Mental Health Chat: Healing Through Social Connection in the Garden

Cultivate Wellness

Mental Health Chat

Kendalle Wexler, MS, LMFT-Associate, talks healing through social connection in the garden.

Gardening promotes positive mental health outcomes and aspects of overall well-being. While there are numerous reasons for these healing effects, we’re going to focus on one that has been highlighted in recent research: social connection. Social connection is broadly defined as feelings of closeness with beings other than yourself.

You may still be wondering how social connection and gardening are tied. Think of gardening like networking. If you garden with friends, family, or community members a social connection network is formed from the experience. This is not just exclusive to people though. Plants, animals, and insects in the garden are part of this networking too! Let’s explore the health benefits of social connection networking in the garden through a three part lens: biologically, psychologically, and socially (also known as a biopsychosocial model). The Biological Lens Biologically, gardening has a healing effect on our brain chemistry. For example, mental health disorders such as depression and dementia are associated with neurological inflammation of certain genetic markers. The more inflamed these markers become, the more severe the symptoms follow. In a 2021 study researching the correlation between social connectedness in gardening and these markers, researchers found that one such marker (known as IL-6) became less inflamed over the course of 6 months when participants had increased levels of social connection through gardening (Ng, et. al, 2021). These individuals reported experiencing decreased negative health symptoms and increased feelings of overall wellness.

The Psychological Lens Psychologically, gardening increases positive emotions through social interactions. This is supported by another study published in 2021 that analyzed the impact of individuals’ participation in community gardens on their sustained well-being. In interviews

conducted at the end of the study, all participants reported higher levels of positive emotions in comparison to their interview responses at the beginning of the study. Based on these interviews, it appears the boost in positive emotions resulted from garden based learning opportunities, active participation in nurturing life, and connection to others through shared and individual responsibilities in the garden (Suto, Smith, Damiano, & Channe, 2021).

The presence of positive emotions is also biologically tied to the reduction of inflammation in the brain discussed above. Are you starting to see the ongoing connection between the biological and psychological? Let’s keep going to see how the social lens ties in.

The Social Lens

Socially, gardening provides many opportunities for connection. This is especially true in community gardens, which foster a sense of belonging through the social connection network created. In this network, everyone plays a role that holds value in the success of the garden, which increases feelings of belonging. Whether you’re there to water the plants, plant seeds, feed the chickens, or to just be present in the garden, you are connected in the network. As discussed above, this is not limited to connections between people, but to all living creatures in the garden— plants, animals, and insects are all important members of this network. The great part about this finding is that gardening caters to individuals’ own pacing with the type of connection they feel most comfortable with (Suto, Smith, Damiano, & Channe, 2021).

Some people thrive off talking to other people, while others may experience discomfort with those social interactions and prefer to connect with animals. You get to set your own pace of social engagement. Whichever pace you choose, the healing effects will follow.

Growing Your Social Connection Network

From this biopsychosocial lens, we see that social connection is a healing force intrinsically tied to gardening in any setting. Social connection can be hard to come by at times, especially when Covid has a say in matters. If you’re feeling a need to connect or are interested in increasing coping resources to improve your mental health, consider getting to know your local gardens and adding them to your networks of support.

Sources

Ng, T. K. S., Gan, D. R. Y., Mahendran, R., Kua, E. H., & Ho, R. C.-M. (2021). Social connectedness as a mediator for horticultural therapy’s biological effect on community-dwelling older adults: Secondary analyses of a randomized controlled trial. Social Science & Medicine, 284.

Suto, M. J., Smith, S., Damiano, N., & Channel, S. (2021). Participation in community gardening: Sowing the seeds of well-being. Canadian Journal of Occupational Therapy / Revue Canadienne D’Ergothérapie, 88(2), 142–152.