4 Plants to Purify the Air in Your Home

“The air inside the average home is up to five times more polluted than the air outside.”

In fact, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the air inside the average home is up to five times more polluted than the air outside. While moderately alarming on a certain level, it’s really more of a catalyst for making positive changes in one’s life that not only freshen up the air, but also allow us to more intimately connect with nature—not merely when we’re outside, but in the comfort of our own living and working spaces. The remedy? Air purifying plants, of course.

You see, NASA had a small problem on their hands when it came to long-period manned space missions. They needed an efficient, lasting source of clean air to keep astronauts alive and thriving during extended interstellar travel. What they discovered is that a few common houseplants, and one in particular—Mother-in-Law’s Tongue (botanical name: Sansevieria trifasciata)—did the job wonderfully and were also powerful air purifiers to boot.

Despite this alarming situation, there is a simple way for one to begin reversing the damage. Kamal Meattle, with help from Indian Institute of Technology – Delhi (IIT-D), The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), and research findings from NASA, discovered that there are three common green plants which can easily produce all the fresh air we need to keep us healthy: Areca Palm, Mother-in-law’s Tongue, Money Plant.

Areca Palm

No. of plants needed per person: 4

Plant Care: Areca Palms require bright, indirect light from a south- or west-facing window. The leaves turn yellowish-green in direct sunlight. Use moist soil and water the plants as soon as the soil feels dry a little below the surface. Areca Palms do not respond well to overwatering.

Mother-in-law’s Tongue

Plants per person: 6-8 waist-high plants

Plant Care: Very adaptable to different temperatures. Place in indirect sunlight and don’t water too much.

Peace-lily-plant (Peace Lily, Spathiphyllum)

The Peace Lily is a deep, forest green plant with beautiful (although fickle) white flowers. It’s a great general cleanser and air purifying plant that effectively removes all common indoor pollutants generated by furniture, electronics and cleaning products, so much so that it is one of NASA’s top-ranked plants for this purpose.

The Peace Lily does well in indirect light and requires minimal watering with the general guideline being once every four to five days. In hotter climates it may need water more frequently, and you’ll know it’s overdue when the leaves begin to weep.

Money Plant

Plant Care: Place in a moderately humid room. Requires infrequent watering. Very easy to maintain.

The Money Plant removes formaldehydes and other volatile chemicals from the air.

Money Plant use has been tried and tested in a building in Delhi with phenomenal results. Compared to other buildings, occupants experienced a reduction in the incidence of eye irritation by 52%, respiratory irritation by 34%, headaches by 24%, lung impairment by 12% and asthma by 9%.

Meattle decided to scale up the project and attempt to purify a 20-year-old, 50,000-square-feet building that housed his nearly 300 employees. After some testing and tweaking they discovered that approximately six air purifying plants are required per person to meet their daily needs for fresh, clean, highly oxygenated air.

“Our experience points to an amazing increase in human productivity by over 20% by using these plants. And also a reduction in energy requirements in buildings by an outstanding 15%, because you need less fresh air. We are now replicating this in a 1.75-million-square-feet building, which will have 60,000 indoor air purifying plants,” stated Meattle in a recent TED Talk about his work. Meattle also mentions that these studies “have found that there is a 42% probability of one’s blood oxygen going up by one percent if one stays indoors in this building for 10 hours. The government of India has discovered or published a study to show that this is the healthiest building in New Delhi.”

What can we do now?

First-timers can start with one of each plant above and graduate to the optimum needs as mentioned above. When the plant grows large (which takes many years) and needs to be transplanted into the ground, simply plant it in a suitable spot in your surroundings and take care of it until it becomes self-sufficient. That way, we can make our personal and environmental goals align with each other.

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Meditation and Memory...

Surprisingly, meditation and memory are linked. New research shows that regular meditation changes the physical structure of your brain in powerful ways - including ways that improve memory. So what is the connection between meditation and memory?

Studies at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston have shown that regular meditation causes the brain's cerebral cortex to thicken. This happens through an increase in the size of the blood vessels and the amount of blood flow to the region.

The cortex is the area of the brain responsible for the higher mental functions, so this is an amazing discovery.

One recent study found evidence that the daily practice of meditation thickened the parts of the brain's cerebral cortex responsible for decision making, attention and memory. Sara Lazar, a research scientist at Massachusetts General Hospital, presented preliminary results last November that showed that the gray matter of 20 men and women who meditated for just 40 minutes a day was thicker than that of people who did not. What's more, her research suggests that meditation may slow the natural thinning of that section of the cortex that occurs with age.

"Attention is the key to learning, and meditation helps you voluntarily regulate it," says Richard Davidson, director of the Laboratory for Affective Neuroscience at the University of Wisconsin.       

Meditation directly affect neurotransmitter and structure of the brain, changing it in ways that appear to increase attention span, sharpen focus, and improve memory.

 1. Meditation sharpens your focus and memory

You don't need to be a monk on a mountaintop to experience for yourself the link between meditation and memory improvement. The basic type of meditation practiced in Vedic Time was shown in the research to be very effective in causing the cortex to thicken. This type of meditation is called mindfulness meditation (also known as "awareness" or "insight" -meditation).

But as we learn from studies performed on Buddhist an important component in changing the brain is to tap the power of mind and, in particular, focused attention. This is the classic Buddhist practice of mindfulness, a technique that has become popular and that is immediately available to everyone.       

         

2. Technique of Meditation

Our minds usually jump wildly from thought to thought. We replay the past; we fantasize about the future. In meditation we take an upright posture, place our mind on an object, and keep it there. In meditation, the object is the simple act of breathing. The breath represents being in the immediacy of the moment.

When you sit down, take a balanced, grounded posture to allow the energy in the center of your body to move freely. If you're on a cushion, sit with your legs loosely crossed. If you're in a chair, keep your legs uncrossed and your feet flat on the floor. Imagine that a string attached to the top of your head is pulling you upright. Let your body settle around your erect spine. Place your hands on your thighs, in a place not so far forward that it begins to pull your shoulders down, nor so far back that the shoulders contract and pinch the spine. The fingers are close and relaxed —not spread out in a grip, as if you can't let yourself go. Tuck your chin in and relax your jaw. The tongue is also relaxed, resting against your upper teeth. Your mouth is ever so slightly open. Your gaze is downward, with the eyelids almost half shut. The eyes aren't looking; the eyes just see. it is the same with sound —we aren't listening, but we do hear. In other words, we're not focusing with our senses.

The basic technique is that we begin to notice our breath. The breath is what we're using as the basis of our mindfulness technique; it brings us back to the moment, back to the present situation. The breath is something that is constant —otherwise it's too late.

Using the breathing as the object of meditation is especially good for calming a busy mind. The steady flow of the breath soothes the mind and allows for steadiness and relaxation. This is ordinary breathing; nothing is exaggerated. One simple technique is to count the in-and out-cycles of breathing from one to twenty-one. We breathe in, and then out —one. Inand then out two. Place your mind on the breathing and count each cycle of breath. You can drop the counting when your mind is settled.

When your focus is wavering, check your posture. Bring yourself back to the upright position. Imagine the string pulling your spine up straight and relax your body around it. Slouching impairs your breathing, which directly affects the mind. If you slump, you'll be struggling with your body at the same time that you're trying to train your mind. What you want to be doing is the opposite: synchronizing your body and mind.

As you focus on the breath, you'll notice that various thoughts and emotions arise. When this happens, acknowledge that you are thinking and return your focus to the breath. In focusing you are bringing yourself back to attention. You are centering yourself in your mind and placing that mind on the breath. You are slowly settling. You're gradually slowing the mind. When you first begin to meditate, the movement of thoughts may feel like a rushing waterfall. But as you continue to apply the technique of recognizing thoughts and returning your focus to the breath, the torrent slows down to a river, then to a meandering stream, which eventually flows into a deep, calm ocean.

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