The Wellness Benefits Of Gardening - Ajit Patel Sanda Wellbeing
You may think of gardening as just a relaxing hobby, but
it is often so much more. Aside from the obvious advantage of growing
nutritious fruits and vegetables,
it also offers an effective physical workout. As you stand, bend or squat,
plant seeds or pull weeds, you’re working most of your major muscle
groups, including your arms, shoulders, back, legs, and abdomen. This gentle
working and stretching improves joint flexibility and muscle
strength, as well as burning calories.
Gardening
is also beneficial for mental health. In today’s fast-paced, buzzing world, it
provides a relaxing break from life’s pressures,
helping to calm and clear your mind.
Research shows that gardening is an
excellent stress reliever. A Dutch study found, for example, that gardening for
half an hour following a stressful task not only improved mood but also lowered
levels of the stress
hormone, cortisol, better than spending the same amount of time reading indoors.
Gardening
also lets you explore your creativity. Planning and maintaining a garden
is a constant process of deciding which plants
to put where, which directly involves your imagination. And as well as
visualising how the garden
will look, you need to use logical
deduction to decide which plants go together, which should not, which need sun,
which need shade or protecting
from the wind, and so on. As with any mental activity this creative reasoning
helps to keep your brain
sharp, particularly in later life.
You may find that getting to grips
with your garden
also benefits your spiritual wellness.
It’s easy to spend a great deal of time cut off from nature,
in your home and place of work, walking paved streets and driving through busy
cities. It may sound clichéd, but gardening
really does provide an opportunity to reconnect with nature,
and remember that we are just one part of the diverse ecosystem
that makes up our planet.
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