Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show: Veteran’s Day and the healing power of Nature
Today is Veterans Day and I want to honor all those who have served our Country and for those who have come back from war with injuries we see and those we don’t.
Transitioning from combat to civilian life isn’t easy. Experts are going back to lessons from long ago about the role nature has in healing. Years ago, on another radio show I had called “15 with the Author”, I talked with Stephanie Westlund who wrote, “Field Exercises: How Veterans Are Healing Themselves through Farming and Outdoor Activities”. It is a look at the healing properties of being in nature, including activities such as gardening.
Going back to the land, farming or gardening, being it vegetables or flowers or forests, can reduce the feelings of anxiety and stress so often accompanied with traumatic events in a person’s life. I know, for me, just being outside makes me feel better.
It’s not just the sight of nature but the feel of soil. Researchers continue to study mycobacterium in soil as it acts like serotonin, a happy drug, if you will. Gardeners inhale the bacteria, have topical contact with it and get it into their bloodstreams when there is a cut or other pathway for infection. The natural effects of the soil bacteria antidepressant can be felt for up to 3 weeks. More from Military.com and yet more from NOAA – it’s not just soil.
This isn’t pseudo science, these are University based researchers discovering what ancestors may not have KNOWN but rather FELT as they worked and played outdoors. Returning soldiers often don’t feel safe but as they walk through gardens, stroll paths through parks or work the soil, a sense of security often settles on them.
God bless our veterans and our active duty military.
