Pexels/Greta Hoffman
As we begin our new year, popular topics revolve around the many ways to attain and maintain health and wellness. Have you considered gardening as a way to bring your body and mind into alignment? Just being around nature can improve your mood, making you feel more at peace.
Not only can gardens help improve your mood, but they can also help with depression and anxiety and provide hope and inspiration for patients recovering from serious conditions, like a stroke or cancer. The medical community is rediscovering the healing power of gardens and has been implementing therapy programs around these green spaces.
Consider the this:
- People have less time to spend in nature and spend a large percentage of their time indoors, leading a sedentary, unhealthy lifestyle. Being connected to nature with gardening gives us the opportunity to focus on the beauty of nature and reduces stress.
- Being in the garden and feeling a profound connection to the earth gives us the opportunity inspires feelings of awe and gratitude.
- Burn calories and use muscles to move and lift while gardening. Strength and stretching muscle groups help to keep the body strong.
- Larry Dossey, M.D., writes: “The importance of gardening and ‘digging deep’ is written into our physiology. Briefly, we know that children, who are exposed to dirt in the formative years, develop healthier, stronger immune systems when compared to children whose parents keep them squeaky clean, and they have a lower incidence of asthma, eczema and allergies later in life. Exposure to dirt in childhood promotes good health.”
Gardening is not limited to the outdoors. Bring a touch of nature inside and breathe the benefits right away. Contributed by Kelly Lorenz, The Mustard Seed
