Gardening can Boost Your Body Image Amid COVID-19 Lockdown

Highlights:

Gardening can help you love and appreciate your own body
Being close to nature and spending more time in the garden can help you build a positive body image
So, create or restore the green space around your house to boost your overall wellbeing and develop a positive attitude towards your body image amid COVID-19 lockdown

Spending more time in the garden can boost your self-esteem and improve your body image during the coronavirus lockdown, suggests a new study.//

New research has found that allotment gardening promotes positive body image, which measures someone’s appreciation of their own body and its functions, and an acceptance of bodily imperfections.

Writing Exercises: Simple Way to Improve Body Image in Women
Writing exercises may help women to enhance their body image. Self-compassion and body functionality-focused letters can create a positive body image and significantly increase women's body satisfaction.

‘Love your body: Gardening can improve your body image and boost your self-esteem. So, hurry up, start spending more time in the garden to get a positive body image during the COVID-19 lockdown.’
Read More..

The study, published in the journal Ecopsychology and led by Professor Viren Swami of Anglia Ruskin University (ARU), involved 84 gardeners from 12 urban allotment sites in north London.

Through a series of questionnaires, it found that the gardeners had significantly higher levels of body appreciation, significantly higher levels of body pride, and significantly higher levels of appreciation for their body’s functionality, compared to a group of 81 non-gardeners, recruited from the same area of London.

The study also discovered that the longer period of time the participants spent gardening, the larger the improvement in positive body image when they left their allotment.

People Around You Can Influence Your Body Image: Here’s How
Your body image can be affected by the people around you. However, spending more time with people who are not preoccupied with their body weight, shape or appearance can make you feel much better about your body, reveals a new study.

Previous research has shown that gardening is associated with improved psychological wellbeing and physical health. This new study adds to previous work by Professor Swami demonstrating that exposure to natural environments helps to promote positive body image.

Viren Swami, Professor of Social Psychology at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU), in Cambridge, and Perdana University, in Malaysia, said: "Positive body image is beneficial because it helps to foster psychological and physical resilience, which contributes to overall wellbeing.

Positive Body Image During Pregnancy is Vital: Here's Why
Women's perception of body image can predict how well the mother might bond with her unborn baby and her longer-term emotional wellbeing.

"My previous research has shown the benefits of being in nature more generally, but increasing urbanization has meant that many people now have less access to nature.”

"The findings from this new study are important because they specifically show the significant benefits of spending time on allotments, which are typically quite small patches of green space in otherwise mainly urban environments.”

Not Happy With Your Body Image? Exercise For 30 Minutes
Women who did just a single bout of exercise for 30 minutes made women feel stronger, thinner and had positive feelings about their body.

"Ensuring that opportunities for gardening are available to all people is, therefore, vital and may help to reduce the long-term cost burden on health services. One way to achieve this, beyond policies that ensure access to nature for all citizens, would be through the provision of dedicated and sustained community allotment plots."

Source-Eurekalert