BloomLocal says Treat Yourself

A wise philosopher Matshona Dhliwayo once said “If you tend to a flower, it will bloom, no matter how many weeds surround it.” Equally, if you tend to your mind, body and soul, it will flourish, no matter how many curve balls life throws your way.

What is Self Care?

A flower cannot blossom without sunshine, and you cannot flourish without self care. Self care is the gentle art of loving yourself one day at a time. Self care is a necessity not a luxury in being fully human and our responsibility. What is it that makes you feel fully alive, happy and content? As we learn to cherish ourselves and spend time in solitude the more we begin to rediscover the true essence of ourselves. Self care can be any form of kindness to yourself, starting with small simple acts. For instance, not checking your phone at night when you know it affects your sleep, acknowledging your accomplishments, giving yourself permission to make mistakes, cooking a healthy meal for yourself, identifying the things that matter to you, reflecting on things you are grateful for, engaging in a form of exercise you enjoy or spending time in nature. What are your unique self care practices? 

Why Self Care is important and how flowers can help 

The more abundant our inner life, the greater our self-esteem, and the more we have to give. These reinvigorating acts of self kindness are not only beneficial to ourselves but to those around us. We cannot give to others what we don’t have ourselves. Our friends, family and work colleagues will also benefit from our renewed energy and the joy we manifest. 

Flowers reduce stress as we are sensual beings, a beautifully arranged bouquet is a simple way to decrease your anxiety levels. The scent of flowers can make us relax, it’s well researched that flowers play an impressive role in boosting our energy both mentally and physically, reducing symptoms of depression and even lifting our mood and self-esteem to new levels. 

Which self care flower practice will you start with?

It’s true that flowers bring moments of tranquillity and calm into our lives. Thankfully, there are many ways to use flowers in our self care practices. Here are a few of our favourite ways: 

Treat yourself to a colourful and fragrant bouquet

The most evident way to include flowers into your self-care routine is to simply treat yourself to a beautiful bouquet. Karen Salmansohn says it best “Buy yourself flowers, simply because they’re beautiful and you deserve beauty in your life.” Display your bouquet somewhere you will see it often, perhaps on your nightstand. This is also a great place as their sweet scent will give you a calming experience while you’re drifting off to sleep. 

Choose a bouquet that makes your heart sing, and be conscious of the choice of colours you choose for your bouquet. Colours and emotions are closely linked. So choose a bouquet of colours that makes you feel positive. This is why we chose the following bouquets to be in our ‘Treat Yourself’ range:

-The Summer Holiday bouquet because yellow can catch the sunlight and leave you feeling joyful, vivacious and energetic. 

-The Letterbox Soft Blush and Happy Birthday bouquet are full of soft pinks that promote feelings of love, playfulness and kindness. The longer you are exposed to it, the calmer you will become. 

-The Thinking of You bouquet include lovely light purples such as lilac, that will sooth your emotions. 

-The Anthurium Plant has an abundance of green leaves. Green is the most restorative and mind-clearing of colours which explains why flowers and plants reduce anxiety. 

-The Serenity and Cool White bouquet offers an inner cleansing and purifying of you thoughts and ultimately makes you feel peaceful with their white petals. 

Add Petals to a Bath 

Bathing at home is often underrated which is surprising as it can do wonders in supporting our mind, body and spirit. Next time you take a bath (make it sooner rather than later), try adding some fragrant petals to the water – the most effective are rose petals. I guarantee it will make you feel luxurious, as if you’d paid for a spa day. 

Get crafty 

Arts and crafts are a very popular self care practice. Dried flowers are one of the best ways to get creative. There are thousands of different things you can do with your dried out blooms, like make a collage or use them in a photo scrapbook. Whatever makes your happy is the perfect thing for a self care session. You could even make a flower crown fit for a queen (or at least a great selfie). The point is to have fun and let your inner child play. 

Use Flowers for Aromatherapy 

There are many studies sharing that aromatherapy can be good for your wellbeing. Essential oils are a necessity to practicing aromatherapy, so why not create some from your favourite flowers? There are many recipes online for creating essential oils from flowers, and most involve just petals, cooking apparatus and water. 

You deserve to treat yourself! You deserve regular self care practices — and all the better if it involves flowers! We can’t wait to see the ways you incorporate blooms into treating yourself. 

Tag us on Instagram @BloomLocalUK to share with us your self care practices. 

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