I recently came across an article on health and longevity that brought up some wonderful childhood memories. When I was a boy, my friends and I were always outside. We’d play every sport imaginable: baseball, football, war, you name it.
We’d be outside every day playing on the grass, tackling each other and roughhousing in the dirt. We may have skinned a few knees and elbows or picked up some scrapes and scratches along the way, but looking back we were rarely sick. It was almost as if there was some connection between being in touch with nature and our health.
My days of tackle football in the grass are long gone, but I still enjoy working in the dirt. In fact, one of my passions is gardening. I have no qualms about spreading mulch, using a chainsaw, or digging holes in the ground to plant something. My wife says that my gardening clothes are so dirty they can walk to the washing machine. Getting down and dirty is of no fear to me!
I have always believed that gardening is good for the soul, so when I came across this article I had to share it.
The piece details how skin-to-soil contact “benefits our immune system, mental health, and longevity”. The article also references the five ‘Blue Zones” Dan Buettner wrote about in his now-famous book on longevity.
For those not familiar, the five blue zones are areas where people typically live the longest in the world. These zones are found in Okinawa, Japan; Sardinia, Italy; Nicoya, Costa Rica; Ikaria, Greece, and Loma Linda, California.
One common underlying factor that ties these areas together is gardening.
So go get dirty!
Link to Article: https://medium.com/curious-kitten/the-elixir-of-life-could-soil-be-the-key-to-longevity-6b6d5a6e3383
