Still stuck at home due to quarantine? Believe it or not, staying at home doesn’t mean you have to live your life completely online. In fact, there comes a ton of activities you can do right at the comfort of your residence without turning to the virtual world. One among these include growing your garden.
Sure, while laying on the couch and spending the day on social media is a bliss, turning to gardening can help you improve your physical and emotional wellbeing, which are both crucial in this time of pandemic. In fact, there now comes a ton of health benefits associated with this practice.
Below, we have rounded up the top 5 ways how growing your own garden can lead you to enjoy a healthy lifestyle. Whether you simply want to do something productive amid the pandemic or embrace a healthier life, expect that this habit will drive you more benefits than you could imagine. Read on.
The Health Benefits of Gardening
- Fresh Veggies and Fruits
Perhaps, this is the most obvious perk one could get from growing his own garden. As you might have already heard, there’s a big difference between the fruit you’ve bought on the supermarket and the one you’ve picked on your garden. Generally, not only is the latter fresher, but its vitamin content is also higher. As a result, not only will you be able to enjoy tastier fruits and veggies, but you’ll also get to access healthier foods that lack harmful chemicals.
On top of its health benefit, having your own source of fresh fruits and vegetables also serve as a wise financial investment. Not only will this provide you with instant access to food, but it can also provide the opportunity to set up your own business in case your garden grew abundantly.
- Outdoor Exercise
Let’s face it: gardening comes as an arduous activity. From weeding, raking, lifting, to more, there comes a ton of physical activities involved in keeping the task going. With this, it’s not surprising that growing a garden is also considered to be a good form of outdoor exercise.
To date, especially with the world still under lockdown due to COVID-19 crisis, keeping your body active is necessary to improve endurance, enhance cardiovascular health, and boost immunity. On top of that, since gardening is done under the sun, it can also serve as a great way to boost your vitamin D levels, which benefits your bones and immune system
- Mood-boosting Effect
With most of us still required to stay indoors, feelings of anxiety and isolation are likely to heighten. With this, the importance of growing a garden is even more crucial. This is because engaging in gardening activities have been proven to help boost one’s mood. Specifically, this happens through a variety of ways.
First, by getting our hands dirty with, we can get in contact with a specific soil bacterium, called Mycobacterium vaccae, which triggers the release of serotonin in our brain. Second, latest studies found that harvesting foods also triggers the release of dopamine in our brain – a reaction which the researchers believe to have developed over nearly 200,000 years ago, back in the age of hunting gathering.
- Exposure to nature
Similar to when we go out on a camping or outdoor adventure, having our own garden connects us closer to nature, which also has the ability to help refresh our minds and elevate our moods. From the sound of the trees breathing to the smell of the fresh grass, our exposure to nature gives us comfort and even triggers our creative minds.
- Better air quality
Last but not the least, since plants act as natural air purifier, you can expect that they can help improve the air quality in both your outdoor and indoor setting. Essentially, this is because plants serve as natural air purifiers that absorb carbon dioxide and other pollutants, transpire water vapor, and release oxygen.
This means that the more plants you’ll grow, the better air quality you can expect within your place.
The Bottom Line
Getting tired of having to spend your day on the online world? Embrace the physical scene by turning your attention to gardening and get to enjoy these tons of benefits that come with growing your own garden.
