I have found that caring for plants is beneficial for my mental and physical health. Plus, I love connecting with my inner child as I play with soil and get my hands dirty!
Some of us may have been taught about the concept of self-soothing in difficult moments. Self-soothing is a skill that belongs directly in your mental health toolbox. There are many ways to self-soothe and relax but imagine talking to your houseplant or playing music for your houseplant. Or taking a walk through your garden and perhaps smelling the different flowers or sages and touching the fuzzy leaves of your kalanchoe. Using your senses is a way of grounding you in times of high distress or emotion. You can use these same techniques by inviting plants into your life. This practice is regenerative in concrete ways.
Listening to your plant is an act of love. Teaching yourself how to care for your plant is an act of love. These are unselfish acts that can take us out of our struggles. And some plants, like a snake plant or a cast iron plant can handle it when our mental illness gets too big and taking care of a plant becomes too big.
Gardening or plant care can also teach us about life skills and responsibility. Caring for something beyond ourselves can teach us how to care for ourselves. This act can help us to have compassion for ourselves and for nature. Remembering which day to water your spider plant makes it that much more exciting when it shoots out a “spider” baby, right? But now you know what day it is and as small as it might be, you are following a schedule. Imagine that. It also takes us out of our heads, a space we occupy so frequently.
Also, just to be clear, there’s no perfectionism in plant care. Showing up in ways that you can is great. Unpacking and decolonizing the way we talk about plants and gardens, accessibility, space, time, and more is part of the work.
Transplanted Collective 