It's a Weed - It's a Voodoo Doll - It's Stress Therapy!
way to cut down on vandalism in these areas was to get the troublemakers involved in the garden. They not only worked off their aggressive tendencies there, but also suddenly found themselves responsible for a part of their environment. In working the garden, it became theirs - and they became protectors instead of aggressors.
Sometimes gardening can soothe us with the sheer repetitiveness of the tasks at hand. Once again weeding comes to mind - the mindless, easy task of pulling oxalis after oxalis - plants that don't require a fight, but which yield easily and give us a sense of being in control.
Perhaps the greatest psychological benefit of gardening is that it forces us to stop focusing on what may be an unpleasant present and instead to look to tomorrow. How many of us trot from bed to garden, barely pausing at the coffee pot, anxious to see whatever miniscule or monumental changes occur each day? How many of us count the days until the first rose blooms, the first robin appears, or the columbine seed is ripe for collecting? For whom is gardening not an exercise in looking to the future with pleasant anticipation?
Whoever said that to plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow was right. To plant a seed is to not only believe in tomorrow, but to look forward to it.
Can anything be better for our souls and our psyches?
Julie Muhlstein warns readers that the therapeutic value ends if one gets obsessed with perfection.
If you can get past all the commercial messages you can spend a long time at this site, learning about Connecting With Nature and Ecopsychology.
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