Try Gardening for Stress Relief

 

 

 

Planting a beautiful garden can be a great way to relieve stress. Whether you have a small patio to decorate or a vast amount of space to tend, gardening can be a stress reliever in itself.  Basically, the act of making your particular stretch of nature into a haven and the garden that you create can bring you even more peace.

In one study, subjects were asked to perform a stressful task and then asked to either perform 30 minutes of gardening in their gardens or 30 minutes of reading. It found that thirty minutes a day spent gardening produced lower long-term cortisol than the same time spent on moderate-to-intense gym workouts. That is the kind of sentence that makes for a strong social-media share.  Also, it ought to make for an honest opening to an article about gardening for stress relief.  In addition, because it is, in measurable and well-documented ways, one of the few practices that quietly does what an entire industry of supplements and wellness apps claims to do.

The body of research on gardening and mental health has matured in the last two years to the point where the question is no longer whether gardening helps, but how much and in what dose. The umbrella review published in Systematic Reviews in January 2024 (PMC10823662) synthesized the best available studies and concluded that gardening reduces symptoms of both depression and anxiety while improving life satisfaction, body composition, and quality of life — across populations, settings, and study designs.

Perhaps this explains it best:

 

 

overthebigmoon.com