READ: “Students Should Spend 2 Minutes Each Day Talking To A Plant” (The Medium)
Students Should Spend 2 Minutes Each Day Talking To A Plant
By Cristina Pincente
According to the Canadian Horticultural Therapy Association (CHTA), “Horticultural Therapy (HT) is a formal practice that uses plants, horticultural activities, and the garden landscape to promote well-being for its participants.”
…
“Find a plant that you’re drawn to and then start to build a little relationship with it,” [Cheney Cramer, the Chair of CHTA,] suggests. “Have a conversation with that plant.”
Cheney encourages us to practice this simple exercise daily for long-term impact. “I need to find some small way every day to have a relationship with some life outside of myself,” she shares.
Cheney understands that students might find it difficult to break the endless pattern of hyper-focused overwhelming thoughts (directed attention fatigue) they often experience. She recommends that students find “a sit spot” or “a forest trail that is a loop that you can walk around” to develop a relationship with some plants and then to observe them: “look up, look around, and look often.”
Cheney consults many individuals with “eco-anxiety,” an emerging type of anxiety over safe access to fresh, healthy food and clean water though nature. Watching nature’s regenerative powers in gardening, as Cheney suggests, renews that hopeful feeling, leading people to ask: “How can my little choices really make an impact on a larger global scale?”