Do you usually have the habit of “growing flowers and vegetables”? According to a study published in “PLOSONE” in July this year, growing flowers can improve mental health and reduce stress, anxiety and depression, even if you have never been in gardening in the past, as long as you try it!
The study, conducted by a research team at the University of Florida, included 42 healthy women aged 26-49 who were randomly assigned to either the “Gardening” or “Art Creation” groups to participate in each Eight one-hour group gardening twice a week (learning to identify seeds, sowing, transplanting, and harvesting and tasting) or art activities (learning techniques such as papermaking, printmaking, painting, and collage) while accepting anxiety , self-reported psychometric measures of depressive symptoms, emotional distress, stress, satisfaction with autonomous social activities, and quality of life, and 32 participants (15 in the gardening group and 17 in the art group) received the treatment regimen and completed all assessments.
It was found that participants in either the “Gardening Group” or the “Art Creation Group” showed significant improvements in overall emotional distress, depressive symptoms, and perceived stress; The anxiety level is slightly lower than that of the “art creation group”. Participants also said that they had discovered new experiences and enthusiasm from participating in the research process, and said they would continue to engage in gardening activities.
Professor Rong Xinqi, a psychologist and hypnotist, reminded that if you can’t sleep, don’t eat well, often feel exhausted or have poor physical strength, you need to pay special attention. Such phenomena are not necessarily diseases. It refers to the change of function in the physiological and psychological state after being under the pressure of life, causing the feeling of cognitive, emotional and physical discomfort.
He suggested that people learn ways to manage stress, such as finding resources for support and assistance, encouraging themselves with more positive words, thoughts and beliefs, and adjusting their cognition to a positive perspective. Exercise, moderate social activities, and the aforementioned “back to nature” research findings are also effective ways to relieve stress.
When people are under stress, they can find solutions from nature, such as relaxing, rediscovering themselves, and connecting with interpersonal relationships, which help to gradually relieve and disappear from physical and mental discomfort.
Professor Rong Xinqi emphasized that plants are a part of nature, we will use them as food, hide in the shade of trees to enjoy the shade, and also use them as shelters in the early days. It has become a kind of assistance and dependence for survival, and it is natural to have a feeling of closeness.
Secondly, by planting plants and watering the potted plants every day, seeing the changes of the four seasons and the different scenes of the flowers rising and falling during the growth process of the plants, there will be a sense of joy and healing effect. If you grow edible fruits and vegetables, in addition to the joy of growing, you can also enjoy another touch of turning it into a delicacy on the table.
Gardening will naturally have a feeling of comfort and relaxation. From the above research results, we can know that gardening may have a positive impact on mental health, medical care, and public health, bringing us Some visions can serve as a blueprint for the prevention, companionship process.
It is suggested that you can integrate gardening activities into your daily life. First, you can find experienced and like-minded people to understand the difficulty of planting different plants. The interaction process will naturally infect a happy atmosphere. Even if there is no courtyard or balcony, you can still choose plants that are easy to maintain and can be planted in a small space, such as evergreen and cactus, etc., as the greening arrangement in the writer, and moving potted plants every day to bask in the sun can be used as an increase in the body. The way of activities, using the free time to go outdoors to touch the flowers and trees helps to relax the body and mind.