HORTICULTURE THERAPY
A Healing Touch of Nature
TREES are vital to the existence of human beings. In a treeless world any form of human or animal life would be well-nigh impossible, quite apart from any consideration of aesthetic appeal. Trees absorb noise, give off precious oxygen, clean the air of pollution, reduce glare, act as coolers and air conditioners and also serve as emotional tranquillizers—trees are vital in any city, howsoever developed it may be.
In hospitals, schools, prisons, and drug rehabilitation centres, it has been found that trees act as a form of therapy, helping to heal mental, physical and social disabilities, where trees have been properly landscaped and planted with an eye to beauty of form, colour and denseness, they can ease stress, contribute to healing and provide an environment where relaxation is possible. This therapy is known as Horticulture Therapy.
Horticultural therapy is a professional practice that uses plants and gardening to improve mental and physical health. It focusses on the people-plant connection. It uses plants and plant-related activities for physical, mental and social well-being. It is based upon the idea that interacting with plants can bring about well-being, whether it’s tending a garden or just having plants in your home.
Many studies have found that just being in nature—such as taking a walk through a garden, a park, a forest—can improve not only your state of mind but your blood pressure, your heart rate and your stress hormone levels and, over time, can lead to a longer life. Plants bring peace and tranquility to troubled hearts. A beautiful landscape, a wooded park, can do more for the human soul than all the chemical tranquillizers of the world.
“Plants,” says an eminent horticulturist, “are non-threatening and nondiscriminating. They respond not to race, intellect, wealth or physical capacity but to the care given to them. Plants ease anxiety and tension, give a sense of tranquility.”
The role human beings play in the cultivation of plant life is minimal as compared to the colossal amount of support provided by nature. This entire system of nature set in place in order to bring about plant life is mind-boggling. No one except God could make this system function seamlessly. This is mentioned in the Quran thus:
Who created the heavens and the earth and sends down water for you from the sky, by which We make luxuriant gardens grow—you could never make such trees grow in them—is it another deity besides God? (27: 60)
The life-giving world of plants is a proof of the existence and benevolence of God. Man would do well if he emulates the plant world and becomes a helper member of the society, and acknowledges the blessings of God.
Pray to God with fear and
hope, God’s mercy is close to
those who do good.
(The Quran 7: 56)
