Medical treatments aside, there are activities around the home that have multiple benefits for physical and mental health: it involves DIY and gardening.

It is not that stress does not exist in impoverished countries, but rather that it is in the richest countries where the channels and tools exist to diagnose and treat these diseases.

Medical treatments aside, specialists recommend doing activities that promote the well-being of the person. Many people paint, restore furniture, or make models. Without knowing it, they are practicing therapeutic leisure: leisure activities that give us pleasure and relaxation, requiring the use of our hands. 

Something as simple and crucial building permit will help you create an environment conducive to relaxation, a fundamental step to begin to combat stress.

To do this, you must avoid disorder or limit it, since the lack of organization is capable of causing an increase in the levels of cortisol, a hormone related to the generation of stress. You can listen to the music that you like the most while you collect to make it more enjoyable. 

Remember, also, that it is very important that all family members follow a balanced and healthy diet that provides you with the necessary energy, as well as getting enough rest, trying to sleep between 7 and 9 hours every night.

Health benefits of DIY and gardening

Both DIY and home gardening provide a series of benefits that psychologists summarize in these points:

  • They reduce stress and anxiety because they are freely chosen activities that allow us to relax and disconnect.
  • They stimulate creativity.
  • They enhance the ability to solve unconventional and unexpected problems on the fly, with available resources.
  • They produce personal satisfaction when seeing what can be achieved with your own hands, in addition to the economic savings that some creations can suppose.
  • They are ideal for people with jobs that require an intellectual overexertion caused, for example, by spending many hours in front of a computer.
  • They stimulate the creative and more sensory part (touch, smell, sight) of people who have very routine and not very creative jobs.
  • They are activities that can be done as a family, strengthening ties, sharing and fostering the imagination and creativity of the little ones.
  • They increase self-esteem by checking and believing in our own abilities.
  • They promote environmental awareness by doing projects based on recycling, for example.

In addition, scientific studies, such as the one conducted by The Swedish School of Sport and published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, claim that DIY and gardening can reduce heart and stroke risk. In addition, from the point of view of prevention, they provide good eye health.

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