University study shows Flowers & Plants Promote Innovation, Ideas and workplace productivity.

In today’s economy, it is more important than ever for businesses to enjoy their talent for meeting the needs of the client.  Fluctuations in unemployment, productivity, consumer confidence and other major economic factors make it important for businesses to realise how they can respond.

A recent scientific study conducted at Texas A&M University finds that nature can hold the secret to business success. The research demonstrates that workers’ idea generation, creative performance and problem solving skills improve substantially in workplace environments that include flowers and plants. According to University experts, the key to generate the talents necessary to encourage co- operative productivity in the modern economy is easy; it’s a happy, productive workforce.

“Our research shows that a change as simple as adding flowers and plants can be important in the most meaningful way to businesses in the modern economy,” said Dr. Roger Ulrich, lead researcher on the project. “People’s productivity, in the form of innovation and creative problem solving, improved – which in certain circumstances could mean the difference between mild and great business success.”

Research Findings:

In an eight-month study, the Texas A&M University research team explored the link between flowers and plants and workplace productivity. Participants performed creative problem solving tasks in a variety of common office environments, or conditions.

The conditions included a workplace with flowers and plants, a setting with sculpture and an environment with no decorative embellishments.

During the study, both women and men demonstrated more innovative thinking, generating more ideas and original solutions to problems in the office environment that included flowers and plants.

In these surroundings, men who participated in the study generated 15% more ideas. And, while males generated a greater abundance of ideas, females generated more creative, flexible solutions to problems when flowers and plants were present.

“We know the importance of learning, for example, how natural surroundings affect drivers, school children, and hospital patients,” said Ulrich, who has conducted extensive research on the effects of environments on psychological well-being, stress and health. “To businesses, it should be equally as important to understand what features can improve performance at work and make employees more productive.”

Keep on eye on that, if this sounds good, let us know and let’s have a chat about what we can do for you.

Peace and Joy

The Team

The London Flower Lover

No romantic flowers from your partner? Well rather than do the feel sorry for me bit, how about doing something else instead?

Really!

Rather than call a friend to complain, rather than feel sorry for yourself, rather than get angry, sad, grieve or worry, how about exploring being at peace with it?

We have found a great tutorial from a wonderful teacher called Bryon Katie who helped a woman come to peace with her own, ‘He owes me story’. We wonder what you might make of it.

The Team

The London  Flower Lover

a bonus…

Are red roses unimaginative?

The London Flower Lover

You decide.

For some, the red roses has become unoriginal and lacklustre.  Which might even feed into other ideas about a dull, boring romantic life.  It takes away the idea of an inspired celebration. We suggest working together to use other flowers to reflect your romantic. This can be a process for singletons as well as for those involved in a long term relationship.

The red rose is still very popular and supply outstrips demand making the price rise. It is not the best time of year for roses and many get held back in freezers and brought out for the big day.

What alternatives are there?

One of the flowers we love for Valentine’s is the Ranunculus. They are a relative of the humble buttercup. They look like small peonies, last around seven to ten days, and reach their crowning glory the day before they perish.  Poppies or a mass of tulips or even some scented Narcissus if your budget is limited. They can all create a sense of giving without limits and feeling joyful about your loved ones.

I’ve got money to spend but want something long-lasting. What should I buy?

We always recommend cut orchids. Why?  Phalaenopsis last two weeks and Cymbidium may last three or four weeks, which is actually sensational floral value.  Another exquisite flower at this time of year, which lasts for ten days easily, is Amaryllis. Imagine a bouquet of Pussy Willow with a few stems of Amaryllis – sublime.

How do I make my Valentine’s bouquet last?

All flowers benefit from a thoroughly clean vase; treat it like you’re going to drink out of it. You need to cut the stems off the flowers with a slanted cut to allow the maximum amount of water to rise up to the flower head. When you receive the bouquet and prepare it for your vase, remove all foliage that is going to be under the water line as that will cause bacteria and shorten the life of your flowers. It’s really important to use a sachet of flower food in the vase as this acts as a sugar and also an anti-bacterial agent. Always change the water and re-cut the stems every day to improve the life of your flowers.

Where would I find an eco-friendly bunch of flowers?

The only way of really knowing that you have an eco-friendly bunch of flowers is to grown them yourself! We have been told that growing flowers under glass in the UK is just as damaging to the environment as flying in some roses from Kenya, Ecuador or Columbia. Instead, you could choose some Narcissus or snowflakes from local growers.

My loved one is prone to sneezing. What should I buy?

The safest choice is tropical flowers: heart shaped Anthurium or orchids would be best.

What are the pitfalls of ordering flowers online and how do I avoid them?

We would recommend that you use an online florist that you know and trust. However if you want originality, imaginative, original ideas that you are never going to get an ingeniously artistic creative handmade, designed bunch from a factory.  It is so not the same as talking to people like us, or going to your local flower shop or stall. If you want a visionary, inspirational design reflecting your relationship, you may find that many of the well-known internet companies use the same companies to facilitate their internet orders and so the choice online maybe more limited than the customer initially perceives.  We would suggest talking to us. Or to your local florist who can reflect your vision.

What sort of flowers should I buy for a man?

We have come to know that, Blue Hyacinths are a favourite of Sir Terence Conran; Norman Foster likes all one type of flower in a primary colour. Apparently, Jon Snow loves some scent and likes garden flowers. We have noticed that men enjoy the thought and enjoy a range of colours. Possibly in a primary colours such as red, yellow and blue rather than pastels.

I don’t live near a florist. Will shop-bought do?

If you don’t have access to an independent flower shop, we recommend buying lots of one type of flower and colour from a supermarket and re-wrapping it in some same colour tissue and a bow to improve the presentation. Please trust you own inspired inventive instincts on style and freshness. And remember if your creativity suggests its ok to choose something other than red roses from a multiple supplier, then it is.

Remember, this is a season to express love.

Who do I give valentine flowers to?

Anyone who you want to send a message of appreciation. This includes yourself, girlfriends, and guy-friends, along with your intimate lover.

You can let go off the idea of specialness, which suggest that your intimate relationship is your only source of love. Play big and take the opportunity to share love with all those you love.Your self included!

The Team

The London Flower Lover

p.s. a bonus

The London Flower Lover

Beloved Flower Lover,

People need help with dealing with challenges  and with people’s desire for tranquility and stress relief stronger than ever, fresh research takes an insightful look at flowers and the important role they may play in our daily lives.

A behavioural research study conducted by Nancy Etcoff, Ph.D., of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, reveals that people feel more compassionate toward others, have less worry and anxiety, and feel less depressed when fresh cut flowers are present in the home.

“Other research has proven that flowers make people happy when they receive them,” Etcoff says. “What we didn’t know is that spending a few days with flowers in the home can affect a wide variety of feelings.”

The Home Ecology of Flowers Study at Harvard uncovered three main findings:

1. Flowers feed compassion.

Study participants who lived with fresh cut flowers for less than a week felt an increase in feelings of compassion and kindness for others.

2. Flowers chase away anxieties, worries and the blues at home.

Overall, people in the study simply felt less negative after being around flowers at home for just a few days.

Participants most frequently placed flowers in their kitchens, dining rooms and living rooms, where they spend a lot of time at home. They reported wanting to see the blooms first thing in the morning.

3. Living with flowers can provide a boost of energy, happiness and enthusiasm at work.

Having flowers at home can have a positive carry-over impact on our mood at work, too. The study found that people were more likely to feel happier and have more enthusiasm and energy at work when flowers were in their home living environments.

“As a psychologist, I’m particularly intrigued to find that people who live with flowers report fewer episodes of anxiety and depressed feelings,” Etcoff says. “Our results suggest that flowers have a positive impact on our well being.”

We at The London Flower Lover suggest the research is encouraging people to find the real sources of happiness and that,combining the feminisation power of flowers into your life will soothe and calm you. Thus opening you up to your own happiness. We have great respects for the work of Nancy Etcoff, Ph.D., who  is a faculty member of the Harvard Medical School and the Harvard University Mind/Brain/Behavior Initiative and a practicing psychologist at the Massachusetts General Hospital Department of Psychiatry where she is the Director of the Program in Aesthetics and Well Being. At Harvard, she currently teaches a course entitled “The Science of Happiness.”

Peace and Joy

The Team

The London Flower Lover

Beloved Flower Lover,

Own your heart desire, and let it guide you.

Ok, this is the season of love and self love. And as part of our ‘Klingalistic Valentine Season’,  we have been exploring how  going into the light can release expectations and needs and how it helps all involved.

This is a time to own our feelings  and direct the power they have to  create good feelings within ourselves first. Yet how?

Before we go on, lets share what we mean by our magic word, the word, ‘Klingalistic’. It means celebrating creative pleasures in the light or the celebration of the pleasure of creativity. It mean’s owning the joy of all of that energy.  We want to share our  additional supportive material that we intergrate with our floral designs as a way to let you know that we are all so much more. It helps you, us,  all people  this blog touches to transform all situations in creative ways. If they choose.

Caring love is in the house.  The famous Bryon Katie’s energetic work with a young woman who wants a boyfriend is amazing. Watch and let us know what you think.

Reassured? So what next?

This is where we invite you to integrate flowers into the mix. To help you reinforce your intentions. To be available for what you truly want. Always energetically first.

Truly claim what you want in flowers. Truly, madly deeply. Choose flowers that make your heart sing. That stir an energy inside you that is of peace or joy. Surround yourself with flowers, the sort, the designs, the colour schemes that make your heart light up with fire. Roses, Peonies, Lillies, Orchids, Yellow, Red, Pink, what ever, allow yourself energetically to fully feel the enjoyment to that heart felt desire you have.  Tune into your heart and allow that hot, sexy, funny feeling in your heart to be aroused. Own that fire, embrace it. Allow it to be in your heart and  it will guide you.

Any thing that does not connect to that energy will fall away. Anything else will connect.

The Team

The London Flower Lover

p.s, Stop suffering and celebrate love. Happiness in intimate relationships is a decision that we choose to make!

a bonus…

The London Flower Lover

Beloved Flower Lover,

David Deida encourages men and women to open up to the greatest life force.

Lighten up,

You can have fun,

Worship,

Feel devotion,

Relax,

Enjoy  the softening power of beauty,

Recieve love and  allow magical displays of love you rehearse in your inner mind to be come your reality.

Flowers  you love could help soften and open you wide to beautiful displays of geninue affection.

The Team

The London Flower Lover

p.s. Order Valentine  flowers now

Beloved Flower Lover,

Strong women, how do you allow yourself to be radiant?

Really, how?

We all know what it’s like to be scanned by a man, but what is he really looking for?

As lovers of flowers we have noticed an appreciation of the moving radiant female energy when it is fully and deeply appreciated. This happens when we allow ourselves to be taken over fully with our passions for flowers. When we allow ourselves to be totally immersed with openess to whatever it brings forward.

Women, we invite you totally from our hearts to embrace your female expression totally. Yes, we encourage you to love flowers like we do, but for a purpose. It’s the purpose we feel from all the women we meet. Forget dabbling with femininity,  instead go all the way and express uber femininity.

With our whole heart, we invite you to let the masculine be itself totally and for you to adore it completely.  We invite you to play with letting it take over your entire body.  We invite you to feel the energy like it is attempting to open up all those closed places so you flutter.  So your whole body flutters, and trembles. We invite you to open up completely and want the deepest masculine energy to enter. Into you.

We invite you to imagine responding to that energy with  a total welcome. A complete wide open, arms outstretched openess . See yourself  opening up. We invite you to imagine that transmission of energy,that flows in your marriage, your relationships, your dates.  We invite you to experience the energy that just ravishes you. Over an over and over again. That is relentless.

We invite you to imagine being taken consistently, with love. The energy which does not let you stop until you fully recieve .

Scan the flowers you most love, only choose the ones that make you feel most radiant. Ask us to make designs from flowers you most adore, that make you tingle. Only choose those. This radar  of exuberance within you  is your source of radiance. The source of what that man who is scanning you right now is checking for. Whatever your age. It’s radiant.

You might try to repress it under stories of this and that. You might have tried to deaden it, just then choose to allow it to take you over. All over. All over. All over.

What are your deepest hearts desire? Your direction, your flow.

Listen to David Deida who can explain why you are the moving gift of life. Then tell us what you think about strong womanhood today?

Open as love, like a flower,worship your complement with your feminine love. Respond by offering yourself and notice your world bloom. You, you, you, are the ‘gift’ of this New Year!

Take it all the way, all the way.

Thank you

The Team

The London Flower Lover

The London Flower Lover

It’s the time to give gifts and share. To hug, kiss and watch your loved one’s smile. To make that telephone call,visit that person. It’s the time to just be there and to share.

It’s also the ideal time to check in with your conscience and recognise all your achievements you have made despite setbacks and challenges during the past 12 months. To celebrate your self. Your accomplishments,your improvements, your downright successes.

This is not the time of year to look back with disappointment. It’s the time of year to celebrate your gains. Wherever they may be. What ever they may be.

Well done!

Do this before the New Year if you can. Do it now, today and notice how you give birth to something quite incredible.

Be upfront, count your successes, improvements, accomplishments.   Where have you helped yourself and others. In what big ways, small ways. Just ponder on that and as you do, we invite you to continue enjoying the gift of flowers.

Celebrate you, because you are the greatest gift you can share with anyone.

Peace and many blessings from us here at The London Flower Lover.

The Team

The London Flower Lover

TheLondon Flower Lover peace and joy

p.s. 2012 celebrations a few hours ago…..

Sydney’s harbour erupted in a blaze of colour and light on the stroke of midnight with a 12-minute pyrotechnic display drawing more than 1.5 million people to crowded foreshores and city landmarks.

As the clock moves through the timezones partying is  beginning all over, like at Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate, in the heart of Vienna and on Paris’s Champs-Elysees avenue.

In Amsterdam, people are getting ready  for the first “kiss” between two giant inflatable puppets representing a Dutch boy and girl, which will “walk” towards each other as the seconds tick down to 2012. At the stroke of midnight, the puppets will kiss as fireworks explode in an event organisers hope will become a yearly tradition in the city.

In the Paris area the purchase of alcohol is banned along with petrol in cans in a bid to prevent a wave of car burnings that occurs annually in some quarters, while 10,000 police were mobilised.

In London crowds we will see in 2012, the year we host the Olympic Games, with fireworks bursting above the River Thames as Big Ben chimes out midnight in a display watched by more than 250,000 people on the river banks.

What ever you do-where ever you are we wish you all the very very best

Into Me I see

Beloved Flower Lover,

We have said it before. We will say it again. Blend the passion for your ‘desire’ for ordinary things with ‘aspirations’ for higher things. Aspire to use your talents for the benefit of others.  For example,to share your care, as others show you love and affection in return. This will balance the ordinary, everyday, mundane material goodies with the divine source of life. Wrap your arms around all of this. Embrace yourself up with an open appreciation of the divine passion that equips us to achieve your most ‘cherished’ goals.

Be vulnerable, open and honest about what you must have in the experience. Let it truly turn you on!  Encourage your goose bumps, encourage that feeling of trembling, quivering, yes all that energy we all feel when we experience and touch our passions. When we feel turned on. Fully enjoy the images of your cherished desires repeatedly entering into your mind during the day. Smile at the ‘beloved’ pictures of you enjoying the ‘trembling’ of being turned on. You know what you are like when you are turned on. Well link that feeling to pictures of other goals It’s a real sign of you fully enjoying the benefits of your passion. Be open to this because it’s your success connection. Sounds good to you. Yes, link your desire to your cherished goals for 2012.

That is the purpose of desire,of passion is simple. It’s to motivate. This is the divine energy within you. No need for words, just see the pictures in your minds eye that provoke deep passion and desire.

Phew, feel orgasmic, or close to it, feels good, so good!

We really want to emphasise this next point. Passion can so get us in ‘trouble’. Big trouble! We may rush into something enthusiastically before we realise we do not have the energy for it.  Do not fault yourself for past negative experiences. They only bring you down into the dumps. Change the pictures of worry, grief, sadness, anger or fear dancing around in your inner mind. Breakthrough this by imagining how you can benefit from your passions. Turn it around. Imagine how the challenges teach you to be one with all. Find love for the challenge.  For an example, if you have made mistakes in relationships, talk to the person you are involved with about how you might want to change your mind about things. If you cannot, imagine a conversation with them and it going the way you want. Peacefully.

Put fun, humour, and happiness into your mind first so you can relax and ‘jump start’, your imagination. Allow new approaches to come to you. Shift, play, and reverse your mindset. Maybe even go one step further and reframe the ‘benefits’ of your down beat feelings so you can see them for the jewels they are. In fact they are windows of opportunity for enjoying ‘more of life’. How? Because you make more life energy (emotion) come under your command. Sounds good? Now that’s being adult about passion.

Who benefits from you feeling your passions? Family, Friends, Community, Nation, the World.

It’s from your optimism, your power, your wisdom, your inspiration,that they get lit up by.  The additional energy you have under your command for your use. So imagine, who else in your family, amongst your friends, and community can you benefitting tangibly from your growth in energy. See that picture now. Your energy should be getting really clearer now. So much clearer.

Why do we suggest working with the life force and chi Kong? Well your life force or your emotions are managed by chi kong exercises. Sadness, grief, worry, anger, fear, all mean your ‘life force’ has fallen below it’s optimum range.  You are stressed. They are downer sorts of energy. These energies won’t really have you, have the get up and go you need to make manifest those gorgeous desires. Yep, there is no benefit in holding on bad feelings. Chi kung exercises are practical ways to help you let go of blocked or stagnating energy. What could be better than that?

Chi Kung helps to even out the relevant energy channels in your body linked with bad feelings. Those internal energies move us. yet they can get blocked or stagnant. That’s why knowing how you are emoting is a great gauge to know, where you are at. You don’t have to take it personally either.  Emotions are simple axis on your life map. Your true identity is your inner compass and you can redirect it back to true ‘north’,using chi kung.

Another way of seeing it is that feeling sad, worried, grieving, angry, scared are all great indicators of your current ‘emotional address’.  Yet, they are simply a place you are renting. They are not your real residence. So please do not regard them as your true identity. They are just ‘feelings’, emotional addresses that change as you change them. So be kind to yourself and introduce some other emotional address that you would prefer to live in. Maybe peace or joy. This move alone will change how your energy flows.  Like flowers, chi kung lifts your energy and helps you relocate of emotion. So step into a new place of love.

Flowers renew. They also represent the life force we talk of. So use them in your home and as gifts of kindness and affection. Give them to yourself as you open up to your own nature. Keep fresh flowers around.  Notice how you respond to them.

All this energy work actually responds to very clear images, pictures of desires that arouse us. Clear images of peace, creativity, happiness, security and love. Not words. Images! So shine sunshine into the mental pictures of your desires. Test it yourself and notice the shift. Link these images to bigger pictures of you caring for your person and others. As you generate those images, notice the feelings you receive as you get in touch with pictures and feelings of passion. If you feel conflicts, repeat them until you ‘see’ them as a gift to help you.  Infuse your divine passion into 2012 now.

Sounds good. Thank you for being with us. We would love to hear what you think and feel. So PLEASE check in with us again and wish you all the best now and ….

The Team

The London Flower Lover

The London Flower Lover

Into Me I see

Beloved Flower Lover,

Resurrect yourself through ‘passion’. Not suffering. Not irritation, resurrect your ‘annoyance’, ‘cant’ be botheredness’, ‘these people get on my nervesness’, ‘I work with dreadful peopleness’ into forgiveness. and let go of their grudges about life. Send love to those who ‘stress you’. Extend kindness to all those where you feel stress with. For every single stress they send out, reward it with a flower. That shifts stuff. Where there is sadness bring joy,where there is misery share  love. Avoid taking their issue personally, even if they go after you and attack. Let you be the one who converts strong feelings into love. Give the person who sends you the ‘dirtiest look’, roses, or carnations. Maybe some other lovely flower. Convert yourself first,then with your energy relax and send them good energy. Don’t miss this opportunity to change and see how your passions fill up to their fullest potency.  Drink of its juice, because yes there is a connection.

This post has been inspired for those who want you allow the passion to flow through their lives. To reinvent desire. To rediscover your clearest picture of the passionate energies that arouse you from the inside out, gives us the opportunity to express who we are meant to be. These naturally divine energies, when linked to your desires make things happen! Those primal feelings when linked to how those in our family, friendship and communities benefit allow all sorts of blessings to flow. Money and so much more!

Breathe, calm down, relax, and feel the fire and desire. The heat of passion. Use flowers to help you to start living it. To recharge, regroup the images you enjoy in your imagination for the New Year. Be sure to have a clear picture of your desire, because it is passion and strong feelings of joy that once infused into the images of what you desire for 2012. All that breathing calms down the reptilian brain. The link with your desires to how well you can help others drive your ‘heat’ towards celebrating compassion and care. This is an adult story. No one can taste the passion for you. Only you!

Ok. Let’s look at the scary side. The side where you stop that passion picture. First do not fault yourself if you do not feel passions. Do not put yourself down for not feeling desire for life. Do not allow that heat to be swelched. Instead connect to how your talent and passion help others. This is the way to bring back your inner world. Do that in this quiet time of the year. Allow yourself to feel the fires grow in your imagination. Then link that to how it helps others. Do not suppress your talent or passions do not dampen your desire.

Let go of any feelings of urgency. Instead fill any negative void with your own inspirational passions for your life. Create aspirational images as that’s what moves is the spirit. It’s this passionate sparkle, for your aspirations that spark this fire. We invite you to provoke that fire rather than cool indifference which will make the difference. Do it from within first. Feel the thrill again.

So what next? Yes, notice how you cool yourself down and stop passions. Then use the pictures in your mind’s eye to smile with joy as you imagine enjoying the benefits of passion.

Flowers, flowers, flowers? Well your feelings towards them works like a ‘feelings gauge’, a thermometer of how warm you feel about your desire. If you are luke warm about your desire you stand a luke warm chance of experiencing them during 2012.  Choose flowers which are provocative to you.  Maybe keep smiling into the images of your desire and use flowers as an external reminder.

Feel the intensity because that is a sign that the vigour of your spirit is aroused. It’s this energy we want to keep ablaze each time you revisit that image, picture of your desires in your imagination. Rather than dismiss this fire, feed it. Ignite that flame. Rather than deny it with apathy, indulge it. It will then launch your energy in the direction of your desire.

Sounds good, we would love to hear from you.

The Team

The London Flower Lover

The London Flower Lover