The Benefits of Gardening for Mental Health and Wellbeing
Gardening can be an effective way to reduce anxiety and stress. Simply watching plants, smelling their fragrance, or touching their soft leaves and stems can release endorphins, relieving tension.
Gardening has long been recognized for its psycho-therapeutic elements and can help alleviate mental health problems across a lifespan. From front door steps and rooftop gardens, allotment or allotments – gardening provides a sense of accomplishment while building self-esteem.
1. Relieves Stress
If life is becoming overwhelming, spending time in the garden can help ease stress and anxiety. Gardening provides something to focus on that can distract your mind away from worries while simultaneously encouraging mindfulness techniques that reduce anxiety.
Gardening provides physical exercise that can improve mood and lower stress, according to research. Gardening activities like weeding, digging and raking provide excellent exercise that may also help with mood enhancement and stress relief.
Gardening allows you to reap the rewards of your efforts, which can boost self-esteem and feelings of accomplishment. Eating vegetables directly from the garden may also be more nutritious than purchasing them at supermarkets – particularly helpful if you suffer from mental health problems such as depression or anxiety. Finding exercise can be challenging; gardening provides a simple solution.
2. Boosts Self-Esteem
Making time to cultivate plants and enjoy the results (in terms of fresh produce or flowers) can be an excellent way to increase self-esteem. Indeed, many gardeners claim their gardens have helped them overcome depression or anxiety.
Gardening is an effective form of exercise, known to lower stress levels and boost moods. As a gentle form of physical activity that can be enjoyed by all ages and abilities, gardening offers multiple health benefits for its participants.
Gardening can be a rewarding and relaxing hobby that you can enjoy alone or with family and friends. Gardening provides the ideal opportunity to escape from everyday stressors while reconnecting with nature while finding some me-time and downtime. In fact, gardening often serves as a gateway activity allowing participants to form new social bonds (for instance a community garden or gardening group).
3. Improves Attention Span
Gardening can help improve your focus. Spending time in the garden and witnessing its development gives a sense of achievement that enhances concentration. This increases focus and can increase attention span.
Gardening can also provide exercise and can reduce your stress levels. According to studies, gardening has been shown to help alleviate symptoms associated with anxiety and depression as well as increase happiness and life satisfaction.
Gardening can help cultivate a “growth mindset”. Dr. Carol Dweck, an authority in positive psychology states that gardening can provide an invaluable way to overcome challenges and setbacks, from pests, weeds and weather affecting your gardening efforts to pesticide drift and weather-induced issues that require you to use resilience as part of your strategy to make the most out of any situation.
Research indicates that gardeners typically experience improved cognitive function and greater life satisfaction compared to those who don’t garden.
4. Reduces Anxiety
Gardening, whether a simple potted plant on your windowsill or an expansive vegetable patch, has been shown to reduce stress. A study by Charlie Hall, AgriLife Extension Horticulture Specialist found that being outdoors reduces heart rate and muscle tension while sunlight lowers blood pressure while increasing vitamin D levels (which in turn boost serotonin). Gardening routines such as watering or weeding provide soothing rhythms to help focus your attention on tasks at hand.
Nurturing a plant from seed to maturity is also a powerful way of developing a growth mindset, an integral component of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). By training your mind to see challenges like garden pests or weather as opportunities for success, gardening can give you more confidence and resilience across other aspects of your life.
