Gardening as Medicine: Bare Feet and More Lessons in Impermanence, Seasonal Dreamings

[riverflows]

I have always gardened in bare feet in the warmer months, ever since I began this relationship with soil and bugs, sun and water, herbs and trees. They call it grounding, these days, a label good for Instagram posts and the self-care instructions laid out in fonts and photographs that drive the internet. I never had a word for it, just a sensation – that the diaphragm of my plantar fascae makes first contact with the earth, only a delicate skin between blood and lymph and the life of the earth beneath, the tickle of bugs and grass, wet dew. The sweet pain when a twig scratches, the kiss of damp soil, the sharpness of gravel and warmth of sun warmed garden beds. Deep connections to natural cycles.

In my most stressful times the garden is a balm. When life makes it’s demands it feels like everything is closing in on you, noisy chaos. Too much sensation. I don’t do well with too much sensation – it rattles me. I can’t bear the radio and the T.V on at the same time, clashing calender appointments, questions and queries from too many people. It’s like a tangled ball of string – I don’t have the patience to unwind it and re-ravel it, but would rather discard it. Being in the garden allows that – the noise of the world gives way to something else, more in tune with the rhythms of my body than the discordancy out in the world.

The yin and yang of nettles: they sting like crazy, but are important blood tonics. The garden contains the balance of all things.

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There’s something in the tending of things that gives life a purpose. From a larger garden to a container of herbs on a windowsill, growing things has a reason – perhaps a kind of pleasure in the fact that life can depend on you as much as you on it – a symbiosis of sorts. The spray of water, the purpose of companion planting, the careful sowing and harvest, the care of the soil. It’s a beautiful relationship and one that never hurts.

Epicormic growth from a sawn eucalypt branch - even from damage, comes growth. Even from trauma, growth occurs.

There’s a pleasure too in the accumulated knowledge. I learn by doing – I don’t retain what I read in books, or only briefly. Experience is everything. The knowledge retained is the felt knowledge, the real knowing that comes from doing, and it’s localised too – what grows here and works here might not work in other climates. The hops that grow on the shaded east side next to the lemon verbena does not do well on the western side where it’s more exposed. The brassicas like the comfrey fertiliser. The lemon tree needs to be sheltered from the frost and likes a fertiliser made of citrus rinds. The gum tree should not have been planted there as it’s roots travel too far and suck the life from the soil. The gathering of new plants, the careful consideration of their use, their value in the garden as a whole. The ones that survive, the ones that don’t. The ones that shade, the ones that make good compost, that are easy to prepare and pickle, the ones we don’t eat as much of and thus need to think about their place. None of this comes easy – it’s acquired knowledge, and there’s a curiousity and interest that keeps me going through these years of cultivation and harvest. There’s also the loveliness of attunement, to feel as if you are connected to all that is. The birch is the last tree to come to leaf, the apple is the first to blossom. The bees hibernate for the winter but when they come out they know your face, geo-locate themselves around you. Even the magpies dive at passerby but never at you – their family have been here longer than you but they know and accept you as part of their world, the braver ones begging for worms and larvae dug from the soil and thrown with a call of ‘here, mmmagggie maggie maggie’.

And then there is the moment to moment living of life, when you are so finally atuned to the task at hand, the digging and the weeding, the planting and the pruning, the making and the pruning, that each breath and body movement slips into a rhythm, a trance, and the space between the thoughts is bigger, wider, less cluttered. The breath that comes slows the heart rate, deeper exhalations calming the sympathetic nervous system.

I’ve never got anxious in the garden. Never worried. Everything just is what is is – so deeply of itself and truly honestly itself that I don’t have to second guess it or query it’s motives or defend myself. The worm twists in the palm of my hand and I place it back in the soil and it is gone. The chickens take the thrown bug and chase each other under the elder trees for it and I’m forgotten – just another breathing creature under the skirts of the sky.

Gardening for mental health? You betcha. Get out under that sky and breath, my beautiful tribes, your feet on the earth and the breeze on your skin. You are one with all that is.

How do you creatively support your mental health?

Do you take solace and pleasure in your garden, in nature, in the cycles of the whirling Earth?

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If you're a supporter of all things natural healing, you might like to read our introductory post here. We'd also love to welcome you on Discord here!!

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Comments

[nateonsteemit]

Garden time (or this time of year, chicken time) is important in my daily routine. I never called it by a specific name, but u will say this:

[riverflows]

So true!!!! I can't go a day without being in the garden to solve some ill or just find a bit of peace!!!

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[choogirl]

I bought an earthing strap recently (since it is way cheaper than the sheets and mats) and it's awesome. I was a good sleeper before but it's even better now. It's also reduced my DOMS from crossfit. I'm half way through reading the book that came with it. Connecting with the earth has amazing health benefits (assuming you don't get bitten by ants if you're doing it outside!)

[riverflows]

An earthing strap? Tell me more!! I need better sleeeeepppp Xxxx

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[choogirl]

Here you go!
https://www.amazon.com/Earthing-EBBK-Body-Band-Kit/dp/B06X9F98BT/ref=pd_cp_121_2?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B06X9F98BT&pd_rd_r=9b24cf00-b3c5-11e8-8742-1712fd196554&pd_rd_w=8Sewg&pd_rd_wg=d1Ga7&pf_rd_i=desktop-dp-sims&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_p=ef4dc990-a9ca-4945-ae0b-f8d549198ed6&pf_rd_r=BCK1FK1EF912N1SSSDTG&pf_rd_s=desktop-dp-sims&pf_rd_t=40701&psc=1&refRID=BCK1FK1EF912N1SSSDTG

[choogirl]

God, that link looks awful. If it doesn't work type in"Earthing EBBK Body Band Kit". You'll need an Australian adapter for it too. I've seen it, so you'll have to google it. Might be on their website.

[riverflows]

Wow you are a gadget girl! Amzing. Thanks for the link! I will check it out.

[thetreeoflife]

Yah this post tho, just beautiful writing.
I get barefooted as much as possible, it's nice to be able to feel the earth, and there's a ton of research now behind earthing as a practice and a medicine. Groundwork is important! Not that evidence is the end all be all, if it came to it and science proved it had no benefit, I'd still be walking barefoot and feeling the flow with the earth. 😂
Also your garden is gorgeous.

[riverflows]

Exactly. People used to say 'where are your shoes?' And i couldnt explain WHY it felt good, just that it DID. There was NEVER a name behind it or any science. Just a perfect IS-ness.

[walkerland]

Such a beautiful post @riverflows. My husband walked in while I was reading it and asked me what I was grinning about. I hadn't even realized that I was smiling so widely as I read your words.

I love to go barefoot too and dread the wintertime when the snow bites the skin and I have to put on boots. I can relate to what you've shared here and gardening is surely one of my go to spaces for my wellness.

[riverflows]

Wow that is a compliment! Let me know what you think of my stories. No one reads them as Im not really in fiction groups or tribes.. no comments on my last one! Makes me want to give up!! But i do enjoy writing stories when the inspiration takes hold.

[walkerland]

My husband had the same trouble, he writes really good short stories but no one was reading/seeing them. I really LOVE your Mish character and story line!! LOOOVE IT!

[aware007]

Couldn't agree more with everyone, this is some very beautiful and inspiring writing!
I particularly love this:

each breath and body movement slips into a rhythm, a trance, and the space between the thoughts is bigger, wider, less cluttered

Very spiritual, deeply inspiring.

My wife and I are dying to finally get our first house together (both recovering from abusive 30 yr marriages - currently renting) as these two (not so) spring chickens approach our first anniversary. Alas, we'll probably have to wait for springtime in the northern hemisphere, but we cannot wait to get our bare feet into a brand new garden.
We'll be calling upon you beautiful tribemates for tips and ideas!

Love this post, love this tribe!
-Logan

[riverflows]

Oh you are only young! And gardening keeps you younger. Its lovely you found each other. Wishing you abundance!!!

[c-squared]

This post was shared in the Curation Collective Discord community for curators, and upvoted and resteemed by the @c-squared community account after manual review.

[trucklife-family]

oh I really do love how you write, it is poetry to my ears, you words caress and feed my soul, so beautiful, so authentic, so wonderfully you. Love you my dear, what a gift you are to the world xxxxx

[riverflows]

Aw thankyou!!! Blushing x

[treeplanter]

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[rensoul17]

Your connection between your body and the Earth is magnificent and I love the way you write about it. Its like music to my spirit and it gives me hope in an area that I have not grown as much. I am not an outdoors person as much as I would like to be. But your words about your relationship with nature is indeed enlightening. Thank you @riverflows. I will be following you.

[riverflows]

That's a lovely comment. I really appreciate your kind words .. hey.. I am breathing in!!!

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[porters]

Thank you for bringing us into your garden with your beautiful writing! I, too, love going barefoot and witnessing all the wonders of the garden and the miracle of a sprouting seed growing into a food producing plant! I particularly love the spring with the new growth coming. It causes an excitement in me to see the new buds burst open! You must be experiencing that now with your springtime just happening. Alas, everything is dying off here with our early fall, but that didn't stop me, I just moved a bunch of my gardening indoors to keep on growing!

[vibeof100monkeys]

Yes spot on right up my street. Then importance of bare foot walking gardening is second to none. I am slowly trying to convert all I known. Working in mental health also I am writing a proposal to get this as part of my therapy. Just have to apply health and safety rubbish to it first ! 💯🐒

[goldenoakfarm]

I am barefoot most of the time. In winter, I must wear boots. But in the house I am barefoot. I have a grounding pad under my computer that helps when I am inside.

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