Sunday Wellness Ritual: 5 ways to heal with houseplants

This blog post is all about the healing benefits of houseplants.

I literally never thought I would say this but with every year that passes, grandparents are the vibe. I find myself getting more and more interested in the things that I grew up watching my grandparents do.

My grandmother would always set the table for no reason at all and I used to think it was the dumbest thing to do. Now I realize it was just a form of creative expression.

I spent my weekend car shopping and for the very first time in my entire car-driving history have I ever considered the terms ‘safety & reliability’ and ‘gets great gas mileage’ .

I’ve also fully surrendered to the fact that I now have an entire cabinet containing pretty pink garden gloves, a watering can, pruning shears and an oversized straw sun hat.

All things I never imagined I would ever succumb to.

Enter my houseplant / gardening phase of life. . .

. . . and to be completely honest with you, I’m not sure I’ve ever been so excited about something so simple.

Now, there’s a reason I am sharing this with you, I am now a fully devoted believer that when you enrich your environment with houseplants, you take in their energy into your being. And plants are the most feminine energy beings on the planet.

Simply put, plants receive and grow. That’s it. They fully and completely receive and surrender to the watering, nourishing, love and care. Then, they grow. They thrive, they show off, they shine and then they grow some more. But their main function is receptive energy. What they give in return is in the air that they breathe and their beauty. The beauty that we so delight in, is in the color, shape, size and ability to grow. That’s it.

We women should absolutely take notes.

Once I started bringing home houseplants I noticed that the whole process of caring for my houseplants was an experience that literally shifted my own relationship with feminine energy. It’s an experience that will heal your heart if you allow it to.

5 ways to heal with house plants:

🪴 1. Heal your commitment issues by making a weekly ritual to spend quality time caring for your plants. lol. Plants are a total commitment, kind of like having a pet to be honest. It was focus and consistent care to keep your plants living and thriving. Studies have shown that routines provide structure and are linked to better mental health.

I personally have made Sunday my plant care day. Every Sunday, I have a full on morning ritual where I fully water/spray/mist/clean/dust my plants or whatever care they need. Not all plants need to be watered that regularly. As you build a connection and get to know your plants, you will learn how they like to be cared for and this fully gets you into your nurturing side. Horticultural therapy has been used by many researchers to study the effects that house plant care has on the mental wellness of their patients. It’s been proven to combat depression, anxiety and other mental health conditions.

🪴 2. Heal your tendency to burn out by making a daily connection with nature by engaging with your plants. Here’s the thing about planting and gardening, you get your hands dirty with nature and that’s an incredibly grounding and calming experience. Fertilizer and water are excellent to play with when you feel a little overwhelmed by the chaos of life.

On Sundays, when I spend time with my plants, my phone is down, I’m sipping my coffee and enjoying every second of it. I’ve got my hands on the leaves clearing them of dust, I’m misting the leaves, seeing what needs to be cleaned, engaging with mother nature, feeling dirt in my nails, etc. It’s an entire EARTHING experience.

Also, when you’re watering the plants, you are instantly tuned into the frequency of calm.

LEARN HOW TO CREATE A HIGH VIBRATIONAL HOME FOR CALM

🪴 3. Speaking of calm, heal your stress by interacting with your plants. I swear, whenever I am stressed or overwhelmed, I get very present when I get into my plant care. It helps me to zone out, focus on the task at hand and breathe with the plants which feels like deep breath work. Gardening, weeding, watering plants, etc can create neurological patterns and rhythms that soothe & ease stress.

When you get into house plant care, you engage in some mental health habits like…

Surrendering to imperfections. No matter how carefully you plan and care for your houseplants, you never know what you will get.

Practicing acceptance. most of our suffering comes from our need to be in control, when we surrender we heal. Houseplants help us to surrender to the growth process.

Cultivating patience. Plants take time to grow, it just doesn’t happen overnight. As you tap into your ‘inner gardenista’ you will totally benefit from slowing down and practicing the art of patience.

🪴 4. Heal your hormones by boosting your dopamine when you see your plants are growing. Here’s the thing, when you start to see your houseplants growing new leaves and thriving, you will completely jump for joy. It is so so rewarding to see your hard work pay off and it feels so good. That boost of dopamine can get addicting too. I think thats why I now have over 10 plants in my home and counting. I have absolutely loved watching my plant babies grow.

Another thing that feels so good is connecting with my little one. He loves to name each plant, take care of and water them. I get to teach him all of these wellness habits by caring for our plants. It offers us a way to bond and connect over taking care of something else without having to bring a pet into the home. :) ( so not ready for that yet ).

🪴 5. Heal your heart chakra by connecting with and surrounding yourself with the color green. Color therapy is literally everything. The Japanese expression "shinrin-yoku" can be translated as "forest bathing," which nicely captures the experience of being immersed in green. A growing body of research has found all kinds of benefits from being in natural landscapes.

My Sunday morning plant care ritual:

nurture myself.

I love grabbing my cup of coffee and playing some relaxing jazz music in the background. I like to light up some of my favorite candles, too. I make it a whole vibe.

Sunlight.

Your plants need that bright morning light so open the curtains, pull up those blinds and allow the sunlight in.

watering.

I start by taking a look at each plant and determining if she just needs a little misting or if she needs a full bath. I have a spray can ready to go for misting and petting each and every one of my plants leaves.

POTTING + TRIMMing.

Then, I get into the actual care by repotting, trimming, propagating. All of the fun planting things. This is where I usually get the most in the zone of plant care.

I am absolutely obsessed with having green ALL throughout my home. I’ve even started to frame art work of plants and flowers just to keep the vibe going in my home decor.

You will love the way your home feels as you curate your own house plant collection. I love shopping for “outfits” for my plants aka planters. I started with a set of these 3 pink planters but my plants quickly grew out of them and into some bigger pots. Here are some of my favorites:

Also, there are several books I recommend as you start your own house plant collection:

1. Wild at Home by Hilton Carter

2. Plantopedia: the definitive guide to houseplants

3. The house plant whisperer

Art is another form of therapy that I completely love in my home. Not only do I love being surrounded by plants, I love art with flowers, gardens and plants in them too. It’s good & healing feng shui. I had to frame one of my favorite prints, water lilies at night by claude monet.

For more habits that will help you sink into your feminine energy, listen to this episode of my podcast, Blissfully Ambitious.

5 things to do with your hands while doing a digital detox.

This past week I sort of went on a unintentional digital detox.

I do my absolute best to stay connected online and on social media, its very important while you are building a brand and a business, especially a new one. I woke up Saturday morning thinking that I want to allow myself just to enjoy my life on the weekends.

It’s Summer, I want to feel free to sit and gaze on the water and not think about what comments I need to reply to or what emails I need to check. If I stay true to my brand and ‘bliss vibes only’, if something doesn’t feel right, I need to listen.

Lately, I have been feeling so much pressure to create so much content for so many platforms I just felt a huge burn out. Not to mention, my baby boy started walking and the joy I felt from that far surpassed the desire to look at my Instagram accounts. I knew it was time for a break. So, I took it.

But then I felt this odd addiction to going to my phone and I noticed it was like a habit to scroll and check apps. Which begged the questions, was it an actual addiction to these apps or was it deeper than that? Then I felt this voice inside of me say………………………………..what do I do with my hands?

OMG. This whole thing started an entire revolution in my life. First, I realized actually how much time I created for myself when I am not messing around on my phone.

#1 : GRAB A JOURNAL

I went straight for my 30 day Blissful Living Journal. I do this journal all the time and it always serves me well. It helps me reach my next level. Every time I go through the prompted questions, my responses are always different. It makes me feel like I make a quantum leap in life every single time. I am a big fan of workbooks like this, they make journaling and self help easy, fun and practical. Here are a few I really like:

#2: FOCUS ON YOUR SKIN CARE ROUTINE

Okay, so have you ever just actually sit and tried to whip up a DIY face mask? or hair mask? OMG its so much fun. While I was in my detox, I went through my bathroom to declutter all my beauty products. I tried on everything, serums, glosses and face sprays.

I love testing mixing perfumes. I found some old vitamins and added them to my vitamin planner so I would actually take them. (If you don’t have a vitamin planner yet, get one now. It will change your life) I combined some face masks and made them for my family, too. I was like a little beauty scientist. It reminded me how important my skin health is.

image source

#3: ORGANIZE YOUR FRIDGE

I am also obsessed with fruit organization. Maybe I should do a post on this? Once I get all my berries home,I wash them, pat them dry and prepare them for eating. Like with strawberries I cut off the green part. Then I store them in pretty pink tupperware. It’s so gratifying and so much fun.

Plus, they will last longer. I like to organize all my drinks, too. There is nothing as gorgeous as a La Croix filled fridge. It really is so much fun to see all of your foods looking pretty in your fridge. Doing this really does wonders for your life.

#4: MAKE A FLOWER ARRANGEMENT

Sure you can just go grab yourself a dozen beautiful blush pink roses but have you ever tried to make a gorgeous bouquet? It’s totally therapeutic, it feels so good and it will boost the vibe in your home. If you need help, watch this video for a little inspiration. Go to the store and see what colors and blooms you are attracted to. Don’t just buy a pre-made arrangement. Love will go into them and the energy will totally bring you bliss.

#5 MAKE A VISION BOARD

If you haven’t made on yet, what are you waiting for? I love to make vision boards, I even created a downloadable guide to help you make one effectively. Grab your favorite magazines, cut out some images that speak to your soul. Then creatively place them on a board, in a book or in your new Blissful Living Journal. Inside there is space to create your vision board for the 30 days.

I’m starting back digitally today. After 5 days away from my phone, I was able to do so much more than ever. I also gave my mind the space to download some amazing insights and ideas for my brand and business. It’s so important to keep a vision toward where you want to go and the detox helped me see farther in a much clearer way.

25+ inspiring vision board ideas

Hope you have a fabulous and productive day.

Love, Ashlina

For more, listen to this episode of the Blissfully Ambitious podcast.