Gardening is a relaxing and productive hobby for many people, young and old. The joys of tending a garden are plenty and many people find maintaining other living things highly rewarding. One amazing thing about gardening is that it can actually be used as a tool to help you stay on top of your sobriety and your healing. Let’s dig deeper and understand why gardening is such a useful therapy.

Gardening as Meditation

The act of gardening is inherently meditative. Much like other focus-heavy hobbies like fishing, painting, or playing music, gardening requires you to clear your head to focus on the task at hand. Many who garden find that they are able to enter a “flow” while tending their plants, completely involved in the activity. This allows you to turn off the “monkey-mind,” to focus on the beauty of life, and to bring your troubles into perspective.

Gardening as Responsibility

Tending your garden gives you responsibility over the well-being of other living things. Having this kind of responsibility can be extremely rewarding, allowing you to find purpose in your own well being outside of yourself. You must take care of yourself to care for others, and gardening can teach this lesson.

Gardening Connects You to Nature

Nature is a powerful healer. Whether you enjoy walks through forests or best find peace by the water, there are endless health and mental benefits from spending time outdoors. While gardening, you will not only spend more time outside but also connect yourself to the process and magic of nature. You will learn how to nurture plants, how to respond to growth or decline, and witness first hand the earthly magic of nature. If you choose to grow edible plants, you will have a deeper connection to your food and what you put into your body.

Gardening Connects You to Others

If you take up gardening, you’ll find yourself in good company. There are endless groups and circles dedicated to gardening where you can find a helpful and strong community. One of the more difficult things about recovery is sometimes feeling lonely. Taking up a gardening hobby helps to align you with others in a positive, sober way.

A Natural Choice

Gardening can open your eyes to the beauty and enchantment of our world. When recovering from alcoholism and working towards keeping a sober lifestyle, any activity that helps you to  stay on track in a healthy way is worth a chance. To reconnect to nature, learn, and reinstall wonder, consider gardening as a new path towards healing.