The Health Benefits of Flowers
Are you looking for a way to show a senior in your life that you are thinking of them? Send a bouquet of flowers! While flowers are often reserved for special occasions like birthdays, anniversaries, or holidays, there’s no reason that you can’t make them a “just because” gift. In fact, given the health benefits that flowers have been scientifically proven to have—on seniors in particular—making a point of sending flowers could mean giving your parents or grandparents more than just something pretty to look at.
Flowers can be beneficial for our health in many ways. They can deliver numerous mental health benefits by helping to ease depression, stress, anxiety, and other emotions. They can improve mood and outlook. They can inspire us to socialize with friends and family. Depending on the type of bloom, flowers can even boost brain performance, improve productivity, sharpen memory, and make it easier to sleep.
Sending flowers to a senior you love is an easy way to give these benefits as a gift. It’s also just one of the ways you can unlock the advantages of flowers this month. It’s July, and summertime in northern Michigan is the perfect opportunity to get outdoors and pick flowers with loved ones, whether in your personal garden or at a nearby “U-pick” farm. This option is doubly beneficial for seniors, as it gets them outside, helps them get their necessary vitamin D intake, and encourages them to move around.
If picking flowers isn’t an option, don’t worry. Another fun thing to do is give a senior a few container gardening kits—small boxes with soil and flower seeds that just need water to turn into gorgeous blossoms. Alternatively, pick a bunch of flowers for a senior in your life and then have an “arts and crafts” hour where you work on flower arrangements together. This activity gets everyone’s creative juices flowing and is a terrific opportunity for positive interaction. You might even pull out a vase that means something to the senior—a wedding gift, for instance—and invite them to tell you a story about it.
Simply put, flowers are something that can make anyone happy. Give the gift of flowers to a senior you love this month and see how they light up as a result!
