Five ways music and gardens can improve your wellbeing
Radio 3 and 大象传媒 Proms presenter Katie Derham explains how two of her favourite things, music and gardening, can help improve wellbeing, tying in with her series of The Essay: Music in Bloom and the RHS Chelsea Flower Show.
1. Perspective
In a world that often feels chaotic and fragmented, appreciating music and gardens helps to cultivate a sense of perspective. There’s a timelessness to music that is hard to quantify, as sounds from across the centuries continue to resonate with generations of listeners. Similarly, we can draw comfort from the timeless seasonality of our gardens, with the rhythm of nature proving reliable and constant despite any latest crisis in current affairs.
2. Happy hormones
Our blood chemistry can be altered for the better through experiencing music and spending time in gardens. Studies have shown that listening to music leads to reductions in stress hormones like cortisol and boosts the release of dopamine, the neurotransmitter which acts on areas of our brains to trigger pleasure and reward. Some of these studies require participants being monitored in an MRI scanner – tricky to replicate this if you’re digging up your onions - but there is evidence to suggest that getting your hands in the soil releases serotonin which is a natural mood stabilizer, as well as boosting the immune system through contact with phytoncides, which normally help plants fight off infections.
3. Physical exercise
The physical exercise involved in gardening and performing music is an important element on its own, but also adds to the ingredients list of a recipe for wellbeing. Even if you’re gently tending to plant pots rather than engaging in a full-body workout from digging over a whole flowerbed, the exposure to fresh air and daylight regulates our circadian rhythm (or put simply our biological clock) which impacts our physical health. The physiological benefits of singing, and music-making more generally, have long been explored but music-making exercises our brain and body too. In particular, singing is beneficial for improving breathing, posture and muscle tension. This doesn’t have to be done in a formal setting – singing in the shower or while you wash the dishes still counts.
Watch coverage of the RHS Chelsea Flower Show on 大象传媒 iPlayer now.
4. Social connection
You can turbo-charge these positive effects by adding a social component, whether that’s singing in a choir, joining a gardening club or getting involved with your local allotments. The effects can be dramatic: several European countries are now rolling out a programme of singing groups for women with post-natal depression, which have had fast and impressively positive results so far. Loneliness and isolation bring serious risks to physical and mental health, the extent of which are only just beginning to be understood, so creating a routine that involves singing or gardening in a group is more valuable to your health and wellbeing than you might realise.
5. Mindfulness
One of the most compelling reasons so many of us are drawn to gardening or to music – or both – is the way they give our brains a welcome break and offer us the chance to be mindful. Just listen to a beautiful melody. Or plant a seed. They’re activities that require a singularity of focus, and help us restore our attention in a world which normally assaults our senses with a million different distractions. The wonderful baritone and garden lover Roderick Williams, who I talk to in my series Music in Bloom, puts it so well: “Music and gardening go hand in hand. It is that still small voice of calm. And it is worth preserving.”
Join Katie Derham as she delves into the surprising connections between classical music, gardens and plants, coinciding with the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. She speaks to a range of guests including landscape gardener Tom Stuart-Smith, botanist Chris Thorogood and professor of psychobiology Daisy Fancourt, asking questions like "can music help plants grow", "are there stylistic similarities between music and gardens", "how have gardens inspired composers through the ages", and "why are music and gardens good for your health and wellbeing"?
