Do you ever go the entire workday without getting outside or seeing any plants, trees, flowers, and birds? A new study says that just getting outside for a few minutes among some elements of nature will improve your mental well-being and can last for hours. Gardens make you happy! I saw this article about the study this morning and thought it was worth sharing. If you’d like to go straight to the study, you’ll find it here.

This rings true to me. When I worked in downtown Sacramento, I tried to find time often to go for a walk on the Capitol grounds, which are really a nice arboretum, with fantastic camellias, palms, oranges, rose gardens, flowerbeds, and even informative name plaques on many of the trees and other plants. The State Capitol website has some cool info about Capitol Park, including guides to the trees and the rose gardens.

In Salt Lake City, I would get out to Gallivan Center and sometimes sit on a bench or the lawn under the sycamore trees. Of course, there are the enormous flowerbeds at the LDS Church headquarters, too. It’s a great refresher and helps to balance the soul before you go back to the daily grind. Plus, you can get some inspiration for your own gardens while you’re out.

I realized some years ago that gardening provided an important life balancing role for me. My work, like many office workers, was all intellectual, in my case, studying, analyzing, writing and talking to politicians about public policy issues. Well, OK, you might quibble with the words “intellectual” and “politician” in the same sentence, but I would generally disagree with you. :) Anyway, gardening in the evenings and on the weekends would allow me to do some physical work, get dirty, and create something beautiful that I could share with my family, friends, and neighbors. It was a way to stay grounded (literally!) in a world that was demanding a lot of “head space.” I’m sure you have similar experiences and thoughts. Feel free to share them in the comments! What did you think of the article and the study?