Study reveals gardening as the most calming household task

Most people live increasingly busy lives, so it’s important to take the time to do something that relaxes the mind. Toolstation researched the most calming DIY tasks around the home, encouraging homeowners to pick up their rakes and paintbrushes and get stuck into some relaxing home maintenance.

To find which tasks were the most calming, over 100,000 Reddit comments about DIY were processed through a sentiment analysis, which picked out the emotions associated with different DIY tasks.

The 10 most calming DIY tasks

(Source; Reddit Sentiment Analysis, 2023)

Psychologist explains the calming effects of gardening

Dr Gurpreet Kaur, Clinical Psychologist, explains why people find gardening to be such a calming task:

“Being surrounded by greenery and engaging in gardening aligns with our evolutionary connection to natural environments, fostering a sense of well-being. Exposure to greenery, soil, and plants can trigger positive emotional responses and contribute to a sense of tranquillity. It can also help with mindfulness as gardening requires a focus on the present moment whilst incorporating natural elements into human environments.

“Gardening can help with stress reduction as ecotherapy, the interaction with nature, has been linked to the regulation of cortisol, the stress hormone. Spending time in a garden environment may help lower cortisol levels, promoting a sense of calmness and reducing stress. It is often used for therapeutic benefits for the treatment of various mental health conditions due to its ability to reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression. This may be related to the tactile element which engages multiple senses, including touch, sight, and smell. The tactile sensations of handling soil and plants can be soothing and provide a sensory-rich experience that contributes to relaxation.”

How to manage stress, according to a psychologist

Dr Kaur says: “Learning to manage stress is a skill which can be developed over time. A very important aspect of this is learning to recognise when the stress is building. Learning to do this by looking for changes in thoughts, emotions, behaviours, or bodily changes will help. It might be useful to think back to times when you have experienced stress before and think about how that stress showed up.

“The most important thing to remember is that if we are feeling stressed, the brain is most likely in threat mode, which means it’s priming us for a fight, flight, freeze or appease response. Learning to intervene with this through deep breathing, taking breaks from walks, talking, and laughing with loved ones or reframing or challenging negative thoughts can help to calm stress.

“The best thing to work on initially is relaxing the body and training the brain to learn to switch off the threat response and put safe mode on again. This can be done by bringing more oxygen into the bloodstream and slowing breathing down. A quick technique to learn is the 4-4-8 method to help with this. Breathe in through your nose for four seconds. Hold your breath, while making sure not to tense your body, for four seconds and breathe out through your mouth for eight seconds like you are breathing out through a straw. Do this five to ten times and your mind will learn to relax.”

How to relax when gardening

Rhiannon Moore, from Toolstation, provides some extra advice to make gardening as relaxing as possible:

“When gardening, good quality tools make a world of difference. Ensuring that your tools are sturdy and comfortable to hold will reduce how much effort you must put in, meaning you’ll tire less quickly. Keep your tools well-maintained, as dull tools will result in a lot more elbow grease from you. Wearing gloves is helpful too, not only keeping your hands clean but also protecting them from any potential scrapes or insect bites.

“Try to break down your gardening into small chunks, reserving certain times of day for relaxation in your garden. Garden maintenance can quickly build up, so it’s better to keep up with this regularly than for it to become a larger chore later. A few minutes of weeding every few days is a great chance to escape the business of daily life, and your garden will thank you for it too.”