This is a sponsored guest post.
Whether you’re a gardener yourself or you have a neighbor with an impressive lawn, complete with a beautiful garden fountain and garden sheds, then you may have wondered just what it is about gardening that feels so relaxing. It’s certainly not just the ego boost of impressing your guests and neighbors, is it?
You’ll be glad to know, then, that it goes further than that. Here are some examples of how having a garden can benefit you, especially when it comes to your own mental health.
- It gives you a sense of responsibility. One of the biggest and most common issues in mental health today is the inability to get out of your own head, to have something that occupies you both mentally and physically, besides your own problems and worries. By having a garden, you take up the responsibility of caring and nurturing these plants, and as such allow you to break out of your thought patterns and put your worrying energy into something much more constructive and productive.
- It gives you a physical outlet for stress and worry. Many mental health issues also stem from too little physical activity. As such, increasing physical activity can help resolve these issues. Moving around and getting exhausted triggers the creation of serotonin and dopamine, the feel-good chemicals in your body. This can help make you feel more relaxed, ready to tackle any problems you might have that are currently giving you anxiety. Garden work, while certainly not as taxing or as strenuous as gym work or actual exercise, is still a good way of getting some physical activity in and therefore can help you with your mental health.
- It gives you a sense of accomplishment. Nothing gives a bigger and more uplifting boost to the morale than seeing something you’ve worked hard on nurturing and caring for become something beautiful that even your visitors and guests are impressed. A healthy garden of your own can easily give you that boost each and every day that you tend to it, giving you a regular reprieve from your mental burden whenever you step out of the house.
- It gives you a sense of control. In life, there are many things that are outside our control, and that can be a major source of mental issues. Gardening is one of the many activities you can enjoy where you, the gardener, is completely in the driver’s seat, able to choose not only which plants to grow but how and where they flourish. By having this sense of control and empowerment, you give yourself the boost of confidence you need to take charge of the other aspects of your life – even if it doesn’t feel that way at first.
- It reminds us of our place in nature and the bigger picture. Working with plants can remind us of our place in the world – not just as resource takers and gatherers but also nurturers and growers. For those of us who work in the city all day, this can be a great opportunity to re-align ourselves with our priorities and see that our concerns aren’t really that huge, to begin with. You can turn this into a family activity as well, giving you precious time to bond with your loved ones. Celebrating world naked gardening day is also a great way to remind yourself of our place in nature.
With all these benefits, having a garden can easily be considered as one of the best and most affordable non-medicinal ways you can do to improve your mental health and overall well-being. The fact that it’s quite easy and can fit into any kind of schedule also makes it one of the more convenient ones. So if you’re looking for a fun and low-stress activity to help you unwind from the daily stresses of everyday life, make it gardening. You’ll be glad you did!
