Looking for a simple change that can improve your physical, mental and emotional health? Try gardening. People garden indoors and out, in different weather and climes, and with different intensities and goals. Research consistently shows that gardening has a positive effect on mental health and wellbeing.
And emerging research suggests that gardening may also be a way into healthy behavioral changes writ large. Gardening has been found to help connect people with their neighbours. Credit: iStock Why is gardening such a healthy pursuit? Research suggests that there are two main pathways that lead gardeners to mental wellbeing.
One is through the connection with nature and its aesthetic beauty. But another, perhaps surprisingly, is how gardening can also be a way for us to connect with other people. “I feel like it’s just about bringing the pieces back together of what makes us human,” says Jonathan Kingsley, senior lecturer of health promotion at Swinburne University of Technology.
Why people enjoy gardening Gardening can be a rich, multisensory experience, and gardeners typically cite gardens as a source of pleasure and joy, escape or curiosity and learning. Loading “It’s the taste, the texture, the sensation ..
. wind on your face and your hair, just feeling the elements of nature. And it helps people feel alive, awakening in some way,” says Jill Litt, a senior researcher at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health.
“These are things that are very therapeutic.�.