New Study Shows Gardening Can Reap Mental Health Benefits

The garden is often referred to as a happy place by seasoned gardeners. But even if they have never gardened before, new research suggested that people may benefit from working with plants for their mental health.

Spending quality time outside is healthy for our minds and bodies, according to research.

You've probably experienced these advantages: when you step outside after feeling overwhelmed out or dull indoors, your mood instantly improves.

Gardening

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Researchers from the University of Florida discovered that gardening activities reduced stress, anxiety, and depression among healthy women who took twice-weekly gardening classes.

Their findings were reported in the journal PLOS ONE.

None of the study subjects had ever gardened, as per ScienceDaily.

Studies from the past have demonstrated that gardening can enable people with medical conditions or difficulties to improve their mental health.

According to a professor emeritus in the UF/IFAS environmental horticulture department, Charles Guy, gardening can improve the mental health and quality of life of healthy people.

The study was finished by 32 women between the ages of 26 and 49.

All of the participants in this experiment were in good health, which involved screening for things like long-term illnesses, drug and tobacco use, prescription medication use, and use of tobacco products.

The other half of the participants were given art-making sessions, and the other half were given gardening sessions.

Each group had two weekly meetings, for a total of eight meetings.

The gardening group was used as a benchmark in contrast to the art group.

Participants in the gardening classes learned how to select and plant seeds, transplant various plant species, and harvest and taste plants that are edible.

Participants in the art-making sessions picked up skills in collage, printmaking, drawing, and papermaking.

The study's findings revealed that both the gardening and art-making groups experienced incremental changes in their mental health, with the gardeners expressing a little less anxiety than the artists.

Therapeutic horticulture, also known as gardening for health and wellbeing, has been a concept since the 19th century.

We may be inherently drawn to plants because we rely on them for food, shelter, and other necessities of life, which explains the significance of plants in humans and the development of civilization as a species.

Also Read: 5 Ways to Make Gardening Easier as You Get Older

Benefits of gardening to mental Health

Most of our suffering results from trying to control things that we are powerless to do so.

Practice and gardening are a great way to develop more peace of mind as we learn to accept the limits of our power and the unpredictable nature of life, as per Psychology today.

Acceptance in the garden or somewhere else is not synonymous with giving up. We focus all of our energy on the things we can influence, and we let go of the rest.

Joe Lamp'l, the inventor of joe gardener, advises creating the ideal environment for your plants.

You probably know the costs of perfectionism if you tend toward it. Perfectionism can result in frustration and strained interpersonal relationships.

These types of neutralizers for perfectionism, as Lamp'l called them, are abundant in gardening.

He admitted to becoming a perfectionist himself and has firsthand knowledge of the futility of striving for perfection, particularly in the garden.

The incapability to garden perfectly is indeed a reason to celebrate.

Gardening is a fantastic way to cultivate the growth mindset, which psychologist Carol Dweck distinguished between fixed with a growth mindset and considers learning to be a continuous process.