I’ve been tending bonsai plants for twelve years now, at first it started out of curiosity for the gorgeous little plants but then I fell in love with them – after some trial and error of course! My experience with bonsai has taught me a lot about gardening but also about myself and that’s why I decided to start Zen Garden and Bonsai. I wanted to share with you the benefits of Bonsai care and why getting you or your loved ones, a bonsai has many benefits.
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The Creativity of Bonsai:
As we grow older, we often let life get the best of us and forget to allow our inner child some play or creativity. Bonsai is an art form and while creating, trimming, or wiring your bonsai the possibilities are endless. You’re able to feel freedom in picking a plant and pot that represents you. This hobby is one that gives back to you in many ways. The bonsai is also full of personality and can become a silent and sturdy companion. You can even shower with them!
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The Mental Health Benefits:
In a busy, stressful world such as ours it can be hard to remember to take breaks. Having a bonsai plant forces you to remember to care for it and in turn, you learn to care for yourself. Your plant can die if you don’t properly water, fertilize, and trim it, and this raises awareness for not only your trees but you. The routine and care of bonsai teaches patience, and the tree’s resilience and beauty inspire us to incorporate it into our everyday. Even viewing bonsai has been studied to improve psychological and physiological feelings of relaxation and stress. For those of us in places where our seasons change and the winters can be long and brutally dark, these plants allow us to bring some outdoors inside when we most need it. Lastly, as adults we often stop learning. Having a bonsai is a whole new set of skills and information, and engages our mind. So, not only are you less stressed, caring for yourself and a living thing, you’re learning!
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The Physical Health Benefits:
Other than the stress-relief listed above, there are also wonderful physical benefits of bonsai. These plants improve the air quality in your home (for more plants that do, see NASA’s list) and have helped improve feelings both physiological and physical in patients with spinal cord injuries (link is a PDF). Trimming and caring for your bonsai also gets you up and moving which is a great low impact way to incorporate physical exercise into your day. And, once you get addicted to bonsai like I am, you will be running around caring for them!
- They’re Gorgeous:
This one is plain and simple. We all like to be surrounded by beauty, and although beauty is subjective Bonsai represent the simple beauty of the outdoors. Who doesn’t love art to look at in their home? Or decorations they admire? Bonsai fills this need and there is a bonsai for everyone’s taste and style. -
Looking to the Future:
This can also fit into the mental health benefits but I wanted to address this part on its own. Often, and especially in today’s world, we can feel inundated by news headlines, stressful deadlines, and horrible happenings. All of this can make us question, “What is the point?” and have intense fear of the future. No matter your age, there is so much anxiety now and many stressors that affect us. When you have a bonsai plant, it forces you to look ahead. You’ll be planning ahead because these beautiful, long-living trees will need you there to care for them, and this lets you have hope because you see a future for them. This gives you the hope to see the future for yourself, even if just by a day. Sometimes, that’s all you need.
Those are my quick takeaways for some bonsai benefits. I’m so grateful for you taking the time to read this and hope that I’ve convinced you to try out a bonsai plant – or perhaps in getting many more. As always, I am open to questions and will answer as soon as I can. If you have any suggestions for future articles please email me too. If you like this article make sure to subscribe to our newsletter!
If you still want to know more about Bonsai, see this amazing guide by Virginia Tech University.