How gardening helped my mental health

I started gardening in 2013 while extremely anxious as I processed my first big heartbreak. It was through that experience that I felt just how powerful gardening can be - and 7 years later made the decision to begin bringing the mental health benefits of gardening to 1,000,000 individuals. In today's video, I take you behind the curtain on what my journey has been and how it culminated with creating Mind & Soil.

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#howtogartden #gardentherapy #mindandsoil

[FraserValleyRoseFarm]

Great to hear about how you discovered this passion - and especially how you set aside the time and money to give it a chance. Very inspiring!

[janiceboling]

I have also found gardening to be a form of mental health treatment! Thanks for sharing!

[jennybuzek]

I just watched your video about how gardening has helped with your stress and anxiety. Being a recent widow, i realized just recently how healing working in my garden has become. It is my place of calm. I am very focused on what i am doing, what i can do to improve my garden and it gives me back so much. I grow for myself and i love to share with my family and neighbours. I can and dehydrate my extra bounty so i eat healthy through the winter. I have also started winter gardening with some success. Kale has to be the most amazing crop to overwinter. It starts to grow again as soon as the days start to get longer. So i have wonderful salads throughout the spring including the kale flowers which are sweet and delicious. I cut those off when they are spent and the plant continues to produce leaves for another season. So it gives me so much but is also wonderful for all the bees, butterflies, etc. We help Mother Nature and she helps us too! Keep up the great work.

[amdo]

So thankful to have found this video. 2014 was the year I had my first breakdown. I was burned out on a job I didn't really love, but thought I was lucky enough to have. That year I found a house with a garden. While healing for a year from the burn-out, I started my gardening journey. I thought of gardening as the probable solution or balance to my stressful job. I went back to the same job/industry, feeling that now that I have that balance, it should be fine. However, I fell back to depression 2 years ago, gardening, having a dog and being out in the nature is keeping me sane. Now I'm looking for my IKIGAI and found a course in Switzerland to become a Garden therapist. Actually, I was looking for a sign if this is what I should do. This video may be the sign. It's inspiring.

[bransonpeacock]

I lost my wife to suicide 1161 days ago - I’ve been slowly gardening since. I just built a greenhouse in November. I enjoy your channel, I’m glad I found it.

[jessicageorge]

Thank you for sharing this. I always thought I had a black thumb, then my mom died in 2017 and I adopted almost all of her (many, many) plants. She was an avid gardener with the most amazing green thumb. As I have learned about how to take care of her plant babies, I have become more and more excited about what else I can grow, and this year I am planting a proper garden. Working in the soil is so healing, and makes me feel so close to my mom. Thank you for all of your videos!

[Gracenglory]

I found a real passion for gardening in 2020. I’ve gardened since 2014, but grief kickstarted something very new and surprising. By 2021 I was absolutely obsessed with design, plans, soil, flowers, veg, fruits & herbs, building raised beds & designing my greenhouse. It’s a lifestyle, not a destination or merely a goal to achieve. I developed my own dirt-less soil and am going to use my beds as my worm farm. Being part of the creative process is such a blessing. To see life form and grow into producing beauty and nourishment because of the nurturing environment that gets poured out to tiny seeds is actually mind blowing when you stop to think about it. So much symbiosis that is reciprocal between human, earth, animal, insect, & plant. It’s harmony actualized and it’s the most lovely life flow to help heal shattered hearts. The hope that continually comes from each phase never dies, it renews. Truly a grand design and I draw closer to the Creator of all with the co-labor. What a gift He gives!! Many blessings to you! Thank you for sharing your journey. In Yeshua’s care, 🙏🏻💞🙌🏻

[poetsgarden]

restorative gardening...love that. That is what I was trying to convey with my channel. Love to see this! Gardening makes me lose myself....Best wishes.

[picksy]

The other thing is you get a wonderful feeling when you have finished building or growing something and thats great for building up you self esteem. I just bought a new house and my front and backyard is dirt. I'm exhausted after a few hours of work but my depression and anxiety are getting less and less . I can't wait to get some food from my new property knowing I did this :)

[richpate]

Inspiring! Thanks for baring your Mind & Soul (Soil) to all of us. Just about everyone has at least once been through a "dark night of the Soul" and has learned to go on in life -- often better than before.

[awkwardbbq]

Awesome brother!! Funny I was thinking today while turning our compost that I enjoy the process more than the harvest. Being very new to gardening it's amazing to know how much there is to learn. Unlike many other things I'm not intimidated or fear failing at all. It's odd but an amazing feeling. I too had struggles but would never change a thing. I wouldn't have found my wife otherwise. Don't want to minimize your or  anyone's pain  but 1 of my favorite quotes is "a loss is never a loss if you learn from  it"
Btw - 13 years clean and sober ;)

[heathercrombie]

Gardening has kept me sane since I started 45 years ago through family crises, births, deaths, sickness, and so on. My gardens have been where I meditate and easily practise mindfulness (or what I call mindlessness or single mindedness). As far as composting I have been most successful burying my kitchen waste (vegetable matter only) directly into the vegetable garden, 1 1/2 feet deep. I’ve never had any animal dig them up in 10 years-fingers crossed. Worms have increased exponentially also in those areas. I love your sessions Jordan! Thank you!.

[brendalloyd]

I so enjoyed this video…I have been a gardener my whole life and always felt comforted and happy doing this. But in 2011, I was diagnosed with severe anxiety and severe PTSD, work related. Now my gardening and working in my yard is what keeps me going. My mental health and physical well being is nurtured by my yard and gardens..flower and vegetable.trying to be as self sufficient as I can be is an ongoing goal that I thrive from and look forward to everyday. Thanks for sharing your story👍

[MischiefAndMore]

This is a very inspiring video and I'm glad you shared your story! Nature, plants, and animals are incredible sources of rejuvenating energy. I recently uprooted from the SF Bay Area to France and it's been challenging for me. Even though I am still very much a beginner, growing plants brings me a lot of comfort and I'm finally starting my own "real" garden and utilizing what I am learning from others - like you!! I still have no idea what I am doing but it's fun, nonetheless, and I enjoy seeing what survives living with me!

[tedpreston]

Wow. I'm feeling so grateful having found your channel, Jordan! I've been binge watching for hours. We have much in common, right down to the time period when my mental health took a downturn. Compost fanaticism, worms, gardening for mental health. I look forward to getting to know you in coming months!

Thank you for looking out for us all!

[danika]

Yes! At 4:00 min, I’ve been there! First time we had filled our first raised bed, my hands in the soil, the hope of the new beginnings of life in it, it was spiritual. Beginning of my healing. Thank you for sharing. ❤️

[Alexj]

Gardening is the only thing that has kept me sane. Does help me with my depression!

[kimberleyscanlon]

Thankyou for sharing this video! My story is almost exactly the same as yours and recently i've started gardening again, definitely soothes the nervous system. I thought if i cannot completely transform my life right now, i will at least try to make the garden beautiful and its been extremely cathartic, removing the weeds, started a compost bin, planted some coriander.
Finally giving myself permission to go with what feels like it has purpose and not forcing things that don't. Really inspiring to hear your story!

[mcuten]

Wow, what a story. Thank you for sharing 🙏

My story only starts in 2020 during the pandemic. I’m one of those folks that was drawn to your Soil Saturday posts. Originally I started gardening as something for my daughter and I to do everyday in the summer during the pandemic. While it remained something we did together it also became a place for me to chill out and relax. I would find myself walking out onto my patio (where my garden was) during phone meetings (when I was most stressed). I would steal five minutes in the garden when I could.

My gardening journey is evolving. 2021 saw my garden triple in size. 2022 will be something different because we’ve now moved and so I get to experiment with my new space to see what grows. However, it’ll still remain a place I can go for a little mental peace 😊🌿🪴🌻

[DavidPerez-vuzx]

Brother, you have no idea how much your story resonates with me. I lost a son and then my wife left me for not knowing how to handle my emotions. Plants somehow allowed me to calm my soul and grow as a man. I wish you the best