Sending Smiles ~

Rutger's University:  Emotional Health With today's high-tech and fast-paced lifestyle taking its daily toll on our lives, experts advise exercise and other personal lifestyle changes to relieve stress. According to recent behavioral research conducted at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, nature provides us with a simple way to improve emotional health - flowers. The presence of flowers triggers happy emotions, heightens feelings of life satisfaction and affects social behavior in a positive manner far beyond what is normally believed. "What's most exciting about this study is that it challenges established scientific beliefs about how people can manage their day-to-day moods in a healthy and natural way," said Jeannette Haviland-Jones, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology at Rutgers and lead researcher on the study. Research Findings A team of researchers explored the link between flowers and life satisfaction in a 10-month study of participants...

Flower Power!  We all know that flowers are pretty but did you know that studies have shown that flowers are a very potent mood enhancer? Well, a study done by Rutgers University by Jeannette Haviland-Jones Professor of Psychology and her husband Terry McGuire, Professor of Genetics offer convincing evidence that flowers may be  potent mood elevators. I know my opinion might be suspect because I'm surrounded with beautiful flowers every day but it's fun knowing that the product that I petal, that provides my livelihood can be so powerful in making folks so happy ! Quoted from a Rutgers Blog called "Flower Power" this is what they found out during the study! "In the first of several double-blind studies performed in 2005, Haviland-Jones and her team presented participants with one of three gifts—a decorative candle, a fruit basket, and a floral bouquet—­supposedly as a thank-you for taking part in a study on mood. The delivery people were really out to...