It’s good for the body and soul, and with the warm weather here, there’s no better time to be in the great outdoors
Gardening is well known to be good for body and soul – it keeps you physically active and just being outdoors is a natural mood booster that also provides your body with vital doses of sunlight and vitamin D.
Research has shown that time spent in green spaces and gardening has a positive effect on our mental health and can be healing and helpful especially when dealing with anxiety and depression.
Gardening keeps us connected to other living things and stops us from being self-obsessed, allowing us to focus on the great outdoors and not ourselves.
It also helps us to relax and let go and the very act of working in nature releases happy hormones.
One of the best ways to calm the anxious mind and lift your mood is to live in the present moment – as mindfulness practitioners tell us – and plants and flowers help us to do this.
Creating your own health and wellbeing garden can be as easy as making a natural snug that can be a place in your existing outdoor space for meditation and mindfulness.
By making a few simple changes you can easily transform any garden into a relaxing space.
Step one is to make sure that you have a quiet corner away from all of the hustle and bustle of everyday life where you can sit and simply enjoy being outside.
Make sure you have a variety of fragrant plants. Lavender is ideal as it attracts butterflies and bees – a joy to watch and good for pollinating your garden.
Herbs such as mint, rosemary, thyme and sage are also a good choice. Even the smallest of outside space – a front garden or balcony – can accommodate a pot of herbs, which always smell strongest at dusk.
Research has shown that brightly coloured flowers are brilliant for lifting the mood so plant some vibrant reds, yellows and oranges as well as cooler whites and blues that are good for relaxation.
Finally, think about a water feature.
If the constant trickle of a fountain doesn’t work for you
then something calmer such
as a pond, or small container pond, is a great way to relax and reflect.
If you still need inspiration then the gardening-for-health charity Thrive, which is based inn Beech Hill, has developed a free online resource Cultivating Wellbeing in Gardens and Nature.
This is to encourage you to use your garden to spend more time connecting with nature as a way to restoring wellbeing and improving your physical and mental health.
Thrive is the UK’s leading provider of social and therapeutic horticulture programmes using gardening to bring about positive changes in the lives of people living with disabilities, ill health or mental health issues, or who are isolated, disadvantaged or vulnerable.
For more details, or to download the online guide, visit www.thrive.org.uk
