Cultivating Your Wellness
Embrace the joy of gardening; it’s not just a pastime—it’s a wonderfully therapeutic adventure.
Gardening is more than just a pastime; for seniors, it’s a part of nurturing the mind, body, and spirit. Working in the garden can be a powerful exercise and therapy with physical, emotional, and mental health benefits. Low-impact activities like digging, weeding, planting, and shoveling help keep muscles strong and joints flexible, making it an ideal way for older adults to stay active. Beyond the physical perks, tending a garden stimulates the mind and fosters a sense of purpose, creating a holistic approach to well-being.
The emotional benefits of gardening are profound. It’s a natural stress reliever and a proven antidote to depression, which can be all too common in later life. The simple act of caring for plants promotes a sense of calm and mindfulness. Gardening can even contribute to better sleep, as it’s been shown to lower blood pressure and reduce heart and respiratory rates—factors that support a restful night’s sleep.
Gardening also offers proven cognitive health benefits. Activities that involve planning, problem-solving, and remembering when to water or harvest help keep the brain engaged. This mental stimulation can slow cognitive decline, offering a proactive way to maintain brain health.
Just working the soil and caring for plants produces powerful pharmacological effects, including lowered glucose levels and reduced stress, anxiety, and depression. The caring aspects of gardening keep seniors focused on the here and now rather than their worries and stresses. Seniors feel a sense of pride and satisfaction as they see the fruit of their labor and enjoy the feel-good effects of their bodies being flooded with serotonin and dopamine, which contribute to improved mood, reward, and satisfaction.
Complementing this gentle, continuous exercise is the sunshine enjoyed while gardening, which acts as the natural, unavoidable source of Vitamin D in the human body. As we age, all people tend to avoid the sun. Still, their need for Vitamin D – not only for healthy bones but for the proper functioning of the immune system – only increases with age. There is no better source for this fat-soluble vitamin than gentle sunshine enjoyed in an active garden. This sunshine can be supplemented with Vitamin D in tablet form – as doctors recommend – but it is always better taken with safe sunning activities such as gardening, which promote physical and mental well-being.
Alongside the physical benefits of gentle exercise and the psychological benefits of sunshine, all the digging, planting, weeding, watering, carrying, and bending involved in gardening contribute to general cardiovascular health and can be beneficial for seniors by improving mobility and flexibility, building muscle mass and strength, enhancing endurance and longevity, and boosting agility and control.
Seniors with mobility limitations can work raised beds, pots, and all manner of adaptive tools if the tools are available and their mobility allows. Gardening can be tailored to fit almost any limitation and, by extension, keep our elders active, in touch with the world, and a force to be reckoned with, regardless of the limitations. For a frail and ailing elder, this is a tremendously beneficial activity. For the depressed, it’s curative. For the rest, it is an extraordinary holistic therapy. It calms the soul, enriches the mind, and livens the spirit. What more could we want for our elders? Now, will our children and grandchildren understand? I doubt it, but it’s never too soon for our kids, grandkids, and great-grandkids to start practicing and supporting it. What I love about this therapy for our elders or the sick is that it requires no age limit; it can be, in fact, a timeless, precious activity for the very frail, allowing them to stay active and engaged in something that matters.
In assisted living facilities or managed care, attempts ought to be made to bring the outdoors in, giving those in seclusion the same advantages as others.
