When you are struggling with depression or just exhaustion, it’s hard to imagine brighter days ahead. That’s why turning to the example of plants may give you hope.
Consider the small seed and its potential. It faces adversity by sitting in a packet until it is unleashed, then relying on the right person to give it the right conditions to thrive. Even if it gets off to a rough start, with a little love and nourishment, it can grow to new limits, creating marvel in the universe.
Doesn’t that sound like a great journey for all of us?
You can get a front-row seat to this show by putting plants front and center in your life. Adding a plant to your life provides purpose and color to your days, no matter what your mental state. Horticulture can play a major role in your healing by delivering daily inspiration.
To blossom, plants need the right mix of soil, water, and light. Are you getting the same dose of these for yourself? After watering your plants, you will likely become more aware of your own need to hydrate. You also need to open your home to more light or get outside and enjoy the sunshine. By getting more light and its nourishing Vitamin D, you may begin to feel better. Even moving around more to care for greenery is good for you.
Plants don’t blossom overnight. They teach us patience as we wait for them to reward us with a bright bloom or a juicy tomato. These lessons can also apply to our lives; we need to nurture relationships for them to yield the results we want. You have to invest time in exercise or education before you see outcomes that match your expectations. Some of life’s greatest journeys take time. Be patient with yourself.
Droughts and diseases are hard on our plant friends, so they need a network of supports to get them through it. You need the same type of caring environment. While a plant sits silently awaiting rain, you can reach out to others and get help. Turn to family and friends when you feel your roots shrinking. Seek out resources to provide knowledge that can help you to produce better results, whether it’s counseling, medicine, or basic supplies to nurture you.
Nurturing a Growth Mindset
It’s easy to find yourself root-bound in your past and feel there is nowhere to turn. However, plants teach us that you can always reach upwards and strive a little more.
It’s also easy to get caught on a treadmill of life where we spend so much time taking care of others that we forget to care for ourselves. The daylight can simply slip away while we prepare for the day, rush between work and family obligations, then collapse on the couch after dark. Yet we all need to stop, assess how we feel, and deal with any negative answers that arise. We have basic needs and those should never be ignored or else we will wither.
Just like plants, we need continual care to keep growing and branching out. Eating right and exercising for a short spell doesn’t keep us healthy forever. Finding joy and comfort to support our mental health is only good as long as we commit to it and make it part of our routines. You cannot stop watering your soul and expect it to prosper.
A growth mindset is one that believes that we can grow into someone stronger and more capable through hard work, good strategies, and support from others. To achieve this, you need to invest time and positive energy into yourself. There is simply no way to grow and recover without a commitment to sticking with an outlook that moves you forward, even one tiny branch at a time.
Gardening is more than an analogy to get you motivated. It is also a practice, via horticultural therapy, that encourages people to get outside and to get their hands dirty so they will grow plants that make them proud. You can turn to an official program with specific activities to empower you and connect you more closely with nature. If there isn’t one nearby, you can always begin with more walks outside or a garden of your own. Just make sure you enjoy as many sensory experiences as you can – touching, smelling, tasting, observing, and listening — to activate as many parts of your brain as possible. You will soon be planning and problem-solving as well, adding to the experience.
Grow It Your Way
The fun thing about gardening is how much it opens up your world to so many possibilities. You can grow herbs to add to your meals or vegetables to toss into a salad. You can have one plant that brightens a corner of your home or a large plot that impresses the neighbors. If it makes you happy, that is all that matters.
If you need an emotional boost, this hobby can help you there too. A study in Norway in 2011 assigned participants with clinical depression the care of gardening beds for 12 weeks and tracked a drop in the severity of their depression, an effect that lasted after the experiment ended. “Participants’ open-ended accounts described the therapeutic horticulture experience as meaningful and influential for their view of life,” the study concluded.1
Novice gardeners with disabilities also report improvements in their moods, according to a Utah State University thesis published in 2012. It found that the more often a participant worked outside in the garden, the lower the rate of depression.2 The most uplifted group dug into the dirt four to six times each week.
Even coming into contact with elements in the dirt is good for us. Certain bacteria in the soils inspire our brains to release more mood-boosting serotonin, which helps ward off negative thoughts and depression.
But the best part is the so-called harvest high. Connecting with other people by sharing advice or even handing out produce or flowers later adds to our sense of self-worth. In that way, gardening introduces us to new experiences and conversations once we have cleaned our hands and grasped the benefits of our hard work. There is a primal need for us to sustain ourselves in good food and getting it from your garden is certainly something in which to take pride.
So, enjoy that fresh carrot or tomato. Breathe in the scent of your floral blooms. Delight in the bright green of your spider plant. Look up at the sun and be grateful for the chance to grow.
References
- A Prospective Study of Existential Issues in Therapeutic Horticulture for Clinical Depression, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.3109/01612840.2010.528168?journalCode=imhn20
- The Relationship of Outdoor Recreation and Gardening With Depression Among Individuals With Disabilities, https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/etd/1311/
