I loved this book. It is hopeful, healing, and encouraging. The tone is that of deeply rooted solace, and a warm, slow hug. Reading it was like basking in the balm of meditation, while simultaneously making me want to take action.
The author is a psychotherapist and a gardener, as well as a calm, intuitively kind soul. She explores the strongly proven connections between mental health and gardening. I already know, experience, and heartily endorse the therapeutic effects of being in nature regularly, but I have always left the gardening to my parents or my husband. After reading the The Well-Gardened Mind, I want to help in the garden for the first time in my life, and have asked my husband to teach me.
This book shares many inspiring examples that illustrate how prisoners, veterans, at-risk youth, the elderly, the sick, and the mentally ill can all benefit from the profound healing power of gardening. I loved all the stories of gardening resuscitating and rehabilitating everyone from soldiers on the front lines, to those with struggling with trauma and PTSD, or even turning around blighted neighborhoods.
The currently prevalent themes of depression and anxiety, hopelessness and despair, all highlight our need of the antidote– getting our hands in the dirt. Our minds thrive on using our hands (that’s why “makers” live longer), and being in contact with the earth has both a literal and metaphysical grounding effect.
As we are surrounded with “virtual worlds and fake facts, the garden brings us back to reality; not the kind of reality that is known and predictable, for the garden always surprises us… which stimulates the emotional, spiritual, and cognitive aspects of our being… Cultivation works both ways – it is inward as well as outward – and tending a garden can become an attitude toward life. In a world that is increasingly dominated by technology and consumption, gardening puts us in a direct relationship with the reality of how life is generated and sustained and how fragile and fleeting it can be.”
I encourage you to read or listen to (read by the author)this life-affirming book. It offers real and under-utilized solutions for making both the world and individual lives so much happier and healthier. I give it 5 stars.
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7 Comments
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Thank you for sharing this, I also loved this book after hearing her husband speak at the Royal Society of Arts about their project. It is inspiring me for the development of our own garden and the work that we are doing in the south of France and I thought you might enjoy the article I wrote about it too here: https://open.substack.com/pub/carolinejwatson/p/acts-of-resistance?r=61xy7&utm_medium=ios
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Thanks! I loved your article and subscribed! ❤️
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I’m sure James will enjoy teaching you about gardening as he is so good at it, as well as being an excellent teacher!
Enjoy your new activity. We look forward to hearing all about it and seeing the fruits of your labours. X-
Thanks!
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I found this quote on a calendar – so I printed it out to make bookmarks: “Go to the garden when you need to
remember that everything is love.” Thank you so much for your loving inspiration and beautiful paintings. -
I’ve been in the yard a bit the past week with some warmer weather peppered in down south. hugely restorative! may need to check out this book! (miss you all!) 💚
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You give it 5 Stars…Oh my goodness. Looks like I’m giving myself permission to read books (other than CS study periodicals) because of you :-) :-) Due to your review of THE CHOICE, I purchased it! I feel enriched and expanded as a better human being with greater compassion and appreciation for Life. And that just skims the surface of the blessings. I haven’t purchased a book for ‘leisure’ reading in decades and when we moved to Portugal, the few that I have for “someday” reading did not fit in the two large suitcases that moved with me. I say this to point out the impact your contribution to give time and effort in sharing book reviews can have on another’s life. A big, heartfelt thank you, Polly.
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