Motivation Monday: Gardening

Mixture of different types of tomatoes, flowers, lettuce and lemon balm

I love trying out new hobbies. Hobbies can help increase our interest in our every day lives and can promote happiness and enjoyment. For this month, I decided to try gardening. Have I ever kept a plant alive? No. Did I go buy a raised garden bed and plant a bunch of plants anyway? Yes.

Below is why this can be beneficial for my (and your) mental health:

• For starters, it gets you time outside. Whether you live in an apartment and are starting off with one plant or you have a backyard where you can plant several, it gets you outside in the sun. Being in the sun can be helpful for our mental health because you get Vitamin D which can help your physical health but it can also boost your serotonin levels (can boost your mood and increase feelings of calmness and focus).

• Gardening can give you something safe to focus on and help split your focus from things that might be stressing you out or making you feel sad. If you are new to gardening, it can also give you something new to look forward to and can help you feel like you are accomplishing something.

• If your gardening is successful, then you also get to enjoy what you planted. For me, I planted a mixture of flowers and vegetables. The lettuce I planted is already starting to grow which I am very excited about! If your gardening is not successful, it can promote you to think of ways to make it successful which in turn can also motivate you to think of other ideas for your mental health.

Good luck with your gardening endeavors and stay tuned for more posts on different things you can try to improve your mental health.