Feeling a little stressed? Enjoy this quick read from Thursd.! on how house plants can reduce stress and shop with us for a variety of different plants to add to your home or office!
Indoor Plants and Mental Health
The strongest research pattern is not that houseplants “cure” anything, but that indoor plants can measurably support mental health by lowering perceived stress, improving emotional tone, and making focus feel easier in demanding weeks. A large systematic review and meta-analysis found that exposure to indoor plants across studies is associated with benefits to several human functions (including emotional states and task-related outcomes), although study designs and settings vary widely.
Another controlled experiment found that active interaction with indoor plants (simple potting tasks) reduced both psychological and physiological markers of stress, including measures linked to the autonomic nervous system and blood pressure.
The Nervous System and Why Nature Feels Calming
When you’re stressed, your nervous system tends to stay “upshifted.” You may notice shallow breathing, tight shoulders, racing thoughts, and trouble sleeping - classic signs your body is stuck in a stress-response loop involving the central nervous system and stress-processing circuits.
Nature exposure is consistently linked with calmer recovery. In a neuroimaging intervention study, participants who took a one-hour walk in a natural setting showed reduced amygdala activation (a key region for threat processing) compared with an urban walk. That matters because anxiety often involves heightened threat sensitivity, even when nothing is “wrong.”
Even visual exposure helps. Classic stress-recovery research shows that unthreatening natural scenes can support faster emotional and physiological recovery compared with many urban environments. A later randomized crossover study also found that nature scenes can improve autonomic recovery after a stressor compared with built scenes.
Low Maintenance Options for Busy Weeks
If your schedule is intense, lean into low-maintenance winners: a snake plant, jade plant, ZZ plant, or a peace lily if you like clear watering signals. The goal is consistency without pressure. When plant care stays simple, the plants stay a supportive grounding presence instead of another task.