Gardening Defeats Stress & Depression

The data is surmounting. How can anyone deny that being in nature supports your mental health, your outlook on life and your spirituality?

Part from our biophilic needs (to affiliate with nature and natural processes), these new studies show that there are biological reasons that show that our participation in the natural world helps defeat stress and depression.

Your serotonin levels, known as the happy chemical and major natural anti-depressant, can be increased while you handle dirt. That’s right. Forgo those gardening gloves and get your hands right in there! Of course, the more organic and natural the dirt is, the better the effects.

Another interesting bit of information I learned from my friend who runs http://www.portsmouthtreesurgeons.co.uk, is about the feeling we get when we harvest fruit and vegetables from our gardens. “A flush of dopamine released in the reward center of the brain triggers a state of bliss or mild euphoria.”

Binge Shopping

It is recently acknowledged that dopamine is the “drug” that is in play with shopping addiction – a misplaced harvesting-reward trigger. Perhaps that is why avid gardeners do not have intense shopping addictions? Is this true?

Let’s hear from all of your gardeners out there!

Photo credit: istock.com