Low and no-cost ways to get your green on for mental health!
You are probably dealing with more stress than usual these days, but we have good news: plants can help--a lot! Cooperative Extension has a ton of low and no-cost resources to help you get your green on.
Gardening
Recently, Master Gardener Program Coordinator Jan Groth wrote Get outdoors and garden: It’s good for you! about how gardening is one of the healthiest stress relievers of all, providing well-being, nutritious food and beauty. It can even be done in a small space with containers. Gardening, especially over a larger space, provides an opportunity for moderate exercise when pushing, pulling, lifting, and bending. Studies have also shown that any kind of gardening and being in nature elevates mood and provides an emotional boost. Extension agent Jeff Schalau recently published a column, Finding peace through gardening, about how just taking a break in his garden between Zoom meetings helps him feel recharged and relaxed. Serotonin, an antidepressant and immune system booster is released during gardening, especially when your skin makes contact with soil and soil bacteria. Gardening has been shown to lower the body’s cortisol (stress hormone) level, blood pressure and heart rate.
Besides the countless publications, videos, and workshops Cooperative Extension offers to help ensure your gardening success anywhere in Arizona, Cooperative Extension also manages the Master Gardener Program, where you can volunteer in our gardens while learning. (Applications for the program are currently closed, but look for other community gardens near you--many are still in need of volunteers.) Gardening is also a low-risk, outdoor activity you can do while social distancing--in contrast with other volunteer opportunities that have been suspended due to COVID-19 concerns. Volunteering itself is also shown to offer health benefits, including reduction of risk of depression.
House Plants
Maybe you are not quite ready to commit to full-blown gardening--that doesn’t mean you can’t have more plants in your life! Some studies show that tending to or just intentionally gazing at a small houseplant near your work station can mitigate work-related stress and fatigue. Not sure what plant to get? Michael Chamberland, Assistant Agent, ANR/Urban Horticulture has got you covered; read Houseplants for the dark and dry. And whenever you run into plant problems, Pima County Plant Clinic is here to help you, too.
"Forest Bathing” aka Ecotherapy
After the trauma of killing every plant you’ve ever owned, you might not be ready to try again (I was one of these people and there is hope!) but that’s okay, you don’t have to be personally responsible for plants in order to enjoy them. Research Associate Patrick M. Rappold and Assistant Agent Ashely L. Dixon describe the practice in Forest Bathing--Connecting to Nature to Improve Health, which simply involves finding a place in nature to walk aimlessly and slowly. Rebecca Senior, Assistant In Extension, Ornamental Horticulture and ISA Certified Arborist points us towards this article on medical professionals actually Prescribing Nature; “Brain benefits to simply walking in nature include a decrease in stress, increase in short-term memory, restoration of mental energy, increase in cognition, and increase in creativity.” The goal is to use the five senses to connect with nature. Visit an arboretum near you. The University of Arizona Campus Arboretum in Tucson, for example, even has several self-guided mobile tours you can do. More broadly, Park Rx America is a database you can use to find a park nearby.