Sitting by a pond or river, walking along a forest path, or browsing in a garden bursting with flowers and fragrance can calm and revitalize the weary, stressed visitor.
Similarly, working in a garden-whether planting vegetables, flowers, bushes or trees-has numerous health benefits. According to a recently published analysis of scientific studies, gardening benefits your mind and body. In one study, it was determined that gardening reduces stress and anxiety when compared with reading or working indoors. Another study published in the “Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease” , indicates gardening and other physical activities can reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s by fifty percent.
In addition, many behavior problems, including anxiety and depression, are often linked to the amount of time you spend outside. With the growing attraction to technological devices and media, both children and adults are more susceptible to nature-deficit disorder, as well as to sleep disorders. Spending time in parks, forests or other natural environments staves off the blues, and gardening also provides an outlet for creativity.
“If you have ever nourished a plant in your garden, when the first flower came, the joy of it was something else.” –Sadhguru
Read more of what Sadhguru says about the benefits of working with nature.
Sadhguru: I have been asked repeatedly by many people, “Why is a spiritual leader, a yogi and a mystic planting trees? Why are you planting trees?”
Trees are our closest relatives. What they exhale, we inhale; what we exhale, they inhale. Trees keep our lives going, just like the outer part of our lungs. You cannot ignore your body if you want to live, and in no way is the planet different from this. What you call “my body” is just a piece of this planet. And the very essence of the spiritual process is about just this.
When we say “spirituality”, we are not talking about looking up or looking down. It is about turning inward and knowing the nature of what this is. The first fundamental fact of looking inward is always to see that you are naturally very much a part of everything around you. Without that realization, there is really no spiritual process. That is not the goal of spirituality, that is the fundamental – that who you are, or what you think you are, is just a part of everything else.
Today, modern physics is establishing that the whole existence is just one energy. Scientific evidence is establishing that every particle in your body is in constant communication with the whole cosmic space. The spiritual process is about enhancing one’s perception and bringing this into one’s experience. Anyways, what is a dry scientific fact that doesn’t change anybody’s life except trigger the imagination? If instead it becomes a living experience, then to care for what’s around you as you care for yourself is just a natural process.
If you establish even a psychological connection with a single tree and simply remind yourself five times a day of the constant transaction between both of you, you will see the transformation in just a few days. You will start connecting with everything around you differently. You won’t limit yourself to a tree.
Sadhguru initiated Project GreenHands in 2004, enabling the planting of over 28 million saplings with people’s participation. For more information on Project GreenHands visit, www.projectgreenhands.org
Plus receive a free eBook by Sadhguru
