxiety, anger, irritability, restlessness, feeling overwhelmed, demotivated, lack of focus, trouble sleeping, worrying and indecisiveness—all leave us feeling we should do something to relieve it, but are unable to figure out a solution.

To find the answer to my above question, I did some research and came up with some interesting information.

Agnes E. Van Den Berg, Mariëtte H.G. Custers conducted a study on a group of 30 people, who were given a stressful task and were then asked to do 30 minutes of gardening or 30 minutes of reading. It was observed that both activities led to a decrease in cortisol levels, but the decrease was significantly greater in the group that took up gardening, which restored a positive mood. The same group, when asked to take up reading after completing 30 minutes of gardening, found a further deterioration in their positive mood.

No wonder then that we seek nature to relieve us of our stress. The woods beckon us every time we need a time-out from the rigours of modern life.

Imagine walking through a vast expanse of green canopied woods, with the crunch of dried twigs and leaves under your feet and patches of moss and fern covered rocks lining your path, camouflaging nooks and crannies. And in such picturesque surroundings, you chance upon a clump of beautiful orchids bowing down from low hanging branches and chinks in rocks. It would simply take your breath away!

What if I could tell you that you could create the same magic right in your living room?

All you need to create this aura is a few orchid plants and the knowhow about their culture and care.

As an avid gardener, I have found that orchids relieve stress like none other. They are beautiful and intriguing, and have the mysterious power of drawing you to their beauty. They can contribute to your overall wellness by evoking positive feelings of joy, enthusiasm, and tranquillity.

Growing orchids, as a hobby, can be extremely satisfying. While they need dedicated care and bloom once or twice a year, it is the journey that leads to the blooms that can contribute to your wellness.

You will very soon realise that the joy lies in the anticipation of the blooms—watching the plants grow, nurturing them and waiting for the first buds or spikes to appear. The joy lies in the excitement of discovering a new growth that has the potential to bloom, and watching it reach maturity. The joy lies in guessing whether a new growth is just another new root tip or whether it is a flower spike. There is also the element of delight, when you suddenly discover a flower spike when you are watering your plants. And last, but not the least, the unmatched excitement of unboxing your online purchase of orchids. The list could go on…

However, there is more to orchids than making you happy and stress-free. It opens up a plethora of opportunities and advantages that would contribute to your overall well-being. Listed below are a few reasons why taking up this hobby would irrevocably change your life by helping you:

Become active

Caring for orchids means being on your feet, watering and fertilizing them and ensuring they are in peak condition. You can also experiment on mounting your orchids on wood bark or growing them on rocks and in terrariums.  All of this physical activity releases endorphins or the feel good hormones. Being active also helps us exercise our limbs and improves our agility, thereby significantly reducing the onset of lifestyle diseases like blood pressure, diabetes and heart ailments.

Cruise control your life

Taking up this quiet activity will help you organise your life better. You will start planning your schedule and completing your chores faster and more efficiently just to make sure you get to spend time with your collection of orchids. This relaxing hobby also helps you plan your schedule and ponder on decisions to be taken. It helps you gain clarity on prioritising things that are important and prevent you from fretting over minor issues, thus reducing your stress significantly. It diverts you from  negativity and helps you remain unfazed by toxic behaviour of people around you.

Connect with people

Making connections with people has become more important to us than ever before. With our busy lifestyles, connecting with like-minded people can be a challenge, but not anymore. Joining hobby enthusiast groups either locally, where you can meet and learn about orchids within your city, or becoming a member of online communities on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram or Reddit, which provides a platform for discussion, posting images of your blooms or getting advice on caring for your orchids from experts, will help you become more social and build lasting friendships.

Set aside some ‘Me-time’

Taking some time off from your busy morning schedule to have a cup of steaming coffee and browsing through your collection of orchids and other plants can be the most relaxing way to start your day. The same goes for spending some quiet, undisturbed ‘me-time’ in the evenings after a hectic work day. This calming activity  will leave you synergised and bring out the best in yourself.

Challenge yourself

The positive energy you derive from growing orchids can lend direction to your life. Small little issues that you resolve every day for your orchids will prepare you to take control of your life and put it back on the right track. You can get rid of passive habits and lethargy and become proactive in every walk of life.

The biggest bane of our times is that we spend too much time with our laptops and smartphones. Making a conscious effort to wean away from gadgets and get engaged in activity that leaves you active and refreshed, could help you become more relaxed, healthy and positive.

This could enable you change any unhealthy habits that you have been trying hard to get rid of and help you become the best version of yourself. By doing this, you can set new goals that could be life-changing, and work towards achieving them.

Work smarter, not harder

This is my favourite one. While working hard is a good thing, working efficiently to achieve the same results with lesser effort is a definitive life skill that will stand you in good stead in the long run. I have learnt this by working smarter to look after my orchids and this attribute has spilled into other areas of my life, making me wonder, why I hadn’t been doing it all along.

For instance, if you want to avoid remembering each orchid’s watering needs and going crazy over their watering schedules, a smarter way to resolve this issue and reduce the tediousness of the job, would be by adjusting the moisture retentive characteristic of the growth medium. This helps in synchronising your watering schedule to a great extent. Another way out could be by grouping your orchids as per their watering needs. You could segregate them into weekly and bi-weekly watering schedule. Gradually, this aspect begins influencing other areas of your life, bringing in more organized efficiency on a daily basis. Get the picture?

Develop a positive outlook

Orchids help you develop a positive attitude, hope and loads of patience. They grow slowly, flower every year and outlive humans. Such is their resilience that sometimes the sickest plants, with no shred of hope, suddenly spring back to life by sending out a ‘keiki’ or a new plant shoot. So this ‘never-give-up’ attitude can help us build hope in the bleakest of situations and give us the grit and determination to keep us going.

I remember breaking a tender, newly developed flower spike accidentally during my over-enthusiastic photography. To my surprise, it sent out a new spike after a few days (to appease my anguish!).

With all these obvious advantages, the number of orchid enthusiasts is growing by leaps and bounds. You just need to explore orchid groups on Facebook, Pinterest, Reddit and Instagram to know about the hobby’s rising popularity.

As a beginner, you can get a headstart by reading up on growing orchids and understanding their culture requirements. You need to keep in mind that orchids have specific care requirements that will help them grow and bloom well. To know more about orchid care and culture, read my post on Beginner’s guide to growing orchids.

Subscribe to my blog for more information and useful tips on nurturing orchids that will reward you with the most exquisite blooms.

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