In this era’s busy mechanical life, people must have something as a hobby to take some time for themselves. And one of the best ways to relax and take a break from the hectic lifestyle is being close to nature. Gardening serves the best for this purpose, giving you the perfect feeling of serenity. Even if you have issues with knees, you can enjoy gardening. Gardening is essential for the balance of our environment and has been proven to be a way to feed well to your health and soul.
Japan has recently started a new trend that is called ‘forest bathing.’ People rinse their body and mind in the beauty of nature to untwine the strings of all types of distractions. It has been proven effective in helping them to refresh their minds and boost their focus on work. Moreover, people involved in gardening has much higher observation skill than others as it takes to work on all details even while making a garden bed. Its also why you probably spend time visually on decorations and making the garden look good.
There is no doubt that gardening will make you happier and more focused in your life, especially if you have all the essentials. However, there are scientific explanations behind everything. There is a bunch of means of how gardening makes you happy. Some of the reasons why gardening opens the door to happiness are listed down here for you. Lets see how gardening makes you happy.
- Additional Exercise Routine
Having gardening as a hobby indeed takes a lot of effort. It can be considered a low or moderate-intensity workout depending on how much time you spend. It is observed in statistics that up to 300 calories can be burned by consuming just one hour on yard work. Health experts recommend that 30 to 45 minutes, in general, can be a good duration for gardening trice a week for beginners. Of course, you can add swimming, walking, or running as your go-to. But you must agree to this 2-in-1 advantage you are getting from gardening. You might also need to go through some internet research for accuracy in your garden exercise.
- Decrease Your Health Issues
Gardening is also proved to be an excellent help for heart patients. Just a regular moderate activity in your garden for half an hour can help maintain your blood pressure level, like magic. Many heart and lung foundation has suggested gardening as a recreational exercise to fight high blood pressure.
Gardening can also help to prevent osteoporosis. A gardener needs to go through yielding, digging deep into the soil to get enough water and nutrients for the plants, making a weed bed for them, and removing unwanted plants. These are no one-time jobs. If you have a garden, you need to complete the circle thousands of times or maybe more. These involve weight-lifting, repetitive activities, stretching, and whatnots, making sure the significant muscles in your body are working out as required.
Again, if you predict a high risk of Alzheimer’s, you can rely on a low-intensity activity like gardening. Just work in your garden for around 20 minutes twice a week, and there you have it – a beautiful accessory to your house with physical and mental satisfaction.
- More Interaction with the Soil
You will find it very interesting that the best thing happens to you while gardening activities is when it makes you dirty. Yes, the soil is the savior!
Soil bacteria are known to have a lot of health benefits. They are even commercially manufactured and cultured for pharmaceutical usage. Many soil bacteria are proven to be natural anti-depressant too. Mycobacterium vaccae is a soil bacterium that works just like the chemical anti-depressant Prozac to calm your neurons. The only difference is that it has two side effects. It stimulates the production of serotonin that makes you happy and relaxed.
- Boost Your Immunity
Besides the benefits from the soil bacteria, gardening has much more to give for immunization. An open garden is not just a place to breathe in peace and relaxation; it is a full energy package. Working in your garden keeps you occupied for long enough to soak up enough sunlight assuring your daily requirement of vitamin D. Vitamin D helps in the absorption of calcium, building strong bones and teeth. Vitamins are also essential to perform the metabolic activities in your body and thus help your immune system.
- Your Personal Stress Buster
Gardening soothes one’s soul in different ways. A remarkable view of your backyard created by yourself can be enough to make you take pride in it. Besides, you can always decorate it, adding your taste of style, and enjoy some “me-time” whenever you want. A couple of minutes close to the beautiful result of your hard work can remove stress easily. Though many face problems of not having a house large enough or for the absence of a backyard, pot planting can be solved in their balconies. It might need a little study and research or even help from an expert to decorate everything as this can be a bit tricky to ensure the growth of your plants. But you must have faith in yourself that you can do it to live better and happier.
- Cut of the Risk of Dementia
Dementia is prevalent in people over their 60s or 70s. The symptoms may show late, but the development begins before the 50s. One effective way to halt the development of dementia is gardening. It is proved that a happy and productive soul can be the solution to many health problems. Moreover, statistically, it has been shown that gardeners have a much lower risk of developing dementia than those who are not.
- Meditation at Its Best
Nature knows best how to capture someone’s attention. The closer you get to nature, the more you get close to your true self as nature helps you focus on tiny details and teaches to admire them deeply. You can get rid of all your anxiety or tension that may be bothering you for a long, just a calm meditation in your garden. Besides, many of the gardening activities are meditative themselves requiring a one hundred percent attention. It is a therapeutic method for relaxation. Gardeners often mention how times flies fast while pulling weeds out from the lawn or digging the soil.
Records also say that people find their yoga or meditation routine more effective and fun to perform outdoors. And what is better than the combination of outdoor with a homely environment that you find in your garden!
- Eat Fresh and Healthy
A significant advantage of having your own garden is that you can grow whatever you like. From your favorite fruits to vegetables, you can customize your land; however you desire. Growing all your favorite vegetables and fruits will encourage you to eat fresh and healthy. You will know what pesticides to use and not to use. So, you can skip the fear of unhygienic products and chemical preservatives.
On top of everything, eating something that has been grown all by yourself will add some extra taste and flavor to the meal.
- Flowers to Save Your Days
Not necessarily, you have to grow fruits or vegetables. Go creative with your favorite flowers. You can also try increasing foreign flowers or endangered species to draw the attention of others. No person can deny the beauty of this gift from nature. Flowers are always known to bring positivity regardless of people’s age or gender. They are powerful influencers of health and happiness. It helps people bond too.
Besides all the abstract advantages, here goes a bonus for you. You can start a small side business of flowers if you want to put a smile on peoples’ faces and, at the same time, make some cash out of it.
- Socialize More
Gardening gives you a chance to level up your socializing skills. It is not easy to maintain a garden all by yourself. You will need to go to the nurseries or the seed stores for your goods. That is a way to communicate with other gardeners and exchange ideas. Again, many people prefer a small land in a community garden instead of having an individual one. This helps a lot in socializing and help each other.
These socializing techniques can help you embrace yourself and motivate you to live a healthy and happy life. Especially, elderly people who retired from services can get rid of their loneliness for a while and smile with others.
- Build Responsibilities
A gardener is nothing if he is not responsible. Needless to say, gardening adds up numerous chores to your daily routine. You will have to go through cleaning, yielding, trimming down the brunches, maintaining the lawn, making beds, and whatnots. Besides, these are works on a daily basis. You cannot do it once and then think that it has been done. You have to water the plants and trees daily, make sure they get enough minerals. If you are growing vegetables, you have to be cautious about their requirements. Different types of vegetables have different needs. Make sure to buy the right fertilizers for them. You might need to look out for the pests, and at the same time, you might want to avoid chemical pesticides and eat fresh. For that reason, you have to look for a balanced solution. Again, if you are growing fruits, you have to protect them from insects and birds too.
So, you see, it comes with a great responsibility to enjoy the benefits. However, you cannot deny how much it teaches you to stand firm with your obligations. You will not be the idle person you once might have been. You will know how to get rid of the arrogance of ignorance, as your garden will help you grow with itself.
- Add Values and Meanings to Your Life
One of the core purposes of having a hobby is that hobbies are supposed to be something you enjoy. And the cherry on top is added if it is productive and adds meanings to your life. All these small details will gradually reshape your personality and, of course, boost your confidence level so much.
Gardening, as a hobby, fulfills that criteria in a very smooth way. Gardening indeed makes people healthy, but how does it take care of our souls?
Let it be phrased a bit differently. Before you realize the joy, gardening comes with lots of responsibilities. A gardener is like a parent where his/her plants are the children. Just like the way a mother or father takes care of their babies, feed them in time, takes measures when they fall sick, a gardener has to look after his/her garden. So, the happiness of the parents is depended on the pleasure of the babies. Similarly, gardeners are happy to see their plants grow healthy and happy. It adds up as the satisfaction of achievement.
The best thing is that your garden’s transformation is the reflection of your hard work, and the result is going to stick right before your eyes for a lifetime. Trust me when I say, this feeling can light up your mood whenever you look at your garden. You will no longer suffer from having a blue day. Feel proud and say goodbye to your low self-esteem.
- Fall in Love
Gardening can melt the heart of the toughest guy in the world. Even a person who might have lost faith in love due to some unfortunate events may again fall in love. You will love your surroundings, the works you do, the time you spend in your garden, the beauty of the earth, and all living beings. On top of everything, you will love yourself more. Gardeners understand and appreciate everything in their life. They feel thankful to nature and people due to lots of positivity driven by the endorphins. They are honoring the earth and mother nature every time they are pampering their garden.
As we all know, plants and trees are of great importance to the earth’s atmosphere and all living beings. They help in keeping the balance of the ecosystem. They are the only ones to absorb energy directly from the sunlight and thus provide food for the entire world. While gardening, you recycle the rainwater and use domestic wastes as compost fertilizer, thus returning the favor of earth and doing good for everyone, including yourself. This way, your mind is engaging more in the activities that bring positivity and fills your heart with love for yourself. Gardening also resembles our life. It gives us the message that we also have to remove the weeds from our minds. So, tell me, how can someone not fall in love while gardening!
Questions to Raise
People can hardly agree to deny any of the benefits of gardening. Many of you might already have decided to give it a chance as your upcoming hobby. However, there are some questions often raised by people before they start building their very own gardens. Here are some possible problems with answers they might have hit you too.
Does Gardening Release Endorphins?
Endorphins are neurohormones released from the pituitary glands in humans. They inhibit gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), which is a neurotransmitter responsible for blocking dopamine secretion. So, endorphins help in raising dopamine level in human bodies that creates pleasure.
It is observed that physical activities or massive movements of major muscles can trigger the pituitary gland to release more endorphins. When you are out in the daylight busking and tanning, digging deep into the soil, removing weed, and harvesting vegetables, your brain cannot but increase the production of endorphins.
Why is Gardening So Relaxing?
All the stated benefits might already have answered this question. When you can sense many mindful activities in your life and find yourself confident, everything feels relaxed. The more love you grow for your garden, the more it gives you back. Besides the anti-depressant activity of soil and increased dopamine secretion, gardening can reduce cortisol levels in your body, causing less stress.
If you do not believe me, feel free to make yourself a cup of tea and enjoy it in your garden. You will know how meditative that can feel.
Summing it all up
Gardening can not only bring an elegant touch to your station but also is required to save the planet. Due to the endangered beauty of nature, governments in many countries are now encouraging their people to plant more trees. Besides, people are knowing better about gardening and having excellent feedback while experiencing this hobby. Many families who do not have a large backyard are pot planting on the balcony or rooftop to create the ambiance of mother nature according to their affordability. This may not give them the real pleasure of having a large garden but allows them to have a little relaxing break from all the hustles in life.
So, no more waiting; grab your spade, buy some seeds, and start digging into your backyard to create beauty and joy for everyone and explore a happier you!
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