By Maria Failla

Our homes are full of inanimate objects: furniture, electronics, and clothes in closets. Over time, our sacred spaces can start to feel stale and uninspiring.

Plants are a great solution to this problem, as they bring ever-changing life to our space and give us the opportunity to be reminded of growth on a daily basis.

Nothing illustrates the importance of bringing plants indoors to freshen things up more than Biophilic Design.

The concept of Biophilia is one of the pillars of the plant/person connection, popularized by E O Wilson, a Harvard entomologist, in the 1980s but first introduced by psychologist Erich Fromm in the ’70s. Fromm described it as “the passionate love of life and of all that is alive.”

Wilson defines Biophilia as “the innately emotional affiliation of human beings to other living organisms.”

There is a reason we feel that full-body, head-to-toe rush of relaxation as we hear a babbling brook or crackling fire, or when we’re surrounded by lush green vegetation. It’s Biophilia.

Biophilic Design is a way of incorporating the natural world into our indoor spaces. It takes the concept of
Biophilia one step further by acknowledging this intrinsic connection between humans and nature and the immense benefit humans reap when this connection is considered in the design of spaces we inhabit.

Once I began applying these principles in my home, my stuffy home office full of glowing screens and windowless walls turned into a planty retreat with a living green wall, natural wooden desk, and a pair of snake plants (Dracaena spp) flanking my computer monitor.

My bedroom is now a restorative oasis, with plants surrounding my bed to allow me to wake up to a jungle of Monstera leaves instead of to the glow of my phone. My kitchen has fresh herbs growing in it so that I can engage all of my senses in preparing and connecting with my food and drink.

Now that so many studies are proving that Biophilic Design in office spaces can decrease stress and increase employee well-being, we see inspirational buildings such as Amazon’s Seattle Spheres. These life-sized terrariums, filled with over forty thousand plants, are a haven for employees to work, have meetings, and take restorative breaks in.

Singapore can boast that almost 50 percent of the seven-hundred-square-kilometer city is “under green cover.”

The concepts of Biophilic Design can be applied on any scale: from a small home office to an entire office building.

Let’s talk about how you can use these concepts in two practical ways—in your office and in your home—to cultivate more joy throughout your day.

The workplace is where we tend to experience the majority of our stress and spend most of our time. Plants can decrease stress and increase happiness throughout our workdays, whether your workplace is a corner in your apartment or a traditional corner office with a view.

A global study reports that workers in environments with natural elements such as greenery and sunlight
benefit from a 15 percent higher level of well-being, a 6 percent increase in productivity, and a 15 percent increase in creativity.

Tips for Growing Joy in Your Office Greenspace

1. Have plants in your sight line. Make it so no matter where you turn your head, you see a green friend, waving at you with its leaves. I have plants beside my computer monitor and plants on the bookshelf behind me. This means I can experience nature throughout my workday and have lots of reminders to take a screen break and engage with plants.
   
2. Take micro screen breaks with plants. If you are one of the nearly two-thirds of Americans who report having digital eye strain, doctors recommend, in addition to using larger screens and fonts, taking forty-second screen breaks every twenty minutes. Spend forty seconds looking at objects that are far away from you, ideally twenty feet, to let your eyes rest from looking directly at your screen all day. If you can’t see twenty feet in front of you in your office, keep a plant with a pretty leaf pattern across the room, so you can disconnect from your screen and let your eyes take in
   the beautiful, natural pattern during your micro break.
   
3. Push your desk up against a window. In Biophilic Design, there is a concept called “non-rhythmic sensory stimuli,” similar to those beautiful moments of fascination and involuntary attention, which basically means it feels good to have random, unpredictable things happen around you, like clouds passing by, plant life rustling, or insects moving. This is hard to replicate indoors, but by pushing your desk up against a window, you can experience weather changes, pollinators floating from flower to flower in your window box, and the beauty of wind rustling through nearby trees.
   
4. Utilize your vertical space. Most offices, whether work-from-home setups or standard cubicles, don’t have a lot of floor or desk space. To bring plants into your space without giving up valuable desk space, hang plants on the walls or in your windows, or even install grow lights (you can purchase frames with grow lights built into them) to make your plants look like art around you.
   
5. Sniff transcendent scents. Diffuse botanical oils in your office for constant forest vibes or for a mid-afternoon pick-me-up. I have a rotation of hinoki, lavender, and eucalyptus, and mix and match them depending on the mood I’m in at the beginning of my workday.
   
6. Consider nonliving nature. If you can’t have plants, you can reap the emotional and cognitive benefits from other aspects of Biophilic Design. Here are some nonliving ideas for your workspace:
   
   • Art that represents nature, plants, or an outdoor location that relaxes you
   • Botanical prints or wallpaper
   • Detailed pictures of the forest or natural scenes
   • An enclosed terrarium of a scene that makes you smile
   • A desk made out of natural material like wood or stone
   • Dried grasses or flowers in a vase
   
7. Take restorative breaks. Set a timer on your phone for a reminder to engage with nature once an hour. Whether it’s taking a quick screen break to look at a plant or to gaze through your window, wiping dust off leaves, smelling an essential oil, taking a quick walk outside, or tending to a plant, give yourself a break to stretch, refocus, and practice presence with your plants to find more mindfulness in your day.

Note: Make sure you pick plants that work for your office lighting environment.

Restorative Nook

A restorative nook is a place where you can disconnect from screens and busyness and reconnect with yourself by surrounding yourself with plants. Your nook is a sacred place to reset, realign, and step away from the neverending stressors of daily life and to-do lists.

Everyone’s restorative nooks will look different depending on their aesthetic, home size, plant collection, and lifestyle, but whether it’s a small corner or an entire room, carving out an area to claim as your own and dedicate to intentional and restorative living can be a total game changer.

Tips for Building Your Restorative, Planty Environment

• Go screen-free. Treat your restorative nook as a sanctuary and leave your phones, screens, and
  distractions elsewhere. This will train you to get into a relaxed mindset the minute you enter it and help create that transportive “away from it all” experience that we normally reserve for vacations.

• Get comfortable. Make sure you have a comfortable seat to allow yourself to kick back and relax amidst your green friends.

• Use a variety of plants in your space so you can enjoy the different leaf patterns. Let your eyes drift across the space and land on different leaf patterns and shapes and invite “soft fascination” to wash over you. You will be pleasantly surprised at how good it feels to give yourself the space to zone out on a plant while tracing the pattern with your eyes or observing how light moves across a leaf.

• Play your favorite music or try some nature soundtracks. Choose colors and textures you love. From a Biophilic Design perspective, earth tones will keep you “zenned out.” But choosing color can be very personal, so if you love bright colors and they make you happy, go for it!

Your space and what you find restorative will change, and that’s okay. In whatever way you design your space and whatever limitations you have, try your best to surround yourself with plants that bring you joy in that moment.

Remember, your space will change and grow as you change and grow.

— 

Maria Failla is a New York-based “plant killer turned happy plant lady” on a mission to make the world a kinder and greener place. A former Broadway performer, Maria now uses her voice to help her community of thousands of “plant friends” care for plants successfully, grow their indoor jungles, and cultivate more joy in their lives through the Bloom and Grow Radio podcast, Youtube Channel, and Garden Party Community Platform. Maria’s passion for plants has been featured in Access Live, Good Morning America, Refinery 29, Apartment Therapy, The Washington Post, and TimeOut New York.

Well Being Journal adapted the excerpt from Growing Joy: The Plant Lover’s Guide to Cultivating Happiness (and Plants) by Maria Failla. Copyright © 2022 and reprinted by permission of St Martin’s Publishing Group.