How Being Eco-Friendly Can Benefit Your Mental Health

For many people, being eco-friendly is a passing thought and for others, a lifelong passion. While there are many amazing eco-friendly projects to do, you may wonder how they can benefit your mental health. Here are some ways that being eco-friendly can improve your mental health, making you feel better and stronger, too.

It Gets You Moving!


The first thing is that being green gets you moving.

Building a garden? That gets you outside and moving around instead of sitting inside. For many people this can be great because gardening gives them a simple, yet effective means of taking care of their mental health.

When you go outside and garden, it’s relaxing, and it can be as easy as you need it to be. Even doing a little bit of outside work in the garden is good because it gets you moving, and it helps you feel more interested in the outside world.

Sitting around all the time doesn’t do much for our mental health, so moving around a little bit can be beneficial for you.

It Gets You Out of Your Head


Our brains love to make us feel overwhelmed, but luckily, doing eco-friendly projects can help with this.

An eco-friendly project like repurposing old items is a great way to help you get out of those pesky thoughts, making it easier for you to face the world around you.

Many people enjoy projects because they’re activities that let you focus on something external, and giving your attention to something external is a great way to improve your ability to look at life in more objective ways, and to make it easier for you to face the unknown as well.

It Can Give You a Purpose


woman holding fern leaf in forest - how being eco-friendly helps mental health

A lot of people feel purposeless, especially with the given pandemic. It can be hard to truly feel like you’re doing something worthwhile.

Eco-friendly activities like switching out your lightbulbs for LEDs or cutting down on water wastage in your home may seem small, but you’re making a big difference. Over time, doing eco-friendly activities can help you feel more confident, and happier too. If you’re looking to feel better and more excited about life, an eco-friendly activity is a great way to begin.

For a lot of people, activities can give them something to control, which is hard to find sometimes.

It Can Help Reduce Anxiety


Anxiety is a big problem in our world. We live in such a way that we’re always running around, going in every which way or direction. For some people, this can be incredibly taxing, and sometimes, you just need a simple means to really chill out after a long day.

Fortunately, this is where fun eco-friendly activities come in. Planning a garden is a great way to calm you down, and since it does get you out of your head, you’ll be less focused on what makes you anxious and more focused on the world around you.

Eco-friendly activities also help with environmental anxiety. We hear all the time about how terrible things are and how messed up our world is. But an eco-friendly activity, even if it’s small, makes a difference in many people’s lives. Plenty of people enjoy being able to go out when they’re stressed and do something that feels like it has an impact. It’s a good way to help alleviate stress.

Can Help You Feel More in Control


Eco-friendly activities are good for those who are stressed by the state of their lives.

This ties into the anxiety point. If you feel like your life is out of control, doing activities that encourage control are great for you. A small eco-friendly activity like making your own natural cleaners is simple, relaxing, and very effective.

Even just gardening a little bit or planting an herb garden or a tree is good. It’s simple, but lets you have more control in an otherwise chaotic existence.

Seek Help!


While gardening and eco-friendly activities are great for you to indulge in, sometimes, you struggle with really getting better.

Seeking help is encouraged too, since gardening doesn’t fix everything. In person or online therapy is simple, and can be a helpful option if you’re looking to figure out what’s really going on with you.

Gardening, being eco-friendly, and taking care of the environment are therapeutic activities, and they can be great for you if you’re looking for something to help your mental state.

Feature image: Pixabay; Image 1: Lucas Allmann

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