Plants are the most effective way to increase oxygen levels in the room and improve air quality. There are also beneficial plants that will help you improve mood, and fight anxiety, depression, and prevent panic attacks.

Researchers have found that there is a direct link between stress and oxygen levels and showed that high levels of toxins in the air lead to anxiety and stress. Therefore, you can drastically improve your mood and relieve stress and anxiety.

Scientists have conducted studies on mice and discovered that the aroma of jasmine plant and jasmine essential oil significantly calmed them, and made them stop all activity and sit quietly in a corner. Their brain scans showed that jasmine fragrance boosts the effects of a chemical called GABA on nerve cells, and thus relieves anxiety and encourages rest.

According to Professor Hanns Hatt, these findings published online in the Journal of Biological Chemistry can “be seen as evidence of a scientific basis for aromatherapy”.

Prof Hatt, of the Ruhr University in Bochum, Germany, added:

“We have discovered a new class of GABA receptor modulator which can be administered parentally and through the respiratory air. Applications in sedation, anxiety, excitement, and aggression relieving treatment and sleep induction therapy are all imaginable.”

Researchers found that jasmine is much more effective than sleeping pills, anti-anxiety medications, and sedatives, as it increased the GABA effect by more than five times.

Additionally, Kaliana.com reports:

“Research at Wheeling Jesuit University by Dr. Bryan Raudenbush, assistant professor of psychology, shows dispensing jasmine odor into a room where participants were sleeping “led to greater sleep efficiency and reduced sleep movement.” The research showed a greater quality of sleep even though there wasn’t more quantity of sleep.



Participants who breathed jasmine in the air “rated their level of anxiety and vigor lower, and performed cognitive tests more rapidly.” In addition, “level of alertness in the jasmine odor condition was greater during the afternoon hours, thus helping maintain students’ focus on academic work throughout the day.”

Jasmine essential oil is an effective natural way to improve sleep, boost happiness, regulate hormones, and treat anxiety and fatigue. It can be used to improve concentration, soothe spasms, and ease mild depression, since it:

• Reduces anxiety and nervous tension
• Boosts mood
• Improves cognitive performance and alertness
• Improves sleep quality
• Balances hormones
• Treats hot flashes and mood swings
• Increases libido

Therefore, keep a jasmine in your bedroom, and you will reap all the benefits of this amazing plant!
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The #TrashTag challenge is the best challenge social media has ever created.

Byron Román of Phoenix, AZ, ignited the new trend by calling out bored teenagers in a Facebook post.

"Here is a new #challenge for all you bored teens," Román posted on Facebook. "Take a photo of an area that needs some cleaning or maintenance, then take a photo after you have done something about it, and post it."


"Due to teens lately making the news about Tide pods, Bird Box, and now the Momo challenge. Maybe I could inspire a few to do something positive," Román told CBS News.

Román's post has been shared by more than 300,000 people, and it's more than just "bored teens" taking part in the challenge.

People of all ages from all over the world are collecting trash from outdoor spaces in their area and posting before-and-after pictures on Twitter, Instagram, Reddit and Facebook.

Our contribution in Portland, Oregon. This trash would have eventually ended up in the Willamette River. from r/pics

#trashtag has been an awesome time world wide flash moment.

From 44bags in Asheville North Carolina, 500 volunteers picking up 8000 lb in South mountain regional Park Arizona, and Hungry cleaning rivers.

This has been one of the best hashtag challenges ever. pic.twitter.com/QON5Ahdkzo

— OREGON I.T. NOT IT⚾ (@OregonJOBS2) March 11, 2019

Along the Potomac River south of Washington, DC #trashtag pic.twitter.com/n2uPL52LZG

— Robbie McNeil (@RMcNeil2105) March 10, 2019

Did our part today for #trashtag while offroading in the mountains of California. via /r/pics https://t.co/1duo3B8pnJ created by: https://t.co/HP3Iew3S7L pic.twitter.com/WRD5sAsiwz

— Steben Stupid (@steben316) March 11, 2019

The trend is spreading in India. Here’s a pic from Dimapur, Nagaland, India from r/pics

As a Parks and Rec employee, THANK YOU to anyone who has ever helped clean up a park. This river used to be covered in trash and it's pristine again because of one of you. I hope #TrashTag never ends. from r/pics

Let's keep this one trending. To participate, simply take a before-and-after photo of the area you clean up and include #trashtag in your post.

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How can we better help the homeless? It’s an undying question — and as we near the colder weather, it’s a question that is asked even more.

Known as The Gubbio Project, this was initiated in 2004 by Father Louis Vitale of the church, and Shelly Roder, a community activist.

Each day, hundreds of people sleep on the church pews, under blankets provided by the staff. While the church is open for churchgoers who need to visit during the day, two-thirds of the building remains reserved for the Project.

In fact, 95 per cent of those surveyed said they always or usually feel safe at The Gubbio Project, and those who pass through are not treated like prisoners as they are in many shelters.



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Supermarkets around the world should be commended for banning plastic bags, but there's another single-use foe on the environmental radar: produce packaging. Sales of some vegetables have soared by up to 300 per cent following moves by a number of New Zealand supermarkets to ditch plastic packaging.

"A group of New World supermarkets have abandoned the use of plastic wrapping for virtually all of their fruit and vegetables in a project labelled 'food in the nude'. Pioneered by the New World store at Bishopdale in Christchurch, it has led to stunning sales figures.

"We monitor them year on year and after we introduced the concept we noticed sales of spring onions, for example, had increased by 300 per cent," says Bishopdale owner Nigel Bond. "There may have been other factors at play but we noticed similar increases in other vegetable varieties like silver beet and radishes.

"When we first set up the new shelving our customers were blown away," he says. "It reminded me of when I was a kid going to the fruiterer with my Dad, you could smell the fresh citrus and spring onions. By wrapping products in plastic we sanitise and deprive people of this experience; it (dispensing with plastic) was a huge driver for us."


Of the 300 million tons of plastic produced worldwide every year, half is used just once and thrown away, while only nine per cent is recycled. In New Zealand about 252,000 tonnes of plastic waste goes into landfill each year, a significant amount also ending up in our waterways and ultimately the sea.



Bond says eight or nine New World supermarkets in the South Island have followed Bishopdale's example, a move which is part of a suite of sustainable practices adopted by New World owner Foodstuffs.

"I went on a study tour to the United States and saw what the Whole Foods supermarket chain is doing over there," he says. "They have a massive range of fresh food and their merchandising is almost an art form.

Bond began discussions with growers and suppliers, most of whom he says were happy to look at ways of providing produce free of plastic packaging (Foodstuffs is also continuing to work with suppliers to look at how it can be reduced across-the-board including areas other than produce).

A new refrigeration shelving system for displaying fresh fruit and vegetables was installed along with a process known as 'misting' to help keep items fresh.

"Vegetables are 90 per cent water and studies have shown that misted produce not only looks better, retains its colour and texture, but also has higher vitamin content," Bond says. "We've also installed a reverse osmosis system that treats the water by removing 99 per cent of all bacteria and chlorine, so we are confident the water we're misting with remains pure."

Bond says some produce - including berries, grapes and some tomatoes - still come in plastic containers while mushrooms are packaged in cardboard trays. Most of this packaging is, however, recyclable.

Although many suppliers are reviewing the way produce is packaged, Bond believes manufacturers don't always understand what consumers want: "We know, but we are like an intermediary, we sell what they give us. I think manufacturers have a much bigger part to play."

New World is also trialling another initiative – bring your own containers. The trial, in which customers can use BYO containers for meat and seafood, is under way in a number of stores including Howick in Auckland, Hastings, Levin and Rototuna.

"Take-up has been slow," says Brendon Jones, owner-operator at New World in Howick, "but we're committed to conducting the trial. We have limited it so far to the butchery and seafood counters, where potential food safety risks are reduced because these products are likely to be cooked after being purchased."

He says Foodstuffs is also trialling paper alternatives to foil seafood bags and fibre-based deli trays.

Foodstuffs have signed the NZ Plastic Packaging Declaration which is committed to making all store and private label packaging 100 per cent reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025. It has also introduced recyclable food trays – a measure that gives customers the opportunity to divert more than 80 million trays from landfill every year.

keep your clothes on....’food in the nude’ means beginning of the end for plastic in supermarkets.
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