Healthy gardening not only leaves your kitchen stocked with fresh fruits and vegetables, it actually improves your overall health as well. Studies show that gardening can help with a number of different medical issues while helping to relieve stress and provide relaxation as well. Your favorite pastime can provide you with amazing medical benefits along with your healthy snack choices.
Good for the Heart
Along with making you feel good, healthy gardening is literally good for your heart—on a medical level. Research has shown that a connection with nature has a huge impact on the overall health of a person. Moreover, people in their middle ages are known to have far fewer health issues when they spend a considerable amount of time outdoors.
In a study conducted in England, it was discovered that simply looking at a picture of a landscape had a significant impact on postoperative heart patients. Interestingly enough, the group of patients who were shown pictures of nature had significantly lower anxiety levels, required less pain medication and spent less time recovering in the hospital. This alone goes to show that a connection to nature plays a significant role in our overall health and wellness.
Other studies have even shown that those who spend time engaging in healthy gardening have lower blood pressure as well as a major increase in immunity. Spending time in your garden, as well as eating what comes out of it, helps to boost your immune system—which then keeps your entire body much healthier.
Of course, along with all of these benefits are the physical benefits that your body receives from the physical activity involved in gardening. Whether you are a hard-core gardener setting out to win awards or someone who simply enjoys a few planters here and there, there are physical benefits associated with gardening. Simply working with your hands is a physical benefit in and of itself.
Good for the Soul
While healthy gardening does wonders for your body and overall health, it is also good for the soul. Those who have spent a substantial amount of gardening can attest to the peace and tranquillity that is felt while working in the garden. Healthy gardening provides a healthy emotional outlet in that you reap countless benefits. Plus, few things can make a person feel better than standing back and taking a look at a magnificent garden that they have created with their own two hands.
Healthy gardening can also help boost your mood by giving you something to take your mind off of life’s troubles. While working in the garden, you can reflect on things and gain a clear perspective as you work with your hands. Gardening also allows you to use your creativity to create something beautiful that you can truly be proud of.
There are few things in life that can offer as many physical, emotional, and mental benefits as gardening. Working in your garden is something that is all your own—you reap the fruits (literally) of your labor while engaging in something that you enjoy.
Healthy gardening just might be the ticket to emptying out that medicine cabinet and healing yourself naturally inside and out!