Aside from exercising regularly and eating healthy, there are a number of activities that can improve your overall health. And one that’s becoming increasingly popular is home gardening for health and wellbeing.
Other than beautifying your backyard, gardening also plays an important role in keeping your mind and body in good shape. A lot of people have turned to gardening health and wellbeing during the COVID-19 to help ease their stress and worries. Read on to learn more about gardening for health and wellbeing.
Gardening for health and wellbeing
Since the pandemic began, staying home has been one of the best ways to control the spread of the virus. But being in home isolation for months can cause stress, frustration, and loneliness.
To cope, a lot of people have found gardening as one of the best ways to spend their time, and refocus their energies.
Aside from planting succulents and other aesthetically pleasing plants indoors, urban gardening has also gained popularity during community quarantine. This is because more people have become aware of the importance of saving and becoming more self-sufficient.
In the Philippines, urban gardening has become a popular way to create alternative sources of ingredients. And so a lot of people, even in cities, have geared towards planting fruits and vegetables in their backyards, balconies, and patios.
With this, the Department of Agriculture promotes Plant, Plant, Plant program, which encourages every Filipino to grow their food and lessen their worries about food supply during the pandemic.
The benefits of gardening for health and wellbeing
People use gardening for health and wellbeing during these trying times, since it helps preserve their mental health. But aside from its positive effects on stress management, gardening can do more for our health. Here’s how.
Gardening serves as your daily dose of exercise
As a form of exercise, gardening encourages you to move around, use your muscles, and stretch your body by digging, walking, bending, mowing, and raking.
Even if you’re stuck at home, you can continue being active through gardening. Thus, gardening can also reduce the risk of obesity.
Gardening improves and preserves your mental health
Other than its physical benefits, gardening also enhances and maintains a person’s mental health. Seeing greenery makes you more calm and relaxed, thus reducing stress, anxiety, and depression.
Also, gardening signals your body to release more happy hormones like dopamine and serotonin, which makes you feel positive emotions and alleviate discomfort and loneliness.
Gardening promotes healthy eating habits
Since you grow your food in your backyard, it is much easier for you to access healthier food choices that you can include in your diet.
Gardening helps people dealing with Alzheimer’s and dementia
According to studies, gardening helps alleviate the symptoms of Alzheimer’s and dementia, such as agitation and mood changes. Some identified benefits for them are receiving stimulation, being present, and developing relationships.
Other studies have found that gardening lowers the risk of dementia by 36%.
Other benefits
According to a study about gardening for health and wellbeing, gardening also:
- Helps people who are recovering from surgeries and other medical treatments.
- Improves social interaction. For instance, gardening allows people to interact during the activity, or converse about it.
- Reduces the occurrence of self-harm in those who are dealing with mental health problems.
- Improves different mental skills such as memory, alertness, and cognition.
- Helps people overcome their difficulties with drug and alcohol dependency. Gardening can provide a recreational activity as well as a sense of community for people with substance abuse disorders.
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