You probably remember seeing your grandma in the garden, weeding, trimming shrubs, planting a new flower, or picking vegetables. Maybe you didn’t realize then why she spent so much time in the garden, but now you’re starting to get it.
Many young people find satisfaction in nurturing plants and growing their vegetables. Even though this is the peak in technology development and no one uses it more than young people, returning to the basics is what many of them are doing.
Gardening is a wonderful physical activity that also brings many mental benefits to the person who does it regularly. If you have been searching for ways to quiet your mind and hide from the modern buzz, you could try gardening.
1. Stronger body and heart
As mentioned before, gardening is a mild physical activity. It means that gardening helps you burn calories. More precisely, you can burn up to 330 calories after doing garden activities for an hour. Your BIM (body mass index) will probably be lower due to a higher number of burnt calories.
It also speeds up your circulation, strengthening your heart. Also, a medium-intensity activity for 30 minutes most days of the week can prevent and control high blood pressure. In other words, raking leaves or weeding for 30-45 minutes will keep your hypertension under control.
As a result, you will reduce the risks of a stroke or a heart attack. And that’s something you should appreciate even now.
2. Building your bones
Gardening is an outdoor activity, meaning you get to spend much of your time in the sunlight. This is good for your bones because sunlight provides your body with vitamin D. Vitamin D then helps calcium enter your bones. Consequently, your bones get stronger and more resistant to some diseases, such as arthritis and osteoporosis.
Just remember that you still have to apply sunscreen if you are going to spend more than a few minutes outside. Another way to prevent sun rays from damaging your skin and cause skin cancer is to have a shaded area in the garden. You can install a pergola roof from a material that soaks up the sun rays. After an hour under the sun, sit under the pergola, apply the sunscreen again, and wait around 15 minutes before you go back into the garden.
3. Healthier diet
We all know how important it is to have a diet that consists mostly of vegetables, fruits, and whole grains. Having a garden means you will always have fresh fruits, vegetables, and herbs at your disposal. You will be far more motivated to eat healthy food that you have grown on your own. You will also feel less tempted to reach for a quick, unhealthy snack.
Moreover, having a garden means you can grow some vegetables or fruits that you can’t find on the market easily. In other words, you can get more nutrients by trying out lesser-known fruits and vegetables.
4. Stress relief
Numerous studies have proven a correlation between gardening and stress. More precisely, gardening has proven itself to be a very effective tool in fighting depression, anxiety disorder, and stress. It is such a powerful tool that some hospitals and mental institutions have gardens their patients can tend to.
If you are feeling overwhelmed with stress, just go to your garden, put on your gloves, choose a gardening tool, and get on to it. Stress occurs when you feel you don’t have any control over what’s happening to you. Taking care of your garden will help you gain control again. Your garden is where you make all the decisions, and you are taking care of things.
That feeling of being under enormous pressure will go away once you focus your mind on a gardening activity. Everything else simply fades away. Quieting your mind through one or two simple activities will help you decompress and see things more clearly.
5. Sense of community
Gardeners have their communities where they gather, talk about gardening issues and novelties, and share their experiences. In many cities and towns, people of all ages gather in a gardening community. Together, they take care of public parks and green surfaces or help each other with their private gardens.
In other words, these people have a sense of community. They spend time with people who share their passion for plants and greenery. They laugh together, work together, and help each other out. In this day and age, where many of us feel isolated, a gardening community is a way to reconnect with other human beings again through something precious and beneficial for everybody.
Final comment
Gardening is a modern reaction to growing chaos and noise that fill our everyday lives. In a way, it is an old technique used to fight a modern problem. Technological development brings out some issues, and a naturalistic approach is how we can deal with them.
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