Stress reduction can be as close as outdoors — in your own garden. Rather than reaching for a prescription drug or over-the-counter medication to calm your nerves, there are several types of gardens you can cultivate that will combat stress in almost any form.
Stress relief from the garden can come from flowers, a beautiful and relaxing butterfly garden or a food garden so you can enjoy nature’s bounty on your table in exciting and delicious recipes.
Just the act of cultivating a garden can be a restful and peaceful experience. Getting outdoors in the warm sunshine and communing with nature by helping plants grow and provide beauty or harvest can be relaxing and a healthy way to exercise.
A perfect type of garden to combat stress is the beauty of the flower garden. Let your creativeness and imagination run wild when creating a beautiful space in which you can relax and even bring some of the beauty into your home.
Grow them from seeds in flats and then plant them in containers or flower beds surrounding your home or on your patio. The rewards you get from a flower garden range from the scene of blooming flowers, the scent and the harvest for your own personal use.
Certain flowers, such as lavender (an herb) are commonly used in aromatherapy for stress relief. You can purchase the scent of lavender in soaps and lotions – or grow your own and tie up bunches to dry in your home.
A butterfly garden not only brings beauty, but the added benefit of observing gorgeous butterflies flying from flower to flower. A properly executed butterfly garden will attract butterflies and hummingbirds, filling your garden with life and aroma.
Among the plants you can grow in your butterfly garden include lavender, azaleas and hibiscus. Also try Tropical sage, butterfly bushes, purple coneflower and bee balm to attract hummingbirds and butterflies and to fill your garden with beauty.
And, for the ultimate in exercise and health, try a food garden. A food garden can bring beauty to containers or outdoor garden spaces and add healthy vegetables to your table.
Easy and fast-growing plants for your food garden include tomatoes, bell pepper, radishes, carrots and lettuce. Fresh produce from your garden tastes much better than what you can purchase from the supermarket.
If you have a large enough garden space, try growing extra produce for canning and/or freezing. This ensures you can be enjoying your gardening efforts far into the cold winter months.
Choosing any one or all of the above garden types ensures you get needed sunshine to increase serotonin and melatonin levels in the brain. Serotonin is the “feel good” chemical and melatonin helps you get a good night’s sleep.
And, skin exposed to sunlight naturally manufactures vitamin D, the sunshine vitamin so critical these days to stabilize and support your immune system to function at its best against colds, flu, and perhaps even COVID-19 (given the data).
What else could you grow that would benefit your health and well being? How about an herb garden?
Have you ever brushed against a rosemary plant or rubbed some leaves between your fingers to release the pungent and relaxing aroma? Rosemary is just one of the herbs you can easily grow in your garden or in containers to add to recipes or add sprigs to bouquets of flowers for an aromatic mood-lifter.
Herbs have been used since ancient times for medicinal purposes – especially for the treatment of depression and anxiety. Kava Kava, an herb grown mainly in the Pacific islands can be effective at relieving depression and menopausal symptoms.
The lavender herb is often called “the workhorse of herbs” and is highly effective in lifting moods, reducing anxiety and irritability and helping bouts of insomnia. Lavender keeps on working to act as an anti-bacterial to balance hormones and balance your immune system.
You can brew lavender in tea or place in a diffuser to relax you at bedtime. Licorice Root actually has a natural hormone that can relieve stress. It’s a great substitute for cortisone and can also help your adrenal glands and your power to balance blood sugar levels.
Drink it in tea form. Another great way to relieve stress with a tea is to grow the herb, Passion Flower. It’s a very mild sedative which may help you get a good night’s sleep and is also used for anxiety and depression.
Verbena Hastata (Blue Vervain) has been used since ancient times to cleanse the liver, balance hormones in women and reduce cravings for sugar. It can calm your nervous system and relieve stress for those who especially feel it in the neck and head areas.
If you haven’t heard of the medicinal herb, Ginseng, you may have been living under a rock. It’s a go-to-herb for anxiety, to promote energy, fight depression and help your memory.
Are you plagued by headaches? Try the herb, Wood Betony, an herb used since ancient times for anxiety and tension. Wood Betony helps you focus on what’s important and get on with your life.
Some herbs don’t mix well with prescription medications, so before you brew up herbs for medicinal purposes, do the proper research to find out how they may interact with anything you’re taking. Talk it over with your own doctor and pharmacist.
An herb garden was a necessity during earlier times when over-the-counter medications weren’t available. Now, you can even enjoy cultivating herbs in containers if you don’t have a garden space.
Herbs make a great addition to any garden or container space and can usually be grown easily. Online and book help is available that offer hundreds of ways to use these valuable plant additions. Make sure you garden organically to get the best health benefits.
Conclusions
The fresh air you enjoy with gardening keeps you healthy and promotes cell growth and renewal in your body. After gardening, you may also find that you can focus better and enjoy a sense of physical and mental well-being.
Carve out a space in your garden for your relaxation by adding water features and other sounds of nature – plus and comfy spot to relax with a good book or maybe a glass of wine…or herb tea (hot or cold). Natural stress reduction and relief at its best.
