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COVID 19, Mindfulness, Good Health

How Floral Arranging Has Helped my Mental Health

TheLiberalLeo founding_member

Like everyone else, during quarantine I was looking for ways to keep me entertained and from bouncing off the walls in my 1 bedroom apartment in West Hollywood. I made my own sushi, I tried reorganizing my closet and ultimately I still felt as though I could not stop my brain from running or being concerned about what the future would look like.

I realized that I haven't been that happy in quite some time when I received flowers on my 32nd birthday.

Flowers have always been an important part of my family. My grandma had an extremely green thumb with lush gardens in Jamaica filled with birds of paradise, sugar cane, and ackee trees. My mom's extensive plant collection throughout her home as a child.

It was not until I received those flowers on my birthday that I realized that I also possessed that same connection to flowers and how they brought me immediate joy.

I started to look into how I could tap into the joy that flowers gave me, so I went out with my mask and my gloves on and ran to the flower market. If anybody has ordered flowers offline you know that they can cost you an arm and a leg for an arrangement that looks like it was from the gas station, so it is important for me to start to find flowers that didn't break the bank. I also love Trader Joe's because they always had a decent selection of flowers at a price that didn't make me want to scream.

Luckily, California has farmers markets every Sunday and I was able to get access to gorgeous l flowers directly from the local farm at a very reasonable price. I started to simply just put them in whatever vase I had and I realized that I had quite a knack for arranging flowers in a way that looked fairly professional. I started to look for videos online from floral designers like Putnam & Putnam based out of New York and realized that I wanted to get better – I had a task.

For someone that has an overactive and over-analytical mind, both floral arrangement and actually cooking allows me to turn my brain off and concentrate on a task from beginning to end. It allows me to put all my energy into one thing. I also get a sense of validation on a job well done when I complete a task; in this case I either have a beautiful floral arrangement or a tasty dish to eat or serve my friends and family.

While floral arrangement or cooking may not be your thing, being someone that is a high-functioning anxious person or may just have an overactive mind; finding a hobby that allows you to harness that focus into something that creates something beautiful or brings you joy is a great way of channeling that energy into something useful. I'm obviously not a health professional nor am I someone that has ever visited a therapist (which is incredibly rare) so this is just my unsolicited advice.

Finding an activity for me has really helped alleviate my anxiety not only through Covid but throughout the last 2 years. And as far as my floral arrangements, I will still do it! I actually was able to turn my floral arranging hobby into an actual business by taking the time to build a website and get familiar with the DTLA Floral Market in which I now have relationships with floral vendors and farmers. I was actually able to sell my arrangements at Melrose Trading Post as well, which is an outdoor flea market every Sunday in Los Angeles and sell hand-tied bouquets.

So my advice is: find something you love to do and do it!

You don't necessarily have to make a career out of it, but having something to look forward to, focus on, and leaves you with something beautiful to look at– it's all a plus. Now's the time where everybody can use that little burst of happiness throughout the day.