Healing Properties Of Gardening

Healing Properties Of Gardening Planting flowers and vegetables can reap bountiful bouquets and delicious harvests for your dining table. But did you know gardening also can do wonders for your well-being? Here are eight surprising health healing properties of gardening. 1. Gardening can build self-esteem. Maybe you don’t think you were born with a green thumb, but after tilling, planting, nurturing and harvesting plants, you might see a slightly different person in the mirror: a person who can grow things and is a little more in tune with the earth. It always feels good to accomplish new tasks, and if you can grow a garden, what can’t you do? 2. A good heart is a considerable healing property of gardening. All that digging, planting and weeding burns calories and strengthens your heart. “There are physical benefits from doing the manual labor of gardening,” says UNC Health internal medicine physician Robert Hutchins, MD, MPH. “It’s hard work to garden, and it provides some cardiovascular benefit.” 3. Gardening reduces stress. Gardening can help reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety. “Gardening gives you a chance to focus on something and put your mind to work with a goal and a task in mind,” Dr. Hutchins says, “which is helpful especially now with so much illness and death and talk of death, just to see things growing and things thriving.” 4. Gardening makes you happy. Getting dirt under your nails while digging in the ground can make you pretty happy. In fact, inhaling M. vaccae, a healthy bacteria that lives in soil, can increase levels of serotonin and reduce anxiety. Its a surprising health healing properties of gardening. 5. Hand strength is one of a considerable healing properties of gardening. All that digging, planting and pulling does more than produce plants. Gardening also will increase your hand strength. What a great way to keep your hands and fingers as strong as possible for as long as possible. 6. Gardening is good for the whole family. Gardening can be a solo activity or an opportunity for bonding with your family and friends. The happiness and stress relief that gardening provides is a great thing to share with loved ones. Also, gardening has special benefits for kids. Early exposure to dirt has been linked to numerous health benefits, from reducing allergies to autoimmune diseases. 7. Gardening can give you a boost of vitamin D. A healthy dose of vitamin D increases your calcium levels, which benefits your bones and immune system. Exposure to sunlight helped older adults achieve adequate amounts of vitamin D. Just don’t forget your sunscreen. It's also a surprising health healing properties of gardening. 8. Growing your own food can help you eat healthier. If you have a vegetable or herb or fruit garden, you’re getting fresh produce that you know hasn’t been treated with pesticides. “It’s essentially as farm-to-table as it gets,” Dr. Hutchins says, “if you’re eating what you’re growing.” "The benefits of gardening really are prodigious," says Adam Griffin, a senior occupational therapist at Camali Clinic, a UAE-based centre for child and adolescent mental health. "Not only can the exertions involved in digging, weeding, planting and pruning help your physical health, but they can also have a very positive impact on your mental health." Here are some of the physical, psychological and social triggers of what has come to be known as ecotherapy or horticulture therapy, which can benefit stressed-out or learning-incapacitated individuals when they're encouraged to feel at one with nature. Youngsters with learning difficulties or people with high levels of anxiety suffer from low self-esteem, but gardening is a great levelling ground. For those with mental-health problems, being able to contribute to such a meaningful activity can be cathartic in boosting confidence and clarity. From these simple healing properties of gardening youngsters can be able to monitor the amount of water given to a potted plant or bed of flowers leads to a greater sense of control - an important psychological counter for those who are often overwhelmed by their feelings. Exposure to green spaces has been proven to be one of the most effective healing properties of gardening , which controls moods, memory and immunity. "Gardening can be a positive escape from the stress many of us take for granted as a part of modern living," says Griffin. "Even Sigmund Freud spoke of the relaxing benefits of gardening, saying: 'Flowers are restful to look at. They have neither emotions or conflicts.' No matter your age, it can be a time when you leave your worries behind. All the bills, exams, deadlines and a thousand other daily responsibilities we have can be left at the proverbial garden gate." The love of gardening is a seed once sown that never dies. - Gertrude Jekyll The fastest way to stay connected with us, Follow us On;Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Linkedin, Vimeo, Youtube.