“The glory of gardening: hands in the dirt, head in the sun, heart with nature. To nurture a garden is to feed not just on the body, but the soul.” – Alfred Austin, late 19th-century author and Poet Laureate
Ol’ Alfred might just have been on to something, especially when considering a new mode of achieving personal growth called horticultural therapy. This newfangled notion is explained best as “the purposeful use of plants and gardens to promote individual mental, emotional, physical, spiritual and intellectual well-being.”
According to the American Horticulture Therapy Association (yeah, that’s right, they really do exist), “horticultural therapy (HT) is a time-proven practice. The therapeutic benefits of garden environments have been documented since ancient times.”
Experts state that the advantages of HT are such: “Physical activity, relaxation and enjoyment, skill development, creative expression, sensory stimulation, intellectual and personal growth, social interaction, a sense of productivity and self-satisfaction and a spiritual connection with life. HT is also low-cost, effective and versatile in meeting therapeutic goals of both individuals and groups through task adaptation and environmental modification. Activities can be applied to almost all situations, indoors or outdoors-in homes, schools, hospitals, prisons, and residential care facilities.”
HT practices can be used to assist people in learning new skills or regaining those that may have been lost. It’s also said to help improve memory, cognitive abilities, language skills and socialization. Those who use HT can learn to work independently, problem solve and follow directions. It has even been used in the physical rehabilitation of injury suffers, by strengthening muscles and improving coordination, balance and endurance.
So why regale on all these benefits of HT? Because the purported benefits of this unique therapy could have an enormous impact on YOUR well-being.
Think about it. Everybody needs physical activity. Everybody wants to be relaxed and to enjoy life. Creative expression, intellectual and personal growth, social interaction, self-satisfaction and a spiritual connection with life are things that you must foster yourself. To back up these seemingly strange claims, there is actually a plethora of research and statistics proving that HT may be something EVERY adult would benefit from.
If the effectiveness of HT is still a little too bizarre for you to fathom, just remember that numbers don’t lie…, and once you get outside and see for yourself what kind of happiness nature can bring about, you won’t find it so bizarre.
After all, Alfred Austin also once said, “Show me your garden and I shall tell you what you are.”
It’s really up to you to decide who you want to be.