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April 2015 | Read this issue and more at www.healthandwellnessmagazine.net |
The Happy Side of
Gardening
It’s good for your mental
health to plant seeds of hope
By Dana Sizemore, Staff Writer
Has life got you down? Are you
feeling overworked or overstressed?
Why not get outside and plant a
garden? In the words of Barbara
Pleasant, an organic gardening expert
and writer, “Planting a garden is hope
in action.”
In many ways, placing those seedlings into the ground is planting hope
– hope for good food or for beautiful
flowers – yes. More than that, planting a garden is the hope of something
good to come.
The idea that gardening is good for
you took root long ago. Widespread
evidence exists of the health benefits
of working in the garden. It helps
with everything from improvements
in cardiovascular health to cancer prevention. More recently, scientists are
showing gardening can be beneficial
to our mental health as well.
The fresh air, the sunshine and
the physical act of digging in soil
somehow all work together to calm
the mind. A study conducted by the
Wageningen University and Research
Center in t H