The transformative power of connecting with nature by Isa Peña, LT Program Manager

One of Land Together’s guiding principles is that access to nature is a fundamental human right. Today, I want to share a story from one of our garden programs to illustrate the transformative power of connecting with nature. 

Earlier this year, a new participant joined our group, for the first time, on a day when we were learning about seed saving and growing. The session included a hands-on activity where we sow mustard green seeds into cell trays. Interacting with plants was a new thing for this participant, and he was very tentative with the seeds and timid with the group. 
 
One week later, some of the seeds were already coming up, with little bits of bright green peaking out from the dark soil. When the participant saw the sprouts, his face lit up with surprise and delight. He admitted that he had assumed that the seeds wouldn't grow at all.  

That same day, he started sharing about his emotional experience in prison. He told the group that he used to be someone with a strong desire to grow and improve as a person, but that prison is such a harsh environment that he had lost all hope of it being a place where he would be capable of anything more than survival.  He told the group that seeing the tiny seeds flourish gave him hope for the first time that, even in prison, he had the capacity to grow into the person he wanted to be. After that, he let down his guard with the group, fully committed to the curriculum, and became a devoted caretaker of the prison garden. His story shows how our gardens can mirror our inner worlds and help us better understand our own experiences. 

This kind of response to working and being with plants is not uncommon in our programs. There’s a growing body of scientific evidence demonstrating how contact with the natural world can significantly reduce stress, increase creativity and productivity, improve self-esteem, and support healing for depression, anxiety and PTSD. Land Together’s eco-therapeutic approach begins with immersive sensory experiences for participants in our gardens. Positive sensory stimulation, in the form of participants’ experiencing reverence, fascination, pleasure, and joy in nature, serves as a powerful starting point for healing. From there, we engage in “inner gardening” practices to facilitate self-knowledge, accountability, empathy, self-love, and healthy habits, all while planting, caring for, and harvesting nutritious herbs, fruits, and vegetables, and beautiful flowers.  

We model our “inner gardening” work on “outer gardening” permaculture principles. For example, we create supportive containers for healthy expressions of grief, pain, anger, and sadness as a sort of tilling of our inner soil.  By turning over this top layer of emotional experience and breaking up compacted feelings, we prepare our hearts and minds for planting and nurturing new growth.