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When the pressures of life are getting you down it would be good to have a place to just get mellow, chill out and relax. What better way than a wonderfully soothing spell in a garden. Pick a Daisy, stick in your hair and simply breath in the lovely fresh air. Look up, face towards the sun, arms spread out wide. Deep breath in, deep breath out. Doesn’t that feel better? Yes, indeed, it does.
So, why not take it one step further? Use gardening as therapy and never be stressed out again. How to do this is simple. Get out in the yard every chance you can and place a bird feeder out there so you can watch the Gold Finches, Blue Jays and Cardinals fly to and fro, pick a bouquet of fragrant blossoms or merely plant a seed and watch it grow. It would be good for you and that’s not saying anything for the good it does for the environment, the wildlife and your ego. That’s right, your ego. Neighbors tend to praise a nice looking yard in case you didn’t know. But ego is hardly the only thing that benefits from a bit of garden therapy.
It is simply impossible to be stressed out watching a butterfly flutter by and land on a Purple Coneflower. Reading a book by a gently flowing fountain creates nothing but a soothing balm to your frazzled nerves. Pull out a nasty weed and chop it into tiny bits all the while imagining it is your never-satisfied-with-anything-you-do boss. Just the mindless activity of pulling weeds and allowing your mind to wander aimlessly is curative and helps to keep your sanity. Or you can just listen to the gentle breeze ruffle the leaves of the Sugar Maple or flow through the ornamental grass if that’s as much as you’re willing to do. There is no stress in the garden. Mother Nature won’t allow it.
The point is for you to get out there and be one with nature. Even the tiny little bit of nature in your own backyard is as fine a place as any to start. Put in a pretty herb garden and have those wonderful scents for free instead of paying through the nose at those fancy aroma therapy places. Experience Spearmint in an invigorating glass of sun tea, Lavender in your bath and Chamomile in your night time cup of tea fresh out of the garden and oh-so-full of their curative powers. Nothing more tranquil than that. You won’t have to go to the noisy crowded mall for that stuff if it’s growing right in your garden.
The simply act of tending a small garden will give your mind an ease it may never have known. Don’t have a garden of your own? There are botanical gardens everywhere for your perusal. Of course just a tub full of easy to grow annuals, maybe a tomato plant surrounded with sweet smelling Basil plants or just a few tiny pots of herbs growing on a windowsill are garden enough and all you need to get you started. It need not be difficult nor complicated.
Gardening as therapy has been done for several thousand years. Ask the Zen Masters who spend most of their days carefully, meditatively tending their little bit of earth. Ever see one of them stressed out? They know the value behind gardening therapy. Go on, now. Get a plot of earth and plant a seed. Doctor’s orders.
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Author Bio Box: Glory Lennon
 For more fun gardening facts and amusing stories come visit
http://www.helium.com/users/32782
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