People On TikTok Are Taking Up Flower Arranging As Self-Care

TikTok — home of enough questionable wellness and beauty hacks to make your head spin — has produced a new self-care trend that might just hold water. It seems that content creators have been taking to the app to share the benefits of flower arranging as a form of self-care. Many of the videos depict creators taking fresh-cut flowers from a supermarket and arranging them into a stunning floral display at home. At the time of writing, #flowerarranging has received nearly 72 million views on the platform.

At least one user — known as @athomewithananya — has posted a video calling flower arranging a "therapy dupe." While skipping therapy to arrange flowers certainly isn't recommended, as there's no real dupe for speaking to a professional, the idea that spending time arranging flowers is a good way to destress, boost your mood, and care for yourself isn't necessarily without merit. In fact, a 2005 study published in the scholarly journal Evolutionary Psychology noted that "flowers have immediate and long-term effects on emotional reactions, mood, social behaviors, and even memory" for folks of all genders. What's more, spending time engulfed in a creative hobby can offer substantial mental health and cognitive benefits, so let's take a closer look at flower arranging as one such avenue to happiness. 

Anyone can take a look at an arrangement of brightly colored flowers and appreciate their beauty and the way they liven up a space, but as it turns out, they have the power to do much more than that. The vibrant colors and sweet scents associated with flowers are a bonus, but 2015 research published in the Journal of Physiological Anthropology found that indoor plants grounded young adults, allowing them to turn off their worries and mindfully engage in the present, via calming the nervous system. On a more surreal level, Floral Healing coach Heather McFarland, whose goal is to aid folks in self-healing, puts it, "You can really engage with or tune into the softness of the petals on your hands, the cool temperature of the water in the vase, and the lovely scent that flowers have."

Flowers and plants also elicit a sense of serenity, and their grounding abilities could mean that tasks performed while in the presence of plant life — whether office work, side hustling, or housework — can end up with fewer errors, too. You could also be less likely to perceive yourself as stressed out, depressed, or anxious in a space with natural flowers. With how beneficial keeping flowers around your home is, spending time arranging them in ways that you find especially appealing as part of a self-care routine doesn't seem particularly far-fetched. 

Creativity is often seen as a special talent that only certain individuals possess, but this simply isn't true. You don't have to paint a masterpiece, write a gripping novel, or compose a moving song to exercise creativity. Engaging in any creative activity, including flower arranging, can help you get into what is known as a flow state, according to Diversus Health. A flow state occurs when you enter a phase of intense focus during which other concerns seem to dissipate. While in this state, people tend to feel more relaxed, positive, and even euphoric.

Arranging flowers is a simple and easy way to take advantage of the benefits of focusing on a creative endeavor and engage your senses in a way that encourages mindfulness and ease. It doesn't require years of training to master or a large quantity of costly supplies. You can even grow your own flowers to arrange, bringing your expenses down to nearly nothing. Moreover, setting a weekly flower arranging date with yourself could give you something to look forward to when you need it most, and you can feel proud and accomplished in the days to come each time you see your arrangement. It's a gift to yourself that keeps giving. Ultimately, when it comes to flower arranging as a self-care practice, TikTok seems to have gotten this one right.