I have this plant in my room. It was left behind by the previous tenant. It’s a fairly normal potted plant. I do a terrible job of tending to it. I often forget to water it, and because of the placement of my room, it doesn’t get a lot of sunlight. Theoretically, Mr. Plant shouldn’t have survived for more than a few weeks. It’s been a year.
Mr. Plant is alive and thriving. Every few weeks, it’s leaves dry up and I think oh, this is the end. But once again, it survives, with little water and barely any sunlight. I used to think the plant was not growing much, but it was recently brought to my attention that Mr. Plant, has in fact, grown significantly since I first moved in. I just didn’t notice because I see Mr. Plant everyday; its growth is subtle.
Maybe we are all growing in small, subtle ways. On the tough days, when it feels like the walls are closing in and there is no light visible, we use all our might to push the walls away, to let the light in. In those moments, when we feel like we are losing and we are moving backwards, maybe we are, in fact, growing and progressing. It just isn’t so visible to us, because the growth is so subtle. Like Mr. Plant, we are more resilient and have more strength than we realize.
I wonder if Mr. Plant carries trauma the way our bodies and minds do. If Mr. Plant struggles with truth and sadness and finds himself unable to reconcile with ‘what is’ vs. ‘what should’ve been’.
Plants do have memories, though. They remember and learn and experience life. They probably don’t feel as intently as humans. But they feel pain and become sad about it. Lately, I’ve been talking to Mr. Plant (telling him how sorry I am for neglecting him all these months) and watering him often and moving him around to where the sun shines in my room. He is blooming and shining! It’s a reminder for me to do the same with myself. If I’m not happy with my current reality, all I have to do is move. I can actively work on bridging the gap between where I am and where I want it to be.
I find trees and plants and forests comforting. Whenever I feel too overwhelmed or anxious, I go outside and spend time walking around looking at trees, or I go to a park and sit on the grass. The Japanese call it Shirin-yoku, “forest-bathing”. Taking in the sights of the forest to alleviate stress, depression, fatigue and aggression. It supposedly lowers hemoglobin levels in the prefrontal cortex, which is associated with stress and tension. The image of a tree is enough to bolster the parasympathetic division of the central nervous systems that induces calm. Lower cortisol levels and parasympathetic stimulation improves the immune system.
We have been an industrial civilization only for a few hundred years, for thousands of years before that we foraged and lived in forests. The natural environment was/is where we are our most comfortable and authentic selves.
While our ancestors have been around for about six million years, the modern form of humans only evolved about 200,000 years ago. Civilization as we know it is only about 6,000 years old, and industrialization started in the earnest only in the 1800’s.
Concrete jungles and excessive screen-time is contrary to the conditions our visual systems evolved in. Visual discomfort hurts our brain by agitating the nervous and taxing the brain’s oxygen reserves. So, when we look at an image of ‘greenery’ or even spend a few minutes appreciating the tree outside our window, it calms our nerves. The color scheme is processed by the brain using a smaller number of neurons.
It’s no surprise that New Yorkers living near trees report better overall health than residents living near green, grassy spaces. (Although this study is more about trees vs green spaces in general, it’s worth noting that being around trees is good for our mental and general well-being.)
All this talk about green living is an effort to go back to our roots and reconcile modern civilization with nature. We can’t talk about the progress of mankind (and industrialization) without acknowledging the adverse impact it has had on the planet and on the people that inhabit the planet.
With sustainability, the wording is usually - we need to save the planet. Um, I beg to differ. The planet will survive. It’s us, the homo sapiens, that won’t. The idiocy that we have to save the planet from the destruction that we have caused to it, is erred optics. It’s more like we destroyed our habitat and are now scrambling to obviate disaster.
Therapists are now suggesting gardening and tending to plants as an effective tool to deal with anxiety and depression. Scientists have reiterated the benefits of certain indoor plants in combating indoor air pollution. And over the past six months, while I’ve been confined in a tiny NYC apartment, I have been aching for nature and space. My idea of ‘freedom’ is this recurring image: I’m standing in the middle of the forest, my bare feet are gently grazing the dewy forest bed. There is light streaming in through the canopy of the thick, tall trees. A gentle breeze is flowing. I can hear the birds chirping and the water from the nearby stream babbling.
Gifts from The Internet
This New Yorker essay on how trees calm us down.
A beginner’s guide to raising indoor plants in your home.
I’m so not looking forward to winter lock-down with seasonal depression, winter dread and pandemic anxiety.
Social media has become an even more toxic place during the pandemic. I honestly want to just write letters and exchange postcards with my friends.
Ronnie and Barty are my current favorite YouTube creators who left their Mumbai lives and moved to Manali. They now spend their days living the pahadi life and creating great videos of the beauty and serenity in and around Himachal. Watch this video, listen to the sounds and temporarily be transported to a magical place with peace and calm and without the stresses of modern life.
(I want to live on the fringes of capitalism so badly, I just want to move to the hills, grow my own vegetables and spend my days writing.)
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Thanks for reading!