Green Heart Lifestyle Releases New Information on the Impact of Gardening on Mental Well-being

Green Heart Lifestyles, the Niagara Falls, NY based garden tools company, has highlighted new research on the positive impact of gardening on mental well-being as a part of its 2017 pruning and pruning tools awareness campaign.

Gardening has steadily proved itself to be one of the healthiest hobbies for people to maintain, not just for their body but also for their mind. As mental health issues affect one in four people at some point in their lives, it has become pertinent to find holistic solutions that help manage these conditions, with gardening turning out to be at the forefront for activities that help manage mental health.

Aad Hermann, President of Green Heart Lifestyle, says, “We are passionate about gardening tools for the sole reason that is it beneficial for all - right from the physical and mental health of human beings to plants and other organisms as well.”

Spending time in nature has long been proven to be relaxing, providing a person with peace and tranquility. Actively spending time doing gardening not only exposes a person to nature for longer periods than is common, it also helps the gardener play the nurturer for his own patch of land, thus increasing the positive emotions felt while gardening.

It is also a brilliant form of exercise, helping a person burn 330 calories in an hour of work. This is great for mental health as exercise increases levels of serotonin and dopamine, both of which help improve a person’s mood, while lowering the levels of cortisol, a hormone that increases the stress levels in a body.

The positive benefits associated with gardening has also given rise to Gardening Therapy, a practice increasingly offered by medical professionals to people suffering from long-term depression and other diseases such as arthritis, diabetes, and asthma.

This is because studies conducted by Harvard University’s public health graduate school has found out that regular contact with plants, animals, and nature helps reduce depression by 30% - a startling degree of effectiveness for such an inexpensive, slow paced hobby.

Its effectiveness in healing mental diseases by relieving stress is also being utilized via gardening group therapies, where people are encouraged to garden in groups thus not only mixing the benefits of gardening and social contact but also creating local produce that can be consumed by the community. It's time that people ditch their pills and pick up a pair of garden shears instead.