Life Lessons and Getting Fit From The Garden
The Garden is a great place to explore life and get fit! My Grandmother gave me her love of gardening as a little girl, and over the years I have found that there are 4 P's that relate to life and fitness from a simple garden!
1. It Teaches You Patience
A garden doesn't grow overnight: it starts small. A package of seeds or small seed plants, spaced a few inches apart, is how it all begins. It then requires weeks and months of waiting: patience. Patience is the ability to accept delay. In my garden, I am so ready to eat my tomatoes! I want Fried Green Tomatoes and I would love them on toast and in a salad! But I must wait. It's the same with your Fitness, your hard work is seen over the weeks and months in the future. But, just as with my tomatoes, looking forward to your end result of running or weight training will have a great reward!
2. It Requires Perseverance
You see this little Dewberry Plant... Oh several years ago, some little bird enjoyed eating dewberries and then, well, pooped in my garden bed! I have been fighting Dewberries ever since! They can literally take over a garden; crawling relentlessly with their spiny, prickly vines, and sapping the life out of all the other plants. Extremely resistance to herbicide, they are hard to remove completely from a garden. And while they do have a place in nature (in the woods), my garden is not one of them! Every single morning, new ones pop up; and every single morning, I'm pulling Dewberries. I'm working through Perseverance. Perseverance is continuing in spite of difficulty, even in the face of repeated failures: it's about not giving up. And we can not give up on our fitness goals! If you fail, have injuries, it's ok... just pick yourself up and keep going, find a new way. We've all heard "if at first you don't succeed, try, try again!"
3. It Pumps You Up
If you follow Paleo, you've heard the term "lift heavy things". In other words, you don't need the gym to work out. And I can testify that lifting and moving heavy bags of soil and mulch is indeed a workout. Not to mention all the squats from weeding! And you gain valuable Vitamin D. It's an all around Pump to your Fitness Program!
4. It Gives You Peace
It has been shown that working with your hands and in the dirt relieves stress, fights depression, and gives you Peace. There are mycobacterium in the soil that alter the chemistry in our brains affecting our mental health in a positive way. It also provides time away from the TV and other life drainers: allowing you to focus on a simple task that can give your mind a needed rest. A peaceful mind gives you new energy and a new outlook to your Fitness Goals!
Although you may be growing peas in your garden, are you applying your Ps to Fitness? Patience, Perseverance, Pump and Peace?
---
Do you have lessons you've learned from Gardening? I'd love to hear and see your pictures!
No comments:
Post a Comment