3 Ways You Can Use Flowers to Create Strong Memories
Use flowers to improve your memory
Scientific research has proven flowers can strengthen our memory. The vibrant colours and enticing fragrance they have affect our senses so strongly they create memories that can be recalled decades later.
My first flower memory is of sweet peas growing in our garden. That may have happened as a child, but as an adult, every time I smell sweet peas I am transported back to that moment.
Floral memories can start as young as three or four years of age and those connections between the past and the present are an important part of our well-being. But if you’ve reached adulthood and don’t seem to have any strong floral memories, it’s not too late to start creating them for yourself.
Here are my three suggestions for creating your own flower memories:
On your birthday every year buy yourself a bunch of flowers. Choose the same type of flower each year making sure it is seasonal so you’ll know it’s available. In fact, buy two bunches! One for you and one to give to someone else. You’ll always remember your ‘birthday flower’, and how it made not only your day special, but someone else’s too.
Some flowers have a scent that will stay with you even if it’s years until you smell it again. Start exploring different flower fragrances, and when you find one that you connect with, take note of it. Every chance you get, try and smell that flower, buy bath and beauty products with that fragrance and treat yourself to a fresh bunch of that bloom when they’re in season. One of my favourite fragrant flowers is plumeria, but other great floral scents are jasmine, gardenia, sweet peas, garden roses, honeysuckle, lilac, lily of the valley, freesia, and lavender.
If you’re planning a vacation, choose a destination known for a specific flower and try and organize your trip for while they’re in bloom. Some suggestions are Provence – lavender; California – poppies; England – bluebells; Japan - cherry blossoms; and Holland – tulips. A trip like this will certainly create lasting memories.
It’s true that flowers fade away, but the emotions we connect with them, and the memories attached with them, will be relived over and over.
INTERESTING FACT: A study was conducted where 15 of Britain's most popular flowers were rated and ranked by the public. Here are the results of the most memory-evoking flowers:
Gold: 1. Roses; 2. Bluebells; 3. Daffodils; 4. Sweet peas; 5. Sunflowers
Silver: 1. Snow drops; 2. Honeysuckle; 3. Meadow buttercups; 4. Pansies; 5. Primrose
Bronze: 1. Snapdragons; 2. Heather; 3. Forget-me-nots; 4. Geraniums; 5. Marigolds
What would be your number one pick?
