How a Garden Boosts Well-being
Why not do some yoga out in a garden or on your balcony?
Feeling stressed? Just spending time in a green space will lower your heart rate, blood pressure, and boost your mood.
Would you like to be happier and have more zest for life, optimism, and grit? Get active in a green space. Start a garden.
According to research, individuals who garden score higher not only on physical health and wellness, but on mental well-being, energy levels, self-concept, and life satisfaction (1,2,3,4,5). Living within one kilometer of green space is even correlated with a lower chance of suffering from physical disease, anxiety disorder, and depression (2,5,6,7).
City planners know that close contact with nature yields numerous psychological and physiological benefits, ranging from increased pain tolerance, recovery from stress and to relaxation and enhanced wellbeing (1,2,5,6,9,10). So why don’t city planners build in more public green oases to skyrocket community health, wellness, happiness, and vitality?
Space restrictions and the power of money grip the public wallet in towns and cities. Why build a tiny park when you can put in a parking lot or a shop? Where will the money come from to create a green space in a low-income residential area? How can you insert a green space in a city that is already densely built?
The answer is the creation of sidewalk gardens, street-level green spaces, balcony gardens, and green spaces on every rooftop.
You can grow plants clinging to cement walls and roadside barriers. Fruit trees, berry bushes, and vegetables can all be grown in fabric, easily transported fabric containers.
You can start to change your well-being, fortitude, health, and life satisfaction by starting a mini-garden at home. Even if you live in a flat with no balcony, you can grow herbs and strawberries in window boxes.
Start tending to plants and watching them grow to charge your life with more vitality. If you do have access to green space, consider creating a community garden with benches as a hub to supercharge community well-being and connection.
Children and the wise in age benefit the most from the creation of community parks and gardens. Building a place for multi-generational connection and integration immunizes people from loneliness, illness, and depression and is correlated with lower crime rates as well.
TAKE ACTION
Build your garden, even if it is in window boxes.
Look for a possibility to start a community garden in your neighborhood.
Organize the creation and care of a garden at your child’s school.
Ask to integrate a garden or more green at your workspace.
Spend time every day in a park or walking in green to lower stress, and increase your physical and mental well-being as well as your zest for life.
References:
M. Waliczek, J.M. Zajicek, R.D. Lineberger. The influence of gardening activities on consumer perceptions of life satisfaction. Hortscience, 40 (2005), pp. 1360-1365.
Takano, K. Nakamura, M. Watanabe. Urban residential environments and senior citizens longevity in megacity areas: the importance of walkable green spaces. J. Epidemiol. Community Health, 56 (2002), pp. 913-918