Action plan for April: get closer to nature
The heady smell of the soil (especially after rain) and the pleasure of running it through your fingers. The purposeful focus of digging, weeding and planting. Or simply watching a seed sprout and push its way through the soil into the light. These are all sensual, joyful distractions from your deskbound toil.
Doing a bit of weeding, pruning or planting-up of pots in your lunchbreak could do wonders for your state of mind.
And that’s official: “Many more people garden than we think, and it appears the activity is associated with higher levels of happiness, similar to walking and biking,” says Princeton University’s Dr Anu Ramaswami. She recently co-authored a study into the emotional benefits of home gardening, and participants ranked it among the top five meaningful leisure activities. “In the movement to make cities more liveable, gardening might be a big part of improving quality of life,” Dr Ramaswami says.