In the first-ever survey done in Ireland linking gardening to Mindfulness, 89% of respondents say they have experienced Mindfulness in their garden!
The survey, carried out by The Irish Garden magazine, defined Mindfulness as: “the non-judgement of oneself and moment-to-moment awareness of one’s thoughts and feelings.” Gardening was understood to mean the action and non-action of spending time in the garden.
From a total of 1,567 respondents incorporating a wide mix of social status, age profile and gardening ability, a remarkable 99.6% said that gardening or spending time in their garden in their experience increased well-being in their life.
- 82% consciously use gardening to relieve stress in their life.
- 95.5% reported feeling more grounded and in touch with the earth and nature through gardening.
- 95% said being around plants and growing plants leads to well-being.
- 96% considered gardening to increase the joy, satisfaction, love and happiness in their life.
- 90% had experienced a feeling of freedom or liberty in their garden.
- A further 91% see gardening as a source of inspiration and 86% used gardening as an expression of their inner creativity, colour and all the senses.
Gardening has not been seen in this light before in Ireland.
Interestingly, 88% said they felt more themselves in the garden. Increasingly, well-being experts are also realising the importance of this factor in effective self-care health practices.
Jane Donald of The Irish Garden Magazine commented “”I’m not surprised at these results, every day we hear anecdotes from people finding that taking up gardening has a big impact on their wellbeing and their mental and physical health. It’s no wonder more and more people are subscribing to The Irish Garden”