Healty Mind Body And Spirit

The Three Sides Of Health

Health includes having a healthy mind, healthy body, and a healthy spirit. It takes all three to be a truly healthy person. Gardening fosters all three. This is from my personal experience.

A Healthy Mind

Communing with nature, in this case gardening, can clear my mind better than anything else. We all have had periods in our lives where troubles can become overwhelming. It seems that all that we do just are not enough- lying awake at night, unable to concentrate on anything other than our difficulties, or sometimes sinking into a severe depression.

Depression has been a lifetime "curse" for me. I often suffer from what is called clinical depression meaning that I inherited it and have a chemical imbalance. The imbalance can bring on an episode of depression in an instant without any apparent reason.

It is times like these that I grab my garden tools and head outside. Weather permitting of course. If the weather is bad and I can't get out, I'm in trouble. I'm thankful that I live in a climate where this doesn't happen too often.

When I'm in the garden or yard working with my landscape, my mind has a chance to relax so to speak. No real focus. Just doing mundane things like trimming, pulling some weeds here and there, maybe this plant would look better over there, etc.

How does this help? Focusing on my difficulties has moved from the "forefront" (conscious) to the "back" (subconscious) of my mind. Of course the problems haven't gone away, they just aren't dominating my every thought. Conscious thought requires energy. That is a contributing factor to a depressed person's fatigue. Subconscious thought doesn't require nearly as much energy.

However, the subconscious is at work processing and looking for solutions without my conscious awareness. On numerous occasions I have had solutions or ideas pop into my mind while working in the garden and not even thinking about any difficulties. WOW! I call it my "Mountain Top Experience" when this happens.

A Healthy Body

Gardening is good exercise! Doctors advise their patients to engage in various exercise regimens to improve their health. At the mall or walking tracks, you see recovering heart patients walking to help regain their health. Sometimes it is preventive measures to promote a healthy body.

Maybe I have a strange way of looking at things, but I view walking around in circles a waste of time. Why not get your exercise and be productive at the same time? Wouldn't it be more rewarding to promote a healthy body and have something else to show for it? In other words, two benefits for the one effort.

My gardening efforts give me the exercise I need and produces a beautiful flower bed (or landscape, veggie garden, etc.) to enjoy. Rather than "walking in circles" I now have something to show for it in addition to the exercise.

Can gardening give you adequate exercise in all the areas you need may be your question. You can design just about any kind of exercise regimen you can think of around gardening. Of course it is highly advisable to consult with your healthcare professional before engaging in any kind of exercise program.

Here are just a few examples of beneficial exercises that can be gained from gardening:

Flexibility

Gaining flexibility helps to relieve muscle tension, improve posture and balance, increase range of motion and elongate and relax muscles. Think of all the contortions you place your body in by just weeding your garden or landscape. Bending over, sitting down, getting up, or reaching to name a few. Overall, you or using muscles that just walking doesn't do.

Aerobic Exercise

Also known as "cardio", aerobics increases your heart rate and helps burn calories rapidly in addition to reducing symptoms of depression, prevent many forms of heart disease and improves insulin resistance to diabetes. The best tool to give aerobic exercise is the old fashioned shovel! Just digging in the dirt can increase the heart rate faster than anything else I know of. And you can work at a pace that is suitable for you.

Strength

Strength exercises improve strength, tones muscles and burn fat. Additionally, benefits of improving bone strength, fighting osteoporosis, decreases blood pressure, preventing lower back pain, increasing your resting metabolic rate, promoting psychological well-being, aiding in insulin sensitivity and glucose metabolism. WOW! Picking up sacks of fertilizer, pulling, prying, digging, etc. are just a few strength exercises that go along with gardening.

I'm sure you can think of many other ways of perfecting your exercise regimen while gardening. Please, DON'T OVER DO IT ON YOUR FIRST DAY OUT THIS SPRING! Being over zealous and suffering the consequences can be very discouraging.

If you are not sure of what you should or should not do, consult your health care professional BEFORE beginning any exercise regimen.

A Healthy Spirit

"God writes the gospel not in the Bible alone, but on trees and flowers and clouds and stars." - Martin Luther

God also writes gospel in our daily lives. The mind clearing rewards of being able to touch, feel, smell, see, and hear His creations in itself is proof of Being.

A healthy Spirit is not just about religion! A healthy Spirit is being at peace with creation (the Laws of Nature), it's beauty, and being a part of it. Gardening provides the avenue to building the spirit!

To a certain extent, gardeners can take the pre-determined (creation) characteristics of nature and arrange them in a way that embellishes our enjoyment. For example, we can arrange a flower bed to give certain colors, a variety of texture, to frame a certain view, or a multitude of other ways of arranging nature around us.

Our spirit is lifted we can become a part of nature itself. Being able to touch, feel, smell, see, and hear what has been given us to enjoy excites our senses.

It is satisfying knowing that we had a part in the beauty and health of our garden. Being able to support nature by giving and receiving is our reward. We contribute by arranging, feeding, and looking after the health of our plants. In return, we are rewarded with nature's bounty.