Horticultural Therapy (Freud and Flowers)
Flowers are Restful. Flowers are good for our mental health
Freud said “Flowers are restful to look at. They have no emotions or conflict.”
Gardening and flowers in general are good for us mentally and physically. People can feel overwhelmed, anxious, depressed, have problems with their memory and thinking and gardening can be a good way to improve this.
Horticultural therapy is a process whereby people use gardening as a way to improve their mental and physical health. How does gardening help?
Gardening requires physical activities:-
- It improves our muscles and physical health.
- Exercise increases the levels of serotonin in our brains, which improves our mood.
- It gives us new skills
Gardening helps our cognitive and mental health: –
- It improves our self esteem.
- It enables us to set and achieve goals to work towards.
- Being involved in a garden club or horticulture therapy can help reduce isolation and loneliness, which is again good for our mental health. We all require social support for good mental health.
- It can give us a sense of control.
- Spending time with nature is good for us. Being around greenery can help improve our concentration and focus.
- It can give us a sense of achievement when we grow something beautiful or eat something that we have grown.
- It can also give us time to relax, to sit, to look at nature, the world around us and take time to ourselves.
How can you get involved in gardening?
- Join a gardening group.
- Do voluntary work.
- Contact your GP to see if there are any horticultural therapy groups in your area.
- Offer to do some gardening for friends or neighbours.
- You don’t need a massive garden to enjoy gardening. Why not grow flowers and vegetables and fruit in pots in your home or on a window sill?
Take the time to enjoy the world around us, greenery and nature.
Horticultural Therapy - helping yourself, or others
ACS offer an extensive selection of gardening and horticulture courses and eBooks for you to study and learn so that you can benefit from gardening - outside, or indoors. We have courses and eBooks including Scented Plants, Home Garden Expert 100 hour course, or An Introduction to Gardening eBook.
If you are looking to encourage and help others participate in gardening activities for example, for rehabilitation, for people with disabilities, or for the elderly, then our Horticultural Therapy course will provide an excellent foundation of knowledge in this field.
If you have any questions, or would like to know more, please get in touch with our specialist horticulture tutors; they will be happy to help you.
[25/04/2024 12:16:06]
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