Hands in the earth...and your smile returns!
An accessible and inexpensive hobby to boost your mental health and improve your well-being in the long term? We invite you to discover this therapeutic activity that could brighten up your daily life...
Mediation, sport, yoga..., but also writing, reading and time spent with our loved ones, are all activities that contribute to the calming of the mind and body. Therapeutic virtues that can be found in this other hobby, which crosses time and is practiced during all seasons: gardening. It's well known and it was Voltaire who said it, to be happy, "you must cultivate your garden".
Voltaire was not mistaken since, according to psychiatrists from the University of Exeter, gardens are a formidable crutch against stress, promoting a reduction in anxiety as well as calming of tension. Havens of tranquility whose calming function has indeed been proven!
To reinforce the observation, other English researchers, from the University of Bristol this time, were able to demonstrate that the simple fact of being in contact with the earth and touching it has a “beneficial effect on the brain”. The nutrients present in the soil have the incredible capacity, by simple contact, to stimulate our production of serotonin, a neurotransmitter involved in the regulation of sleep, emotions and mood. You enter into symbiosis with nature, calm sets in, your stress levesl gradually decrease and…, at the same time, you engage in real physical exercise. Squats, strides, lifting heavy products, all to exercise your mobility and release a nice dose of endorphins!
(MH with AsD/Source: RTBF/Illustration: Pixabay)