#261 My House Has 100 Plants And Zero Regrets

We explore how spring light, plants, and the colour green lift mood, improve sleep, and calm the nervous system. Research, stories, and simple steps show how to declutter, add green cues, and use short plant rituals to cut rumination and reset focus.

• Spring equinox timing and why mood rises
• Longer days improving circadian rhythm and sleep
• Decluttering to release heavy memories and make space
• Neuroaesthetics and value tagging in everyday design
• Plant care as a pause that reduces rumination
• Affordable entry points like plant rescues and swaps
• Research on kids, youth, seniors and green spaces
• Workplace greenery and green accents lowering stress
• Outdoor parks as accessible therapy in Alberta
• Simple starting steps for daily green habits

Tune in weekly to Wellbeing Wednesdays with Sogand on The Universal Radio Network, 97.9 FM in Edmonton, or globally at www.theuniversalradio.com

IG: @theuniversalradio

Transcript

Spring Equinox And Mood Shifts

Longer Days, Sleep, And Energy

Decluttering To Reset Your Space

Neuroaesthetics And Intentional Design

Plant Care Ramps Up In Spring

Pandemic Plant Boom And Beginner Tips

Green Spaces And Workplace Wellbeing

Value Tagging And Seeing More Green

Kids, Youth, And Cognitive Benefits

Awe, Gratitude, And Parasympathetic Rest

Pausing, Working Memory, And Art

Rumination, Breaks, And Plant Tasks

Blue Vs Green And Seniors’ Health

Alberta’s Parks And Everyday Nature

Practical Invitations And Closing

SPEAKER_00 0:06

Welcome to the Universal Radio Networks podcast. This is Sogand. In today's episode, we are speaking on the psychological impacts of plants and greenery. This is Sogand. Happy February. The world is a mess, but you know what is not a mess? Our weather. I know you've noticed the above zero temperatures. I know you've also noticed the days are getting longer. It's getting darker a little bit later. Have you also noticed that the grass under the snow is beginning to peek out? I mean, I know it's like not green yet, but it it's gonna happen, you know what I mean? I even think I heard some ducks in a nearby pond the other day, but maybe it was just a figment of my imagination. But I do mean that the weather has been good to us lately. Amongst the complaints of the world, this one, this time round, seems to not be as much of an issue, am I right? Well, tonight we're gonna discuss the psychological shift this springtime vibe is giving us. Why is it that we are beginning to see more plants in grocery stores? Even if you place online orders, I've begun to see more plants that you can purchase in an online order. Or if you see the decor, the decor is changing, it's more green. There's a psychological reason why companies use that color. What is the physiological influence of greenery on our mental health? That's what we're gonna get into. All this and more is gonna be in store for you. So the first day of spring is March 20th at 8 46 a.m. So we are like almost there. This is commonly referred to as the spring equinox for my Persians, and those celebrating, it's referred to as Persian New Year or Noruz, which means new day. Why is that important? Why are there so many groups in the world that celebrate spring equinox? What is it? Well, a study was conducted in 2020, published in the National Library of Medicine, and the findings suggest that people actually report higher positive affect and better mood in spring compared to autumn and winter. You may recall that we have had segments where we talked about seasonal depression or symptoms of seasonal affective disorder on the podcast. If you'd like to go back and listen to them, they're of course all on our Spotify. And so that might not be news to everybody, but you might even find that within yourself you're finding a little bit more happy or your mood is a little bit better. You might feel like you have more energy. You're not just imagining that. It's actually quite scientific. The results also suggest that folks report experiencing having more interest in the springtime. So you might find that you're actually more interested to leave your house at this time. You're interested to actually go out and see people instead of, you know, what most of us were doing is hibernating or being in like a cocoon. However, I will say this winter hasn't been as brutal as we're used to. I know that so many people in other parts of the world, especially other parts of Canada, are really complaining about their winter, but it seems like for us it's been okay. But if you feel like you have more interest, you have more energy, you're sleeping better, all of that could just be because of the spring equinox. And this is partly why so many people actually celebrate this time. In stores, if you've been out and about or if you've just been driving, you might have noticed that there is bright color decor, fresh fragrances, typically of flowers. This is not just capitalism, there's a reason for it, and we will talk about that. But we also experience changes in daylight because these longer days mean more hours, and it means that we get to do more stuff and not be limited to a smaller window before the day feels like it's over by like 3 p.m. This has been arguably demonstrated as a time in which our circadian rhythm, which is our body's internal clock, is all altered for the better. And so that means the impact here for a lot of folks is better sleep quality. And when you sleep better, you're less likely to have dysregulated mood patterns, less, you know, irritability, frustration, stagnation, emotions and states of feelings, many reports in colder temperatures and shorter days. Those are some feelings that people have: being irritable, being quick to be frustrated, being more snappy. And this is also a time where you might find that you are interested in decluttering. This is something that I've started doing for the past couple of weeks. I actually found a donation spot online that literally comes to my doorstep and picks up donations. You know, I have been decluttering clothes that I don't wear, clothes that my family members don't wear, clothes that just no longer serve us, but are just literally just sitting there, really good quality clothes, and they literally have come and picked it up. I have so far donated 15 big bags, and I have another pickup coming on Saturday. So if you feel like that's something that you want to embark on, I really encourage you to look online to see if you know there are donation, you know, organizations and companies that can come pick up stuff. If you don't feel comfortable giving out your address, there's so many clothing donations that you can just go to in a lot of parking lots and you can just, you know, give donations that way. But a lot of people do find this to be a time where they're interested in decluttering, they're interested in bringing new energy and letting go of older energy or stagnant energy. And a lot of folks do feel that during the winter times there is more of a stagnant energy just because the days are longer, or sorry, the days are shorter, the nights are longer. It's colder, and people, you know, sometimes they just hoard things or they don't throw things away, or they just don't have really the interest to shift the energy around. You might find that right now you do, and as the weather is really good in the plus, you know, in the pluses, you might find that you're interested in that. There's also an intentional push right now towards getting rid of things that you know are holding on to energy that we don't want anymore. Oftentimes we think that our belongings are just, you know, little items, right? They don't hold a lot of weight, maybe, they don't hold a lot of volume. However, it's actually the energy associated. It is the fact that we have memories associated with them. That might be something you want to get rid of, and now is a good time to do so. You would be amongst a lot of people like me, and a lot of people I'm sure listening to this podcast right now who are embarking in this and they want to take advantage of this spring equinox that we are, you know, approaching. So, like I said, speaking of donations, you you know, you should know that people are constantly needing clothing, bedding, decor, toys, shoes, good condition, of course. If you wouldn't wear it, it's probably not a good idea to give it away. But also, we have a lot of like eco stations that you can actually take your stuff to the dump if they're not in good condition. And a lot of these eco stations have days where you can actually go and dump your stuff for free. Sometimes they have specific number of bags that you can take or specific items that you can take, but that's another way to get rid of your stuff. Just know that oftentimes these things hold a lot of memories and a lot of energy for us, so it's not in your head. And you know, if you're trying to bring in new energy, try to, you know, bring in that spring feeling of more greenery, more plants, more decor, you have to make space for it. So just something to think about. And yeah, I urge you to look online if you're interested in this, and just know that you know, spring is right around the corner, and you might want to get ahead of this and you know, start planning your life intentionally. And there's another reason that this is important, and it is in the study of neuroaesthetics. We've talked about this before, but this is something that Dr. Tara Swart, which is a neuroscientist, talks about, and she talks about just being intentional with um our, you know, items and space and recognition, right? So as you're listening to this, you might think of just the corner of your house that needs to be decluttered or some items that need to get rid of, and then you might be intentional with what you replace in that space. So this is also psychologically going to impact you, and it's a good thing to do this as the environment around us is changing, as the trees begin to bring back their leaves, as you know, the sun we see more of it during these longer days. All of this is really intentional, and it's going to help you in hopefully increasing your mood, giving you better nights' rest, and giving you more energy. Another common action that people take during this time is buying plants or caring for their plants post-winter season. A lot of plants go into something called the dormant season, so you're not watering them as much, you're not seeing as much growth, they're kind of also in their own hibernation, not all plants, but a lot of the common plants. So you might find that during this time there's more growth, you have to maybe go and prune them, you might have to go and cut them down a little bit, you might have to take off the leaves, but you might also see that more people are selling plants. And I mean in stores, you can see the decor everywhere. That's all very intentional. And my experience is that there is an uptake in responsibilities pertaining to plants during this time because plants have needs, and though they can't really communicate verbally with us, they definitely have needs. So if you're a plant parent, you might find that you're getting more busy this time, or if you're not a plant parent, but you're on social media, you might find that you see plants in people's decor. That is something that you might see in the background, or you might see color psychology of green. That's all very intentional. And a lot of people during this time actually start adding plants to their collection. Did you know that when the pandemic happened and the lockdown happened, a lot of people, including myself, started getting plants, and that was during March-ish, remember? I know it's not the greatest time that we want to remember, but it was during this time as well. And that was because a lot of people were looking to bring nature into their home because they weren't able to leave their houses, or a lot of people were just interested in doing things that they maybe didn't have time for because they weren't out and about as much. And plants and collecting plants and taking care of plants is something that became super popular. And so, you know, this conversation is important, even if you are like my past self, and maybe don't fancy yourself as a great plant parent. That can change, that can change. Plants, it's you you just have to be patient with them, and sometimes, despite your best efforts, they do die, but not always. And so just be patient with yourself because they don't communicate with you, so they don't they're not gonna tell you in the middle of the night, hey, I'm thirsty, I'm hey, I'm hungry. And if you're not paying really, really close attention, you might not see the signs. But that's definitely how I got into plants, you know. I started seeing them all over grocery stores during this time, during the pandemic and during the lockdown. And I noticed them also, people's content online. And I said, Oh, there's somebody doing yoga and there's a spider plant in the background, or oh, there's somebody talking about a book they're reading and there's pothos in the background, or oh, there's you know, people doing tricks with their dogs, but there's a snake plant in the background. Why am I seeing so many plants? It was very intentional. There was an intentional push for this because people were trying to bring in new energy and also trying to gain control of a time that things really didn't feel like they're in our control. And so I began researching friendly plants for beginners. And I'm proud to say that now I have over a hundred plants, but that's been over the last what, like five years, six years. So I know that sounds like a bit unhealthy, but I promise there's method behind the madness. Research shows that seeing the color green has a profound impact on our well-being. Hence, I said earlier that you might notice the grass coming from the little banks of snow. And yes, the grass is not super green right now, but give it a few months and it will be. What does this green do to us mentally, you might ask? Well, an incredible 18-country study found that intentional time spent in green spaces was correlated to higher positive mental well-being and lower mental distress, and that's why you may have also noticed that a lot of office spaces have begun bringing plants. There is sometimes even a dedicated person to watering the plants and taking care of the plants. And yeah, so there's an intentional act now of purchasing or rescuing plants and adding them to your space that a lot of people are embarking in. And you're gonna see that more and more as the weather gets even better and as we get closer to springtime, again, that March 20th time frame. And you're probably asking yourself if you heard me correctly, and you did. I said that a lot of people are purchasing and rescuing plants. Yes, you can rescue plants because similar to animals, they have needs, and sometimes they need to be rescued. And most of my 100 plants are actually rescues that I got for free. I got them on Facebook Marketplace. So I frequent Facebook Marketplace because there's a lot of people who are giving plants away for you know different reasons. But what I like about Facebook Marketplace and what I like about free plants is that if the plant doesn't make it, I don't feel too bad because I know I tried, you know, not that plants are largely that expensive, anyways. Of course, there's very rare ones, those ones are very expensive, and I have yet to actually purchase a really rare one because I'm scared of killing it. But for the majority of plants that you see in people's content or you see in stores and stuff, they're they're pretty common. And if you look at Facebook Marketplace or you go to like um fairs or you go to flea markets or farmers markets, people will be also selling plants there. So there's different ways to get access to this, and it doesn't have to be an expensive hobby, is what I'm trying to get at. So yeah, you'll see that there's people who are moving and downsizing, they might make a post about it on social media that they're giving away their plants or they want new homes for their plants. Sometimes people get pets and their pets pets get into their plants, or people have newborns and they just don't have the time commitment. Regardless of the reason, that means you know, their loss is your gain and you can get some plants. If you know that doesn't appeal to you, then you can go to stores and get them. But yeah, this is something I want you to be cognizant of because there is going to be a push for this as we get closer to the springtime, and it's not a figment of your imagination, it's actually because the more green you surround yourself with, the more mentally you're going to experience positive impacts. And it doesn't just have to be plans. So, for those of you who are still not on board, it's okay. I have more science for you of how you can incorporate the color green, like we have with the turn logo, and maybe you haven't noticed it till up to this point, but maybe right after listening to this, you're going to see it. And you know what? That is because the law of attraction, and when you you know, there's a part in our brain called value tagging. And so when you tell your brain, there's an area of the brain called the reticular activating system. So when you start telling your brain something's important to you, such as, for example, plants or the color green, you'll notice that you see it more. And that's not because it wasn't there, but that's because you're more focused on it. So, yeah, going back to that previously referenced study though, I wanted you to know that it's called Associations Between Green, Blue Spaces, and Mental Health Across 18 Countries. And it was published in 2021 on nature.com. And just adding to what we spoke about earlier, what was found in the study is that living near or doing activities in natural settings or green settings is associated with more positive well-being. This might be relatable to you if you've ever gone to a park or if you've ever gone to the Mutart, or if you've ever gone to a floral place, if you've ever done a workshop where you are around plants, or if you have friends or family that just have a lot of plants, you might find that your energy is different, and that is very intentional because they actually cleanse the air and they actually have psychosocial benefits for you. The color green is so impactful that Wang and others in 2025, so this is a very recent study, said that even painting walls green can have profound positive impacts on us. The study also suggests that the green walls, if you're painting them or you're getting decor that's green, reduces psychophysiological stress levels. So this means that people are going to experience more positive emotional responses and more stable patterns of brain activity. One reason for this is that most of us spend most of our days indoors, right? And we are away from nature. So the addition of nature's color palette can influence us in good ways. Referencing Dr. Tara Swart again, she talks about how nature's color palette has been something that's been there our entire human history, and so only good can come from reincorporating that with a lot of urbanization, with a lot of human-made cars and buildings and all of these incredible things that we've been able to do as humans, one thing that we have kind of strayed away from is nature. Even in our own city, we have so many parks, so many forests, so many ponds. It's not too much of a walk or it's not too much of a drive to get to one. And I really think that we should really take advantage of that. So if you weren't doing that every other spring, now is a good time to do so. Another reason that people are painting their walls green, their nails green, getting green hair, just a lot of green, is that there is a significant role that the color green plays in stress recovery. And this is an emerging area of research. And basically, it suggests that looking at the visual color of green actually has impacts on our visual stimuli. And it mentions that the benefits of greenery is that it can reduce our blood pressure, it can impact the dominance of the parasympathetic nervous system, so that's that rest and digest. And I think this journal article is fascinating. Please do look into it if you'd like to read more about this in depth, and if this is something you'd like to embark on as we are moving towards spring equinox. This particular journal is called The Impact of Visual Preferences for Indoor Green Walls on Emotion and Brain Activity of College Students. Another brilliant article that I found, and it's looking at children and youth that are exposed to nature. This one is called Associations Between Nature Exposure and Health, a review of the evidence. It's from 2021. The findings here suggest that exposure to nature can actually improve cognitive function and reduce mental fatigue in youth and children. So if you're listening to this and you have children, if you're listening to this and you have kids, or you yourself are youth or an adolescent, that's something that you could consider is you know, on your walks home, or if you have plants at home, spending some time with them, they can impact your mental fatigue. And this is actually incredibly true, also for adults, and it's relatable because all of the rooms in my house are surrounded with plants, and that's been very intentional. I started with one and now I have over a hundred, and I find that I have trained myself to look at plants when I try to focus or shift my attention. So, what I will do is I'll answer an email and then I will get up and go and water some plants, or I will go and snip snip some of the dead leaves, and then I will either crush them to get that ASMR crunching sensation, or I will pick. Paint them and I will preserve them, or I will put them in a book and sometimes they dry out and maintain some of their shape and their color. All of that is that neuroesthetics we talked about earlier. So this is something that I now do without even thinking about it. It's become very habitual for me. But if you talk to Sogant prior to the pandemic and prior to lockdown, this was not a practice of mine. I had no plants in my house. Zero. So this is something that I've trained myself to do. So for those of you who this is all very new to you, you know, there's a lot of positivity here, and you could definitely take advantage of this. In a previous episode, we also talked about the power of pause and childlike awe, and how so many of us have lost that, and we have lost looking at things with wonder, and that's because we just live really busy lives, and everything just feels so loud and so heavy. The world feels so daunting. You can go back and refresh your memory, but I can definitely attest to this, and having plants gives me that awe because it's always exciting when there's new growth, it's always exciting when the plants give you little roots so you can take them out of the soil and put them in a new home in some new soil. This might seem very trivial. It might seem like, you know what, Sogan, I have all of these problems in my life. Is this plant really gonna fix it? Probably not. But what plants will do is they will teach you patience, they will teach you perseverance, and what they will do even momentarily is take your attention from work, from the busyness of the world, from chaos, and shift it into that parasympathetic nervous system of that rest and digest. And the more you do that throughout your days, the more you will find that you are less irritable, you're less snappy, you are more positive, and you are actually looking for the beauty. Yes, it could start with just doing this with a plant, but you will see that you'll start also looking for the beauty in others that you meet, you will start seeing beauty in your work days. It can also be a gratitude practice. I definitely feel very grateful when I see my plants doing well, especially because most of them, like I said earlier, are rescues. And so it's really gratifying to be able to see these plants that I got in some critical conditions and now they're doing better. Or it wasn't doing really good, but I have one bloom, one flower, or one leaf. It just feels good, but it also shows you that nature is there regardless of what goes on in the world, and nature can be so healing. Again, Dr. Tara Swart talks about how we've existed in nature's palate, and no matter how disconnected we may feel, it's there, and it's really cheap to bring it back into our lives. I'll often put down what I'm doing to go water a plant and observe new growth in the middle of my day multiple times a day. Sometimes I will put on a podcast, I will put on something to listen to as I take care of my plants. It's actually one of my favorite things to do. I will take cuttings from a plant that is super overgrown, and I'll put it in water, and I will see after a few months if it has given me new roots. Of course, all of this is stuff that I had to learn, and there's so much knowledge and information to be shared online, so you don't have to do guesswork. There's a lot of people that tell you what kind of conditions plants like. There are plants that are really finicky, there are plants that are really simple, but all of this is really good for your mental well-being, and it also gives you pause, but it also gives you a moment to experience that childlike awe and childlike wonder that you probably have lost, like most of us. And also it makes you let go of the cognitive load that you have and it can reset your working memory. So, what is this? So, the working memory is what happens when your mind is kind of just like left on idle. So, where does it go? Do you daydream? Do you engage in negative self-talk? Do you talk to yourself like you would talk to somebody you love? Does your mind go to negative experiences? Does it go to foreshadowing the future? Does it go to anxieties pertaining to the past or the future? Where is it going? It's kind of an accumulation of experiences, it's an accumulation of emotions. So that's basically our working memory, our default mode network is what it's called scientifically. And sometimes what we need to do, like we used to do back in the day, is just control alt-delete. If you're a millennial, you know what that is. When your computer would stall back in the day that we didn't have smartphones, we had computers, and our computer would just stall. So we had to control alt-delete to either force the application that we're on to stop working, or we would have to actually manually shut down the computer because it is frozen. Our brains are the same. Sometimes we need to control alt-delete. Unfortunately, we can't take our brain out and like squeeze it, and we can't take parts of it out. But what we can do is we can do relaxing, short exercises that will be like a pause in your day, but it can be so, so good for your cognitive function. One of those being art. So you might find that you reach for a green marker after this conversation. You might find that you want to paint. And there is no perfectionism here, right? The point is to just let yourself be in that flow state, to just let yourself create art, which has its own incredible benefits on mental health. We'll have a whole other segment on that and a whole other radio show on that. But basically, it's really important for you to just let yourself be. Oftentimes when we let ourselves be, what are we doing? We're scrolling on our phone. That's not letting ourselves be because we're still consuming. And again, in the words of neuroscientist Dr. Tara Swart, what one consumes today when reading, for example, the New York Times is as much as somebody would have consumed in their whole life a hundred years ago. That's a lot of information we're consuming. So even if you're just scrolling online, or if you're just watching things, or if whatever you're doing, you're you're consuming. So you're not really in that flow state. However, if you reach for art, if you make art, if you take care of plants, if you start taking care of your plant, watering your plant, cutting down dead leaves, all of that is gonna help you because it's a pause, it's like a control delete for your system. And you will find that when you go back to that task, you are more focused and your efficiency increases. And this is backed up by science. There's a journal article claiming that exposure to nature can actually help us with that cognitive function, and that gets my stamp of approval. So there's a lot of science in this area, and that is why now when you see that more people have decor that is green, or more people are getting plants, or you can just see plants and houseplants in people's content online or in stores, even if you're placing an online order, you can see it. That's all very intentional. All of this is a way to embark in that spring equinox, and it's all very exciting if you're intentional with it. I also want to reference another study because knowledge is power, and the more you know, the more you might be actually encouraged to take this into your life. In this study, folks 14 years to 24 years old were examined in reference to depression and anxiety levels when exposed to green spaces. So here we're talking about also adolescents and youth like the previous study. And unsurprisingly, the studies provided evidence that when the youth and adolescents walked around or were in green spaces, their mood got better, their anxiety also was reportedly better afterwards. Also, they noticed a reduction in their rumination, which is so common not just amongst youth, but also as adults. So remember what I said a few moments ago. Where does your brain go when you are just letting it be? Oftentimes it goes to a negative state of mind, it goes to negative self-talk, it goes to being, you know, in a negative state of being. However, being around plants, using the color green, all of this can really help us. Let's think about overthinking for a second. There is something called anticipatory grief. And so anticipatory grief is when all of us are guilty of this, but we get into a place of thinking about the future and what the future is gonna hold. And very seldom is that positive, it's usually negative, it's usually thinking about the future in like a daunting way. It's like dun, dun, dun, dun, you know. And so that can happen when we are ruminating. That can happen when we are not busy. A lot of people report that if they're not constantly busy and they're not constantly stimulated, that they go into a state of negative thinking about themselves, negative thinking about the world, and so they feel like they constantly have to be working on something or they constantly have to be busy. And obviously, with our brains, we are not robots, and so we do need breaks. But if you find that it's hard for you to figure out what to do on a break or to even schedule and give yourself a break, something that you could do is take care of a plant. And so, what that is, is you might have to water this plant, you might have to change the soil, you might have to look and see if there's any bugs in it, you might have to look and see if there's new growth or leaves that need to be cut off. All of this is going to keep you busy in a different way, it's not going to be stimulating in the same way that you're consuming content. You know, I saw this quote yesterday and it said, I must create more than I consume. And I think that is so beautiful. A lot of us feel like the kind of content that we take in all the time leaves us in a state of consistently needing more, but also it is not always positive, and so it can put us in negative head spaces about ourselves and the world, it can leave us feeling hopeless, it can give us more symptoms of depression and anxiety. But what it can also do is it can just be really overwhelming to our system and this constant need to be connected. If you think about it, there was a time when when you left work, you were off till the next day, right? There was a time that people did not have access to their email, work email when they were home. But now, so many things are just a click away. If you're a content creator, you're constantly looking online to see how your content is doing. If you're an entrepreneur, you're constantly looking at stocks and at your bank account and paperwork and documentation. There's just such a push for us to be always plugged in, but very seldom do we actually plug out. So something that has been a lesson for me, and it's something that now I do habitually, is take care of my plants. So instead of being plugged in, because I too can just scroll all day on my phone, even though I have curated my feed to be very much animals and very much DIY stuff and positive quotes, I too, if left alone, can spend hours on my phone. And so all of us, I think, are guilty of this. This is a common thing, so this is there's no shame here, but it's important to recognize the impact this is all having on our nervous system. And so, if you want to think about how I can create more pauses and how can I stop this loop of rumination, plants green spaces pertaining to that study that I was referencing can help. So, if you're interested, this study was by Bray and others in 2022, and it was called Exploring the Role of Exposure to Green and Blue Spaces in Preventing Anxiety and Depression among young people aged 14 years living in urban settings, a systematic review, and that is something that you can read, it's free and available online. The color blue is also really impactful. Perhaps we will have another segment on that, but the focus here is definitely on green. But of course, the color blue is also very calming when you look at the sky, right? Or when you look at water, when you are, let's say, looking at a pond, or if you are looking at a lake or an ocean, the color blue is also very calming. So, in a lot of these studies, they're also looking at the color blue. So now you might be wondering to yourself, okay, we looked at how greenery and the color green can influence children, youth, adolescents, students. What about seniors? Does greenery and plants have an impact on the mental health of seniors? Absolutely. Can never forget about our seniors. Of course, I just want to put a caveat here. Of course, not everybody is going to respond to plants and the color green the exact same way. The intention here is to not paint everybody with the same brush. Haha, see what I did there. But more so, it's just to let people know that there's options and there are very free or very affordable ways and accessible ways to bring some more greenery and bring some more spring energy as we move towards the spring equinox. I also am well aware that with Edmonton's weather, we might just have more snow in March. Who knows, right? But the intention here is that eventually it will be spring here. And so if you want to get ahead of this, there are some really affordable and accessible things that you can do. So we spoke about how the different populations get impacted. The last one that I want to talk about is seniors. If you have ever volunteered with seniors, or if you have ever gone to hospitals where there's a lot of seniors, or if you have ever seen nursing homes, you might notice that there's a lot of greenery, sometimes it's artificial plants, but there is an intentional addition of greenery. I would say, in my experience, even more so, because I used to volunteer heavily with seniors prior to the pandemic, and I have definitely seen this change. And this is because of studies by Lopez, Haro, and others. This one is in 2024 in the National Library of Medicine. And they suggest that physical exercise in green spaces had improvements on cardiovascular health. Here we're talking about heart rate, heart rate variability, mood, and self-esteem. And by exercise, it could also be just walking, right? Movement. It looks like what is that thing that the cool kids say there's a trend on social media, a walk for my mental health, and it looks like it's true. So there are actual positive changes that people have seen when they are surrounded by plants and they are surrounded by greenery. And so if you're looking for getting plants or getting gifts for seniors, this is something you could also incorporate. And if you're still not completely sold on houseplants just yet, don't have really any intention to paint your house green, may I suggest that you at least take advantage of our incredible parks, sunsets, and natural landscapes. I need you to take it from me. A woman who's lived in many places in the world, nothing really compares to the beauty of Alberta. And I mean that. I've lived in different parts of Canada, I've lived in different parts of the states, I've also lived in the Middle East, and Alberta's just different. Of course, our sunsets are different, our sunrises are different, but there's so much nature. You know, I have been in touch with people in the places that I used to live in, and they always tell me, wow, I have to drive many hours to get to a park, or I have to drive, and sometimes I don't even drive, I have to take transit to get to greenery or green spaces. It must be so nice to be so close to it. And it's true. The fact that we have so many parks and they're free, we don't have to pay a fee to get in there, they're there. Sometimes parks have ours, sometimes they have rules and regulations, but the fact that they're there and we can go there without a whole lot of accessibility issues is a blessing. So if you're not sold on plants, the plants outside work too. Doesn't have to be indoor plants. Everything that I spoke about here is applicable to outdoor plants too. And you will also see that in a lot of our parks, once the spring comes, once the weather gets even warmer and the days get even longer, you will notice that there are flowers planted, there's a lot of flower banks, there's so much beauty, and oftentimes we are just so busy that we don't even notice these things. There's this one park that I have been frequenting for years, and I only noticed this last fall that it was there was flowers everywhere. I never noticed that. And so that's what I mean is you have to be really intentional because that working memory we talked about, your brain will consistently go towards what you've told it is important. So if what you've told it is important is anxieties, worries, anticipation about the future, work stress, all of this is valid, all of this is, of course, important. But if that's all your brain is trained to do, because you know what they say, we are creatures of habit. So if that's all your brain is trained to do consistently, that's what it's gonna notice. You're only gonna notice problems, you're only gonna notice negativity. But if you start looking for the greenery, you start looking for plants, you start looking for these positive experiences, even if they're pocket experiences, you will see how it can impact you. So the invitation here is either start incorporating the color green, start looking into getting some houseplants, even if you just get them for free in their rescues, or try to spend more time in nature, especially as we are moving towards spring equinox or noros. I hope you enjoyed this. I hope this was beneficial for you. I hope that as the days are getting longer, there's more sun, we can spend more time outside because the weather is better, it's getting less icy outside, and I just personally get really excited when I can see the little grass, you know, peeking out from underneath the snow. That brings me a lot of joy. I'm well aware that that could all change by like next week and we can just get more snow. But for now, I'm living in the moment. So, you know, I hope that as you've been listening to this and you continue to listen to us, whether it's a quick walk on your coffee break you decide to start doing, a few deep breaths as you watch the sunset on your drive home. I just hope that this episode encourages you to pause and reflect on the gorgeous benefits of plans on our wellness because they're not just there to look pretty. Yes, they're pretty, but there's so much more to it than that. The color, the pigmentation, the smells. A lot of plants have medicinal, you know, reasons for existing. We haven't even gotten into that. That's a whole different segment. But they're there for a purpose, and I think that we need to take advantage of it. It's not all over the world that we have plants as such and that we are surrounded by it. And I don't mean just indoors, I mean outdoors as well. I'm Sogan again, and I hope you keep listening to Turn 97.9 FM. And I wish you a good night. Thank you for everyone who tuned in. Stay up to date with our podcasts on our socials at the Universal Radio. Stream us wherever you get your podcasts. This is Sogan, and keep turning it up with us.