According to a recent study, gardening is an amazing way to spend the same energy amount as if you were in the gym!
What’s more, the scientists concluded that regular gardening is linked with better well-being, lower stress, and higher physical activity.
Why You Should Garden more often?
The study also points out that the people who garden on the daily had 6.6 percent better score in their wellbeing while their stress levels were 4.2 percent lower than those who didn’t garden.
Moreover, the study suggests that gardening two to three times per week helped reduce people’s stress levels and made them feel better.
According to lead author of the study Dr. Lauriane Chalmin-Pui who’s also a wellbeing fellow of the Royal Horticultural Society, this is a first time that the response to gardening has been tested.
The evidence collected points out that the more you garden, the bigger the advantages you’ll reap.
Chalmin-Pui notes that gardening on the daily will have the same positive effect on your wellbeing as if you were doing vigorous workouts like running or cycling.
She describes gardening as effortless exercise since it’s not as strenuous and demanding as if you were working out in the gym.
She believes it’s a result of our brains being pleasantly distracted by nature while gardening. Gardening takes away the focus from our own worries and gives the thinking mind a break and helps us lower negative emotions.
How Was the Research Conducted?
The study is published in the Cities journal. It’s led by the RHS, the University of Virginia, and the University of Sheffield.
The goal of the research was to discover why people who garden experience certain benefits as well as the extent to which they recognized a potential benefit was a result of their gardening activity.
To discover more, they sent electronically in the UK involving 5,766 gardeners and 249 non-gardeners. They were asked to rate their well-being and stress and to point out if they associate some potential advantage with gardening.
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