Research Shows: Getting Down and Dirty Makes You Happy

As gardeners, we all KNOW that gardening makes us happy. But new research helps to explain why. Apparently, digging in the dirt actually releases “happy chemicals” in our brains.

Here are some excerpts from an article entitled Why Gardening Makes You Happy and Cures Depression by Robyn Francis on the Permaculture College Australia website which provides scientific evidence that getting down and dirty is good for the soul….and the immune system.

Getting down and dirty is the best ‘upper’ – Serotonin : Getting your hands dirty in the garden can increase your serotonin levels – contact with soil and a specific soil bacteria, Mycobacterium vaccae, triggers the release of serotonin in our brain according to research. Serotonin is a happy chemical, a natural anti-depressant and strengthens the immune system. Lack of serotonin in the brain causes depression. 

Harvest 'High' – Dopamine: Another interesting bit of research relates to the release of dopamine in the brain when we harvest products from the garden. The researchers hypothesize that this response evolved over nearly 200,000 years of hunter gathering, that when food was found (gathered or hunted) a flush of dopamine released in the reward centre of brain triggered a state of bliss or mild euphoria. The dopamine release can be triggered by sight (seeing a fruit or berry) and smell as well as by the action of actually plucking the fruit.

Francis goes on to say that using glyphosate herbicides can take away all of those happy feelings.

Glyphosate residues deplete your Serotonin and Dopamine levels

Of course, for all of the above to work effectively and maintain those happy levels of serotonin and dopamine, there’s another prerequisite according to another interesting bit of research I found.  It appears it will all work much better with organic soil and crops that haven’t been contaminated with Glyphosate-based herbicides. A recent study in 2008 discovered that glyphosate depletes serotonin and dopamine levels in mammals. 

I guess all of this explains why seeing my husband work in his organic garden was such a turn-on for me when we first met. And why I still think working side by side with someone in a garden can be such a fun, pleasurable experience.

So next time you are feeling a little bit down, I encourage you to go outside and get dirty with a friend. But to keep those brain chemicals pumping, keep things chemical free.

You can read the full article by Robin Francis here: Why Gardening Makes You Happy and Cures Depression

You might also enjoy reading: The Psychology of Green Gardening

Sunday Session with my Shrink

I just spent a great session with my shrink. Together, we uncovered all sorts of problems that I have a tendency to try to ignore, bury or allow to run rampant. But by calming me down and giving me the time to look at each thing separately, my shrink helped me eliminate some of the bad and uncover more of the good in my life. My shrink, in case you didn’t already know, is my garden.

I often talk about the therapeutic qualities of my garden and on Sundays, I seem to do a little more “deep thinking” in the dirt than I do throughout the rest of the week. My garden-time often becomes as therapeutic as any session I have ever spent with a real counselor. I get to carry out just as much introspective thinking and soul-searching and I save myself a whole lot of money in the process.

One of my best therapies in the garden is weeding. For every weed I pull up, I think about some negative aspect that I am trying to eliminate from my life. Insecurities are probably the most pervasive weeds in my fertile mind. Self-doubt, fear and anxiety all pop up on their own and, if left unattended can soon grow to completely overshadow all of the beauty in my life. As I gently pull the weeds from my garden, I think about how easy they are to keep under control if I just work at them on a regular basis, rather than letting them keep growing and take over.

Some people I know resort to chemicals to keep the unpleasant things in their life under control. Not me. I choose to go the natural route, with my garden and with my psyche. Sitting down. Getting dirty. Confronting my demons face to face. Pulling weeds one by one is easy, calming and it doesn’t pollute the rest of the body of land that surrounds my garden.

My mind does tend to drift while I am doing my weeding. But my shrink gently gets me back in focus. Just as I am about to walk away and get side-tracked by some task that feels more important, a swirl of butterflies circles around me, reminding me of the beauty of a healthy garden and I begin reaching again in the dirt, finding the roots, and pulling another weed.

When I’m done, I sit for awhile and survey my work. My garden and my mind both feel clean and refreshed. I have removed so many of the things that were troubling me and causing ugliness in my life. And in the process I have created new spaces for beauty. A whole new blank canvas sits before me. I feel excited by the prospects. What shall I plant?

Zen and the Art of Landscape Maintenance

“If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly, our whole life would change.”

~ Buddha

Most people today seem to be constantly busy --constantly rushing from one place to another -- constantly texting or talking on cell phones or checking the internet or listening to music.

The big problem with that, for me anyway, is that my mind doesn’t have the chance to just open up and think. I’m assaulting it with so much activity, that there are no empty spaces in there for original thoughts or discovery or enlightenment.

I’ve read quite a few self-help and philosophy books in my life and many of them say that you should learn to meditate--that you should set aside time and clear your mind and not focus on anything, except perhaps your breathing. You should try to attain what is called “zen mind”. I just can’t do it. I never have been able to. Either my mind just continues to race or I fall asleep, trying.

That is, until I step into my garden. There is just something about working outside in nature that gets me more in touch with my inner thoughts. The deeper my hands dig into the soil, the deeper my thoughts seem to become.

One of my favorite activities for deep thought in the garden is hand-pulling weeds. Manually pulling weeds is one of the best forms of organic weed control. It's easy to do, doesn't pollute the environment, and its free!

When I weed, I go out into my yard, sit down on the grass, sometimes on a towel or a short stool, take a deep breath, and using a weeding fork or trowel, I start removing weeds.

When I find a weed, I grab the plant close to the ground, insert my weeding fork or other tool into the soil and gently loosen the roots of the weed and remove the plant.

I’m careful not to dig too deep so I don’t disturb the roots of any nearby plants or bring deeply buried weed seeds up closer to the surface where they could sprout.

As long as the weeds don’t have any seeds on them, I pile them up to toss into my compost pile.

I’m not sure why this process is so relaxing. Perhaps its because it takes enough concentration to keep my mind from wandering anywhere else. I have to focus on finding the weeds and digging down deep enough to get all of the root. And it takes just the right amount of pressure. Pulling too hard will tear the leaves off the plant, leaving the roots behind. But it is also a rather mindless activity, leaving me time to concentrate on the other sights and sounds around me. And then every now and then, out of no where, some really deep thought will pop into my mind.

It makes me wonder if Buddha, the original “father” of Zen thinking, spent much time in a garden.

Back around 500 B.C., Siddhartha Gautama (also known as Buddha) set out to achieve enlightenment. It took him years of struggle, but he finally realized that “everything changes, nothing remains unchanged”. His conclusion from all of this was that the only thing that is really important in life is the joy and pleasure and experience we receive from each passing moment.

Unhappiness, Buddha decided, is a result of attachment to specific things or circumstances which, by their very nature, are impermanent. “By ridding oneself of these attachments, one can be free of suffering.” This is the basis of Zen and somehow, to me, it all seems very relevant to gardening.

We all have certain attachments to ideas about what our gardens should be. And then along comes the weather (freezing temperatures, drought), financial restraints, homeowners regulations and other things that can interfere with our grand schemes – like weeds. What’s a gardener to do?

Perhaps the secret is to adopt some Zen thinking for our gardens. No matter what we plant or how much money and time we spend in the garden, none of it is permanent. Instead of measuring our gardens in the number of beautiful blooms and fruit-bearing plants, perhaps we should measure the success of our gardens in the number of enjoyable moments we spend there.

Certainly there is no pleasure in dousing weeds with broad spectrum herbicides, polluting the planet as you go. But to gently reach down into the earth and pull these stray plants free, listening and watching and inhaling all of the sights and sounds and smells around you….those are the moments that can turn landscape maintenance into landscape magic.

Perhaps that is what Buddha was doing when he said:

“When you realize how perfect everything is you will tilt your head back and laugh at the sky” ~ Buddha

Gardening good for the body & the soul - Follow Friday Friend

I love garden blogger Kathy Van Mullekom and her Diggin' In blog. I feel like she and I are definitely kindred spirits who enjoy our gardens both for the inspiration that they provide us and for the pleasures of the birds, butterflies and other little critters that share our garden spaces with us.

This exerpt from her recent post entitled Gardening is good: Research links mood to outdoor exercise is a perfect example:

The recent issue of AARP magazine features an article stating new research from England's University of Essex finds that just find minutes of "green exercise," which includes gardening, cycling and fishing, boosts your mood and self-esteem.

This latest research confirms what other similar studies have said: Getting your hands dirty helps you emotionally and physically.

Add a little mediation, or quiet prayer, while you garden and your spiritual side soars, too!

My meditation in the garden happens best when I encounter wonderful little scenes like the box turtle eating my Juliet tomatoes. I love turtles, so I was so happy to see him feasting on the treats. I always plant more than husband Ken and I need, so Mr. Turtle was welcome at my buffet. Read full post here.

Everything that Kathy writes is wonderful. She is definitely another example of my deep research - that "Peter Rabbit's experience aside, gardeners are probably just nicer people."

Follow Friday Tip: Follow Kathy on Twitter @diggindirt