Helen Mirren says gardening helps to keep her calm

By MiNDFOOD

Helen Mirren says gardening helps to keep her calm
To stay calm and carry on, Dame Mirren loves to dig around in the dirt.

She may be the Queen of the Silver Screen, but even Helen Mirren admits to experiencing anxiety and insecurities.

Despite her massive success as an actor, Dame Helen Mirren has said in a podcast called My Self Worth, that she – like many of us – has battled negative thinking and low self esteem.

The Oscar winning actress says gardening helps to keep her calm and relieve her anxiety saying, “I am not very good at turning off but gardening is a wonderful thing to do because it is absorbent, meditative and it is a learning process and it is physical”. Mirren has said that gardening kept her “dark dragons” at bay during COVID-19 lockdown.

Easing mental illness

Research shows gardening has many health benefits including help ease symptoms of mental illness like depression and anxiety. Depending on the size of your garden, it can also help you to be physically active and improve endurance, strength and motor skills.

Now that it’s winter, it’s a great time to get into the garden for a shot of vitamin D. You can plant some salad leafy greens now, as well as root vegies like beetroot and carrot. Winter is also a good timing for some pruning and feeding citrus and spring bulbs.

For those that don’t have space for an outdoor garden, you can create an indoor garden, with herbs and indoor plants like Peace Lily, Zanzibar and Ficus.

Want to know more benefits of gardening?  Check out our benefits of gardening feature. 

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