The best part about nature is …we are a part of it. All problems for me start when I don’t have my dose of nature therapy. I started balcony gardening in 2014. In 2020 the pandemic made us really go all in and renovate our ancestral village home and garden and start growing some of our own vegetables.
This is a part of the #CauseAchatter series by Blogchatter.
“Real change, enduring change, happens one step at a time”
— Ruth Bader Ginsburg
In 2022, we got an opportunity to help plant trees in a few plots of land and there was no looking back. In July of 2022, we planted saplings with children and the elderly all helping. It was a wonderful way to greet the monsoons with the hope that the plants will soon root well.
We planted Mango trees, Papaya, Coconut, Mahogany, Ticoma, and Bougainvillea. Though it’s early, we can’t wait to see how these plants look when they grow up. We may or may not be there, but the trees and the shade they produce will help many.
Nature Therapy has been researched for a very long time. While science and facts are always useful to drive home and prove a point, nothing works better than how something makes you feel. I can’t stop people from cutting down trees, not always, I can’t replace a fully grown tree with a sapling and expect all will be well. But I can still plant more and more plants and trees and talk about them and how they have changed my life so that someone somewhere might want to do the same.
Every time we cut trees, we make the soil loose, and the climate hotter. Every time we uproot a plant, mother earth sighs. If a man can go to the Moon and Mars, why not find ways for all the developmental work keeping the trees as important parts of our health and life? Just like removing an eye because we have two is not sensible unless a disease requires it to be removed, Cutting trees because they are preventing development needs a workaround.
Why not invest in science and technology to transplant big trees with their roots intact just like we do in plastic surgery? Spending time in nature helps lower stress, improve blood pressure, improve mood, and release endorphins amongst many other effects.
Nature therapy doesn’t happen in a single step but may need multiple steps. Whatever stage you start, it helps you become calmer, happier, and more insightful.