Mental health wellbeing Garden

[Ch****]

Hi everyone I am starting up a mental health wellbeing garden for people in our community on Waiheke island with mental health illnesses and people who are lonely and feel isolated..I would love to know if anyone here is involved with this sort of thing and from anyone who has any ideas to help get my project underway

[Ka****]

Char,

I think your project of starting a mental health wellbeing garden is a wonderful idea. Gardening can have many benefits for people who are struggling with mental health issues, loneliness, or isolation. Here are some thoughts and scriptures that relate and offer support and encouragement to your project:

 

Gardening can help people practice acceptance, gratitude, mindfulness, and hope. It can also reduce stress, anxiety, depression, and anger. It can improve mood, self-esteem, creativity, and cognitive function. It can foster a sense of connection to nature, to others, and to God.

 

Gardening can be a way of expressing God’s love and care for His creation. It can also be a way of receiving God’s love and care for ourselves. God is the ultimate gardener, who planted the first garden in Eden and who makes everything grow according to His plan. 

Some scriptures that can inspire and motivate you and the people who will join your garden are:

• Psalm 1:3: “He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.”
• Isaiah 58:11: “And the Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.”
• John 15:1-5: “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”
• 1 Corinthians 3:6-9: “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.”
• Galatians 6:9: “And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.”

I hope these thoughts and scriptures will help you get your project underway. I wish you all the best in your endeavor. May God bless you and your garden abundantly. 😊

Sincerely In Christ,

Katherine Stephenson