These factors, practiced consistently, are enough to boost health levels for anyone. However, another powerful commonality/factor weaves its threads through these communities.
That factor is gardening. It seems people living in these “Blue Zones” love tilling the soil/gardening and growing their own food, and they do this well into their late senior years.
Other studies confirm these findings. Participants in a recent Dutch study were asked to complete a task that stressed them out. After completing this stressful task, the group was split into two. One group read indoors for 30 minutes while the other group gardened outside for the same amount of time. The results were not surprising. The indoor readers experienced a decline in mood from their already stressed levels, while the outdoor gardeners stressed moods were lifted and restored to a happier place.
Another study completed by Australian researchers that included both men and women in their 60s revealed a startling statistic. It seems participants who gardened experienced a 36 per cent lower risk of dementia than the non-gardeners.
Gardening is mentally and physically rewarding. We are less stressed, live longer and get the opportunity to enjoy and share with others the fruits of our labour.
Whether it is vegetables, fruits, herbs, spices, or even sprouts grown on a windowsill, anyone who has tilled the soil for food knows the difference in taste that home-grown produces, as opposed to store-bought. Home-grown tastes many times better for a few reasons.
Commercial growers, even organic growers, might use the same fertiliser and till similar land. But every vegetable or fruit plucked from a home garden is infused with tender, loving care. Not only that, but because we personally grew it, tended it and picked it, we are assured it has not been contaminated with chemicals or negative thoughts along the way.
Home-grown also offers the opportunity to pick in season at the perfect ripeness - no need to pick early for shipping. When foods can ripen on their vines before being picked, both flavour and nutrients get a boost, giving us the biggest bang for our buck. A few dollars spent on seeds and fertiliser, mixed with love and nurturing, yield pounds of produce and heaps of happiness. Our health gets a boost while our wallet gets a rest.
Although people with backyards might have an edge when it comes to garden size, even apartment dwellers can employ the use of window boxes and hanging baskets for planting. In fact, an endless supply of helpful products and free information by creative gardening entrepreneurs can easily be found online for anyone serious about growing their own food, no matter what their living situation is.
Beyond the physical and mental rewards that home gardening provides, our spirituality deepens as well. From seedlings to established roots, bud leaves and blossoms, green leaves and finally fruit/veges providing next season’s seeds, it is gardening that connects us to our authentic mother, that of Nature, to her rhythms, to our creative powers and creation itself. It is gardening that reminds us of the parallel meaning/metaphor of our outer and inner gardens – that we are each a plant in the “garden of life” requiring special attention and nurturing with positive thoughts (fertiliser), along with tender loving care to foster healthy growth.
It is this activity - our hands tilling and tending the soil, that quickly reminds us of our own inner tree of life/garden and how it grows stronger and stronger, providing more flavour/nutrients to our lives when we tend to its needs as well.
In the end, tending our garden and growing our own food is a mental, physical, and spiritual experience that connects us to Mother Earth. It fills our hearts and minds with peace and our tummies with healthy, life-extending nutrients.
Fresh air, sunshine (we need the sun’s nutrients, especially the formation of vitamin D), physical activity, plant-based diets, and a healthy social life, all contribute to our extended years/healthy longevity. Gardening is the all-inclusive activity that bundles them into one powerful action/force. It is the “pot to plate” activity empowered to heal both our mind and body.
There is a wise old saying in Okinawa that states anyone growing older needs an “ikigai”, or reason for living. Gardening and growing our own food are the “holy grail” that not only provides it but blesses us with our greatest return on investment – more years to enjoy life.
Carolyn Hansen is co-owner of Anytime Fitness
