Photo by Natasha Kasim on Unsplash
For the longest time, we’ve lived our lives in the citieswithout giving pollution a second thought. Then, someone realized that justlike our food intake and the rest of the factors that affect our quality oflife, air pollution might qualify as a culprit for increasing mental healthissues among urban dwellers. It turns out, they’ve had a point: consistentexposure to air pollutants causes a number of different reactions inthe body that ultimately lead not just to mood changes, but also anxiety,depression, and other forms of cognitive impairment.
Studies aside, who wouldn’t feel stressed, anxious, anddepressed living in cities that literally deprive us of oxygen? However, nowthat we understand the link between our moods, mental health, and airpollution, we can do so much to nip the issue in the bud and help ourselvesheal with the help of Mother Nature, while we simultaneously help our planetheal.
Air, health, and your mood
Photo by Patryk Sobczak on Unsplash
For skeptics among you, the connection may seem slim, atbest. However, let’s take a look at a few factors in our lives that directlyaffect our mood, and you’ve likely been in similar situations yourself. Forexample, when you fail to get a good night’s sleep, how likely are you todeliver top-quality work at the office the next day, or stay focused without aheadache taking over your full attention?
Well, air pollution causes airway irritation, congestion,worsening allergies, which directly affects the likelihood of developing sleep apnea. Dealing with poorsleep quality, insomnia, and sleep apnea can be enough to cause severefluctuations in your mood. Add to that, allergies, breathing difficultiescaused by pollution, and other side-effects of polluted air, and you get a realbuzz-killer in the cities.
Are we breathing happiness?
But even beyond your mood, it seems that pollution has a more long-term effect on how we live our lives. A study conducted in China showed that cities with increased pollution caused people to feel more unhappy, be less productive, have poor cognitive performance, all the way to increase the number of premature deaths.
It stands to reason that our urban lifestyles are becomingmore affected by what we breathe, and we need to take preventative measures aswell as healing tactics to reduce the effect of pollution on our wellbeing.
Green up your own personal space
Photo by Avi Richards on Unsplash
When you can’t go to nature, let nature come to you – or to your home, to be more precise. We can all benefit from adjusting our own personal environment by adding more plants that help clean the air of pollutants and thus improve our health and wellbeing. Examples of plants you can add to your home include the Areca Palm, Golden Photos, Spider Plant, and Peace Lilies. They are all-powerful air cleaners that can improve the quality of air in your home.
Add to that, you can help your plants to their air-detoxing job by looking into best air purifiers to add to your home, especially if you have pets and you’re prone to allergies – a little backup can go a long way to improve your home environment. Moreover, you should consider switching to non-toxic cleaning supplies that won’t unleash many harmful ingredients into your home air, as natural ingredients can be equally potent without the harmful side-effects for your lungs.
Add emerald to your office
Finally, another place where you spend the majority of your time and that can have a negative impact on your exposure to pollution in your office. Although you can choose to carpool to reduce your carbon footprint or switch to taking the metro or riding a bike, the hours you spent in the office are the ones with the greatest potential to harm your health.
To prevent and minimize air pollution at the office, you canalso rely on Mother Nature and low-maintenance plants. You and your colleaguescan tend to a few pots of the Boston Fern, the Weeping Fig, and the SnakePlant, and you’ll make sure that the air you breathe at the office issignificantly less polluted.
Spending time in nature
Photo by Justin Kauffman on Unsplash
While not everyone can afford to move to a farm and livesurrounded by the woods and lakes, adding a few more regular trips to nature can help improve yourmood, your health, and ultimately your quality of life. Simple ways to achievethat would be to join a hiking group over the weekend, camp with your kidsduring the holidays, and take up a sport that will have you outside more often.
Studies have shown just how powerful this green time can be for your health and your mood. All those stress triggers in your life tend to boost your cortisol levels while surrounding yourself with green means you’ll actually reduce cortisol levels. The restorative might of the woods also helps your lungs and your heart, lowering your blood pressure, regulating your breathing patterns, and allowing you to reduce fatigue.
We’ve done too much damage to the quality of air already, and we cannot expect the damage to be undone overnight. However, we can certainly change some of our habits, turn to natural solutions, and enrich our lives with plenty of plants so that we can benefit from pollutant-free air.
){kind=link}