What is gardening good for? (VIDEO)

It reduces anxiety and lowers the risk of depression. It teaches patience and perseverance. And it's a dive into lightness.

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Benefits of gardening
Gardening is very good for you, and it's an activity that anyone, at any age, can do. Scientific research is now all moving in this direction, and shows how much gardening is good for your mood, helps to combat and reduce stressanxiety and can stimulate optimism, even reducing the risk troughThis is no small thing, and in fact there are many hospitals and health facilities where patients cultivate vegetables as a therapy, to keep the brains of elderly people functioning and alert and to reduce the risks, with advancing age, of problems of dementia.
Over 20 studies collected in a meta-analysis by a group of Japanese scientists, and published in Preventive Medicine Reports, It confirms all these beneficial qualities of gardening. And it adds the improvement in some indicators related to general well-being: satisfaction, quality of life, sense of community, and good human relationships. Not to mention the advantage of being able to consume seasonal fruit and vegetables, grown with your own hands. 
According to research by theAmerican Institute for cancer research, the work done for the care of the garden or vegetable garden on the balcony is at the same level as thecontinuous physical activities that we do every day in the gym and that allow us to stay fit and healthy.

Gardening and mental health

Gardening is a kind of mental therapy in direct contact with nature. A therapy inspired by the lightheartedness and pleasure of watching the plants and flowers we're cultivating grow. It offers a series of direct benefits.
  • They improve mood and self-esteem, while negative thoughts fade away. The urge to ruminate disappears.
  • It develops a skill that also helps to better recognize your own qualities.
  • Gardening teaches you to have patience and constancy.
  • Affectionate contact with plants and flowers pushes us to taking care of othersThe ones we usually don't even look at, too busy with our presentism.

Why taking care of plants improves your health

Caring for plants is also beneficial for other reasons, especially if we manage to do it consistently.
  • It increases our attention spanWith flowers and plants, we can't allow ourselves to be distracted, and caring for them becomes excellent training for improving our attention span.
  • It is actually a natural physical exerciseGardening is like walking: a light and precious effort. Very natural.
  • Encourage relationshipsGardening is often an activity done with others, and this fosters good relationships, perhaps with neighbors.
  • New manual activities are learnedSome manual activities, such as knitting, can be learned at any age. And they're always useful, as is the case with gardening.

What does gardening teach us?

Gardening also teaches us some important things for our toolbox. For example:

  • The knowledge that perfection is impossibleWe must accept error and the unexpected.
  • The care for things, even natural ones, starts from attention, which also develops for people.
  • THEindifference it's divisive, taking care instead brings us closer.
  • THEimportance of small things, those that at a superficial glance seem insignificant to us.
  • With exercise, it also improves tendency towards social bonds.

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