“Make sure you stop and smell the roses”. I have come across this phrase all through my life but 2020 and getting older made me realize the importance of stopping and taking a breath to ensure your mental health. 

Flowers have been an influence on me from early childhood. A garden full of flowers, growing up, was something you saw every day. Every other house, including ours, had some kinds of flower blooming offering inspiration and a sense of hope, through my walk to school. Our school also had the path to the classrooms lined with different colors of small flowers. Even as an adult when I pass by the flower statue in Carmel IN (picture included), it just makes me smile for no reason at all.

I think the reason behind the smiles are the good memories that come alongside flowers. So, when the positivity activity was introduced during the team meeting of 2020, I jumped on it, not only because we would be getting the bonus but also to ensure that I smiled more and that silly child from the past who was endlessly happy without a care in the world was alive in me forever. That is when I concluded that I would be bringing bouquets of fresh flowers home every week so that I had positivity in my life.

It might sound like a small action to take for some, but for me it has made a lot of difference. The first time I bought fresh flowers after a long time, that was not for any special occasion, was the day I received the positivity card In the mail. I haven’t stopped since then. 

Every time we go grocery shopping I look for the bouquet that speaks most to me. Even during recovery from the COVID-19 infection, I had flowers delivered to me, and believe me when I say they helped a lot to get through the stressful feelings and body aching, fingers hurting, and experience that is COVID-19 infection. 

My resolution for 2021 is to stay positive and flowers are always there to help. To continue bringing positivity into my life, because during a pandemic, you can never have enough of positivity around, I decided to look back and to do the thing that made me overjoyed. 

P.S. The steel thing below is for humidity in winter.