Building Resilience: Strategies for Bouncing Back from Life’s Challenges
Being resilient helps you navigate life’s difficulties. Here’s how to build resilience so you can bounce back from life’s challenges.
Being resilient helps you navigate life’s difficulties. Here’s how to build resilience so you can bounce back from life’s challenges.
Is panic impacting your life? Explore approaches to help calm your mind and body when dealing with panic disorder.
Feeling down in the winter is common, but making a few small changes daily, weekly, or monthly, can help you feel more like your normal self.
The world is a busy and demanding place, and because of this, it can be incredibly difficult to make time to unwind and connect with nature. Though it’s a challenge, the practice known as “green therapy” can offer a wide array of benefits for mental health, so it’s well worth investing time in.
Gardening has been shown to significantly reduce stress levels. The simple act of nurturing plants and spending time in natural surroundings can help lower cortisol levels, which are the body’s key stress hormone. The often repetitive, soothing tasks that gardening entails, such as digging, weeding, and watering, can be meditative. Time in the garden can allow participants to fall into a state of mindlessness, where worries simply fade away with little effort.
Working in the garden can also boost your mood and overall well-being. The combination of light to moderate physical activity, exposure to sunlight, and the sense of accomplishment that comes from nurturing seeds into plants can lead to the release of endorphins (aka “feel-good” chemicals). On top of that, being surrounded by greenery and colorful blooms you brought to life can elevate your mood and combat symptoms of depression and anxiety.
Gardening isn’t just effective in boosting emotional health. It also positively affects an individual’s cognitive capabilities. The mental investment required in planning, planting, and maintaining a beautiful garden stimulates the brain. These actions can improve your focus, attention span, and problem-solving skills. For older adults, gardening may help reduce the risk of developing dementia or cognitive decline.
While the focus of green therapy is often on mental health, the physical benefits of time in the garden is worth noting as well. This activity is a low-impact form of exercise that can improve strength, flexibility, and even heart health. The light to moderate physical activity that gardening calls for can also promote better sleep, which is a must when it comes to maintaining your mental health.
Gardening can present you with a goal to achieve. Watching your plants flourish thanks to your dedicated care can be incredibly rewarding. The responsibility of tending a garden can give individuals a sense of purpose and routine, which remains a great reason to get outside and be active for brief periods of the day.
If you’re relatively new to gardening, here are a few tips to help you get the process going:
Working in a garden offers numerous mental health benefits, from reducing stress and improving mood to enhancing cognitive function and making you feel accomplished. Whether you have a large garden or a small balcony, incorporating green therapy into your life can be a powerful tool for improving your mental well-being.
If you’re struggling and you’d like to try therapy, reach out to DK Therapy at your convenience. Schedule an appointment with our office to speak with a caring counselor.