healing gardens will save your life

“I breathe, and take it all in. The waves of panic ebb away. Once again, as always, the garden returns me to myself. And then I realize how lucky I am to be here.” - Ginny Mata

Have you ever experienced something very unexpected happen in your life and you suddenly get overflowed with stress and anxiety but can't
see a hopeful way out?

Ginny Mata had her whole life planned out and everything was going well. She was about to achieve her dream of becoming a chef when she turned 35 until a monster crept into her life: a chronic disease called multiple sclerosis. It took her dreams away and threw her into a dark hole of endless pain, frequent panic attacks, and severe depression.

Ginny tried to end her own life not once, but twice. Nothing was able to cure her until she started to build her garden. It was not just any ordinary garden, but a healing garden that brought light and saved her life.

People go to the hospital in hopes of finding cures for their sicknesses but not every health problem and mental illness can be cured with medicine or surgeries. Healing gardens withhold the power of nature which may be a much more effective cure for our well-being and every hospital should have a healing garden in place.

This article includes the following points to help you understand the importance of healing gardens and why hospitals should have them:
1. Benefits of healing gardens
2. Things to do in the healing gardens
3. Ways to build healing gardens in hospitals 

Benefits of healing garden

#1 Healing gardens promote patients’ well-being

 Professor Mugion and Menicucci from the University of Roma Tre published an article in 2020 about the benefits of horticultural therapy on patients’ well-being during hospitalization. Through their methodology, they found both direct and indirect benefits of healing gardens on patients.

Direct benefits include an increase in confidence, a stress release, a greater sense of self-worth, an outlet for creating, and an understanding of interest in the future.
Indirect benefits include the development of new skills, the pursuit of curiosity, improved observational skills, and an increased vocabulary and communication ability.

#2 Healing gardens provide stress relief for healthcare staff

Having a healing garden in the hospital benefits not only the patients but also the healthcare staff who play a major role in the healthcare industry. Dr. Woo-Hwa Shin and Landscape Architect Jody Rosenblatt Naderi dedicated a study to design a healing garden that can provide the experience of renewal for hospital nursing staff. Out of sixty-one nurses that participated in the study, ninety-five percent of the nurses felt that it was important for their coworkers to get outside. Fifty-two percent indicated that the vast majority of nurses went outside to be alone as they overwhelmingly want a comfortable, private place for solitude and quietness. In the study, they concluded that for nurses who work long shifts under significant stress, “a landscape that has natural elements contrasts with their shift environment and might offer a restorative benefit.”