Modern Life and the Therapeutic Value of Gardening

What do you do to decompress; to get away from stress; to find a moment of peace and quiet?

During the summer half of the year, my answer has always been gardening.

I'm not even being facetious when I say "always" because there are pictures to show that even when I was no more than five or six I had a small plot of land within my parents' much larger kitchen garden where I got to grow some of my own things. I always looked happy in those pictures... noteworthy, because I was otherwise a very somber child.

From time to time, I've been asked why I'm so much into gardening... usually by people who are loath to get their hands dirty with soil!

After a lot of careful consideration I can with great deal of certainty say that it has nothing to do with "trying to grow the world's largest pumpkin," nor — except in a very small way — to do with self-reliance (although it's definitely nice to grow some of our own food), and whereas I also like the taste of fresh food better than store bought the true answer can be found in the fact that I feel a deep sense of inner peace and quiet when I'm gardening.

In fact, when I'm in the middle of working on some major project usually having to do with editing somebody's book with a tight deadline, I sometimes just push everything aside and tell @cosmictriage that I have to go out and be in the garden for a while.

And it has nothing to do with the compulsive need to suddenly pull weeds or dig holes to vent my frustrations!

Truth be known, much of the time I'd rather be out there pulling a few weeds between the rows of vegetables than doing pretty much anything else. But it's not really just limited to "gardening" — as in growing fruits and vegetables — it has a reach beyond that into general yard work like trimming trees, making beds look nice and planting flowers.

I'll be the first to admit that I tend towards being easily stressed out by the rigors of Modern Life, and most of the time I'd much rather be doing something completely "analog" as opposed to dealing with words and numbers on a screen... as most of us are doing most of the time these days.

For many years, I used the more generic phrase "nature is my church" as my excuse to get out into a park or onto the beach or just into a green space as a path to decompressing and avoiding going off the deep end, but a little closer analysis over the years has taught me that by far the most effective thing I can do is put myself in a situation where I am tending to growing something; nurturing something.

Whether it's thinning out the leeks (as I was doing in our garden the other day), or picking beans or blackberries these are the moments where I truly find a sense of peace and calm inside myself that I don't tend to find somewhere else... and all the "noise" fades away, even in just for an hour or so.

As such, I have a great deal of gratitude for the fact that I actually have the ability to keep a garden and am able to escape to that garden for at least 7-8 months out of the year!

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great remainder of your week!

What's YOUR favorite way to decompress? Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation! I do my best to answer comments, even if it sometimes takes a few days!

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Created at 2023-08-02 23:55 PDT
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