As we all know, gardening has been around as long as we have as it is the main source of our food. But over the years, it has stopped only providing us with nutritional benefits. People have discovered that growing plants and walking in the gardens will also help us relax, focus and connect with nature. If you are looking for a simple way to improve your mental health at home, there are some of the best benefits of gardening.
Gardening Can Build Self-esteem
If you are someone who doesn’t think that they have been gifted with a green thumb, you should still try gardening. After you have planted, nurtured, and harvested plants you will feel like a different person, and it will boost your self-esteem.
Gardening Is Good for the Soul
If you have paid attention to details, you will be able to see that all rehab centres and hospitals have beautiful courtyards filled with plants for their residents to enjoy. In most cases, three residents are allowed to plant their plants because gardening is good for your soul.
It Can Decrease Depression
When you are immersed in vegetation and nature, you are surrounded by therapeutic components. Many people don’t realise that surrounding yourself with nature has been proven to help with clinical depression. Therefore, gardening and spending time outside in the sun will help your body produce more serotonin. As most know, serotonin is the chemical in our brain that induces happiness.
It Will Help To Move Beyond Perfectionism
Many people who are struggling with their mental help are also battling with being perfectionists to the point it is affecting their day to day life. There are a lot of costs of being a perfectionist. Constant trying to make things perfect will mean missed opportunities, deadlines as well as frustration. It can also lead people to be completely unmotivated and gain a reason to even bother moto. Gardening is so good for this because it is almost an antidote to perfectionism. That is all because no matter how much perfection you are putting into it, other factors will affect it more, such as the weather, rodents as well as bugs. Taking on gardening will help you get overdoing activities that are potentially a waste of time.
Doing Gardening Work Reduces Stress
Gardening is known to reduce the symptoms of anxiety, stress and depression. That is all because gardening is giving your brain a chance to focus on something else rather than the thing stressing you out. Another thing that will help you not get stressed out when gardening and get the opposite effect is using a smart tower hydroponic system garden. It will make things much easier for you, as well as help your garden become lush instead of it going south and dying.
Gardening Work Can Make You Happy
Getting all the dirt under your fingernails while digging around your garden can make you feel much happier than you think it will. That is all because of the healthy bacteria that are known to live in the soil. It can increase your levels of serotonin and therefore make you happier. There is nothing that will make you feel warmer inside than creating a perfect garden in your backyard.
It Can Help Reduce Feelings Of Loneliness
It often comes as a surprise to a lot of people. Gardening is known to be a great way of reducing loneliness. The reasoning behind that is quite simple. As community gardens are becoming more and more popular, it is one of the best places you can meet someone who shares the same interests as you. They often offer gardening groups where you can meet some good friends.
Gardening Can Improve Your Attention Span
Something that also comes as a surprise to many people is that something like gardening can improve your attention span. If you are someone who is struggling with ADHD or staying focused on conversations, daily tasks and being focused overall, gardening will help you learn how to concentrate on the thing that is right in front of you. There have been studies that have shown that many different activities like this will be able to reduce symptoms of ADHD and similar symptoms like that.
As you can see, many mental health benefits come with having some fun creating your backyard garden. But no matter how long you are planning on staying out in the yard, make sure that you are taking all the precautions such as wearing sunscreen and any kinds of protection that you might need as well as staying in the shade and being hydrated.
Author bio:
Alison Pearson is an interior design student. She is a writer and designer, and her ultimate passion is art and architecture. She is also a bibliophile and her favourite book is “The Sound and the Fury” by William Faulkner. Follow her on Twitter.
